Interview with an indie bookshop owner
Independent bookshops champion lesser-known writers, provide employment, pay taxes, introduce readers to new works, spread happiness, and contribute to a more cultured, better-informed and more pleasant local community.
To coincide with #IndieBookshopWeek Alex Forbes, owner of TYPE! stockist Fourbears Books in Caversham, Reading, talks us through the mechanics of running his business.
Alex, how did you come to be running a bookshop?
I grew up in Reading and following university I fell into a career in financial services. It was a good job which I enjoyed most of the time. Around 2017 I was offered a role on a project that had a definitive end date, and I was told if you accept this job you’ll be made redundant at the end. I was always pretty confident I would secure another role elsewhere within the company, but as time crept on I started to think about what my life would look like if I didn’t work in financial services. It was a Saturday morning and I started thinking about what I could do with the redundancy money. A lot of people don’t often get a chance to have a big chunk of money to do anything they would like with, so I didn’t want to waste the opportunity. I thought of all the things I’d like to do if I won the lottery and owning a bookshop was high up on that list. When I then mapped out the rough costs I realised it wasn’t as unrealistic as I first thought, and maybe I could open a bookshop. You get one life so you take these chances.
Why ‘Fourbears’ as a name?
The name is loosely based on my surname, Forbes. Most of my friends call me Forbes except one family where the kids always call me Fourbears, so it seemed a nice fit. Coincidentally my auntie is looking into the source of the name Forbes and there seem to be links to a guy who owned four bears in Scotland!
When did you open and how did you choose a premises?
I first viewed the premises in Aug 2020 with a view to try and get open pre-Christmas. I was quite ignorant about COVID in that I thought we’d be back to pre-COVID times a lot sooner than we were in reality. I had viewed a building in Woodley, and it needed a lot of work. After I submitted the offer a friend sent me a photo of another shop, this time in Caversham and I booked a viewing as a backup. The place was an absolute state. Half a ceiling, no carpet, really run down. However, within 10 seconds I knew it was the shop for me. I negotiated with the owners that they would return the room into a white box, I withdrew the other offer and was ready to open by November 2020. Unfortunately a localised lockdown limited me to Click and Collect services, but that allowed me to familiarise myself with the suppliers and systems. We opened at the start of December 2020, and had 17 wonderful days before the next lockdown came along…
What is your niche as a bookshop?
We have a great selection of books for all ages, but where I think we provide a great service is offering titles you wouldn’t usually see via online algorithms or huge marketing campaigns. Until recently if you saw a book on a table in a high street shop it had paid to be there. Authors today face a real battle to get their voice heard, unless they have a strong marketing campaign behind them, which is the minority. We’re passionate about the little gem of a book which you can’t wait to tell your friend about. Sometimes they are a forgotten book from years ago, or other times these books are published by a little indie press producing something special.
What have you learned since opening?
It’s a lot of hard work. I had thought I’d sit in a chair reading most days. That doesn’t happen often. One thing I would do differently is not being so quick to believe publishers saying a book would be ‘the next big thing’. More often than not it isn’t that popular, and sometimes it’s not even a very good book. There are quite a few books I have been stuck with that I wish I hadn’t bought.
What advice would you give to other bookshop owners?
I don’t know if I am in a place to offer others advice, as there are so many bookshops that are doing brilliant things, but if anyone was to ask me I would say manage your stock levels and find those titles/items that aren’t mentioned every day. Your customers will really respect you for introducing them to something different and come back time and time again. Even with greetings cards we use lesser-known companies and our cards are quite popular.
How do you choose what to stock and in what volumes? Can you do sale or return?
We can do a little bit of Sale or Return. There are limits to how much you can return to some suppliers, and you have to return it within a certain time period, as well as other rules which can limit what you can send back. Stock management is something I am finally getting better at although I still have too many books in the shop, but we are getting there. In terms of choosing new titles it’s a non-stop joy. I get catalogues from the publishers which are great as well as a lot of advanced copies so I can read what’s about to come out. There are also great recommendations on social media, especially from other bookshops. We do try to see what the smaller publishers/companies are doing so we have plenty of books which you wouldn’t see in some of the bigger chains. I’ve also had the good fortune to meet and work with a lot of great authors which forces me to read some of their books, and then I discover another hidden gem I wouldn’t have known about.
How have you promoted the shop? What works?
It’s a little bit of everything. As an example last Christmas we opened up on Christmas Day for a few hours, offering a place for people to gather if they didn’t want to be on their own (or with family). When I asked how people knew that we were open every possible way was mentioned, whether it be social media, which we started off on, then word of mouth, articles in the local papers and mentions on BBC Berkshire. We also have a newsletter (sign up here). Word of mouth is really powerful, but consistently using social media and building that customer base so we can reach more people to tell them about our events is really beneficial.
What insights can you give us into the financials of running a bookshop?
The monthly basics of costs are building, energy, staff and books. The first couple are pretty static and as an example, say, are £2k per month. Book margins can range from 30%-60% depending on supplier so it isn’t straightforward to put the number of books you have to sell to cover those costs. It depends on which books I sell. My wife used to ask every day: “How much did the shop take today?” and every day I told her and then added: “But that number is irrelevant”. If I take £500 on a day, but every customer paid in Fourbears Gift Vouchers (which I’ve already received the money for), and every book sold was a regular seller so I have to reorder it in, then that day is less preferable than a day where I only take £80 in card payments where they buy the books I’ve been desperate to sell for ages as I don’t have to reorder those books in. These are just example numbers, £80 would be a very quiet day and not ideal long term. Saying that, if I sell less than 1,000 books, where the majority are non-hardbacks, then it isn’t a great month. However, I know what my staff costs generally are, and I can flex the number of books I order depending on how much money I have received. May is always quiet, so I reordered less in, and purchased fewer new titles as the revenue is down. I’m always delighted when we sell a hardback as although the profit margin isn’t necessarily huge, it’s the same profit as selling one children’s paperback.
Do you employ staff? Tell us about that process?
I have two brilliant young ladies that work with me. They both do a couple of days, and then anything extra if I have an external book event. I worked with Jo when we were both in financial services, and when I reopened after the Covid lockdown Jo was looking for some part-time work. I wanted to spend some time with my family on a Sunday so offered Jo the Sunday shift and said we’ll give it six weeks to see if we make enough to cover Jo’s wage. We never looked back. Courtney was a little bit of a different hire. She essentially hassled me until I offered her some hours. It really is an example of how tenacity in the right way pays off. I wasn’t looking to hire someone, but every time I was thinking my life would be easier if someone else helped us out I received an email or call from Courtney asking if we were hiring yet. It was a bit of a gamble as it’s another cost I have to cover, but the shop wouldn’t be what it is without Jo and Courtney.
What can the incoming Government do to help independent bookshops?
The unrealistic answer is bring back the Net Book Agreement or something similar. For those that don’t know the Net Book Agreement was a fixed book price law that meant that books couldn’t be ridiculously discounted. It came into force around 1900 and lasted until the late 90’s. I am fully supportive of healthy competition, but the lengths that big chains and online giants go to to sell books it’s really damaging to indie bookshops, who offer a completely different service to the community. Often supermarkets and online stores will use books as a loss leader, offering titles at a price much lower than I can even buy those books in for. Even if they said you can’t reduce more than 25% it would make a difference. Countries like France still have the NBA and their high streets are filled with different bookshops. More realistically I would like the government to look at business rates. That’s a cost I could do without, especially as I have no idea what I get for that fee. I don’t benefit from any council services, I pay the charge for the privilege of selling books, which wouldn’t happen if I had a market stall somewhere or an online-only business. Also I’d love the government to invest in reading in schools and libraries. If there are more readers we’ll sell more books. More importantly reading for pleasure is vitally important for a child’s development, not to mention the positive impact it has on the mental health of a reader of any age.
What can the general public do to help?
Buy books from an indie, talk about books, come to author events (we have lots on)… It’s a crazy statistic but if just 2% of the book purchases moved away from a certain online giant to indie bookshops then there we would be thriving. If you can’t make it to your local indie buy from them online, or use Bookshop, who put money back into your nominated indie. If you are an audiobook consumer then Libro.fm have a similar set-up.
Why do independent bookshops matter?
I believe we offer so much more to the community compared to the big chains and online companies. It’s not just about providing books. It’s a home for a book club, or a writers’ group, or donating raffle prizes for school fundraisers. We celebrate the books of lesser-known authors that don’t have a huge voice and we celebrate reading.
What’s next?
We’ve just had Fourbears Fest 24, a book festival over a weekend in May with 15+ authors and lots of events. We’re now starting to plan for next year’s festival. We have a couple of events in the coming month, and I’m just looking at the autumn schedule now to see what we can squeeze in. Hopefully we’ll go from strength to strength. I also want to start an initiative that brings authors into schools without costing the schools anything. We have some really poor areas in Reading and the kids would really benefit from an author visit.
Anything else you’d like to add?
I’ve had the best time ever opening a book shop. I went on a date with a girl who asked me what I was doing with my life and I said I was opening a book shop. That line got me my second date. Five years on we're married with a baby daughter to add to her 12-year-old boy and dog. It's the best life and I couldn't have dreamt I would be so lucky when I first had the idea.
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