Subscribe
Back to Search
Contact(s)
Michael Fredson is buying into the independent bookstore market, a move that might have been considered business suicide just a few years ago.
Fredson has bought Manticore Books from Don Ross, who is retiring after running the downtown business for 16 years.
“The whole industry — any print media has been undergoing and is still undergoing a transition and we are part of this,” said Ross.
The emergence of electronic books with “predatory pricing,” the proliferation of big-box bookstores and a recession dealt a heavy blow to the independent bookstore market. Many stores did not survive, said Ross.
During the worst time for independent book sellers from 2008 to 2011, Ross had the contract from Lakehead University to sell books.
“There was a period when the university textbook sales helped us survive,” he said.
“I think we are past the worst of it,” Ross said, adding sales are now slightly above where they were in 2008, when the slide began.
The sale of e-books has levelled off and now accounts for between 15 and 20% of the market, he said.
“People are starting to come back to the bricks and mortar. It’s not the cheap value that brings people in; it’s the customer service,” Ross said.
Fredson added the largest demographic now buying books is people under 20.
“Kids don’t want electronic books. They are saying, ‘My friend read this book and I have to get my own copy,’” said Fredson.
Today’s youth likes to collect books they’ve read and they take pride in being able to see their book collections, he added.
“The independent bookstore is a cultural place. You can’t believe the types of conversations you can have here,” said Ross.
Things are looking up for independent book sellers and especially for Manticore, because the recession knocked out a lot of its competition, Ross said.
It’s only the independent book sellers that go out into the community for author readings at conferences, libraries and service club events; the big-box stores don’t do that, said Ross.
With other independent bookstores, such as Page and Turners in Barrie, out of business, Manticore Books is filling a void, Ross said.
And it spills over to in-store sales, said Fredson, who attended the Orillia Public Library gala reading event Friday featuring Cathy Marie Buchanan, author of the The Painted Girls, which was the featured book of the library’s Big Read summer project.
Independent book sellers, such as Manticore, also carry a large collection of local history and books written by local authors — including self-published books.
“We do all the buying,” said Ross, who added that’s the trickiest part of the business. There are more than 500,000 titles published in the English language around the world each year.
“If you read a book a day, you could never read all those titles (produced in one year) in your life.”
Ross said knowing what books your customers will buy is “a long curve of knowledge.”
It’s that knowledge that Ross is handing over to Fredson along with Manticore’s loyal clientele and staff including Karen Naylor, who has worked at the store for the past 16 years.
Photo:
Manticore Books on Mississaga Street East in Orillia is changing ownership Oct 1. Don Ross, left, is retiring and Michael Fredson is taking ownership along with his wife, Thamara Laredo.
