In this episode, I chat with Matt Lupica, General Manager of Rosebud Book Barn, a family-run independent bookstore in Victoria, Australia. We explore the unique relationship between the bookstore and its community, the importance of customer feedback, and the innovative tools that help independent bookstores thrive in today's digital age.
We also discuss:
⢠Insights into Matt's unconventional journey into bookselling
⢠The role of community in shaping the offerings at The Book Barn
⢠Exploring the integration of art supplies to cater to local artists
⢠The significance of YourBookstore.io in connecting readers and bookstores
⢠Using circlepos.com to enhance operational efficiency and customer experience
⢠Personal reading habits that include customer recommendations
⢠The evolving landscape of independent bookstores in Australia
The Bookshop Podcast
Mandy Jackson-Beverly
Social Media Links
Speaker 1: Hi, my name is Mandy Jackson-Beverly and I'm a
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bibliophile.
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Welcome to the Bookshop Podcast .
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Each week, I present interviews with authors, independent
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bookshop owners and booksellers from around the globe and
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publishing professionals.
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To help the show reach more people, please share episodes
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with friends and family and on social media, and remember to
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subscribe and leave a review wherever you listen to this
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podcast.
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You're listening to episode 280 .
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Episode 280.
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The Book Barn is a family-owned independent business with two
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locations in Melbourne, Australia.
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They have been in the book industry for over 25 years.
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The bookshop stocks brand new books, including latest releases
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, bestsellers, beloved classics and a huge range of discounted
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titles, In addition to their massive range of books, classics
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and a huge range of discounted titles.
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In addition to their massive range of books, they also offer
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a full range of artist materials , everything from kids' and
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beginners' supplies all the way up to professional quality
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paints and artist's essentials.
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They also sell vinyls, jigsaw puzzles, board games and
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workshop products.
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Today I'm speaking with their general manager, Matt Lepica.
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Hi, Matt, and welcome to the show.
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It's lovely to have you here.
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Speaker 2: Thank you very much, mandy.
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I've been listening to the podcast.
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I'm actually quite a big fan.
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I really enjoy it, so I'm very chuffed to be on it.
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Speaker 1: And I'm chuffed to hear another Australian accent
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on the show.
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I've had some wonderful independent bookshop booksellers
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and owners from Australia on the show, but one who stands out
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is Jennifer Jackson.
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She owns Paperbird in Fremantle , western Australia.
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She's created a fantastic community of readers and writers
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and I want to give her a shout out for all the Indigenous
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writers she supports.
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It's just fantastic.
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Speaker 2: You know what?
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I think I do remember that one, and I think she may have
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brought up the term Remainders, which you were not super
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familiar with.
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I think that was her and I'm very familiar with Remainders,
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so I was listening along in the car and I'm like I know what
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that is.
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Speaker 1: Yes, jennifer had to explain the meaning of that word
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to me, and you know what.
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That's what I love about putting together this show.
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I get to hear all these different lingo from all around
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the world that is bookshop related and publishing related.
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It's kind of fun because, let me tell you all the bookshop
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owners from all over different parts of the world, you all
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speak a different language, not just your everyday language, but
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a book language, a language related to books and publishing.
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Speaker 2: We do, and I'm sort of I'm learning a bit of the US
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bookselling terminology at the moment and there are, we mean
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the same thing, but we're using different terms.
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So, yeah, there's a little bit of that With Australian ones.
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I can usually manage to get through it, yeah but never a
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dull moment.
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Speaker 1: Now let's begin by learning about you and what drew
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you to the bookselling industry and becoming the business store
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manager at Rosebud Book Barn.
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You mentioned you relocated from Sydney and I'd love to hear
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that story.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, look, I don't have the typical origin story
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that a lot of booksellers have, where they were wandering the
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shelves of a store and, you know , looking wistfully at the books
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and someone gave them a job.
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I don't have that story.
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I was in the Defence Force and I was transitioning back into
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civilian life and my partner my now wife it's her family's
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business, so the business was very well established before I
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came along.
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The stores were very well established and I left the
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Defence Force and I picked up a role.
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We had three stores at the time and I floated around amongst
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all three of them, being a bit of a dog's body, doing all sorts
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of different jobs, and eventually Rosebud needed a
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full-time in-store manager.
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The area had very much grown since the store's inception and
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our customers were sort of demanding that sort of better
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quality bookstore.
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They wanted new releases, a bigger range, more sections, and
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I got to take over as a manager role and I was able to play a
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small part in doing that and giving them that bookstore that
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they deserved.
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Speaker 1: So yeah, it's fun hearing about family-run
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independent bookshops, but is there two or three book barns?
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Speaker 2: At the moment we have two main stores.
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So we have one in Rosebud, which is where I've
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predominantly been.
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That's been there for I think it's 21, 22 years now, and we
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have one in the Dandenongs in Belgrave and that is about to
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enter its 30th year.
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So very well established long-term businesses.
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Speaker 1: And can you tell us more about the Rosebud community
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?
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You said the community members were not shy in letting you know
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the books they'd like to purchase.
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So how did your customers guide the curation of the bookshop?
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And do you have a tourist industry?
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Speaker 2: We have both.
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So the Mornington Peninsula is a traditional holiday
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destination because we're only less than two hours outside of
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Melbourne.
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So it's that perfect sort of getaway for the school holidays,
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long weekend type destinations, and some people have been doing
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it for their whole lives coming down to the peninsula.
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So we have a huge regular customer base, and by regular we
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only see them once or twice a year, but they always make a bit
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of a trip into the store.
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You see the same families popping in, so that is a huge
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part of our business.
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However, the area has changed a lot, especially just in the
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time that I've been there, where I suppose job roles have
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changed a bit and people aren't so tied to the inner city
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suburbs.
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They can actually move further out of Melbourne.
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So we have a lot of young families there.
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We have a lot of people that have done the sea change to come
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down to the peninsula and, yeah , they're probably the people
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that guide that.
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What are we going to put on the shelf?
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What are the new releases that we want to stock?
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They really do dictate what happens in the store and I think
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that's across the board in all bookstores.
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I think you really listen to your customers.
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They will vote with their wallets really and tell you what
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they want and what they want you to stock.
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We also have a massive artist community on the Mornington
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Peninsula.
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Speaker 1: Now, the artist community is something I'd like
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to know a little bit more about.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, so we sell a full range of artist materials
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as well, which is probably a little different than most
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bookstores.
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That's something that very much developed from a few small
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pieces and, you know, very basic art materials and, once again,
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dictated by people coming in and asking for things.
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Why don't you have this Listening to your customers
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saying, if you have products A, b and C, you should have
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products D.
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So we would go out, we would research them, and that has
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grown dramatically in the last decade, so that's a huge, huge
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part of our store.
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We also have a very big and proactive writers community on
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the Mornington Peninsula as well , so that certainly assists us
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in curating the store as well.
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So having access to tap into those you know, either
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self-published or published authors, it's fantastic.
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Speaker 1: I love the fact that you draw from the creative arts
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community, with the visual arts and also the literary community.
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Growing up as a child in Launceston, tasmania, the little
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heart-shaped island off the southern tip of mainland
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Australia, we all grew up with a shop called Birchall's.
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You would go there and get all your book supplies and textbooks
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and things like that and reading materials for school,
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and then you'd run upstairs and get any art materials you needed
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and just a few years ago Britchell's closed.
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It was sad because it was one of those stores that you always
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thought was going to be there.
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Speaker 2: I remember that happening.
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Yeah, yeah.
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Speaker 1: Well, it was such a wonderful creative hub for the
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younger, all the way through the older creatives, it was just
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fantastic.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, you'll have some people that will be coming
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in and they'll almost exclusively buy art materials
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from you and they'll answer the phone and you hear them talk to
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someone and they'll say I'm in the art store and you sort of go
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, we're both, we're both.
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Some people will be in the bookstore and the person the
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aisle over is definitely in the art store.
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So it does work really well together.
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And, look, it certainly helps that we have so many artists on
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the Mornington Peninsula too.
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That is certainly something that drives that in the store.
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Speaker 1: And because you're on the coast, I'm guessing real
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estate is expensive in Rosebud.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's dictated suburb to suburb.
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So I think that obviously the further down the Mornington
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Peninsula you get Port C Sorrento very expensive.
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It depends really where you are .
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Look, it's probably on par.
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I think regular Mornington Peninsula is probably on par
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with most of Melbourne, but it's always dictated by what people
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are able to borrow from banks and things like that.
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So it is relevant to everything else.
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Speaker 1: And you know what my husband always says is a
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property is only worth what someone's going to pay for it.
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Speaker 2: Absolutely, absolutely yeah.
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Speaker 1: Okay, let's step inside your bookshop and tell me
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, in your opinion, what makes a great independent bookshop Not a
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good one.
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Speaker 2: A great independent bookshop- Look, it is the
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customers, in the sense that they have to have an enjoyable
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experience in your store.
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That's the first thing that you have to focus on.
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It shouldn't be a chore coming in and shopping in your
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bookstore.
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It should be something that people can get lost in the
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aisles.
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Yes, certainly people are just dropping in.
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They might be stopping in to get something quickly on the way
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to a kid's birthday party or to grab a last minute present or
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something, but you want to make sure that you are giving them an
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enjoyable experience, that it isn't like going to the
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supermarket.
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Also, I think it is important and this really is simply my
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opinion, but it's important that a store has its own identity
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and an individual identity.
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I don't think successful stores should copy other bookstores
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what they're doing.
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I think you have to sort of forge your own identity.
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There's nothing wrong with marching to the beat of your own
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drum.
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There's no right or wrong way to do this.
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So I think those things are tied together.
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Your customers having a good time in your store and enjoying
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their experience will dictate the type of store that you
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become.
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Speaker 1: I agree with everything you said and I'll
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also add that I believe in my heart that it is the booksellers
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who make the independent bookshop, because without them
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and without their knowledge and their passion for reading,
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customers kind of get lost.
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And also it's like a friendship between a bookseller and a
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reader.
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There's a bookshop downtown Los Angeles and it's called the
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Last Bookstore.
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It's been on every book lover's Instagram page for sure who has
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been and visited the store.
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And I remember years ago I went in there and I was just
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browsing around and one of the booksellers came up to me and
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said you know, can I help you find anything?
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And I said you know, I'd really like a good dark vampire book,
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but I want something, you know, that's not teen, I just want
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something really rich and dark and deep.
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And he said oh, you need to speak to so-and-so, go up there
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and he'll show you around and he knows exactly what you're going
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to need.
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So I did and I went up.
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I was talking to this guy and he was asking me all these
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questions about what I read and he said I think I have the
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perfect book.
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He handed me a copy of George R R Martin's Fever Dream.
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Now, I didn't know that he had written a vampire book, and this
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was fantastic.
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It had all the deep history that I needed.
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It was great, and so that to me is an example of the gift of a
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good bookseller.
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Speaker 2: I can't tell you how many times a bookseller has
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recommended a book to me and it's become one of my favorite
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books Absolutely, and I think, having those recommendations on
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the shelves as well, that people can, as they're browsing, can
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pick something up and go.
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Well, this person really enjoyed this book and it sounds like
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another type of book that I've read.
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So, once again, if they enjoy that, they get something out of
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it.
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When they return to the store they'll look for those
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recommendations and they might actually seek out the person we
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get a lot of that of, who recommended this book and you'll
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say, well, it wasn't me, it was one of the staff members, and I
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want to talk to them.
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I want to ask them a question.
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I want to.
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You know you mentioned sci-fi and fantasy, that is, it's
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certainly not my genre, but I do have quite a few staff members.
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It is what they're into and they're very passionate about it
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, and a conversation of a recommendation can go from
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anywhere to 15 to 45 minutes of, you know, deep discussion about
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the author.
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So, which is fantastic, that's what you want and you're right,
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that's what customers want when they come into the store.
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Speaker 1: Matt, you and I share a mutual friend, Enric Koch.
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He turned me on to yourbookstoreio.
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Let's talk about how this platform differs from other
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online book purchasing sites.
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Speaker 2: Sure, yeah, look, it's a website that connects
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book buyers so customers directly with independent
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bookstores, and I think the difference from other platforms
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is it doesn't charge stores anything at all to list their
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products on there at all, it also doesn't take a percentage
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of the sale.
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That's not what it's about.
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What it is simply about is taking that customer who is
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searching for a book, directing them to their closest
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independent bookseller, where they can either purchase it
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directly from their website or, fingers crossed, they realize
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just how close that indie bookstore is to them and they go
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and drop in for a visit.
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I think that's what sets it apart.
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I'm lucky enough to have sort of been there from the concept
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of this to actually seeing it grow into a full service, and
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now that we have so many bookstores that are involved
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with it, we're starting to see publishers get involved as well
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and authors, which is fantastic.
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So you mentioned Rick.
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Rick is doing fantastic work directly with authors and it is
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really all about those connections, just simply
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connecting someone that's looking for the next book that
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they want, the next good read or a fantastic children's picture
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book, whatever they're looking for.
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They can find that book with their local independent
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bookseller and, you know, with the author's help.
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Now we're finding this is it's working back and forth.
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They're finding new authors, the publishers are helping as
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well.
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It is just a fantastic service and, like I mentioned, it's
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completely free to stores to be involved with, so absolutely
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fantastic.
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Speaker 1: So just to make sure I have it clear with
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yourbookstoreio the customer purchases the book directly from
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the bookshop and yourbookstoreio will actually
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list which bookshops near you have that book in stock.
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So you're missing that middleman and you're purchasing
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the book directly from the independent bookshop.
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Speaker 2: Exactly.
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You can see who's got it in stock at what price.
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Like you said, you could go directly.
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It will take you directly to their website to purchase it
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from them directly.
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So they would be packaging that book up and sending it to you.
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Or, like I said, the best outcome would be they realized
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they're much closer to that indie bookstore than they maybe
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perhaps realized and they drop in for a visit.
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So that's the idea.
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It's all about those connections and you know the
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fact that it's a free service and no one is taking any
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percentage of that sale.
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That's just wonderful and I, you know, I think it's a real
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asset to independent booksellers .
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Speaker 1: Currently, yourbookstoreio is set up in
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Australia.
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Are there other countries where this platform is available?
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Speaker 2: So it's being pushed to the idea that we will have a
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US version of it as well.
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You know it's going to have to be regional because you're going
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to want to make sure that you are going to that closest
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bookstore and finding out that the right info.
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From a logistical point of view , I know that when a book is
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published, it's quite common for the US and UK and Australia and
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New Zealand we all get different editions of the book.
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So we're dealing with the same book, different cover, different
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, so it's important to have it regional.
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We want to make sure that the location is correct, but it's
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certainly rapidly developing.
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Like I said, fantastic service and a real asset.
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And when you can actually see someone say I bought this book
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because I looked it up there and I realised that Bookstore of
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the Suburban Way had it in stock , that's when you can actually
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see the practical side of this working.
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So, yeah, really, really good.
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Speaker 1: For anybody in Australia, I will put the link
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to yourbookstoreio in the show notes, and for any independent
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booksellers and bookshop owners out there, I will make sure to
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put the link where you can contact Rick Koch and he can
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tell you more about this product .
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It really is wonderful, and I've started putting some of the
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links to books through yourbookstoreio in the show
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notes with each episode.
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Now, matt, there's also another system that Rick told me about,
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called circlepawscom, for the booksellers and bookshop owners
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listening.
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Can you tell us about the system, what it is, how it can
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support booksellers and what makes it a standout point of
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sale system?
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Speaker 2: I am probably a little bit of a spokesperson
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because I am one of the trainers for CirclePaws, so it's my job
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to train new stores as they use the system.
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So, look, it is a purpose-built cloud-based inventory
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management system and it's designed specifically for
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bookshops.
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It allows them to easily sell their products, both in-store
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and online.
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And you know, as booksellers we need a lot of data for our
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products.
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We need to be able to you know at our fingertips, be able to
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see who the author is, we need to know what the cover looks
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like, we need how many pages the book has.
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We need all of this information and we need to be able to
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provide that to potential customers online, and that's
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something that CirclePos does incredibly well.
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It allows us to take our inventory that is in our stores
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and get it online very, very quickly.
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I often get customers that will use my website at our stores for
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almost like a catalog, where they'll pop in the store and
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they go.
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I know you've got something in stock and before I can ask what
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they're looking for, they already have headed off to the
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section.
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They've already looked it up, they know I've got it on the
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shelf.
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So it works in more ways than just someone purchasing online.
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So CirclePause manages to tie all of that in really, really
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well.
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I am quite passionate about it.
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I was obviously using it before I was training and I'm quite
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passionate about it.
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I like the system.
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It's purpose-built for what we do.
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Speaker 1: How has CirclePausecom helped you as a
00:20:01
business store manager?
00:20:04
Speaker 2: So, as I mentioned, we had CirclePause in our stores
00:20:07
before I was training and the big change for me the immediate
00:20:11
one, was that I could have e-commerce sites for my stores
00:20:16
relatively quickly, almost instantly.
00:20:17
It reflected what stock we had in store to the internet, which
00:20:21
was fantastic.
00:20:22
Our website was actually launched the week that Melbourne
00:20:26
entered its first COVID lockdown, so that was huge for
00:20:31
me.
00:20:31
I could not have customers in the store and these were regular
00:20:34
customers, the type of customers that you see weekly a
00:20:38
couple of times a week, some of them and suddenly they couldn't
00:20:41
come in.
00:20:42
It was fantastic to have this available to them.
00:20:46
They were able to see does the store have what I want?
00:20:49
What is the price?
00:20:50
They could click and collect the items and they could come
00:20:52
pick them up from the door.
00:20:53
It was huge to me.
00:20:56
I think the other improvement was moving to that cloud-based
00:20:59
system, which meant that I'm not tied to the counter in the
00:21:02
store anymore.
00:21:03
For example, I don't do any ordering for the store within
00:21:08
the store anymore.
00:21:09
I would do that from my home office.
00:21:10
I'm not tied to going into the store to handle those sorts of
00:21:14
things and I can do this from anywhere.
00:21:16
And look, I would be lying if I said my laptop doesn't come on
00:21:20
holiday with me.
00:21:21
It does.
00:21:21
It's hard to get, it's hard to get away from your business, so
00:21:25
it is one of those things, but it has really freed me up from
00:21:30
being so tied to the store.
00:21:31
I'm able to work from home essentially for a lot of my role
00:21:35
, so it's fantastic.
00:21:36
Speaker 1: Is that a difficult system for booksellers to learn
00:21:39
and how easy was it to integrate into your shop?
00:21:43
Speaker 2: Well, that's my job.
00:21:44
To say it's not difficult.
00:21:45
It isn't a difficult system.
00:21:50
It's quite intuitive to what booksellers do and it is
00:21:53
something that certainly is always being developed and
00:21:58
improved as well and what we're able to do is to provide
00:22:03
documentation for everything that we're doing.
00:22:06
We are able to not only documentation, we're also able
00:22:10
to provide video for everything.
00:22:12
So we have a lot of resources there for booksellers.
00:22:15
Plus stores that are new to the industry or not new to the
00:22:20
industry.
00:22:21
They can get one-on-one training with us.
00:22:23
We also have a wonderful support team are always
00:22:27
available to help out.
00:22:28
So I think the combination of those things it makes it a
00:22:32
little bit easier for stores that are potentially moving from
00:22:36
a previous system.
00:22:37
Speaking from experience, that is quite scary.
00:22:41
It is a very scary idea of relearning what you're doing in
00:22:46
your shop.
00:22:46
But I think the combination of our support team, our training,
00:22:52
all of our resources, we certainly try to make that as
00:22:56
easy as possible and I've personally trained many stores,
00:23:01
all sorts of different stores and successfully got them to use
00:23:06
the most out of the system that they possibly can.
00:23:08
So, relatively easy, I think.
00:23:10
Yeah.
00:23:11
Speaker 1: Did you have the booksellers in both stores learn
00:23:14
how to use CirclePausecom?
00:23:16
Or is it specifically just for you to use?
00:23:21
Speaker 2: Well, are you saying that as the manager of the store
00:23:25
?
00:23:25
Is that what you're saying?
00:23:26
Who's actually stocking the products?
00:23:29
Speaker 1: I would say in general, does everybody in the
00:23:31
bookshop know how to use CirclePausecom?
00:23:34
Does it track sales adequately?
00:23:36
Does it give you a printout at the end of the day of which
00:23:39
books were sold and which ones you have to reorder?
00:23:41
What does it do for you?
00:23:43
Speaker 2: Oh, of course, yeah, yeah.
00:23:45
So it's able to give you very detailed sales reports.
00:23:49
It's actually a part of CirclePause which I actually
00:23:54
love.
00:23:54
Actually, the way that we do our reordering is we're
00:23:57
essentially looking at a report of what we've sold during a time
00:24:00
period and making a decision on that right then, and there, do
00:24:04
we ever want to get this book in again?
00:24:06
It doesn't have to run to zero.
00:24:07
It could be a book that's just sold flying off the shelves, but
00:24:11
you can preempt that running down to nothing and make sure
00:24:15
that you restock the shelf.
00:24:17
It's able to handle those sorts of requests really, really
00:24:21
easily.
00:24:21
That the whole platform is designed to make everything
00:24:26
smoothly run.
00:24:27
So from getting the stock in to getting it on the shelves, to
00:24:30
selling it to customers, to reordering it, it all works in a
00:24:34
really really nice process.
00:24:36
So, very, very easy to restock, yeah.
00:24:39
Speaker 1: And are both of your stores integrated into the same
00:24:42
CirclePath system?
00:24:44
Speaker 2: Yeah, so our stores can see in real time our stock
00:24:48
levels between each other.
00:24:49
They can see some basic sales history as well, which is nice.
00:24:52
We move a lot of stock between stores, so it's really useful to
00:24:57
be able to see immediately how something's selling at the other
00:25:01
store, because some things sell better in one store than the
00:25:03
other.
00:25:04
So you can move things around.
00:25:05
We also are able to share customers amongst our stores so
00:25:10
they can benefit from our in-store loyalty program
00:25:13
regardless of what store they're in, which is fantastic, being
00:25:16
that we are one of our stories is in a holiday area we do
00:25:19
actually get a little bit of crossover of customers, so
00:25:22
that's nice.
00:25:23
They're able to do that, and that also leads into our gift
00:25:26
cards.
00:25:26
They're obviously usable across all of our stores as well.
00:25:29
So little things like that.
00:25:31
There's certainly big pluses.
00:25:33
Um, the other thing that we're able to do is we have what's
00:25:37
referred to as like a group site , so I can have a central
00:25:41
website which is available to the public to search for a
00:25:44
product, see if our stores have it, buy it from whichever store
00:25:48
they like, and that saves me in my advertising costs.
00:25:52
I can essentially direct customers to one site as opposed
00:25:56
to multiple sites.
00:25:57
It really benefits you in that sense as well, because you're
00:26:02
sort of cutting down your costs.
00:26:03
It works really really well.
00:26:05
It doesn't require any extra steps or anything from us either
00:26:08
, so yeah, and Matt.
00:26:10
Speaker 1: I do have one other question about CirclePausecom.
00:26:12
How does it compare with other POS systems price-wise?
00:26:16
Speaker 2: Well, the initial setup is incredibly affordable.
00:26:20
You're looking at, you know, $50.
00:26:23
Regardless of where you are to start, that's your initial one.
00:26:27
There are no setup costs whatsoever.
00:26:28
That is the initial cost to get up and running and from there
00:26:33
we sort of operate a little bit on a pay-as-you-need service in
00:26:38
regards to our training and design.
00:26:40
So obviously experienced booksellers they may not need as
00:26:45
much training or assistance as others, but people new to the
00:26:48
industry they're certainly going to benefit from a little bit
00:26:52
more one-on-one work with one of our trainers.
00:26:55
The nice thing about all of our trainers was we're actually all
00:26:58
booksellers as well, so we're able to give a little bit more
00:27:02
insight to the actual practical runnings inside the store as
00:27:06
well.
00:27:06
So little things like that.
00:27:08
I think cost-wise it's comparable, but certainly the
00:27:12
initial setup being that there's no fees to get up and running,
00:27:15
I think that's a big plus as well.
00:27:18
Speaker 1: And for any bookshop owners listening around the
00:27:21
world.
00:27:21
Circlepause is being used in Australia and just starting to
00:27:26
be used in the United States.
00:27:28
Hopefully there'll be other countries, right.
00:27:30
Speaker 2: Absolutely Yep, yep.
00:27:32
And we're already working with quite a few US stores, as we
00:27:37
spoke about earlier.
00:27:38
There's a lot of terminology that's a little bit different,
00:27:41
so there's already whispers in the development there of making
00:27:45
sure that everything looks correct to a US bookseller.
00:27:48
The words all make sense on the screen, but we're working
00:27:51
closely with them now just to make sure that the system suits
00:27:55
their needs and at the end of the day, we are all just selling
00:27:59
books, regardless of what country we're in.
00:28:02
But there are some little differences probably with the
00:28:05
ordering system and things.
00:28:07
But you know, it's nice that CirclePos is quite transparent
00:28:11
what they're doing and where they've always been very open to
00:28:16
working directly with booksellers to get this system
00:28:20
to work the way that it should and the way that they want it to
00:28:23
work.
00:28:23
So, yeah, it's pretty exciting to be working with the US stores
00:28:26
now.
00:28:26
Speaker 1: Well, if I ever get my dream of a brick and mortar
00:28:29
indie bookshop, I will certainly be looking at circleposcom as
00:28:34
my point of sale system.
00:28:36
Okay, now let's talk about books.
00:28:38
What are you currently reading?
00:28:40
Speaker 2: So I'm reading the Borrowed Life of Frederick Fife
00:28:44
by Anna Johnston.
00:28:45
So it's Anna's first book.
00:28:47
She's an author from Melbourne and I make a point now of just
00:28:55
trying to read outside my comfort zone.
00:28:57
I think you can get too used to reading the same authors in the
00:29:00
same genres, so I'm really being dictated a lot by
00:29:04
recommendations.
00:29:04
A lot of customers will say I read this book and it's
00:29:07
fantastic and I just put the book aside.
00:29:09
I make a point of not researching the book.
00:29:12
I do not read the blurb of the book, I just start at page one
00:29:16
and I try to go in completely blind and completely unaware of
00:29:21
what I'm going to read.
00:29:22
And you know, sometimes that's great and sometimes that's bad.
00:29:26
And I've been very lucky with this book.
00:29:29
It is absolutely fantastic.
00:29:31
I'm going to finish it really quickly because I'm enjoying it
00:29:35
that much.
00:29:35
It's a beautiful little quirky story.
00:29:38
Yeah, it talks about aged care and it's just.
00:29:42
It's a wonderful story.
00:29:43
It's got a few moments that will definitely put a lump in
00:29:46
your throat as you're reading it .
00:29:48
So I'm really enjoying it.
00:29:50
It's going to be highly recommended to my customers, I
00:29:53
think, once I finish it.
00:29:54
So yeah, absolutely loving it.
00:29:56
Speaker 1: And would you say you read more fiction than
00:29:58
nonfiction, or the opposite?
00:30:00
Speaker 2: I sort of go through phases.
00:30:02
I tend to read a lot of nonfiction and I am trying to
00:30:07
get away from that, because you can almost get into the bit of a
00:30:11
stage where you're reading almost like a textbook, and
00:30:14
that's why I'm trying to go.
00:30:15
I'm just going to pick this book up and someone said it was
00:30:18
good and let's just find out, and I think might draw the line
00:30:24
at fantasy, though I'm not sure I can do the jump into fantasy.
00:30:27
It doesn't really.
00:30:28
It doesn't ring true for me.
00:30:29
I know it's incredibly popular genre but for the most part I
00:30:33
will pretty much read anything at this point that people will
00:30:36
suggest to me.
00:30:37
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm a big proponent of reading out of your
00:30:40
comfort zone and that's one of the reasons I decided to do this
00:30:43
podcast was because I wanted to stretch my wings and start
00:30:46
reading in genres that I hadn't read in before.
00:30:49
Reading more nonfiction, because I love fiction.
00:30:53
Now, tell me about your events.
00:30:54
Do you hold many in the stores?
00:30:57
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, we do so.
00:30:59
We do a lot of reader talks and book launches and things like
00:31:03
that.
00:31:03
I always enjoy doing it because you get to sort of, once again,
00:31:08
you get that sort of insight to the book that perhaps you
00:31:14
wouldn't have got if you'd just read the blurb or read a review
00:31:15
of it.
00:31:15
You actually get to listen to the author talk about how they
00:31:19
put the book together.
00:31:20
Sometimes and it actually happens quite a few times they
00:31:23
bring their notes, which is wonderful.
00:31:25
They bring a big pile of notes and they go.
00:31:27
This is what I spent the last four or five years putting
00:31:30
together and it's a wonderful insight and that has certainly
00:31:34
opened up quite a few books to me that perhaps I just wouldn't
00:31:37
have read, I wouldn't have picked up and wouldn't have
00:31:39
thought to read them.
00:31:40
So, yeah, I do enjoy doing the author events.
00:31:44
Speaker 1: Yes, me too.
00:31:44
They're a lot of fun.
00:31:45
Okay, Now, before we wind up this episode, could you give
00:31:50
listeners the Book Barn website please?
00:31:53
Speaker 2: Yeah, so we have a few websites.
00:31:55
I think the best one for people to go to is simply
00:31:57
thebookbarncomau, and that will take you to all of our stuff,
00:32:02
both of our stores, all of our social media, so that's a
00:32:05
fantastic place to start.
00:32:07
I think you were going to ask me also about circle pause as
00:32:11
well, I assume absolutely, and also your bookstoreio yeah, so
00:32:16
circlepausecom that's the place to go for that.
00:32:20
we're always happy to have a chat to booksellers who are
00:32:24
considering coming on board.
00:32:26
We do complete one-on-one demos with people as well, so they
00:32:31
can sort of ask a few questions and see how things work.
00:32:33
Like I mentioned before, it's scary sometimes.
00:32:37
It's a big commitment.
00:32:38
You don't change your point of sale in any business.
00:32:42
I don't think you don't do that overnight.
00:32:44
I can tell you from my experience.
00:32:50
It took us two years to move from our previous point of sale
00:32:52
system to CirclePos, because you have to pick your timing and
00:32:54
you have to get everyone on board and it takes a bit of work
00:32:57
and I wish I'd done it sooner because it's certainly not as
00:33:01
scary as it seems.
00:33:03
But yeah, we're always happy to speak to people.
00:33:06
Speaker 1: Yeah, it sounds like a great system for anyone
00:33:09
actually thinking about opening up an independent bookstore too.
00:33:13
Speaker 2: Absolutely, Look.
00:33:14
I think that the fact that we're able to put you in contact
00:33:19
with a bookseller like myself too New booksellers have a lot
00:33:23
of questions outside the point of sale system.
00:33:26
You know, sometimes it's things they've not thought about.
00:33:30
Sometimes it's things that last minute queries they have about
00:33:34
it's opening day what do I do about this?
00:33:36
And we have a lot of knowledge just in our training team and
00:33:41
our support team that can help out with those little things.
00:33:44
And after training and setting up so many stores, we have a lot
00:33:49
of experience.
00:33:49
There's not too many questions we haven't been asked.
00:33:52
Speaker 1: Well, gosh, we have covered a lot in this episode,
00:33:55
matt, from the Rosebud Book Barn to yourbookstoreio, to
00:34:00
circlepawscom and to what you're reading we have.
00:34:04
I feel like we've spoken a lot about websites today, but I
00:34:10
think we managed to talk a little bit about books too,
00:34:12
which was nice, yes, and I will definitely come and visit the
00:34:16
Rosebud Book Barn next time I'm in Australia, because Victoria
00:34:17
is the state of my birth.
00:34:19
Speaker 2: I did hear you mention on one of the other
00:34:21
podcasts that you were considering doing a little bit
00:34:24
of a bookstore tour.
00:34:25
I think that would be a fantastic idea.
00:34:27
I think you could probably you could probably get people on
00:34:30
board for that too.
00:34:31
I think you could sell that as a package deal, Right.
00:34:34
Speaker 1: I think it would be a lot of fun for me and for
00:34:37
everybody else, and for all of the booksellers too.
00:34:39
It'd be a lot of fun.
00:34:41
Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely.
00:34:42
You would never run out of stores too, it'd be a lot of fun
00:34:45
.
00:34:45
Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely.
00:34:45
You would never run out of stores, you know?
00:34:49
One last question, I promise it's my last one.
00:34:50
Does Australia still have many radical bookshops?
00:34:51
I know there used to be quite a few, but I'm not seeing as many
00:34:54
as I used to online.
00:34:56
Speaker 2: There's a few.
00:34:57
Look to be completely honest, I think COVID might have injured
00:35:02
a lot of those stores.
00:35:03
They may have closed bricks and mortar and moved to more of an
00:35:06
online setup.
00:35:07
I'm quite envious of the US when I see the type of
00:35:12
bookstores that they can have there, the sort of niche
00:35:16
specialist stores.
00:35:18
I think it's just the volume of population that the US has.
00:35:21
It's fantastic.
00:35:24
I got to see a little bit of that recently in some reports
00:35:27
back from the US and it was fantastic.
00:35:30
Some of the stores just blew me away that they could have such
00:35:33
a large store about such a unique topic.
00:35:36
Speaker 1: Yeah, and many of those small radical bookshops
00:35:39
are thriving, especially in the UK.
00:35:41
It's been great chatting with you, matt.
00:35:43
Thanks for all the information and I hope to speak with you
00:35:46
again soon.
00:35:47
Speaker 2: Thank you for having me on May.
00:35:48
I really appreciate it.
00:35:49
I'm a huge fan of the podcast.
00:35:51
That was a real thrill to come on.
00:35:53
Speaker 1: You've been listening to my conversation with Matt
00:35:56
Lupica, the General Manager of the Book Barn in Victoria.
00:36:00
To help the show reach more people.
00:36:02
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00:36:06
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00:36:09
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00:36:11
To find out more about the Bookshop Podcast, go to
00:36:15
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00:36:20
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00:36:22
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00:36:27
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00:36:31
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00:36:34
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00:36:38
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00:36:41
The Bookshop Podcast is written and produced by me, Mandy
00:36:45
Jackson-Beverly, Theme music provided by Brian Beverly,
00:36:49
executive assistant to Mandy, Adrienne Otterhahn, and graphic
00:36:53
design by Frances Verala.
00:36:55
Thanks for listening and I'll see you next time.
00:36:58
Thank you.
