The Bookshop Podcast
The Bookshop Podcast
From Kickstarter to Community Hub: Amanda Friss and Parenthesis Books
In this episode, I chat with Amanda Friss, the founder of Parentheses Books, which is nestled in the heart of Harrisonburg, Virginia.
Parentheses Books is more than just a bookstore—it’s a space for community, curiosity, and connection. Since opening its doors, the shop has become a vibrant gathering place for readers of all kinds, offering a carefully curated selection of titles and a welcoming atmosphere that invites exploration.
The Bookshop: A History of the American Bookstore, Evan Friss
Hi, my name is Mandy Jackson-Beverly and I'm a bibliophile. Welcome to the Bookshop Podcast. Each week, I present interviews with authors, independent bookshop owners and booksellers from around the globe and publishing professionals. To help the show reach more people, please share episodes with friends and family and on social media, and remember to subscribe and leave a review wherever you listen to this podcast. You're listening to Episode 299. And 99.
Speaker 1:Nestled in the heart of Harrisonburg, virginia, parenthesis Books is more than just a bookstore. It's a space for community curiosity and connection. Since opening its stores, the shop has become a vibrant gathering place for readers of all kinds, offering a carefully curated selection of titles and a welcoming atmosphere that invites exploration. In this interview, I chat with the founder of Parenthesis Books about her journey from idea to indie bookshop, the power of community support through Kickstarter, and how Harrison Berg's unique character shapes the store's identity. From curating the perfect book selection to recommending local hiking trails and restaurants, it's clear that both literature and local flavor are at the heart of everything at Parenthesis Books. Hi, amanda, and welcome to the show. It's lovely to have you here. Thanks for having me. Let's start with your background. What were you doing before opening Parenthesis Books?
Speaker 2:Well, for the 12 years before I opened I was home raising my boys, and then before that, I worked in a small independent bookshop in Manhattan's West Village called Three Lives and Company. So I worked there for eight years.
Speaker 1:I also have two boys. They're way older now, but I know how busy you must have been. Raising children keeps you busy and it's hard yeah it is hard. It's very hard. I found one of the gifts of being a mom was actually reading to my kids. You know, even before they were born, but it was such a gift to be able to read to them and I'm guessing that's been extremely helpful when you opened up your store and develop the children's section.
Speaker 2:It has. Yeah, when I, when I opened the store, actually that was what I knew most about, because I felt like I haven't, I hadn't been reading for myself for a long time. I had to catch up on the adult stuff.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I'm kind of in the next phase, where I'm going to be a grandma soon, and I'm just happy that I've kept a lot of my favorite children's books so that I can read to my grandkids.
Speaker 2:Right yeah.
Speaker 1:Now you secured a loan to help with startup costs, but also launched a successful Kickstarter campaign to fund your initial inventory. As of April 3rd 2024, 365 backers pledged $55,804 to help bring Parentheses Books to life as a brick-and-mortar indie bookstore. How did you attract backers, what types of rewards did you offer and what advice would you give to someone considering a Kickstarter campaign to launch a business? Pros and cons.
Speaker 2:Well, I attracted backers by using. I use social media, so I was on Instagram. I essentially compiled emails, the emails of everybody I could think of that I have ever known and I was. I emailed everybody. Kickstarter has very strict rules about how you can advertise your campaign, but you're allowed to personally reach out to people. So I personally reached out to as many people as I could and I tried to go out in the community and talk to as many people and tell as many people as I could about what I was trying to do.
Speaker 2:I offered rewards. I had a tote bag and a t-shirt. I had a sticker. They were all different prices. The one that I was most excited about that I think people liked, I had a sticker. You know, they were all different prices. The one that I was most excited about that I think people liked was I had people fill out a form and then I offered a personalized like curated recommendation list. So they filled out a form about what they like to read and then I gave them a list of books I thought they would like.
Speaker 1:That's a great idea, and what about your advice to people wanting to do a similar campaign?
Speaker 2:It was really challenging. My advice to people would be to really do a lot of planning ahead of the campaign if they're thinking of doing that, because the time the campaign was running, which was a month, it was craziness, it was all consuming. So I would just factor that in when you're thinking about doing it. But the advantage is, I mean, you don't have to pay that money back, you have to pay off the rewards and you also it's sort of also served to create buzz around what I was doing, and then people were looking forward to the store opening and more people found out about it because of the campaign. I think, yeah, it was a difficult thing to do and it's also all or nothing. So if you don't on Kickstarter, at least if you don't raise the amount of your goal, you don't get anything.
Speaker 2:So it's a little bit risky to do in that way, but it also served a little bit as a litmus test for me, because I felt like if the community didn't you know, come out to support the store in the Kickstarter campaign, then maybe it couldn't support the store in general. So I felt like if I could pass that test, I might be okay.
Speaker 1:And, along with people buying t-shirts, you also had some large donations.
Speaker 2:I did, I felt I was, I was so grateful. Man, that whole it was such a heartwarming experience because people, people were very generous.
Speaker 1:I was very grateful well, it just goes to show how much people wanted and needed a bookshop in the town. It's great, um now. Has your approach to curating the bookshop selection evolved since you first opened and, if so, how and why?
Speaker 2:it. I feel like I spoke to a publishing rep early on, before I even opened, and I remember her saying that it takes about a year for you to figure out what your community wants to read. And I feel like it's been a year and a half now and I feel like I'm still tweaking it. I'm still sort of figuring it out. I do think that I was very I wasn't very confident early on that I knew what to buy. I mean, I bought buy all the books for the store. One thing that's happened is I've become a little more confident and just trusting my instinct because I get a lot of compliments about the selection and so I've become a little more confident in choosing and just sort of go with my instinct. But I tweak it all the time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and what do you like to read? Fiction, nonfiction, what kind of genres in fiction?
Speaker 2:I read a bit of both. I love mysteries, just regular literary fiction. I've read a few sort of. I like a little bit of magical realism here and there. I'm not quite into the full-blown fantasy. Mysteries are probably my favorite fiction though, and I do read a fair amount of nonfiction. I love memoirs. A good memoir is probably my favorite thing.
Speaker 1:One of the things I enjoy about going into an indie bookshop is that you know you're going to find a bookseller in the bookshop who also reads the style or the genre that you do, so it's great to have those conversations in a bookshop.
Speaker 2:Yes, me too, and I definitely have customers that I've discovered. I have the exact same taste and so I know that if he likes the book, I'm going to like it, and we trade back and forth recommendations and you know I love that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's definitely fun. Do you hold a lot of events at the store?
Speaker 2:I have a fair amount. I've had actually one every weekend in May I was just thinking which is a little bit rare for me, but it was good. We have a story time that we do once a month. I have a good friend who's she used to be an elementary school teacher. Now she's an instructional coach at an elementary school, but she does a story time on the second Saturday of every month and she's amazing. She does songs and then she reads books and she does a little craft with the kids. So that's my favorite event that we do. But we also do author, you know readings and signings, and I like it when we can set up a conversation between people. We've had some music at the store. It's been good. We've had some art exhibits and openings.
Speaker 1:The space is gorgeous. I mean, it looks really open. How many square feet is it? It's about 900 square feet. That's a good size, but it actually looks bigger than that. I guess it's due to the open space and high ceiling.
Speaker 2:It does and it's really big. It's in an old warehouse that has really big windows and I the corner spot, so it has really big windows and exposed brick wall.
Speaker 1:And yeah, it's very arty looking. I love it. Now in researching Harrisonburg, it looks absolutely beautiful and it has a population of approximately 51,000. Would you say the community is diverse. How do local demographics influence your book selection and is Harrisonburg also a tourist destination?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it is very diverse. Actually, I was surprised by that when I moved here. I think someone told me there are something like 40 different languages spoken at the high school. That's great.
Speaker 2:Yeah. I would say, though, that about 20,000 of the 51,000 are students at James Madison University, so they're counted in that number, I believe and I wouldn't say they're the most diverse group, and I also I think it's challenging because I don't think that my customers necessarily reflect the diversity, which is, I think, a challenge in some respect. How to get people you know from across the board to shop at an indie bookstore. I have some Spanish language titles that do pretty well. Spanish is, I think, the second biggest language in town.
Speaker 1:And would you say Harrisonburg is a tourist destination.
Speaker 2:In some ways not really. We are right on 81. There's a highway that goes down the western side of Virginia and there are a lot of people who stop in Harrisonburg on their way to other places, which I guess is not really a tourist destination, but they stop on their way. It's a good stopping point, I think. Also there are also a lot of it's transient in some way because of the university. So there are families who sort of are very attached to Harrisonburg for the four years that their kids are here or their kid is here, and I see those families throughout the time that they're. I mean, that's a big, I would say. A lot of my customers are families of DMU students that come in. There's also a nearby resort, massanutten, and people have second homes there and they rent homes in the summer and the winter because they're skiing. But I wouldn't say it's a huge tourist destination.
Speaker 1:I think social media has really helped elevate a lot of indie bookshops that aren't in the middle of town. A lot of readers go to a town specifically to take a photograph of the bookshop, so that's got to help business.
Speaker 2:It has, and I found that people have come in and have said that they're passing through, they're going down 81 from point A to point B and they wanted to stop and they just they Google where is their bookstore, and they've come to me that way. I also am right across the street from a very popular restaurant in town. So, um, yeah, so people go there and then there's often a wait there and they can come over while they're waiting for their table.
Speaker 1:And in the building where you're located are quite a few other businesses, right?
Speaker 2:Yes, so I'm in a renovated warehouse building that was turned into sort of an indoor shopping destination called the Liberty Street Mercantile, and there's a florist, there's a coffee shop and roastery. In the basement there's a vinyl shop that just opened down. There there's a home decor boutique and a little children's clothing shop. It's good. There's also a cookware store in the basement. There's also an event space on the top floor, which is nice too, yeah, and so I'm able I feel grateful for this I'm able, if I have events, to borrow chairs from up there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's the one thing. In bookshops it's always difficult to find space to store stuff, especially chairs. Now, for visitors spending a few days in the area, what would you recommend? Are there must-see sites, hiking trails for families or more seasoned adventurers, standout restaurants, especially given the city's designation as Virginia's first culinary district, or notable independent businesses? What I loved about the photos that I saw of Harrisonburg is the area looks like a hiker's dream it is a hiker's dream and there's that there's a hike for everybody.
Speaker 2:There's a hike if you want to bring your dog, your kids, if you're a seasoned hiker, if you're never been hiking before. There's Shenandoah National Park is right just to our east, and there's hiking to the west, so you basically can go in any direction within a half hour you're on a mountain, not even a half hour, really. Yeah, there are great restaurants in town. I think there are like five breweries in town. So for the size town it is, it really does have a lot of independent restaurants and stores. There's a cat cafe that just opened, which is pretty popular. There's a really good pizza place called Bella Luna that my family and I love. There's Magpie Diner right across the street. There's this other great breakfast place called the Little Grill Collective, which has been there forever, I would say walking around downtown. There's art to look at, there's great things to eat, there's outdoor activities. It's great here. It really is.
Speaker 1:It sounds like a wonderful place to bring up children.
Speaker 2:Yes, it really is. My son tells me all the time that he's glad that he lives here. Which? I think is so great.
Speaker 1:Oh, isn't that a beautiful thing to hear for a mother. And how old is he?
Speaker 2:He's 13. He might change his mind, but for now he likes it.
Speaker 1:And what was it that motivated your move from New York City to Harrisonburg?
Speaker 2:Evan, my husband got a job teaching at James Madison University. That's how we ended up here and I honestly feel very lucky because he was looking for a tenure track job and you know that's not easy to get and we could have ended up anywhere. Yes, I feel really lucky that we ended up here.
Speaker 1:And what do you love most about living there?
Speaker 2:I think what I love most most I mean other than what we talked. I mean it's so pretty and there's, you know, everywhere you look there are mountains. But I think what I love most is that it feels very much like a small town. I grew up in a suburb in Maryland, columbia, maryland, and it was very sprawling and you didn't go places and see people you knew and you know you didn't necessarily meet people who knew other people that you knew and it wasn't. But here there's this small town feel, but you still have this nice, it's a nice downtown and it's very walkable. But I like the small town feeling of people knowing everybody.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we live in a small town too, and I just love it. Amanda, what are you currently reading?
Speaker 2:I am currently reading I have it right here no Less Strange and Wonderful by A Kendra Green. Yeah, that's our book club book. How is it? It's great. I'm at the very beginning, but so far I really like it. I'm excited to read the rest of it. It's an interesting cover it is yeah, and I like that it doesn't have a jacket. I like the paper overboards, I boards.
Speaker 1:I love a physical book, hardcover, paperback, I guess. For about a year I read ebooks but I don't like reading them anymore.
Speaker 1:I don't either I can't. Do you do audio at all? I don't do audio either Sometimes, but rarely. Two reasons when I'm hiking, I like listening to nature, so I don't wear earbuds, and when I'm driving, I sometimes will listen to a book or a short story. I listen to nonfiction while I'm also reading the book, fiction not as much. I like to have my imagination allowed to run freely regarding voices. But having said that, if I'm on a crunch and I have a lot of books to read which I always do I might put one on in the car. And the other thing is I spend all day either in front of the computer or, you know, on my phone, and then maybe I'll watch something at night. I don't want to be listening to something or having a device near me when I'm reading.
Speaker 2:The thing about audio, too, is that often I haven't done it, so I don't really know the experience, but it seems like people are listening to audiobooks while they're doing something else, and I like. What I like about picking up a book is that I'm not doing anything else. Right then, I'm just reading the book.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you're not distracted by anything else.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:Now, before you go, I'd love to hear a little about your husband, Evan Friss, and the book he wrote the Bookshop A History of the American Bookstore.
Speaker 2:It's a great book, such a great history of bookstores and it's very narrative, so it's really for people who aren't big nonfiction readers. It's not dry and it's not going to weigh you down with dates and facts and it's kind of funny. Because Evan's kind of funny. Yeah, I was working at Three Lives in New York and Evan saw through my experience there that bookstores are different from other retail. They just are, and it inspired him to write a history of how did these spaces get to be so different from other retail spaces?
Speaker 1:Yes, indie bookshops are definitely unique. If you like bookstores, you'll like his book. That was a great plug, Amanda. It has been great chatting with you and learning about Parentheses Books.
Speaker 2:Thank you, thanks so much for having me.
Speaker 1:You've been listening to my conversation with Amanda Friss, owner of Parentheses Books in Harrisonburg, Virginia.
Speaker 2:To help the show reach more people.
Speaker 1:Please share episodes with friends and family and on social media, and remember to subscribe and leave a review wherever you listen to this podcast. To find out more about the Bookshop Podcast, go to thebookshoppodcastcom and make sure to subscribe and leave a review wherever you listen to the show. You can also follow me at Mandy Jackson Beverly on Instagram and Facebook and on YouTube at the Bookshop Podcast. If you have a favorite indie bookshop that you'd like to suggest we have on the podcast, I'd love to hear from you via the contact form at thebookshoppodcastcom. The Bookshop Podcast is written and produced by me, mandy Jackson-Beverly, theme music provided by Brian Beverly, and my executive assistant and graphic designer is Adrian Otterhan. Thanks for listening and I'll see you next time.