FXBG Neighbors Podcast
Fredericksburg Neighbors Podcast
FXBG Neighbors Podcast
EP #88 Books On Wheels, Community In Tow
A 16-foot trailer, hand-built shelves, and the smell of custom candles set the stage for one of the most heartwarming business stories in Fredericksburg. We sit down with English teacher and founder Katie O’Mara, who turned a spark of inspiration and a meaningful family legacy into The Book Market FXBG—a mobile bookstore that proves curation, community, and local makers can outshine any algorithm.
Katie shares how a modest inheritance from her trailblazing grandmother pushed her to stop scrolling and start building. From buying an empty trailer in August to opening by March, she and her husband navigated the nuts and bolts of construction, inventory, and a pop-up strategy that brings readers directly to small businesses across town. You’ll hear how partnerships with Gunnar Ray Monograms, Fifth Sense Candle Company, and Bayside Clay create a bookish experience that feels tactile, rooted, and distinctly local.
We also dig into the myths around big-box and online book buying. Katie explains why individualized recommendations, local author spotlights, and community events deliver more value than a lower price tag—and how Bookshop.org and Libro.fm let you buy online while still supporting indie stores. Her advice for would-be founders is refreshingly practical: skip the horror stories, call your SBDC, find a good insurance agent and accountant, and let your community help you win.
If you care about supporting local bookstores, discovering new authors, and keeping your dollars in the neighborhood, this conversation will give you a roadmap and a reason to change your next checkout. Follow The Book Market FXBG on Instagram and Facebook, track the trailer’s next stop, and share this episode with a friend who loves the smell of a new book. If you enjoyed the show, subscribe, leave a rating, and tell us which local business we should feature next.
Katie O'Mara
The Book Market FXBG
bookshop.org/shop/thebookmarketfxbg
thebookmarketfxbg@gmail.com
This is the Fredericksburg Neighbors Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Dori Stewart.
Speaker:Welcome back to another episode of the FXBG Neighbors Podcast, where we share the stories of our favorite local brands. I have a special guest joining me today. We have Katie O'Mara here, and she is with the Book Market FXBG. Katie, welcome to the podcast. Thank you so much for having me. Well, I'm really excited to get to know you and learn more about the book market. So let's start there. Share with us a little bit about the book market FXBG.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so we are a mobile bookstore. We were built inside of a 16-foot custom renovated trailer. My husband did all of the construction with lots of ideas from me. We sell primarily new books, but we also sell a lot of book-related accessories, like custom-made t-shirts, crew necks, candles, jewelry, tote bags, anything that has anything to do with a book. And a lot of those are produced by other local creators in the area. We uh have our um apparel made by Gunnar Ray Monograms, who's local to Fredericksburg poor Fifth Sense Candle Company in downtown does our custom candles. Um, we have jewelry from Bayside Clay that's a Virginia creator. So we have a bunch of local businesses that we also try to bring in and feature within our store as well.
Speaker:This is the coolest thing ever. I love this so much. I love that you are keeping it local and that you have local vendors. I love that it's mobile. I mean, this is just such a cool thing. So tell us how tell I I want to know about your background. And then I also want to learn what made you decide to do this. Tell us all about it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, okay. So a little bit about my background. You and you and I actually have some things in common. I'm actually a high school teacher here in the area, uh, an English teacher, which will come as no surprise because of the books. Um, but I um have always loved to read. Um, and like many other adults, I've spent, you know, a significant amount of time scrolling on social media. Um, and I started seeing someone who was doing this out in Las Vegas. Um incredible company called The Bookshelf. Um, they built their own trailer and I just like fell in love with it. I kept telling my husband, this is the coolest idea. Like, oh my gosh, like why didn't I think of this? And um, you know, I turned 40 this year, and I just was like looking for some personal fulfillment in my life. Um, I love my teaching career and I don't have any intention to want to not teach. And I love being a mom, but I was looking for something that felt like Katie and not mom or Mrs. O'Mara. And um, I just thought like life is short and why not do the thing you've been thinking about doing forever. And simultaneously, um, the sad part of the story is that I lost my grandmother um around this time and she left a little bit of money for each of her grandkids, and I was looking for something really meaningful to do with that money. And I was like, I don't want to just replace my deck at my house, or I wanted to do something that felt like she would really love that. She was the uh one of the first females on the Fairfax County School Board back in the day, and she was like strong education, you know, that inspiring woman that we kind of all looked up to for that generation, especially. And um, all of a sudden it just felt like this was the thing to do. Like, why not just do it? Stop talking about it and actually do it. And um, I guess the rest is history. We purchased this empty trailer in August, and my husband was like all in, and he we refurbished the trailer. We opened in March, and it's just every weekend pretty much we've been out since then. So it's been pretty exciting and it's been a lot of work, but like really rewarding work.
Speaker:I love this so much. It's I mean, it's never too late to follow your own dream. And you know, as moms, we you know tend to put everybody else first. And so I love that you took that sign and you took the um, you know, uh what happened with your your grandmother, you turned that into something that she would be super proud of. And I just I just love it. And I love that um, you know, you're bring bringing your love of reading out into the community. So talk to me a little bit about how it works. So you said that you are out there every weekend. Where do you go? How do you choose where you go? I'd love to learn a little bit more about the logistics of that.
Speaker 3:I mean, a lot of it is building those relationships with other local businesses. It's something that's really special. And um, I can't even put into words, I didn't expect how wonderful that part of it was going to be, you know. Um, but we've had a lot of businesses be excited about what we're doing and see the benefit to themselves and to us to have us come pop up, you know, our our customers who kind of follow us around, then get to visit their business. And um we get to introduce their customers to some of what we have to offer too. Um, so some of it is invitation. We love when businesses reach out to us and say, Hey, we'd love for you to come out and do this. Some of it is just, you know, like any entrepreneur, like hitting the ground searching and looking for events and things that would be a good fit for us. Um, so it's been a little bit of both. Um, and uh that that business connection though has been really, really special to us.
Speaker:Yeah, yeah. But and you get you both get benefit out of it. And so I really love I love that the synergy there. Yeah, me too. So let me ask you this. Do you find that there are any myths or misconceptions about your business?
Speaker 3:I mean, I think I'm gonna speak probably more towards like the book industry in general, um, because we're sort of like a mobile bookstore is not a super common concept at this point for there to be a lot of misconceptions. But um I and I think some of the our local booksellers or independent stores in Fredericksburg might agree with some of this, but this idea that like big chains and online retailers can do it better. And I think that's just couldn't be further from the truth. Um, a lower price online doesn't always equal a better experience. And we really relish that role of giving personal recommendations, searching for titles that our customers have been looking for and can't find, curating our selection, um, bringing in local authors. That's something I'm really passionate about. Um, you know, we first I think got introduced through uh Jacqueline Diamico, who is wonderful. We could do a whole podcast. I could talk about her for 15 minutes, honestly. Um, but also Kate Cunningham, Eris Marriott. We've had a ton of local authors that have been really um instrumental to us, you know, building our following. And that's something that you don't see in a big box store or in any of these online retailers. So I think there's a lot to be said about local and independent booksellers and what they can offer to a reader who's looking for an experience and not just a cheapest price.
Speaker:Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And you're small enough that you know you can give that personal touch and people can get to know you. You're part of the community, you know? Yeah, totally. So let me ask you this. If someone were to come to you and tell you about their crazy wild dream of starting this business, what advice would you give them?
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's a great question. Um, I would say don't be afraid to try something different, even if there's no one else doing it, because sometimes that can be intimidating. Like, I don't have anybody to ask about how to do this because this is different than anything I've seen. Um, and maybe don't believe the horror stories. There are so many people who are willing to help someone who has an idea. Um, we received a lot of help from the Small Business Development Center at Mary Washington. Um, they had like a free consultation there that really helped us like make a list of like what are the first things we need to do in order to do it right? Um, finding an insurance agent to help you, finding um a tax accountant. Those people like made such a big difference for us. Um, and I think you don't have to go into it alone when you have a good idea. You have a team of people that you can call on that want to see your business flourish. Like we're in a community that wants to see small business um grow. And there are a lot of people in that community ready to help.
Speaker:Yeah, you're absolutely right. I think that it's just so important to just ask for help. There, it's just um we are I I love the Frederick business community. It's so giving and everyone is so supportive. And so I love that advice, just tapping into the resources that are available around you. I love that. So clearly you're very busy. You're a teacher, you're doing this on the weekends, so I need to know when you're not working, what are you doing for fun?
Speaker 3:I mean, it will come as no surprise to anyone that like my primary hobby is reading. Um, like, I mean, I I was um thinking about like when people ask you what your hobbies are, and I'm like, well, reading, running my mobile bookstore, like teaching English, they're all in the same world, right? Um, but I love to read. Obviously, I've constantly got a physical book and an audiobook going at the same time. Um, I mean, of course, I love hanging with my family. We love to travel. Um, and that's kind of a goal for our family is being able to take our kids on adventures and experiences, not things. So um that's part of the wrapped into this business idea too, is like what can I bring, what can I experiences can I bring to my kids?
Speaker:Yeah, yeah, and what a great role model you are. Thank you. That's very nice of you to say. Yeah, yeah. No, it's big. It's big for them to see their mom dreaming big and making it happen, and for them to watch you through all of that, that's that's really big for your kids to see. Thank you. I love that. So, what is something that you wish the listeners knew about your business?
Speaker 3:Hmm, okay. So I think that a lot of people don't understand how many alternatives there are out there to um, you know, we talked a little bit earlier about online retailers. Um we um offer a lot of the similar options that a lot of the online retailers offer. Um, we're partnered with an organization called bookshop.org, and they um partner with independent local bookstores to offer the purchase of online books as well as ebooks. And so I know a lot of people just don't know there's another option, right? Um and uh we also partner with Libro, um and they are an audiobook provider who also pairs with local bookshops. Both of those organizations uh give a portion of the proceeds back to that local independent business, which then comes back into our local economy. So um if you are someone who is looking for a way to support local and maybe break some of those habits of supporting these billionaires, um, there are options. And this isn't just unique to us. Um, I know I think both of the local um downtown bookstores also offer uh these as an option as well. It's something we really want the community to be aware of that um there are small little things we can do to get that money right back into our local community.
Speaker:Very cool. I'm so glad you shared that because I didn't know that. Yeah, absolutely. That's amazing. So if the listeners want to connect with you, if they want to see where you're gonna be next or follow your journey, where can they find you?
Speaker 3:So the best ways to find us are on social media. Um, we're on Instagram and Facebook at the bookmarketfxbg. Um if they are interested in having us come out like to a local business, um, we um love that. So encourage those local businesses that you think we'd be a good fit for to reach out to us. Um you can also find us on bookshop at bookshop.org slash the bookmarket fxbg. And uh same thing with Libro. It's Libro.fm slash the bookmarket FXBG.
Speaker:Amazing. Katie, thank you so much for joining me on the podcast today and sharing the book market with us.
Speaker 3:Well, we just love what you are doing, um, highlighting these local businesses. Um, it's one of the things that we think makes Fredericksburg so great is this community of small businesses. So thank you for what you do to support all of us.
Speaker:Aw, thank you. I appreciate that.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to the Fredericksburg Neighbors Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to FXBG NeighborsPodcast.com.