The Mystery Company is closing its doors. The store that my wife, my staff, and all our customers and friends built here in Carmel, Indiana, and have struggled to sustain for nearly seven years will shut down in the next week or so.
We've just hosted our last two author events; we have discussion groups this week; we'll celebrate our time together here at a party on Saturday, January 30, 1:00 - 3:00 pm; and then we'll be wrapping up operations in the first few days of February. We'll be at the Carmel Clay Public Library to support the launch of Jeff Stone's DRAGON on February 9 -- that will be our last event.
There will be some kind of clearance sale, or perhaps someone will come along ready and able to buy out our inventory/business in whole or in large part, and be able to carry on in some way -- we're open to all possibilities -- but I'll be moving on to new challenges in a new job out of state. I start on February 15 at Kenyon College, in Gambier, Ohio, where I'll be general manager of the college's bookstore.
It's hard to express how disappointed we are that things didn't work out at The Mystery Company, and how much we'll miss the many friends we've made here in Indiana. We've given this everything we could and we've had a great run. In the end, though, it just wasn't enough.
Business here has been rough for a while, especially since gas prices spiked in the summer of 2008. Up 'til then, sales weren't great, but at least they were slowly growing. Almost overnight, though, that incremental growth evaporated and we started seeing our numbers turn negative. We'd hoped to see a boost from our involvement in Bouchercon 2009; the convention was a great success and we did sell a lot of books at the convention. But the costs of our participation -- in terms of both time and money -- were overwhelming, and we've seen no residual effects on our sales -- no additional walk-in business, no additional internet/telephone orders, nothing. (That's been kind of a shock to us.) Finally, we hoped for a good holiday season, but our sales between Thanksgiving and Christmas this year were once again disappointing -- our second straight poor holiday season.
I haven't had a paycheck from the store for two years, and we weren't feeling as though that would turn around anytime soon. The only reason I've been able to stick with this so long is that Jennie has been well-employed, paid reasonably well by a company that offers important stuff like health insurance. For some time, though, she has felt that she's been on shakier and shakier ground. Her employer has been engulfed in its own problems and is in the midst of eliminating 5500 positions. In particular, it has been actively working to outsource the kind of work that she's been doing. Jennie still has a job today, but it's become increasingly difficult to believe that she'd continue to be employed there for much longer. And even while she is there, the company's management has worked hard to make life difficult for its employees. Instead of responding to the many pressures on it with grace and respect for the staff, it's engaging in the kinds of tactics that are designed to get people to quit so that the company doesn't have to offer buyouts.
(As I've been talking about our situation over the past few weeks, I've found that folks completely understand the difficulties that the store is facing and are completely understanding of our decision to close. On the other hand, everyone is finding it difficult to believe that things at my wife's employer are so bad, and that the company has treated our family so poorly in these last few weeks. It used to be a wonderful place to work, the kind of firm that truly valued its employees. It's not like that anymore, and I think that the difficulty folks have believing that stems from real fear about what this company's new and horrible pattern of behavior might mean for this community.)
Since we no longer believed that Jennie was likely to stay in her job long enough to get us through paying for college for our daughters, we began to consider our next steps.
We thought hard about the book business, and what it might take for a small, independent store like ours to stay afloat. The business is changing dramatically, pulled in many directions all at once. Shoppers are shopping differently, big retailers are engaging in ruinous price wars and technology is completely rewriting the book on the book itself.
Our goal has always been to create an environment that offers opportunities for connection -- readers with books, readers with each other, readers and writers, readers with literary communities here in Indiana and across the globe. While we still believe in the goal, we've found it difficult to achieve in this context. The streetscapes of the Indianapolis metropolitan area aren't friendly to small, locally-owned independents -- far too much of the development around here is designed to exclude rather than include. This is our second location, and while it's better than our original spot on Rangeline Road, it's still problematic. The culture of discounting is at odds with a culture of customer service. We can't tell you how frustrated we are with the increasing number of people who are coming to us for advice, but are obviously doing most of their buying from others. And, finally, the lousy economy is a drag on all of us, making it difficult for even our strongest supporters to spend much of their money here right now.
We can imagine strategies to deal with some of these issues, and the economy is cyclical, so some of the pressures would ease on their own were we able to wait things out without the pressure on our family that Jennie's job situation has created. At the same time, though, there are larger challenges that won't go away without serious investments of time and money. We believe that even a locally-focused store that's built on the idea of getting to know our customers has to be built on strong technology. Independent booksellers need to find ways to participate in print on demand, to offer electronic texts and the devices on which they're read, and to be available 24/7 with robust, full-featured virtual stores on the web in addition to keeping our real, brick-and-mortar stores open and lively. Some of this is possible today, some of this is still beyond the reach of small independents. But going forward, all of this is necessary and all of this will take resources beyond what we have at our disposal.
Making the decision to close hasn't been easy, but we knew that things had to change for both the business and for our family. This position at Kenyon offers an opportunity to apply all my experience in a community that truly values books and words, and I'm especially looking forward to working through all of the book business' larger issues among so many smart people. I love what I do, but I have been doing this for over 22 years now, working as a mystery bookseller in Boston, Kalamazoo and Carmel since 1987. Kenyon will offer a fresh context and fresh perspectives, and I'm excited to be joining such an amazing community.
I'm not disappearing from the mystery genre. Though I'm giving up our retail store, I'll still be doing the occasional mystery publishing project through my company The Crum Creek Press. (We have some cool stuff in the works.) I'm still expecting to be able to attend at least two mystery conventions this year. And, of course, we do sell mysteries at The Kenyon Bookstore.
It's been a great ride here at The Mystery Company, and I'm grateful to all of you who've been along for part or all of it, all of you who've made it possible and made it so wonderful. We've done so much here together!
Please keep an eye on our website and emails for details about our last days, and I hope to see many of you at the party on Saturday, January 30, 1:00 - 3:00 pm. We are offering $10 off any purchase of $40 or more and $30 off any purchase of $100 or more, in store on on our website. If you're ordering on the web, just ask for this discount in the special instructions box on the checkout form, and we'll apply the discount when we process your order.
Thank you!
We've just hosted our last two author events; we have discussion groups this week; we'll celebrate our time together here at a party on Saturday, January 30, 1:00 - 3:00 pm; and then we'll be wrapping up operations in the first few days of February. We'll be at the Carmel Clay Public Library to support the launch of Jeff Stone's DRAGON on February 9 -- that will be our last event.
There will be some kind of clearance sale, or perhaps someone will come along ready and able to buy out our inventory/business in whole or in large part, and be able to carry on in some way -- we're open to all possibilities -- but I'll be moving on to new challenges in a new job out of state. I start on February 15 at Kenyon College, in Gambier, Ohio, where I'll be general manager of the college's bookstore.
It's hard to express how disappointed we are that things didn't work out at The Mystery Company, and how much we'll miss the many friends we've made here in Indiana. We've given this everything we could and we've had a great run. In the end, though, it just wasn't enough.
Business here has been rough for a while, especially since gas prices spiked in the summer of 2008. Up 'til then, sales weren't great, but at least they were slowly growing. Almost overnight, though, that incremental growth evaporated and we started seeing our numbers turn negative. We'd hoped to see a boost from our involvement in Bouchercon 2009; the convention was a great success and we did sell a lot of books at the convention. But the costs of our participation -- in terms of both time and money -- were overwhelming, and we've seen no residual effects on our sales -- no additional walk-in business, no additional internet/telephone orders, nothing. (That's been kind of a shock to us.) Finally, we hoped for a good holiday season, but our sales between Thanksgiving and Christmas this year were once again disappointing -- our second straight poor holiday season.
I haven't had a paycheck from the store for two years, and we weren't feeling as though that would turn around anytime soon. The only reason I've been able to stick with this so long is that Jennie has been well-employed, paid reasonably well by a company that offers important stuff like health insurance. For some time, though, she has felt that she's been on shakier and shakier ground. Her employer has been engulfed in its own problems and is in the midst of eliminating 5500 positions. In particular, it has been actively working to outsource the kind of work that she's been doing. Jennie still has a job today, but it's become increasingly difficult to believe that she'd continue to be employed there for much longer. And even while she is there, the company's management has worked hard to make life difficult for its employees. Instead of responding to the many pressures on it with grace and respect for the staff, it's engaging in the kinds of tactics that are designed to get people to quit so that the company doesn't have to offer buyouts.
(As I've been talking about our situation over the past few weeks, I've found that folks completely understand the difficulties that the store is facing and are completely understanding of our decision to close. On the other hand, everyone is finding it difficult to believe that things at my wife's employer are so bad, and that the company has treated our family so poorly in these last few weeks. It used to be a wonderful place to work, the kind of firm that truly valued its employees. It's not like that anymore, and I think that the difficulty folks have believing that stems from real fear about what this company's new and horrible pattern of behavior might mean for this community.)
Since we no longer believed that Jennie was likely to stay in her job long enough to get us through paying for college for our daughters, we began to consider our next steps.
We thought hard about the book business, and what it might take for a small, independent store like ours to stay afloat. The business is changing dramatically, pulled in many directions all at once. Shoppers are shopping differently, big retailers are engaging in ruinous price wars and technology is completely rewriting the book on the book itself.
Our goal has always been to create an environment that offers opportunities for connection -- readers with books, readers with each other, readers and writers, readers with literary communities here in Indiana and across the globe. While we still believe in the goal, we've found it difficult to achieve in this context. The streetscapes of the Indianapolis metropolitan area aren't friendly to small, locally-owned independents -- far too much of the development around here is designed to exclude rather than include. This is our second location, and while it's better than our original spot on Rangeline Road, it's still problematic. The culture of discounting is at odds with a culture of customer service. We can't tell you how frustrated we are with the increasing number of people who are coming to us for advice, but are obviously doing most of their buying from others. And, finally, the lousy economy is a drag on all of us, making it difficult for even our strongest supporters to spend much of their money here right now.
We can imagine strategies to deal with some of these issues, and the economy is cyclical, so some of the pressures would ease on their own were we able to wait things out without the pressure on our family that Jennie's job situation has created. At the same time, though, there are larger challenges that won't go away without serious investments of time and money. We believe that even a locally-focused store that's built on the idea of getting to know our customers has to be built on strong technology. Independent booksellers need to find ways to participate in print on demand, to offer electronic texts and the devices on which they're read, and to be available 24/7 with robust, full-featured virtual stores on the web in addition to keeping our real, brick-and-mortar stores open and lively. Some of this is possible today, some of this is still beyond the reach of small independents. But going forward, all of this is necessary and all of this will take resources beyond what we have at our disposal.
Making the decision to close hasn't been easy, but we knew that things had to change for both the business and for our family. This position at Kenyon offers an opportunity to apply all my experience in a community that truly values books and words, and I'm especially looking forward to working through all of the book business' larger issues among so many smart people. I love what I do, but I have been doing this for over 22 years now, working as a mystery bookseller in Boston, Kalamazoo and Carmel since 1987. Kenyon will offer a fresh context and fresh perspectives, and I'm excited to be joining such an amazing community.
I'm not disappearing from the mystery genre. Though I'm giving up our retail store, I'll still be doing the occasional mystery publishing project through my company The Crum Creek Press. (We have some cool stuff in the works.) I'm still expecting to be able to attend at least two mystery conventions this year. And, of course, we do sell mysteries at The Kenyon Bookstore.
It's been a great ride here at The Mystery Company, and I'm grateful to all of you who've been along for part or all of it, all of you who've made it possible and made it so wonderful. We've done so much here together!
Please keep an eye on our website and emails for details about our last days, and I hope to see many of you at the party on Saturday, January 30, 1:00 - 3:00 pm. We are offering $10 off any purchase of $40 or more and $30 off any purchase of $100 or more, in store on on our website. If you're ordering on the web, just ask for this discount in the special instructions box on the checkout form, and we'll apply the discount when we process your order.
Thank you!
This is terrible news! I will miss you. And, while I wish you best of luck on your new endeavors, it's definitely a sad day for the Indy metro. Ohio is lucky to have you.
Posted by: Robin | January 25, 2010 at 12:17 PM
Best of luck, Jim.
Posted by: Gerald So | January 25, 2010 at 12:25 PM
JIM!!! You are the best...the absolute genuine article. We all adore you, and I can't wait to hear what wonderful things
happen to you...
You have helped each and every one of us with your advice, and your humor, and your skill, and your amazing knowledge and devotion to the mystery world.!
YOu have created a world of friends and admirers and colleagues..and that is something the will never change.
Posted by: Hank Phillippi Ryan | January 25, 2010 at 01:19 PM
The mystery world weeps ~ but this is all so understandable. Thanks for giving us insight into the publishing industry. And thanks too for the warmth you have always shown to writers, esp. the new kids on the block.
Posted by: Harley | January 25, 2010 at 01:21 PM
Many hugs to you and your wife. I can only imagine how hard this decision is for all of you. That said, the people at Kenyon College should be doing major cartwheels! I look forward to seeing you at your new store. It's just another chapter, my friend, the book is still open.
Posted by: Joanna Campbell Slan | January 25, 2010 at 01:24 PM
This is sad news, indeed. I enjoyed getting to know you last year in Denver at ALA, at Malice and of course at the wonderful event that you arranged for my first signing at TMC. Not only did you get a great crowd for a newbie, you got a couple of dozen people to stick around for my talk on Tanzania (not an easy thing to sell!) Would that energy, smarts and passion counted for more in this economy. Good luck to you and your family.
Posted by: rosemary | January 25, 2010 at 01:26 PM
These are strange times in the world of books and the world in general, alas! -- and this is sad news. Best wishes to you and yours in the move and the new job. And of course you'll still be a part of the world of mystery! Keep us posted!
Posted by: Vicki Lane | January 25, 2010 at 01:27 PM
Jim, Alas! It's disappointing to see you closing. Glad though you were able to find another position that will keep you in the book business. Best of luck, Keith
Posted by: Keith Raffel | January 25, 2010 at 01:31 PM
Jim, you are a trooper! Hats off to all you have done for the mystery community, Sisters in Crime in particular. I'm very sad about your store but so glad you found a new place in the book business--they are darned lucky to have you!
Posted by: Roberta Isleib | January 25, 2010 at 01:32 PM
So sad to read this. Thank you for your insights here and your help at Bouchercon. You helped make my first B'con as a published author successful.
Best of luck in the new store! They are lucky to have you.
Posted by: Jamie Freveletti | January 25, 2010 at 01:32 PM
So sorry to hear you're closing, Jim. The work you did on Bouchercon was phenomenal--a great conference and everyone who attended owes his/her gratitude. Kenyon College has a magical campus--I love it there--and they are so lucky to now have you. I hope you and your family thrive there!
Posted by: Sharon Fiffer | January 25, 2010 at 01:34 PM
You and your family are such gems. I feel for you and the hard decision this must have been. I also sypmathize with Jennie's works situation, as my husband's going through (what sounds like) a very similar situation. The big picture is compromised for short term gains (and downsizing bonuses). It's beyond sad, it's stupid. (As is getting info at a retail store and then buying on-line.) But I know your new position and situation will bring lots of opportunity and joy. Here's to your new beginnings!
Posted by: Wendelin Van Draanen | January 25, 2010 at 01:35 PM
Jim,
I understand fully, but man it is such a sad day to hear of this.
But I know you'll still be a main part of the mystery / thriller community
Keep you chin up
Ali
Posted by: ali | January 25, 2010 at 01:37 PM
I wish you the best, Jim.
You did everything right, never doubt it.
Posted by: G.M. Malliet | January 25, 2010 at 01:39 PM
As always, you have keen insights into the problems facing you and the systems that create them. Thanks for sharing this very frank analysis of how the current book world and economic crisis are affecting your family. It resonates with a lot of us. I am so glad you have found a place at Kenyon, and like Roberta, I hope they know how lucky they are to have you. Best wishes for a happy landing.
Posted by: Patricia Sprinkle | January 25, 2010 at 01:41 PM
Sounds like you're staying true to your mission and just adapting to the crummy environment.
Thank you so much for supporting this fringe mystery writer...I'll never forget it.
Posted by: Tom Schreck | January 25, 2010 at 01:43 PM
Thank you, Jim, for everything. I look forward to working with you in the future.
Warmly, Jane
Posted by: Jane K Cleland | January 25, 2010 at 01:44 PM
So sorry to see the store go. You are truly one of the bright lights of the mystery world. I hope when the smoke clears and you've settled in at Kenyon that you'll find a way to continue to be a major presence in the mystery community. Best of everything for you and your family.
Con
Posted by: Con Lehane | January 25, 2010 at 01:46 PM
The really sad thing is that your situation is so typical, Jim. I hate to the TMC go the way of so many indie mystery booksellers. It's a depressing trend.
I hope you have a much better experience at Kenyon, but this is as much our loss as it is yours. Very best wishes for success in your new position.
R
Posted by: Rick Helms | January 25, 2010 at 01:51 PM
Jim, I've had the privilege of knowing you since the days of LMI and Eastgate. You've spread your vision of bookselling through Crum Creek Press, IMBA, Drood, Deadly Passions, the books, the terrific Bouchercon 2009, and The Mystery Company. Such valuable work, and it's not going away. One door closes but the road stretches wide to Ohio.
Jennie, the family, and the good folks at The Mystery Company, the same to you, and I'm so sorry for this upheaval in your lives. It's a sad economy right now. Here's to better times.
Posted by: Sarah Smith | January 25, 2010 at 02:00 PM
Jim,
I'm sorry to hear the store will be closing. You've made a contribution to the mystery world that is greatly appreciated. Good luck with the new endeavors.
Mike Befeler,
Author of LIVING WITH YOUR KIDS IS MURDER, Lefty Award nominee for best humorous mystery
Posted by: Mike Befeler | January 25, 2010 at 02:05 PM
I never made it to your store but it's always been on my wish list. Best of luck in the future!
Posted by: Deb Baker | January 25, 2010 at 02:06 PM
Hi Jim, Nice to meet you at Bouchercon, brief though it was, and I hope you made some money with my Stieg Larsson translations. Reminds me of folding up Fjord Press after 20 years; it ain't easy. Best of luck at Kenyon -- looks like some nice hills around there too. Steve
Posted by: Reg | January 25, 2010 at 02:10 PM
Jim,
Very, very sorry to hear this news. I wish you and everybody at the store the very best in your next endeavors.
Good luck!
Terrill Lankford
Posted by: Terrill Lankford | January 25, 2010 at 02:15 PM
Oh, Jim. It's hard to take in that you, of all people, won't have a mystery book store any longer. When I think of all the ones in business in the 80's when I started, it makes me sad, and angry. I am glad that the Press will keep going, though, and Kenyon is a wonderful place. Guess I'm looking for silver linings. I thought Bouchercon was such a triumph that it would carry you up to great heights. Hope one of the conventions you mentioned will be Malice.
And don't even get me started on your wife's situation. Something very wrong going on in business these days, and politics...
With great regret, Katherine
Posted by: Katherine Hall Page | January 25, 2010 at 02:16 PM