BOOK KEEPERS How do independent sellers stay in business?

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You’ve got to have a gimmick these days in the book-selling world.

The larger bookstores such as Borders and Barnes & Noble have size and resources on their side. A daunting number of volumes fill up their thousands of square feet of shelves and their customers sip trendy coffee drinks as they peruse new paperbacks and magazines in the chains’ bustling cafes.

The smaller, independent bookstores need to do more with less in order to keep a competitive edge – or simply to stay in business.

Meg Smith of the nonprofit American Booksellers Association said the independent bookseller’s primary challenge may be competing with online stores or mass merchandisers such as Wal-Mart or Costco. Their best advantage, however, is that their creativity is not limited by corporate rules and regulations.

“Stores survive because they are creative,” she said. “There’s lots of things the stores are doing to stay in business and stay profitable.”

This kind of flexibility helps booksellers understand the marketing for their area, diversify their product range and put on special events that will serve as a magnet for shoppers, she said.

“The challenges remain great, but people who are committing to doing it are still around,” Smith said. “We must remain optimistic. … I’m not minimizing the difficulties, but we still feel confident that there will always be a place in the community for an independent bookstore. It’s essential to the life and vibrancy of a community.”

A handful of bookstores in Maine are definitely doing some creative things to stay afloat and keep customers drifting in.

Mount Desert Island

“Quite frankly, it’s a dying breed,” Jan Coates, owner of Port in a Storm in Mount Desert, said of independent booksellers. “They come and go. We’re very fortunate in that we have a strong and loyal customer base.”

And something more. In the parlance of real estate agents, Coates has an abundance of those three dreamy words: location, location, location. Her flagship bookstore is located on the shores of Somes Sound, just across from the often-photographed white footbridge in Somesville Village. The books inside reflect the Maine coast theme that’s a popular draw in tourism-heavy Mount Desert Island, but Coates doesn’t stop at glossy coffee-table volumes about Acadia or cute picture books about seals. A diverse range of popular fiction, nonfiction and classic literature supplement her Maine offerings.

This summer, Coates is trying something new. She and her staff have opened Port Side, a second, smaller bookstore located at the water’s edge in MDI’s west side village of Bernard. The seasonal bookstore is tucked into a photogenic building which has served as storage for lobster traps and fishing gear, an antique printing museum and an astronomy center over its 115-year history. Owner Irving Silverman still performs weddings in the lighthouse tower that juts over the wharf side building. One wall displays weather-beaten lobster buoys salvaged from area lobstermen.

The eclectic structure seems unusual and very real. It looks as if it could only have sprung up along Maine’s fishing coast. You can’t buy, or export, this kind of sense of place. And you certainly won’t find it in a shopping mall.

That authenticity is part of what drew Coates so far out of the way of both the island’s improved roads and the usual tourist track. Creating a bookstore with author readings and book signings outside on the wharf and special art programs for children seemed like a sure winner, and the location doesn’t scare her.

“We want to try to keep it a celebration of Maine and Maine life, complementing the setting we’re in, sharing our deep love and commitment to Maine,” Coates said. “I’m amazed at the number of people who come down here, just on their own. … I think word-of-mouth will be our best advertising.”

Bangor

The owner of Book Marc’s, an independent store located in downtown Bangor, has a different kind of plan in mind in order to create and fill a niche that the bigger stores have thus far ignored.

“We love books, we love what we do, and so we persist,” Marc Berlin said. “There’s a certain amount of satisfaction in doing what you love to do … but obviously, with the Internet, with big-box stores, it’s challenging.”

Several years ago, his store started Book Marc’s Publishing, which puts out such special-interest works as “Maine is a Puzzle,” Gig Weeks’ crossword puzzle about Maine, and Trudy Scee’s dictionary of Maine words and phrases.

“It serves two functions,” he said. “If it’s successful, it makes a little money. And it gets our name out there. I think for small businesses, it really is all about trying to come up with unique products.”

Even though Bangor is a bookstore-heavy town and Berlin has plenty of competition, both from Borders and from several other independent stores, the customers make it worth his while.

The customers, and the books.

“There’s just something wonderful about books,” he enthused. “When the truck brings in books from the distributor, it’s like Christmas. You open the boxes and it’s like Christmas morning. So it’s still fun.”

Blue Hill

Winters, aside from the Christmas rush, can be slow and quiet for Maine’s independent bookstores. That’s why bookstore owners like Bonnie Myers of North Light Books work overtime to diversify her customer base. Myers sells art supplies such as canvases and handmade paper, works with local teachers and librarians to sell books at educational discounts, and puts on special events. She also specializes in art and children’s books.

“It’s slower in winter. We build up a base of loyal customers,” she said. “That’s one of the things you do to be flexible and get along.”

Part of that flexibility included starting a used-book section by popular demand, which has helped the bookstore hold its own against other nearby independents and Amazon.com. There are no large bookstores located close to out-of-the-way Blue Hill, she said. It makes it easier for customers to go local.

“Of course, they like coming in and having a personal touch, especially for kids,” she said. “We know our kids’ books pretty well.”

That customer loyalty can be so strong that folks will use the Internet to look up books they want to buy, and then order them from North Light Books.

“I often encourage people to go to your local independent,” Myers said.

Special events have included pairings of music and books, where live musicians will come in to play at the store and story times for “children of all ages,” she said.

Sometimes simple touches, such as providing a cool nook on a hot day, can make all the difference in the world, too.

“It helps to be air-conditioned,” she said. “People come in and say, oh, thank goodness, it’s so hot out.”

Searsport

The three owners of tiny Left Bank Books in Searsport have taken the “less is more” philosophy and doubled it – or perhaps cut it in half. There’s about 5,000 volumes tucked cozily into the store’s 750 square feet. The books share space with customer’s dogs, an old fireplace and the vault that’s a relic of the building’s former incarnation as a bank. There may not be a lot of leg room in the shop, but there’s a certain comfort and personal attention that you just can’t get at larger stores, the owners said.

“We choose our books very, very carefully,” Lindsay McGuire said. “Our customers respond to that. They say that for such a small space, we have a large selection.”

Larger stores – the “big-box” stores – can be overwhelming, according to the co-owner.

“It’s exciting for about five minutes, then you can get in a daze,” McGuire said. “You’re just on sensory overload very, very quickly.”

For a small bookstore – “the tiniest on the coast of Maine,” McGuire boasted – Left Bank Books can pack a punch. A few weeks ago, famed children’s book author Lois Lowry did a reading and book signing. Last summer, historian David McCulloch came, too.

“It was a thrill for us, having someone who’s such an accomplished writer,” McGuire said of Lowry’s visit, and called McCulloch’s “astounding.”

It may not be easy to run a small downtown business – but it seems like the right thing to do, according to the co-owner.

“The nature of big-box retail makes it very, very difficult for any small business to thrive,” McGuire said. “At the same time, if we have any reason to do this, it’s to try to keep a small and authentic local business in a small and authentic downtown. … Whether it’s a hopeless case or not, that’s why we do this.”

SELECTED LIST OF BOOKSTORES

Port In A Storm Bookstore

1112 Main St., Somesville

244-4114

www.portinastormbookstore.com

Port Side

30 Steamboat Wharf Road, Bernard

244-9114

BookMarc’s Bookstore and Cafe

78 Harlow St, Bangor,

942-3206

bookmarcs@bookmarcs.com

Left Bank Books

21 East Main St., Searsport

548-6400, leftbank@verizon.net

North Light Books

Main Street, Blue Hill

374-5422

northlightbooks@hotmail.com

Lippincott Books

36 Central St., Bangor

942-4398

lippincottbooks@midmaine.com

Pro Libris Bookshop

10 Third St., Bangor

942-3019

Sarah’s Books

32 Central St., Bangor

992-2080