Best of Brooklyn's indie bookstores | Tomorrow's headlines tonight

Now, how long have you been with the Brooklyn Paper? Why did you go into journalism? Talk to me a little bit about you. Yeah, I've been with the Brooklyn Paper for a year and a half now. I had originally started as an intern my junior year of college. I was working with our sister paper, AM New York, and I was a St. John's grad. I was the editor-in-chief of our school's newspaper, The Torch, and it was time for me to graduate. Didn't know what I was going to do. I reached out to some of my colleagues here. And they gladly welcomed me back, but I was in Brooklyn. I was never used to Brooklyn, so it was a new beast for me to conquer. But I've been here, I've been in the community for a year and a half now, and I'm loving every second of it. You know what? Brooklyn is such a great borough. It really is. And I love the whole hipster vibe. It's got great restaurants, you know, great shopping. I really do enjoy it. So talk to me about this multi-part series that you have on Brooklyn's independent bookstores, because this is something that is so important. I've been in Brooklyn, and I've been to some of these independent bookstores, you know, and they're competing with the big boxes, the Amazons and the Barnes & Noble. So, so many people are like, how are these local businesses even surviving at this point? Like what did you learn? Yeah, so my multi-part series is I'm going around and spotlighting independent bookstores across Brooklyn and I'm really exploring each store's history, identity, the booksellers, their curation, and their community. And obviously I'm doing it because of Small Business Saturday, that's the timely hook here, but year-round support is the real bigger message that we are trying to accomplish here. And I've learned a lot so far. I really learned that these bookstores are not just Stores for books. They are third spaces, meaning it's a space other than work and other than home where people can come together and communicate and learn more about their community. And they really don't classify themselves as only bookstores. A lot of these places have other niches, like whether it be used bookstores or a bookstore that has a bar with it or a bookstore that also has crafting classes. I went to a store today. And they have bookbinding classes where they teach you how to bind books. So it's really not just about bookstores. And these bookstores are so unique to each neighborhood that they are respectively in. You know, it's so interesting that you say that because, again, I've been into some of these bookstores, and I absolutely love them. I'm a huge supporter of mom-and-pop shops, and some of them that you go into, they'll have, like, little mini restaurants in there or not even so much a restaurant, but it's like, you know, you can get a Danish and some coffee or a matcha tea, you know, because it's a communal place. They want to draw you in where people can come in and sit around and chat, and it's kind of like being at home or hanging out with your friends in the park, right? Do you get that feeling? Yes, I totally got that feeling the whole time. I've visited four bookstores so far, and every time I've gone, they've been full of people talking to the owners. There's been children's spaces, there's kids playing on the floor, there's kids reading books, there's people talking with booksellers. One thing that really sets these independent bookstores apart from big box retailers is is that you have these sellers here who are so knowledgeable about What they have in stock and they know what people in the neighborhood are looking for. So you can go there, say what you want. Let's say social media, you want to pick up a book from social media and you want to go to your physical bookstore, but let's say there's something else you might like and you might go into the store getting something you didn't even think you were going to get in the first place, along with that book you were looking for. So the knowledge and the expertise that these booksellers have is just spectacular. It's massive. And it's vast. So do me a favor, Olivia. Tell me, why did you come up with this story? You know, what is it that sparked this interest in you? Or did somebody say, hey, listen, we read this article. We want you to do something on this. What happened? I'm a journalist who loves a good multi-part series highlighting something. So last year for Small Business Saturday, I had done a more generalized look at the businesses across Brooklyn, so I did a real wide range of a lot of places. In one place, you had the story up on the screen earlier, it was the Bookmark Shop in Bay Ridge. I had reached out to them, I had interviewed them, and I loved our chat. I loved my chat with them. They had a really cool just vibe going on. And when I was thinking about what I wanted to do this year, I was, I was actually going to one of the bookstores in my neighborhood, The Ribbed Bodice, and I was like, I should do this. There is such a culture here of bookstores and independent bookstores in Brooklyn, and they are just the most unique places I've ever been, ever. And each neighborhood that they're in, they are so tailored uniquely to that neighborhood. I visited a bookstore today in Red Hook, Red Hook Books, and it's just opened. And When you think of Red Hook, Brooklyn, you think of this industrial place on the water, and that's exactly what it looks like in there. There's these beautiful glass windows, and everything looks very industrial, but also For the community. So that was where I wanted to go with this. And it's really blossomed into a bigger angle that I ever thought I was going to do just like what it takes to keep an independent bookstore running and what Small Business Saturday means. And it's really for them. It's just a foot in the door to kind of get them coming back on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday. You know, Olivia, I love your enthusiasm and your interest in this topic because I have a real love for reading myself. But when you went to your bosses, because you're walking around, you're discovering this on your own. You're like, hey, I want to do this story. So you go to your boss and you pitch it. What happens? My boss knows how much I love. A feature like this and that's something that I've always been very good at or business features and it's something I've been doing in college and something I really picked it up doing when I started this job. So she was like, go ahead, do whatever you need to do. And I'm also a person who does a lot of multimedia content. So she was like, what's your multimedia angle on this? So something that I'm doing is at every single bookstore I go to, I have a bookseller or owner recommend a book. And they'll talk about why they chose it and what makes it so unique and why they love it so much. And it gives it such a more personal angle. So that's... Really what we're about at the Brooklyn Paper is highlighting things in our community, but also highlighting the people behind those things in our community. So she was all for it, and I went right and did it. Ah, that's awesome. Awesome. What is the reach of the Brooklyn Paper? Do you have any idea how many people actually get it and read it, whether it's in person, online? I'm not exactly sure of our reach, but I do know our digital site reaches many. We have a newsletter that reaches thousands, and we also have our free print issues that go every week. We have our main Brooklyn paper, but then we also have Bay News and Park Slope Courier. So there's a lot of, and there's many more. So we do Brooklyn, but then we also do very localized. papers as well. I think that's fabulous and I love the fact that you like a multi-part series because I'm like that as well. Do you like documentaries? I do. Same here. Same. Love, love, love it. You know, because you get so much information and you get to do a deep dive into this stuff. Is that part of what you really love about it? Yeah, I love when everything just connects in a way that you never thought it would. I love, I love the process even more than seeing it all together. I love what Kind of digging and finding similarities and differences and comparing because all the people I've talked to have totally different visions of how they want to run their business and how they envision it as a part of their community. So kind of going with that and then you look at it and you see, okay, what makes sense here? How are these all different? What is the one thing that kind of keeps these people together? Yeah. And did you work on this series by yourself? Yes. By myself. You did. Wow. That's a lot of work. How many hours a day? It is. It takes a lot. I really have to meticulously plan it. I have like content days or I'll go out and I'll just hit a bunch of bookstores. And then when I'm all done with that, then I'll start. Usually people would be starting it in the middle of the content. No, I have to wait till everything is done. And then I just. Lay it all out. All right. Hey, Olivia Seaman, thank you so much for joining. I love your enthusiasm. I really appreciate you taking the time to join us tonight with the Brooklyn Paper. And good luck with this. And good luck with anything else that you do there.