About Bound
Five journalists plunge into the book business
By Leti Boniol
Philippine Daily Inquirer
April 17, 2005
Bound Bookshop’s facade
ON A WING and a prayer. That was the spirit that bound five journalists when they plunged into the business of selling new and read books, says Inday Espina Varona, editor of the Philippine Graphic magazine.
“We’ve been talking about it. Usapang panaginip lang (dream talk),” she says of the bookshop they call “Bound” that opened March 8 at 105-A Scout Castor St., in Quezon City.
They were just looking for an affordable office for their organization, National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP), and suddenly, there was this relatively cheap place. “We all looked at each other, took a deep breath and dived in,” Varona says.
Carlos Conde, correspondent of the New York Times and International Herald Tribune and one of the bookshop owners, says he had always dreamed of putting up a bookshop, which could make good business.
“I’ve heard of stories about independent or small bookstores that are not really doing well. But I think the main reason for that is not that Filipinos don’t read,” Conde says, citing the explosion of cheap pocket romances and the tremendous sales of the ghost series published by Psicom.
He says new and imported books are expensive, with the latest bestseller costing more than P300. “That’s a lot of money even for the Filipino middle-class,” he adds. On the other hand, second-hand bookshops have been thriving all these years, he observes.So they decided to combine new and read books, with many of the used ones in mint condition.
Inside Bound: “An intellectual playground,” as SME Insight magazine put it.May Rodriguez, the group’s treasurer, and a freelance writer, joined the group because she says, “if you want to try to make money, you might as well do it with things you like to do.” The bookshop gives her the chance to pass her books on to people who like them enough to buy them.
Varona, who has “given up” the most number of books for consignment with the store, says she wanted an excuse to continue with her book-buying sprees. She has to cull her collection because “my sisters were screaming about the lack of space.”
She also knew there were people out there who loved books but just could not afford the expensive ones and were too busy to waste hours wading through trash only to get a few good ones.
“We’ve done that for them,” she adds. She reads books from “classics to trash, the sacred and the profane, the thrillers and mystical stuff.”
Business model
Bound’s collection of books ranges from business and personal finance (above) to sex and erotica.The store now has more than 1,500 titles, about 65 percent of which are read books, according to Conde. The group does the bargain hunting. “We, and not some clerk, personally select the books that we put on sale. So we actually claim that we have the best collection of read and new books.”
“I think this business model, if you may call it that, will work because it taps into the Pinoy’s tendency to bargain hunt. It will encourage reading, I hope,” he says.
Rowena Carranza-Paraan, another co-owner, and editor of the news website bulatlat.com, has no expectations of earning from the bookshop. She says the “profit” she expects from the enterprise is “to have around us hundreds of titles that we can read.”
Likewise with Bernadette Sembrano, one of the news anchors at ABS-CBN, and the group’s manager. “I didn’t put up the bookshop to earn. One gets into something because one loves it, she says. “And quite remarkably, people share the same passion.” Sembrano’s contribution to the shop are Bo Sanchez books, Kerygma magazines and inspirational CDs. (Note: Sembrano is no longer connected with the bookstore as of early 2008.)
Bound has developed a steady clientele in the intellectual set. Former senator Heherson Alvarez (bottom photo) chats with co-owner Inday Espina-Varona.
To sustain the business, the group plans to keep their overhead small.
“We’re not hungry for huge profits, so we don’t have to have huge markups,” says Rodriguez. They have hired one full time staff to handle the day-to-day store transactions. Whenever they are around, each helps guide buyers on what they think is the best choice of read for those who ask their advice.
Part of the proceeds from the little markup that they put into the book prices goes to NUJP’s Defense Fund that will help threatened journalists and relatives of slain ones sustain expenses for their search for justice, as well as journalists’ training for safety and protection.
Catching fire
Their optimism has caught fire. Conde’s e-mail blitz soliciting books both for consignment at the shop and donation for NUJP has resulted in dozens of journalists donating part of their collection for the journalists’ guild.
More than 500 titles, generated through “guerrilla marketing” tactics, have so far been donated to NUJP as of the end of their first month of operation, Conde says.
Donations come even from organizations abroad.
“We have found a way to rope in people to share this little dream and it’s unbelievable how customers will come up and hug us and thank us for giving them this little place,” Varona says.
Bound has been featured in several magazines and newspapers, among them SME Insight (above).
A few tables have been put up for those who want to read books and drink coffee. They also plan to produce a weekly e-newsletter to inform their clients of their latest collection, and have started constructing a website www.boundbooks.net that will feature their book inventory. The shop is also open for book launchings, photo exhibits, and poetry readings.
They have yet to officially launch the bookshop but at the rate they are going, Bound may soon expand in the malls.
(Those interested in consigning or donating books can call 4117768 or e-mail at boundbookshop @ gmail.com)
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