A "transition team" of local business and community leaders led by Praveen Madan, co-owner of the Booksmith in San Francisco and co-founder of Berkeley Arts & Letters, is launching Kepler's 2020, an initiative that aims to transform the iconic Menlo Park, Calif., bookstore into "a next-generation community literary and cultural center." The group intends to create a hybrid business model that includes "a for-profit, community-owned-and-operated bookstore and a nonprofit organization that will feature on-stage author interviews, lectures by leading intellectuals, educational workshops and other literary and cultural events."
Having separate entities should allow the bookstore to improve profitability while allowing the community to support educational and cultural programming through tax-deductible donations and corporate sponsorships.
The team is considering adding POD machines and an "e-book friendly in-store browsing experience," services such as book swaps, "literary matchmaking" for customers and a speaker's bureau with "readership development services for emerging authors."
"The traditional model of retail bookselling appears headed for extinction," Madan said. "Now, more than ever, communities need accessible physical spaces where people come together to share their love of stories, ideas and culture. Kepler's 2020 is a strategic move to reposition a strong community bookstore to embrace industry trends and new technologies, instead of resisting them. Our goal is to make Kepler's the prototype community bookstore of the future."
As part of Kepler's 2020, the team will launch a capital campaign for the nonprofit entity. Kepler's existing Literary Circle Membership program will remain an important source of funding for the bookstore, and the 2012 Kepler's Literary Circle membership campaign will launch in February, seeking to raise an additional $100,000 to support ongoing operations of the bookstore.
Team members, who are volunteers, include besides Madan, Gail Slocum, former mayor of Menlo Park; Mitch Slomiak, Kepler's CFO; Jean Forstner, director of community affairs at Kepler's; Steve Piersanti, president of Berrett-Koehler Publishers; Beth Morgan, marketing consultant; and Patrick Corman, communications consultant. As noted before, Clark Kepler, who has served as the bookstore's CEO since 1981 and is the son of founder Roy Kepler, is retiring, effective today, but will participate in the transition as Kepler's board chair and a team member.
For more information about Kepler's 2020, go to keplers2020.com.
