An integral part of New York University's Summer Publishing Institute is visiting independent bookstores in New York City. This year, four students wrote about their impressions of bookstores they visited, which they kindly have shared with Shelf Awareness. We will publish each report, starting today with Mallory Stock's on The Ripped Bodice. In succeeding days, we'll run reports about three other city bookstores.
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| photos: Mallory Stock | |
Upon being welcomed by two lovely staff members, I immediately felt at home in The Ripped Bodice, the celebrated romance bookstore in Park Slope in Brooklyn. In this whimsical book haven, vintage books decorated the walls, chandeliers hung from the ceiling, and pink hearts were painted the floor, making it feel like we were walking into a fairy tale. The store also had cute merch for purchase near the front, including a packet of "Trope Tea" and a hat proclaiming "Rockstar Romance."
The Ripped Bodice is a romance-only bookstore founded in Culver City, Calif., in 2016 by sisters Bea and Leah Koch. They recognized that even though romance is the highest-grossing genre in the book industry, romance sections were often hidden away in the back corner of a bookstore. The genre was taken less seriously because the primary audience is women. The sisters wanted to combat this bias by creating a fun and welcoming bookstore that celebrated romance readers. After the success of their California location, they opened their Brooklyn store almost two years ago to immediate success.
The Ripped Bodice works with publishers and authors to host events almost every weeknight. Bestselling author Emily Henry, author of such hits such as Funny Story and Beach Read, thrilled fans at a midnight book release signing event. The store also does off-site events, for example, selling books at a live recording of Fated Mates, a popular romance podcast.
Selling especially well at the store right now are romantasy titles, such as Rebecca Yarros's Fourth Wing series. Manager Katherine Zofrea also mentioned that dark romances tend to sell better at the Brooklyn location, whereas customers at the California store prefer YA and sweeter stories.
After our info session, we had some time to explore. The Ripped Bodice purposefully sets up aesthetic photo op areas throughout the store, encouraging visitors to take pictures and share them on social media. With so much activity on BookTok, cute decor provides a great marketing opportunity! The store is split into multiple subgenre sections, including fantasy/paranormal, contemporary, historical, erotica, LGBTQ+, and YA. There is also a small section of romance-adjacent titles, including nonfiction about relationships and love. A new release table in the center of the store showcases exciting new books. During my visit, some of the newcomers were Plus Size Player by Danielle Allen, Slow Burn Summer by Josie Silver, Winging It with You by Chip Pons, and Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid.
It was really fun getting to explore a new bookstore in such a dynamic city, especially with other aspiring publishing professionals. You could just feel the excitement and buzz in my group as we talked about our favorite romance books and gave each other recommendations. My TBR list has grown significantly after this visit, but I'm not complaining. I ended up leaving with the new Carley Fortune book, One Golden Summer, and some free bookmarks from the front counter. Overall, it was a lovely afternoon spent with other romance book lovers, and I can't wait to go back. But this time with a larger budget. And a tote bag.
Mallory Stock is a recent graduate of NYU's Summer Publishing Institute and hopes to get a marketing role in publishing. She enjoys meditating, going on hikes, and reading (shocker) in her free time. She currently resides in Minnesota and plans to move to New York City soon, where she can't wait to go on bookstore crawls around the city.