Between the Covers Bookstore

Between the Covers: Pages of Persistence
By Kristi Kates
Founded in 1983 by Harbor Springs local resident Jeff Brearley - who
says that the enthusiasm in town back then about a bookstore opening
was so great that he was “selling books right out of the packing
boxes” - Between the Covers is truly the little bookstore that could.
Housed in a 100-plus year-old building on Harbor Springs’ Main Street,
the bookstore was the only other shop selling new books in the region
in the early ’80s, other than Horizon Books in Petoskey.
“There was no Amazon, no McLean & Eakin, and the field looked wide
open,” explains Between the Covers’ current owner Jeanne Regentin.
Regentin, who began working for Brearley part-time in the fall of
2001, soon caught the bookstore-owner bug, and purchased the store
from Brearley in January of 2003, after he’d moved the bookstore from
its first-floor location to the building’s whimsical cellar. This
decision would begin Regentin’s long and heartfelt trek to help the
charming little store move gracefully into the 21st century, while
still retaining its hometown personality.
“When I purchased the store, there was no internet connection,” she
explains. “The only computer was a dedicated one for our inventory
management and point of sale system.
We searched for books in print on a microfiche reader.”
Those books, Regentin says, are always in flux, and she and her staff
pride themselves on offering books that you won’t find at just any
bookstore.
“Book buying is an art, and after seven years, I am still learning,”
she says, “all bookstore buyers spend major parts of their ‘reading
time’ reading book catalogs instead of actual books. My other sources
of guidance are the interests of my customers, the monthly Indi-Next
List from the American Booksellers’ Association (one that consists of
books that booksellers around the country have liked) plus the New
York Times Book Review, miscellaneous industry scuttlebutt, and
various distributor recommendations.”
Whew. For those who think that “owning a cute little bookstore” is a
dream to retire by, Regentin is proof that it takes a lot of effort,
care, and attention to detail to make a bookstore successful.

BOOKREADERS TO BOOKSELLER
“We don’t generally buy huge numbers of ‘blockbusters’,” Regentin
explains, “because that doesn’t seem to be something people who go to
an independent bookstore want. I don’t know where they buy their
blockbusters; the airport or Costco, perhaps,” she chuckles. “We sell
a few of those, but our customers seem to be looking more for books
that might be under their radar if they didn’t shop here. That, of
course, is one of the major beauties of independent bookstores -
they’re full of readers who are dying to tell you about their latest
great find.”
Those readers include Regentin’s staffers, who seem to gravitate to
Between the Covers all on their own - Regentin doesn’t advertise for
help. And visitors to this particular bookstore already know that
these are retail sales professionals who are far more friendly and
knowledgeable - and far less pesky - than most.
Regentin trusts that the combination of her book buying plus the
discerning choices of her staff will keep customers well taken care
of, as opposed to pestering them to simply throw money at the
aforementioned throwaway “pop hits” of the book world.
“I try to hire people who love to read,” she says, “and it seems as if
the right person has appeared at the right moment to join our staff.”
In addition to all the research, Regentin feels that booksellers also
have to be great listeners so that they can help people find new books
based on their interests; booksellers, she says, also need to be great
‘guessers,’ so that they can find a book via often-obscure customer’s
descriptions, such as “the book with the green cover featured on one
of the morning shows, maybe about food.” Between the Covers is
obviously part bookstore, part detective agency.

THE BOOKSTORE DOG
One of the most popular “staffers” is Bunter - no, not one of
Regentin’s booksellers, but her and her husband’s dog.
“Jeff Brearley always had a bookstore cat, the last one being Bobbie
Magee, whom people still ask about,” Regentin says. “His excellent
advice to me was to get a pet for the store. Pets make us more human,
and Bunter, whom we got in 2004 when he was eight weeks old - adds a
lot of charm to Between the Covers. He likes to sniff pant cuffs to
see what kind of pets people have at home, and he particularly likes
other
dog owners.”
Several years ago, Regentin began using photos of Bunter in their
local newspaper ads; now the cute white puppy is regionally famous.
Visitors and locals alike recognize Bunter as “The Bookstore Dog,” and
often stop by to visit him - oh, yeah, and to buy books, too.
“In addition to Bunter, of course,” Regentin says, “part of what makes
us unique is that, as the only bookstore in Harbor Springs, we are
open year-round, seven days a week, which makes us one of maybe three
or four stores here that are open for business that much. We’re
probably also a little quirkier because of our small size; independent
bookstores are a reflection of their book buyers, thus the book
selection is highly idiosyncratic. Our size forces me to narrow the
field; and we sell very few non-book items because we don’t have room
- we’re a BOOK store, not a toy store or a candle store, if you see
what I’m saying!” she smiles.

FORTUITOUS CHANGES
In this era of “bigger is better,” smaller bookstores often struggle
to survive against those big-box bookstores with their gift sections
and in-store cafes, plus the ever-growing presence of online
booksellers and e-readers. But for Regentin, the learning curve
doesn’t conjure up fear, but instead challenges her.
“Technological changes force us to be constantly on our toes,” she
says, “for example, it’s probably within our foreseeable future that
we will soon be selling e-books as well as paper books, because we
will have to in order to stay viable. We’re just getting ready to join
this millennium by launching our website, www.hsbetweenthecovers.com,
which undoubtedly should have happened years ago.”
Regentin hopes that Between the Covers will continue on “in
perpetuity,” once she’s had her fill of bookselling and is ready for a
slightly less busy life.
“I keep a list of the names of people who have expressed an interest
in becoming an owner of a small town bookstore, and at some point I
hope one of them will take over this lovely little store and make it
their own,” she says. “I guess I’m counting on that happening in the
same manner in which I find great booksellers to be on our staff -
they just appear when the time is right.”

Between the Covers Booksellers, telephone 231-526-6658, is located at
152 East Main Street in downtown Harbor Springs in the cellar below
Rocking Horse Toy Company (directly across the street from Kilwin’s
Chocolates). There is also a barrier-free entrance off of Bay Street.
Visit them on the web as well as at
www.hsbetweenthecovers.com.

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