Name: Emily Liner

Position at the store: Founder and Owner

Store and location: Friendly City Books, Columbus, MS

Social Media Stats (FB likes, Twitter followers, etc):

Facebook: @friendlycitybooks - 1,122 followers
IG: @friendlycitybooks - 1,050 followers
Twitter @friendlycitybks - 287 followers 

Link to your store’s press kit: friendlycitybooks.com/about

Events and buyer contact info: Emily Liner, info@friendlycitybooks.com 

Number of years as a bookseller: Almost one. I’m a career changer! I worked in politics and tech in DC for several years before I decided to buy an old house in my home state and start a bookstore in a town that needed one.

Best part about being a bookseller?: I’ve gotten to meet so many wonderful people in the local community through the shared love of books. I love being a matchmaker and helping people find a great book they’ll love, as well as introducing authors to the readers in our community. Just today, author Robert W. Fieseler surprised us with a visit, and we had the best brainstorm about ways to support Hurricane Ida relief.

What book(s) are you reading?: I just finished the audiobook of Sally Rooney’s new book Beautiful World, Where Are You. I think it’s her best. 

Favorite handsell of 2021: A Place Like Mississippi by W. Ralph Eubanks. It’s a beautiful tribute to the state that we call home, and it explores every nook and cranny of the land that has produced America’s greatest writers (yes, we’re extremely biased). It’s also such a pleasure to sell because the author is so generous and supportive of our endeavors and the writing community here. And for a hardcover book that could go on your coffee table, it’s a steal for a price point under $30.

Best thing you did this year at your store: I’m really proud of the team that we have at Friendly City Books. I needed a staff who could roll with the punches of our growing pains and proactively come up with ideas to keep the store not only running, but constantly improving. That has involved coming up with unique job descriptions to put the right people with the right attitude in the best positions for them to be successful. I have a part-time bookseller who doubles as my back office manager because she is super detail oriented, and she really thrives in both roles because the combination plays to her strengths and personality. Another bookseller is helping me with a community engagement project that utilizes his academic background, so that he feels fulfilled and gets to build his resume for his future career. I also offered a consulting role and an internship to two of our best customers because they are invested in our success.

What are some ways you work with your community? Our major focus is on supporting education, from the local K-12 schools to the MFA program at the university in town. We also have a great relationship with the county library system, and we share used book donations with them for their fundraising efforts.

Do you have any community partners you work with regularly? We have a close partnership with the William Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation, which was founded by a former governor of Mississippi who recently passed away. We have collaborated on several virtual author events for books about race in Mississippi, and I am in a fellowship program they recently launched for Millennials who are working to make Mississippi a better place to live for young people. I also recently started freelancing for two local news outlets, Mississippi Today and the Columbus Commercial Dispatch.

Do you have passions that carry over into your bookselling life? I am completely obsessed with my beagle Scarlet, and she has become the face of Friendly City Books. I bring her to the store as often as I can, because she loves coming to work! I even wrote a book about her life as a bookstore dog called Stretch Like Scarlet and we do book readings together at the store, local schools, and community organizations. Our book is available on Ingram for anyone who wants to check it out!

What e-commerce platform are you using, and why did you choose it? We really push online sales to Bookshop.org as much as possible. As a young and lean bookstore, it’s really helpful to have an e-commerce platform that’s essentially on autopilot. I’m always amazed by how many sales we can generate by books we don’t even have to touch.

Top priority for 2021-2022: I’d really like to raise capital to redesign our website and continue growing sales outside of the brick and mortar. Now that we are nearing our one-year anniversary, I’m really excited to have a full year of sales and profitability data to analyze.

Favorite SIBA programming benefit: Attending New Voices New Rooms last year was a game changer. It was lovely to connect with other bookstores across the South, and it introduced me to my bookstore mentor, Rachel Watkins at Avid Bookshop in Athens, GA.