Locally Sourced Romance is a new feature that puts the spotlight on fabulous bookstores supporting the romance community! To nominate or suggest a bookstore, please shoot us an email. For a crowd sourced map of bookstores that carry romance, feel free to consult and/or add to our Smart Bitches Buy Romance map! Though be forewarned, it’s undergoing a renovation.
Today, we’re featuring Ukazoo Books in Towson, MD. We discovered Ukazoo through a very awesome recommendation from author, Laura Kaye. Please meet General Manager, Edward Whitfill!
Tell us a bit about the bookstore and its awesome inception.
Ukazoo Books is a combined new & used bookstore, open for 8 years now. It was started by two brothers who ran an online only book business and decided to try a brick and mortar store to go with their online business. Ukazoo stocks about 100,000 books in 9,000 sq ft. with a large percentage of our inventory bveing used books. We stock books in 68 categories of books and have eleven employees.
Though I’m sure you have a great selection in general, we’d love to hear about your romance section. Do you carry a large breadth of titles? Heavier on one genre or another?
We stock about 4,500 romance titles in the category. Paranormal would be another couple hundred books, but we stock that in another category. A majority of the titles are bestsellers, former bestsellers, and heavy emphasis on chick-lit. We have a feature fixture in romance section for Maryland Romance Writers.
Was it an obvious choice to carry romance or was it something that was curated over time?
Romance as a category existed from the beginning. The focus on romance started with local writers approaching Ukazoo about book signings. We do a lot of local signings and see part of our job as helping these starting artists get an audience. Some of these authors are trying to figure out how to write full time and these are the ones who help us in return. These writers get to know a lot of readers. Those readers read lots of books. We followed the authors, increased the section, and our sales. Sales of romance went up about 80% over two years. It is currently our 5th biggest sales category. Working with local authors who want to pursue writing as a career is a huge advantage for independent bookstores.
In terms of your stock, how do you determine what to carry? Are some authors automatically stocked? What piques your interest when it comes to what you buy to put on the shelves?
For new book inventory, some big names authors are automatically carried, as are bestsellers from the New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association. We watch various award nominations for books to carry. Authors with local ties are stocked. I also take recommendations from employees for books they are looking forward to reading and will automatically hand sell.
Lastly, tell us what you’re reading now. What latest books have blown you away?
What I am reading right now…
No Man Is an Island by Thomas Merton ( A | K | G | AB | Au | Scribd ) as well as Paper Towns by John Green ( A | K | G | AB | Au ) – these books have nothing in common, much like my reading pattern.
What blew me away the last couple months: First time author Allen Eskens has a fantastic debut with The Life We Bury about a college kid leaving an abusive upbringing to make it on his own, but learns we are not a world of one. The Second Sister by Marie Bostwick ( A | K | G | AB | Au | Scribd ) is a wonderful saga of family, hope, and dealing with our past.
You can visit Ukazoo Books at their website or Facebook, or, if you’re in the area, they are located at730 Dulaney Valley Rd, Towson, MD 21204.
they sponsored the KissCon I went to in April.
I wish they’d been around back when I was a student at Goucher; I would’ve been in there all the time!
I have been in the store quite a few times, very nice romance section.
Went to Towson! Ukazoo was my jam 🙂