Octavia’s Bookshelf owner Nikki High was sobbing as she posted a message to Instagram. The bookstore, which opened to long lines of customers in February 2023, was in debt and in trouble.
“We need a lifeline,” High wrote, referring potential donors to a GoFundMe campaign and a Patreon account. “The situation is dire so I am asking for your support.”
High spoke about the challenges facing the shop, which focuses on works by BIPOC authors, during a phone call on Sunday, June 30.
“Things have been bad for a while,” says High, who opened the store after a 15-year career as a customer communications director with Trader Joe’s. “I just had a hard look at things and I was like, ‘I can’t do this.’”
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So on the evening of June 28, she posted a message to Instagram letting people know the bookstore, which had been the subject of much community love and support (as well as occasional unwelcome interest), faced a crisis: Sales had dropped off in the new year. A move to a larger space next door had increased costs. Several nearby businesses had left the area, reducing the foot traffic. A tax bill emptied her savings.
“I had to become super vulnerable in front of a bunch of people, and that just wasn’t easy to do,” she says. “But I believe so much in this space.
“I wrote out an Instagram post, and I was sobbing through the entire process. Like, I let people down; they believed in me,” she says. “I just thought, I’ll just put myself out there and if folks have benefited from Octavia’s Bookshelf’s existence, and they believe in what we’re doing, then hopefully they’ll have the space to help.
“I posted it,” she says. “And then I took a shower, I ate a big cookie and I just got in bed and put the covers over my head.”
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Then came the responses.
Much like High’s original social media post that helped launch the store, the message on Instagram unleashed a wave of supportive messages, private offers of help and more than 1,000 donors on the GoFundMe page as of Sunday afternoon and more than $63,000 in donations and rising.
“The response has been nothing short of a miracle,” says High.
“The post really just took off. There were so many words of support and donations to the GoFundMe. And it’s been shared a bunch of times and I’ve gotten DMs from people who are offering their expertise,” she says, citing offers of help with bookkeeping, operations and more. “All these people that want to see us survive, it just means so much to me.”
“And as it looks right now,” she says. “It looks like we’re going to make it.”
High mentioned the community of Southern California independent booksellers, citing the support of store owners from Cellar Door Books, Bel Canto Books, Reparations Club and The Salt Eaters Bookshop,
“I’ve been really grateful for the closeness and the willingness to share with other independent bookstores in Southern California,” she says, citing a group text some contribute to. “We’re sharing best practices, and being welcomed into that community of people has really been helpful. Without that, there is a feeling of deep isolation because bookselling is so tricky.
“You don’t have people to talk to, to bounce ideas off,” she says as a bookstore owner. “A lot of the indie bookstores have come together to really just encourage each other and share information.”
High says the store, and its namesake Octavia Butler, are bringing people together.
“I’m just so deeply grateful for this community of people,” she says. “Our community of supporters feel very invested in the store and feel a sense of ownership. It makes me feel so much less alone in this.
“Also, how incredible is it that … we’re all sort of intertwined because of Octavia Butler. I think that speaks to the power of storytelling and who gets to tell those stories, and how those stories impact the lives of people from all different walks of life. And we were able to just really come together because of her,” she says.
High describes experiencing the power of that community support first-hand as she worked in the store on Saturday.
“I actually had a box of Kleenex at the counter yesterday because so many people came in to say, ‘Hey, you know, I just donated but I thought I’d drive down and do some shopping or see if you want some lunch delivered,” she says. “I just started bawling again.
“I worked all day yesterday and just sobbed with my customers who cried with me. And you know, we had a bang-out day, which was great. Because every little bit helps. So, my plan tonight is to see where we are and then tomorrow, I have an appointment with the property management company, who is very open to letting me move the lease to my original location because they don’t want to see me go, either,” she says.
“And so based on the words of support and the donations to Patreon and GoFundMe, I feel like there are a lot of people who believe that we need to stay.”
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