We recently connected with Carley Morton and have shared our conversation below.
Carley, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Alright, so you had your idea and then what happened? Can you walk us through the story of how you went from just an idea to executing on the idea
I have always been a reader, but specifically a romance reader. In August 2023 I went to a local book convention. I was supposed to go Friday and Saturday but I had my wisdom teeth removed on Friday. But EVER THE TROOPER, I went to the event Saturday (in pain and on pain killers). The first panel started by talking about romance only bookstores in the US. I said, out loud probably, I CAN OPEN A BOOKSTORE. Then I started texting my husband all the facts about romance books. A few weeks later (once I wasn’t taking meds for my teeth) my husband mentioned how he had started doing research on bookstores and said “I think you should do it. You could have a romance bookstore”. So I started looking at spaces all around the city. I found our space in September and signed the lease. I started work on the space on October 11th, 2023 and we opened on November 15th 2023.
I actually had no idea what I was doing at all. So I asked my friends and some authors that I know for their knowledge. So I had to do A LOT of research to be able to find out how everything worked. We joined the American Booksellers Association and the Midwest Independent Booksellers Association and that is where I got most of our information. We still had to research what the best POS to use was, how many books to start with in the store, how many of each book and so many other things. I am still learning everything almost a year later.
Carley, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I have always read romance and it has basically been exclusively romance since around 2011 when I discovered Jennifer L Armentrout. My friends and I are always reading books together and talking about them. In 2021 I started a podcast with my friend Jesicha called Smut Stuff where we read a book, reviewed it and did a fan cast. I think that reading as many books as possible helps to run the bookshop and to recommend books to others. Not only are we a romance only bookshop, but we try to get as many indie books, indie authors, marginalized authors and authors of color that we can. I think that everyone deserves to see themselves in the books they read. So we try our best to get all that we can that wouldn’t be in other bookshops.
How do you keep in touch with clients and foster brand loyalty?
We have a lot of interaction on our social media. We try to keep everyone updated on everything that is going on in the store. We also have a bi-weekly newsletter that goes out to people who sign up. We have local author signings in store at least twice a month along with national author signings 2-3 times per month. Having the events builds loyalty with customers and you get to know a lot of the people that come in. We also take book suggestions from everyone, which helps people become involved with the shop. We have a loyalty program as well, where every purchase earns you points so you can take the amount off at a later time.
Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?
I set aside money for a marketing budget and hired a marketing/pr company that is woman owned to do all my social media. There is absolutely no way I would’ve been able to run the social media and the store at the same time. I would say have money set aside for marketing.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.underthecoverkc.com
- Instagram: @underthecoverkc
- Facebook: @underthecoverkc
- Other: TikTok @underthecoverkc
