We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Eden Wade a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Eden, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

Honestly, I wanted to open a bookstore when I saw the movie “You’ve Got Mail” in the 90’s. I’ve always had a passion for reading and the idea of having your very own bookstore didn’t even occur to me until I saw the movie. That dream was put into my back pocket for retirement and in the meantime I had various jobs in the entertainment industry (soap opera intern, talent agent assistant, extras listing service manager) until my friend and I decided we were going to open our own extras listing service. He had marketing experience and I was already working in the world of extras for about 8 years at that point. We opened our service in 2008 with a few extras we found from Craigslist and it has been a wild ride over the past 17 years. We are very fortunate to have made it through strikes, Covid, and the LA fires just to name a few and still going strong. During this past SAG strike, I was feeling so disheartened and wanted more meaning and community in my life and for my family. That’s when I knew it was time to open the bookstore. I knew when the industry returned that I could step back and take on a managerial role and be present at the bookstore full time. I’ve never had a brick & mortar business, however extras have given me the best experience in customer service. When a rental space became available in our gorgeous little downtown, I jumped at the chance (it really was perfect timing) and we’re coming up on the two year mark in February since we opened. We have story time for the littles, we have a wait list for our book club, local authors have book signings, and it’s become a little hub for people to hang out, make new friends, or even just have a space to go when they want quiet in their lives. Both children and adults seem very excited when they see a bookstore in their community and really want to support local. I’m very proud of our little bookstore :)

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I’m a child of the entertainment industry. My Mom worked for a soap opera and my Dad worked for a TV game show, amongst many other jobs in the field. I never had an interest in being in front of the camera, but I loved helping others try. I started as an intern on the casting side of a soap opera and then worked for various talent agencies thinking I may want to become a talent agent. I quickly realized that job didn’t suit my personality so I applied for an extras listing service as an assistant and absolutely loved it. It took about five years working as an assistant and then a manager before my friend and I started our own talent listing service. We wanted to have a service where our clients felt like they weren’t just a number on the roster and more like a person with a genuine want to be on a set. Seventeen years later I wanted more meaning in my day-to-day life where I could connect with people in person. I have zero experience working in a bookstore or opening a brick & mortar, but I already had a clear vision of what I wanted the space to be. The bookstore is very peaceful, it’s a fun place for shopping, meeting new authors, and so many new friendships have been made between story time, book club, and regular Downtown events.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

When the bookstore was going through it’s renovation stages, I started to chronicle the beginning stages and posting it for people to see what was to come. I was so excited to see the response and was taken aback by messages telling me that our town already had a bookstore and that I shouldn’t open, criticizing my word choice on my poster that a “family” bookstore was soon to open, and generally having a negative opinion of the store as I opened up next to a church. The rumor mill was swirling that I was opening a Christian bookstore owned by the church and the private messages I would occasionally receive were less than welcoming. This was incredibly disheartening as I was so excited to have a store to call my own, a space for community events, and the people that sent these messages didn’t know my story or even the type of bookstore I intended on opening. I responded to every message that I received with a “thank you for sending me a message, I can’t wait to open!” and more often than not, those same people responded back kindly. Opening the store was a great success and I think a few people rushed to judgement and didn’t want to give me a chance originally. People are excited when they see a bookstore in town and that’s the best part about having an independent bookstore. We are all different and offer so many events. I’ve opened a good old-fashioned traditional bookstore where you can find best sellers, fantasy, romance, mystery, and classics (to name a few) and we have a wonderful children’s section as well.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.autumnleafbookstore.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/autumnleafbookstore/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/people/Autumn-Leaf-Books/61550044897216/