"BOOOKS" on the Road: How one creator made her bookstore dreams come true
Aug 20, 2024 – [[read-time]] minute read
On a cloudy day, a powder blue truck travels along the Atlantic coast stocked full of stories — paperback and hardback, modern and classic. The owner of the book mobile, a YouTube creator named Ariel Bissett, sits ready to recommend a book…or two…or ten. She’s read so many of them that picking just one can be a challenge.
Ariel, who’s been reviewing books on YouTube for 13 years, started Bissett Books this summer as a way to share her love of reading with her local community in Nova Scotia. Since she works entirely online most days, the truck provides an opportunity to connect with other book lovers in-person and trade recommendations.
“I started making book videos when I was just a teenager and the fact that I'm now selling teenagers my favorite books makes me want to cry,��� says Ariel. “I sold this girl who looked to be about the age I was when I started my channel the Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath and I was like ‘that's it.’ I know exactly what’s going to happen because it’s happened to me so many times. You're going to read the book and it's gonna change your life.”
From reader to renovator
Ariel started her channel back in 2011 for the same reason she created the book mobile this year — to combine a love for both community and books. “Growing up, I didn’t have anyone in my real life who loved reading the way I did,” she explains. So, she sought out online discussions, typing the name of a book she’d just finished into YouTube’s search bar and subsequently falling into BookTube, YouTube’s online book loving community. Next thing she knew, she was asking her dad to help her set up her own channel and discovering the passion that would shape the next ten years of her life.
Ariel diligently reviewed every book she read on her channel through both highschool and University, totaling to about 250. By the time she finished her Master’s degree, she’d grown a large enough following that she was able to transition to creating content full-time and take on new challenges like renovating an 1850s Gothic Revival house, launching a podcast, and, of course, creating her very own bookmobile.
“ I think all readers want to own a bookshop. Every single book shop I ever walk into, I'm imagining if it was mine and thinking through what I’d change.”
Becoming a bookseller
“I think all readers want to own a bookshop,” Ariel explains. “Every single book shop I ever walk into, I'm imagining if it was mine and thinking through what I’d change. So, I started scheming until I was ready to follow this dream of mine on a smaller scale with a mobile bookshop, using all the skills I learned from renovating my house.”
The first step for Ariel was to buy the truck, since its design would impact everything from inventory to branding. After acquiring and insuring a right-hand drive Japanese vehicle, she was able to think through fun details like bookmarks and branding. However, a significant amount of the work ended up being administrative tasks like managing inventory, figuring out payment options, and contacting distributors.
“There were all these hidden rules to becoming a bookseller,” she says. “One distributor got so mad at me for shipping books to my house, because she didn’t believe that I was selling them from a bookmobile, not my home. Everything got very complicated. I think unfortunately starting a business is often just about being willing to go through red tape, to fill out the form, to do the follow-up call, to put through that extra email.”
Inside the truck
Ariel knew from the very beginning that, given its size, there was no way Bissett Books could be a generalist bookstore. Even if the shop stocked just a few books in every genre, it would be so sporadic that it wouldn’t truly serve anyone at all. Instead, she chose to lean into her abundant experience in recommending and curating.
“I was always taking the approach that this is my dream book shop. My dream book shop is full of my favorite books,” she says. “'I've chosen books that I really care about and I've had a lot of fun curating little selections. Now, when people ask questions I can easily answer or pitch them on a story, because I’ve read almost all of them.”
And the reading selection isn’t the only thing that’s highly personalized. The truck itself is a true labor of love. Walking by Bissett Books on the street, you might be surprised to find her brother playing live music or her partner going on a water run to ensure everyone stays hydrated. Her dad’s knowledge of cars and carpentry has already come in handy and her mom’s hand sewn chicken book bags are a hit with children and adults alike.
“I love that I get to work on these projects with my family and want to do it whenever I can,” says Ariel.
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Planning to (not) turn a profit
When we discuss the creator economy, it's easy to get caught up in the endless possibilities for monetization — profit-maximizing business ventures, lucrative merchandise deals, elaborate branding strategies. However, money isn’t the only motivator. In fact, Ariel initially didn’t expect Bissett Books to turn any sort of profit.
“Lots of friends asked me if I thought the bookshop was going to make money and my very genuine answer was ‘oh absolutely not!’ Bookselling isn’t a big money maker and the truck had lots of costs. I always knew that any money made from the project would be through YouTube. However, I have been pleasantly surprised because the events have actually been selling really well. If I do a steady amount, it could genuinely become profitable.”
That being said, Ariel is fully aware that most of her supporters don’t live in her province and don’t have the ability to visit the shop in person. While the legality and logistics behind bookselling make online purchases difficult, she’s made plans to involve her audience in the process in other ways including an online merchandise store and a series of behind the scenes videos, the most recent of which just went live.
“When I first had this idea, my goals were to sell books to the good people of Nova Scotia, to have fun with my friends and get to meet people that love books,” says Ariel. “I’ve been able to do all of those things and it makes me want to cry.”