The date of Friday, June 5, 2026, had been circled on my calendar since late March. Just a few days off of my trip to Nashville, where my last stop before heading back to Denver was a momentous encounter at East Nashville Books, I saw a post on Instagram from esp hifi, one of my favorite local establishments, soliciting vendor applications for their First Friday Fests, monthly outdoor markets with food, drink, music, and local makers and sellers of all sorts, spanning May - October. Becoming a bookseller, and specifically, owning my own bookselling business, has long been a dream; meeting Carrie, the owner of East Nashville Books and a peer of mine, and the vendor call for esp First Fridays that followed a few days after swiftly set that plan in motion.
With no retail experience, social media presence, or reputation, Karly, the event manager at esp, was still excited by the prospect of having a bookseller at the market when I emailed her expressing interest in participating as a vendor. From there, I worked backwards to cobble together a business, and, as time often does, June 5 arrived quickly.
There were the administrative tasks that came with creating a business, even if the business was just a little cart that could accomodate a modest inventory of 100 or so books. I filed for an LLC with the Colorado Secretary of State’s office, got a business debit card, created a Venmo profile, and purchased a Square point-of-sale system, the step that made me feel even more official than creating an LLC.
A pre-requisite to cultivating a social media presence for the Book Cart was to create some graphic assets. This is a talent that I unfortunately lack, but my husband, on the other hand, is an artistic genius across varied mediums. He prefers to draw funky dudes over recognizable objects and lettering, but he was a real sport, creating my logo for the banner I’d use at the market and online, as well as several iterations of stickers and magnets to sell in person and to brand paper bags with, bolstering whatever semblance of brand aesthetic I have. His artistic eye I also translated to the set up of Allie’s Book Cart, complete with a reading lounge that customers and passerby alike lauded. Between his talents, patience, and manual labor, Matt makes the Book Cart what it is. I could not have brought my vision and dream to life without him, and I am forever grateful.
With some designs in place, I started to build out a social media presence: Instagram, which as of the time of this writing, has 48 followers; Threads, which I’m still figuring out; and Facebook, which I’m realizing in real-time that I completely neglected to update ahead of my first ever pop-event—whoops!
Of course, there’s also this Substack, where I shared more about the impetus for creating Allie’s Book Cart three weeks ago, and where I’ll continue to update readers on Book Cart happenings. If you’re not subscribed, you can click the button below to get more thorough updates than what Instagram facilitates if that’s appealing to you!
Sourcing the books for the Cart was my favorite part of bringing the business together, which affirmed I was doing something that feels like I’m meant to do. No real surprise there—of course I love the products; that was the whole impetus for launching Allie’s Book Cart in the first place. I sourced books from my local Goodwill, the 1.5-mile-roundtrip walk and the browsing in between becoming an act of mundane joy. Other books came from library sales in Denver and Hilton Head Island, SC, where I vacationed with Matt’s family two weeks before The Big Day™️, and donations from friends. Only a handful came from my personal collection.
By the time June 5 rolled around (pun intended), I’d sourced over 120 books for the Cart. I tried to shop outside of my tastes, but the collection largely represents my preferences (there was no high fantasy/dragon smut represented, which only one patron inquired about, to my surprise). I prioritized contemporary titles, books that are hot right now but more accessibly priced, mixed in with more obscure finds and regional treasures (think Cheap Land Colorado and guides on mountain biking and hiking the area from the ‘90s)—one of my favorite things about local bookstores is the focus on place-based books that are harder to come by elsewhere. I was and still am particularly excited about the curated collection of landscape photography books depicting different parts of the US that I sourced and merchandised in The Reading Lounge, the area of the Book Cart set up equipped with an inflatable couch and side table to welcome people into the 10x10 space esp allotted to its vendors. Many of those books will be for sale at the next market.
So, how did it go?
While the market hours ran from 6-11 pm, my day began around 10 am, mostly gas and few breaks. I finished pricing the books in my garage, adorning the backs with white, circular stickers containing the number reflecting the new retail value of the product. Out of principle, all books I sell on Allie’s (IRL) Book Cart are discounted by at least one-third the original price. Many patrons commented on the affordability of the books, which was affirming to hear. While yes, I don’t want to be in the red, it’s equally as important to me that people find books they love at an accessible price. I can say with confidence that that aspect of the mission was accomplished.
Once the books were priced, I packed them into totes, the inventory filling four big bags. I organized the cart alphabetically by last name and loaded up the totes accordingly. Once the market was underway, I quickly realized how unimportant this type of organization was for a cart’s worth of inventory. People browse and put books back wherever they see fit, shuffling items around into a less methodical order. This is something I’ll iterate upon in the future, coming up with different ways to display the books.
I spent most of the afternoon hours making some handwritten signs for the display table, sorting merchandise (stickers and magnets) and accessories into plastic bags, and putting stickers on paper bags I offered to paying customers. Of the 50 bags I labeled with stickers made by Matt, I probably gave out five of them, which will make day-of prep for the next market easier (and also shows what an over-preparer I can be).
Soon enough the clock read 4:30 pm. I showered, threw on a reliable red sun dress, and put on earrings that friends from New York sent me for The Big Day™️, handmade blue, orange, and pink-beaded danglers adorned with little open books. They felt like good luck charms, and now I don’t think I can attend another event as Allie’s Book Cart without them.
Matt and I loaded up his Forerunner, and thank god for that—between the 10x10 pop-up tent, inflatable couch, folding table, wagon, cart, camping chair (that I barely sat in all night because I was too stimulated), books, merchandise, and accessories, I don’t know what other vessel could have been used to efficiently transport the set up. We showed up to esp 15 minutes early and immediately got to work. We did a mock setup the day before so that the run of show was less stressful, and while that proved to be a useful exercise, customers started pouring in before the 6 pm call time, leaving me somewhat exasperated.
The first two hours of the market whizzed by. Customers came into the tent in droves. A guy wearing a Goose t-shirt and Mets hat waltzed in with several friends, pulling titles from the cart and describing the books. He and a few others like him trickled in throughout the night, basically doing my job for me; I watched on entertained. It turned out that the Goose Mets guy was a bookseller at Tattered Cover, a Denver institution purchased by Barnes & Noble a year or so ago. While I prefer to shop local local, Tattered Cover still has a special place in my heart, its iconic, dark green carpet forever etched into my brain as a comforting image.
A 6-year-old in a Bluey t-shirt made herself at home in the Reading Lounge, which is exactly why Matt and I wanted to incorporate a couch into the setup. With a few children’s books on hand, I asked her if she liked to read. “I do, but I’m still learning,” she said, to which I replied in my mind “oh, duh.” I gave her a logo sticker for free, and she immediately put it on her water bottle, the vision of her doing so warming my heart like Tattered Cover’s green carpet.
I’ve only read a percentage of books on the cart so far, and all of those went quickly, probably because I could speak to them most confidently. I had bookseller recommendations, like I see at all of my favorite indies. Milk Fed, Stay True, and Take Me With You, a collection of poems by the late, great, Andrea Gibson—Colorado’s own— were among those titles.
Earlier in the evening, a man in a Nuggets jersey and sunglasses strolled into the tent with his partner, who wore a t-shirt that read, “Hot Girls Vote for Melat Kiros.” The duo returned to the tent a short while later, and with his glasses off I immediately recognized the man as a coworker of mine. We chatted about the Book Cart, work, and he and his lovely wife purchased a few stickers. To my surprise, most people who bought stickers were people I knew personally; I’ve come across several reports detailing that bookstores, in this economy, need to sell more than just books to survive, but at Allie’s Book Cart, people were by and large primarily interested in books.
As the sun went down and the market shifted into its nighttime vibe, the Book Cart transitioned into social hour. Dear friends who came to support me hung out in The Reading Lounge, making me feel loved and supported. I felt encouraged by how the night had gone overall, even if business slowed with a chunk of the market hours remaining (some of y’all have never brought your book to the club and it shows!). I somehow only had card reader snafus with my friends, who exercised patience with me on my first night on the job. I only overhead one negative comment said about the Book Cart throughout the night; a girl, crouching down wit her friends to scan the titles more closely, pulled a few books from the cart’s shelves before declaring that “she’d rather buy books from a small business.” With a cart that carries 100 books in a 10x10 space, I’m not sure how much smaller my business could possibly get. Can’t win ‘em all!
Some other mishaps occurred before The Big Day™️. I made custom bookmarks on Vistaprint that got lost in the mail when UPS tried to mail them to an access point, the system apparently confused by a business registered at my home address. The same thing occurred with bookends I ordered from Etsy to have for an overflow display; they were supposed to arrive by June 4 at the latest, and as of June 7 they are still not in my possession. I was hoping to have t-shirts, hats, and totes for the market, but couldn’t get quotes for less than $1,000. Having put just under $1,500 of my own money to start the business, I couldn’t justify dipping into personal funds, nearly doubling the investment without a proof of concept. At Friday’s market, I made nowhere near $1,000, but I made enough to cover the vendor fee for the June and October markets I signed up for, and even a little more to spare. Ultimately, none of the little bumps in the road to get to June 5 mattered. Breaking even and having fun were my goals, so I consider the night a success.
Just as the clock struck 11 pm, a man with tattooed legs and a sweet black lab mix named Veera approached the Cart. He specifically inquired if I had any “shamanistic” titles, the closest of which I could offer being Tom Wolfe’s seminal 1968 work The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test. He Venmoed over $3 + tax, no questions asked. It felt like the perfect end to the first day on the job. I can’t wait to do it again, to expand upon Allie’s Book Cart 1.0 and see where this humble venture takes me over time.
***Note of transparency — all links to books come from my affiliate bookshop.org page. If you purchase books from the links I shared, a percentage of the sale’s proceeds will go directly to Allie’s Book Cart.
The pain of a Vistaprint package getting lost is too real. I love this and so glad it went well! It's a hustle to do a market!