Sneak Peek: Overheard at Zibby's Bookshop!

[2:32]Zibby Owens: Hi. I'm Zibby Owens, the creator and host of the award winning podcast that you're listening to right now, thank you so much, called Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books. It is a daily podcast three hundred and sixty five days a year, and each day we talk to an author about all of the things related to their career, their book, their life, and more in thirty minutes or less because who has time? I am now an author myself, although I wasn't when I started this podcast, and you can get my new memoir, A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Literature wherever books are sold starting July 1, and my children's book, Prince is Charming. You can learn more about me at zbons.com. But, really, you're here to learn more about the authors, and that is what we're going to do. Also, be sure to check out all the other podcasts in the ZCast Podcast Network. You can learn more at zcastnetwork.com, and definitely check out those shows as well. So today is a really special episode of Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books because this is also going to be the first episode of Overheard at Zibby's Bookshop. Zibby's Bookshop is my new bookstore opening in Santa Monica, California on February 18. And not only are we going to have tons of in person author events, but we're offering a bonus podcast for moms don't have time to read books listeners that you can subscribe to monthly and get podcast recordings of every in person event we have, which is so cool because we have, I think, 30 events already planned and we haven't even opened with so many authors who are gonna visit while they're doing their cross country international tours. It's gonna be so much fun. And now you can be a fly on the wall, even if you've never been to California or never want to go to California or don't like going to bookstores, but love author conversations, this will be the place for you. So I thought to give a little context for what Zippy's Bookshop even is and why I've started a bookshop and who I've started it with and all that good stuff, I would do a little introduction with my colleagues and friends, Sherry Poozie at what Sherry Reads and Diana Tremontano at 99 lives with a girl. And these two Bookstagrammers and amazing women and I are the founding team of Zibby's Bookshop. So welcome, ladies. Thanks, Zibby. Thanks, Zibby. Super excited. So the three of us first sat in New York and had drinks one night. They were really sweet and invited me at the last minute. And I was like, really? Okay. And I, like, raced out the door and came and met them. And I talked about the bookstore and they were like, what are your plans? What are you doing? Blah blah blah. We wanna be involved. I was like, amazing. Let's do it. And then we started talking about the name. Right? What happened? Yeah. I mean, we were so excited. We've both always wanted to do a bookstore. So when he said that, we were like,

[5:25]Kyle Owens: of course. Can we do anything to help and be a part of it? And you've been thinking about this. I mean, has been a long time coming, but it all just worked out. And the name we were tossing around bookstore,

[5:35]Zibby Owens: Zippy Books, but that's the publishing companies. At one point, I wanted to do Crummy Books. Remember in Some Crumb Cakes? Yes. That would have been cute too. Anyway. But then Zippy's Bookshop. We were like great. Better view, though. Take credit. It's okay. I'll take the credit. Credit it. Sheri, this is cute name. It's perfect. So that night we thought about the name and started talking about what it would look like. We had like a

[6:00]Kyle Owens: picture. We knew the square footage. We kind of knew a general layout of the interior of the store. And I had already

[6:08]Zibby Owens: gotten Joe Nicoletti to help out. He's the contractor for my house in LA and is amazing. Joe Nicoletti of Chameleon Works. And I am now never gonna be able to get like anything fixed in my house because everyone's gonna use him for everything. But it's okay. Go, Joe. I want you to be happy and successful. Anyway, he helped with everything, and I was basically like, make it look like the house. I want it to look just like it. Same floors, same walls. I want it to feel like my living room because I really wanna open up my living room to authors and whatever. Now there are people who wanna come, don't even know. So anyway, this is probably safer and better. But then Joe, had he already sketched? Because I had No. Not yet.

[6:49]Kyle Owens: A little bit before we came out. He sketched like the next week because then the following week we were out. He was at the store in person for the first time.

[6:58]Zibby Owens: So within a week, yeah, actually Joe and my husband Kyle had seen the store before any of us had. And so Joe went and I was talking about all the blues that we wanted and he came up with the idea to put beams on the ceiling. And it was really just a big cement block. It was no character, no nothing, lots of windows. Good windows and good lighting. And great position on a corner. 11th And Montana.

[7:21]Kyle Owens: Really cute. Great walking community, but the inside was total blank slate. And it's been transformed. And the bathroom was a disaster.

[7:29]Zibby Owens: We were not stepping foot in that. Joe went to work, he designed a sketch, which we've used all over social media and everything. He just did it one night and then was FaceTiming me from his home office, I'm using quotes, with different fabric swatches. And I was like, No, not that. Yes, that. No, that. We made like 8,000,000 decisions. Then we came out before Thanksgiving. What

[7:55]Kyle Owens: happens? Yeah, we came out a couple of weeks before Thanksgiving. Saw the That's when we figured out how to do the shelves. We were up late that one night. That's right, yes. Our vision for the store came to life weekend. Had we gone to the store during the day? We went to the store during the day. We saw the layout. Oh, that's when we got our keys. It's a small space where we're like, How can we curate this in a unique way and make the most of the room that we have? So that when the readers come in,

[8:21]Zibby Owens: we can really give them the book that they want. Yes. Because we're like, we can't possibly have every book everybody wants. And that's not what the value of a bookstore really is. Everyone's so excited, oh, you're opening bookstore. Well, you could get a book on your phone in less than the time it'll take me to finish my sentence. So it's not about access to books. It's more about what's the bookstore doing for the community and how does it make you feel? How does the store make people feel? And all the other things. And so you have to we were like, let's lean into that. And

[8:52]Kyle Owens: a lot of people It's like the experience you go there, some people have a book in mind, but some people just go in and walk around, and so all the shelves appeal to that person, especially for a non reader. They don't know where to start, and if there's a million books by genre, it's overwhelming. With this store, it's more appealing to how you feel, if you want to laugh, if you want to cry, if you love music or animals.

[9:17]Zibby Owens: After eating an entire chocolate chipotle from Gelson's, digging in, right, with our bare hands stuffing our faces, it was delicious, we were wired enough to stay up for hours and took all the computer paper and start we, like, literally sketched out what the shelves would look like in a grid and then assigned what shelf would be what. Now we've literally just put the books away to make it look like it. According to that original plan. So we had, like, author curated shelves would bookend quotes again, would bookend the room. So now we author curated shelves by amazing authors like Kevin Kwan and Lori Gottlieb, Katie Couric, just 10 amazing authors.

[9:57]Kyle Owens: So we did that. And then we said, let's do it by how you wanna feel. How you wanna feel and then for the people in your life. You had just read the Should Be Mag article about books for certain people and we loved That's right. That's right. For the traveler,

[10:09]Zibby Owens: for the Did we do the sisters one? The best friends? We did it did it for the best friend. Oh, That's right. Changed it to the best friend. For the best friend. For writers. For writers, for parents. For the music lover, for the animal lover. For the athlete. History lover. History lover. Then we did more curated ones like what are my GMA picks for that month and what you wanted, what the two of you are reading. We'll have a new release section so that you can always read. Fuzzy books. And also the books written by authors who are being published by our publishing company, Zibby Books. So like Alicia Fernandez Miranda, we'll be the only one to start because we have one a month. So for now, it'll just be one

[10:54]Kyle Owens: book, and also she curated a shelf. I saw her picks so that you're getting to know her, you can get to know her reading tastes. You can read her memoir and then read the books that she enjoys.

[11:04]Zibby Owens: But eventually, since we have 12 a year, I don't know what we're going do because then we need 12 shelves. But okay, we'll handle that. We're already like, on Wayfair, I was on Wayfair last night, we were ordering extra bookcases. I'm like, We can squeak and squeeze one in here. Wayfair has been our friend. Wayfair. Because then we also spent Thanksgiving break. Yes, texting back and forth. My gosh. Trying to finish everything for the store. Everything has come together so fast. I was in Montana staying at my brothers with my family and my niece and my mom and I basically found everything. And to the point where she came in the store yesterday and pointed to the window seat cushion and was like to her dad, You have no idea how long it took us to order that. There were so many options for those window cushions. It was true. It took us forever. Anyways, I was texting you guys furiously and we were texting back and forth and Joe was texting us. Joe was so great at always updating us. He was so nice. He's been sending pictures. Pictures. He's redid the bathroom. We reused tile that we had left from

[12:02]Kyle Owens: my house. Like, use the tile, Joe. It was perfect.

[12:07]Zibby Owens: He really pushed back on the ceiling, but we insisted on the blue ceiling. It looks so pretty. Looks so nice. With blue different blue bookshelves and blue ceiling. It all complements really well. Mhmm. Yeah. The sketch really came to life. It really It really The looks? Looks Yep. Like that. And then Kyle and I came out one time without you and went to this local store in Santa Monica. I'm forgetting the name, if I remember, I'll put it in the show notes. That's where we got the table in the front and the little things underneath, and that's where we're putting all the books facing the street. And then we got the rugs, two little area rugs. And the table is Wayfair, think. Table is Wayfair. Two little white chairs, Wayfair, Overstock, something. Anyway, our checkout desk was

[12:50]Kyle Owens: from Etsy. Etsy, and it's gorgeous. So perfect. And that, like, little nook with the checkout desk and the kids made of section. Reclaimed wood and

[13:00]Zibby Owens: steel or beat you know, iron, whatever. Today's episode is sponsored by Quince. Summer always makes me rethink what I'm reaching for every day. Lighter fabrics, better materials, pieces that just feel good the moment you put them on and look effortless. That's why I keep coming back to quints. They focus on high quality essentials. Think breathable linen, soft organic cotton, washable silk, but without the luxury markup. It's that rare balance where everything feels elevated but still easy. Quince has beautiful everyday pieces like 100% European linen pants, dresses, and tops with styles starting at $32. Their denim is soft and easy to wear. I wear my jean jacket all the time. And their organic cotton sweaters are perfect for layering on cool summer nights. Everything at Quince is priced 50 to 80% less than similar brands. Quince works directly with ethical factories and cuts out the middlemen, so you're paying for quality, not brand markup. And it's not just clothing. Quince has really become a destination for elevated essentials across home, kitchen, bedding, and beyond, making it easy to bring a more premium feel into everyday life. In addition to my jean jacket, I recently got a white tank top dress with a beautiful cotton skirt that is absolutely gorgeous, and I can't wait for it to be warm enough so I can wear it every day, but it has been a cool spring. Elevate your summer wardrobe. Go to quince.com/zippy for free shipping on your order and three hundred and sixty five day returns. Now available in Canada too. That's quince.com/zippy for free shipping and three hundred and sixty five day returns. Quince.com/zibby. Yeah. And then we started hiring our amazing on the ground team. So Jenny Tarzian is our store manager and Sophie Parker is doing events and they're awesome. And we have a weekend manager, lovely older gentleman named Mike, who's so sweet. So he'll be our weekend manager and lots of other wonderful booksellers. And then we started planning launch. So many authors What is coming happening for launch to be? So February eighteenth and nineteenth, we have an author signing Fest something need a better name. And need a name for the author fest. We have author signing 40 authors coming every hour from eleven to four both days. Amazing authors. It's like I can't believe it. I'm, like, pinching myself. Like all different types too. Non fiction, like Lori Gottlieb and Jennifer Grey, the actress, actor, actress from Dirty Dancing Road Out of the Corner. And then thriller writers, Jessica Knoll and Laura Dave and a lot of You. We have a whole You panel Saturday morning, not You, You middle grade, like Sarah Malinowski and Jenny Lee and Julie Bucksbaum. And then we have a lot of memoirists like Melissa Gould and Natasha Sislow. And I mean, it's just amazing. And so many other Miranda Cowley Heller, Paper Palace, Rebecca Searle, One Italian Summer And more. And more. Michael Frank, A 100 Sundays, Claire Bidwell Smith, The Rules of Harry's Hope Edelman. Hope Edelman, Shannon Lee. Alicia will be there. Alicia will be there. She'll be in conversation. We'll have our first actual event. We have all these folding chairs that are very cute. So that'll be Sunday, the nineteenth at two, Alicia Fernandez Miranda with Annabel Gerwitsch, whose most recent memoir is You're Leaving When, Adventures in Downward Mobility, which is currently a finalist for the James Thurber Prize for Humor, which is amazing. They only have three finalists, along with Stephen Calley, by the way, who that's not Stephen Rowley? Rowley. Sorry. Steven Rowley. I knew that. Sorry. Who's gonna be doing two events with us this spring, which is awesome. Anyway and we forgot a lot of people, but there's so many other, like, accomplished authors of all types, so that'll be great. And then we'll be up and running. And more events to come. Many events. Many events. Sally Hepburn's coming in April, I think. April. Oh my gosh. I can't wait. But I don't live in LA full time, which is sad, but that's okay. And I don't wanna miss all the events in the store. And I bet none of you listening wanna miss all the events in the store. And that's why we're doing Overheard at Zippy's Bookshop, the podcast, the bonus podcast that you can subscribe to and get just for you, and you won't miss a thing, which is great. Although, of course, if you're in the LA area or have friends out there, please send them to the store. Did we say where it was? Zibby's Bookshop, 1113 Montana Avenue, which is at 11th Street in Santa Monica. And we have a website, Zibby'sbookshop.com. We have an Instagram that I've been ignoring, but we'll start to post on soon at Zibby's bookshop. And we'll have flyers and all sorts of things to hand out, bookmarks, and we have great merch. The three of us, you should see us, stranger listener, whoever you are, because we are sitting here right now wearing three identical blue sweatshirts from Zippy's Bookshop with her leggings. And on the front, says Zippy's Bookshop, and on the back in big letters, it says stories are best when shared. These little mugs, these really adorable tote bags, I have to say. Cute. Cute. Two colors of blue and white and oh my gosh. And then around the corner, have a little Instagram wall, which we're hoping nobody makes us repaint by the time the store opens. It says stories are best when shared with an open book. You can see what that looks like on our website also.

[18:35]Kyle Owens: And And that's why we've done all of it because it's true. Is. Stories are best when shared and the in person connections and coming into the store and talking with other book lovers

[18:44]Zibby Owens: makes the whole reading experience that much better. You're absolutely right. And we're gonna have story time. So anybody with little guys who want little kids who want who want to come in, we're gonna have story time daily at eleven. Just I don't know. Those are nice carpets, so so maybe just be careful. Maybe I need to put down, like, garbage bags or something. But anyway, we'll have Storytime Daily at eleven, and we'll be doing events called Conversations with a Cause where we donate 10% to whatever charity the author would like, so we're doing a few of those coming up. One with Andrea Dunlop, the author of Women Are the Fiercest Creatures, and the CEO of Citizens of Humanity, Amy Williams, to benefit Girls Inc, LA Girls Inc. So that'll be fun and several other events too. Lots more to come. Lots more to come. Right? Yeah. And we'll continue. The three of us and Jenny, the manager, people keep asking, how did you pick the books? We just sat down that same night basically and we went through most of the books on the podcast. I have to say right away, I feel terrible not being able to put every author's books in the store because I've gone to so many bookstores and really felt so personally hurt that my books weren't sold. But now that I have a bookstore, I'm like, Oh my gosh, it's so hard. We have eight twenty three square feet. We're carrying 1,300 titles. It's not that many. I've had more than that just on my podcast. And that doesn't include the many, many amazing authors past and present who we want to have represented. Kids books, middle grade, oh my gosh. So anyway, if you're an author and you come to the store and we don't have your book, it's not because we don't love you or think you're immensely talented. It's just we don't have that much space. And so we tried to pick a couple of things for each of our shelves. So books that make you tremble, there can only be a couple that we picked because we only have the one shelf. So we had to really be quite draconian, I guess, with our picks. But I hope you still love it. And mostly what I hope is that when people come in, they're not just like, I need this book. You don't have it. Ugh. Okay. I'm leaving. That's not what the store is about. We might not have every book you want, and that's okay. You can get whatever book you want a million other ways. But what we have is the ability to help you find a book you didn't even know you needed and a book that's gonna connect with you forever. And my greatest wish, honestly, is that people will come back and say, oh my gosh. That book in the in the laugh shelf, books that make you laugh, I was laughing all night and I've been going through a hard time. That's just what I needed. Thank you. I never would have picked this had I not seen it on that shelf. Sort of like how I have this book club and a lot of the people I have to say, I pick books and they're like, we never would have read these books if you hadn't picked them. That is the best feeling. Don't you feel like that? Yes. There's something really amazing, just being book messengers, shepherds. So we want our store to do that and help people feel better in their lives, feel inspired, seen, understood, happy, sad, transported, traveling, anything. Learning. Learning. Connecting. Feeling. I mean, that's it. That's all we want. So anyway, we're doing our best with the buying and we will take fewer books, but know them very well. And we hope you'll come in. We hope you'll spread the word. Everybody knows somebody who lives in California. So just tell them, tell whoever you know in California and get ready on this right here on ACAST plus so moms don't have time to read books, listeners will just click on the ACAST plus link, is gonna be in all of our show notes and everything, and tell a friend and grab a bottle of wine one night and just pretend you're at a book event. Gather some friends, listen to the conversation and enjoy it. It'll be fun. So here we go, off on another adventure with Sherry and Diana. So come along for the ride. We're so glad you're here. Bye. Thanks for listening to this episode of Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books. Don't forget to follow me on Instagram ZibbyOwens and momsdonthavetimetoreadbooks. Also sign up for my newsletter at zibbyowens.com and sign up for my virtual book club and meet lots of authors on Zoom every other week. Thanks so much to Steve and Ryan at Texture Sound for the sound editing, and thank you to Morning Moon Productions for providing this fantastic intro and outro music.