To begin this series, we spoke to Catherine Robertson, co-founder of the Wellington-based book store - Good Books. 

Good Books set out to provide a safe and inclusive space where people can come and consume books, expand their reading bubbles, and connect with likeminded people in a comfortable space stocked with books that promote and reinforce inclusivity.

Finn from our Insights team sat down to talk to Catherine.  

F: Tell me about Good Books.

C: Good Books was founded by me [Catherine Robertson] and Jane Arthur who is a poet and author. I’m a novelist. 

Our mission with Good Books is to try and expand people’s reading bubbles and get them to read something a little bit different. We particularly want to push them in the direction of New Zealand authors because New Zealanders are very bad consumers of local authors. 

Only 4% of fiction consumed here is from local authors, compared to around 35% in Australia. 

We wanted to do some things a bit differently – book selling is unique, but it is also one of those industries that hasn’t changed much over the years. 

We feel very strongly that our staff are the most important people here – they are more important than the books and they are more important than the customers. 

We wanted to be a living wage employer [Good Books is New Zealand’s first Living Wage accredited bookshop].

We also wanted to have our site as a shielded site for people who are struggling with domestic abuse. (The Shielded Site Project is a Women’s Refuge initiative where victims of domestic violence can access a shielded portal without fear of it showing up on their browser history. Check them out at https://shielded.co.nz ).

F: What sort of principles or values have you had in mind to guide you in making these decisions, and doing things a bit differently?

C: It has always been important to us that we design a place that feels safe and inclusive, so people always feel comfortable here. 

This means curating the books. So we won’t have books that we feel are against our values. And we won’t have books that are pushing messages that we feel will make people feel unsafe, are threatening, or are not inclusive.

We also wanted to make sure we had a wide range of genres. So we’ve gone out of our way to have a romance section, which not a lot of bookshops do, which is shame because New Zealand has so many terrific romance authors.

And we wanted to do other things to promote New Zealand writers – we’ve got a gift card range where we’ve got quotes from New Zealand poets on there, which they were paid a royalty for, and we’ve also done the same for local artists.  It is very important for us that all writers get credited for their work. 

F: As a small business, what sort of support have you needed to achieve your goals?

C: For us as a book seller, we have the Booksellers Association – that has been enormously useful. The Booksellers Association is specifically for people who own book shops and sell books – so that is really helpful because there is a lot of collective wisdom and actual support. I know they personally helped a lot of booksellers manage through the Covid crisis by visiting them, giving them advice, and just promoting book sales.

F: Where do you see Good Books in the community that you’re in? What position do you want it to take? What impact do you want it to have on people around you?

C: Every bookseller wants to share their love of books with the people who come in. We’ve connected with the writing community – so we can be a venue for things like book launches, readings, book clubs or writers groups.

We are also lucky to be part of a small and growing retail enclave [in Jessie and College Streets, Te Aro] where there are independent business owners who care a lot about what they are selling. We are really enjoying getting to know everybody who is here, and seeing if there are any ways that we can support each other. 

F: Any words of advice for other business?

C: It’s important to know what kind of business you are. 

We thought very carefully about the kind of bookshop we wanted to be. We thought carefully about our values and beliefs, and we wrote those down. We have a ‘code of conduct’ that we discussed with staff. What our values and beliefs were, what that means in practice, our behaviour, how we wanted people to be in this space, and why we would not stock certain books.

If you don’t focus your attentions on the environment that you want to create and the purpose of being here then I think you will struggle. If you don’t know who you’re trying to please then you end up pleasing nobody.

Values give you such a touchstone for deciding what you’re going to do – deciding what opportunities you take, and what products you stock. 

You can find Good Books at 2/16 Jessie Street, Te Aro, Wellington, or online at goodbookshop.nz.