Name of your website?We are Empty Mirror Books.
Your name?
Denise Raphael
Your Location (city, etc)
We're located just north of Seattle, in Everett, Washington, though our bookshop is online-only.
Please give us a short summary of your website?
We offer gently used, out-of-print & collectible books & ephemera in the categories of Beat Generation, modern poetry, modern art, and counterculture.
Our site also offers many articles, interviews, reviews and other resources about those topic areas.
What inspired you to launch your own website?
I'd been a collector of Beat Generation & poetry books for many years, and a retail bookstore manager as well.
Finally, I decided to quit working for other people, and to open my own business. An online business seemed to offer the most flexibility, and it was only natural that I begin selling books since that was both my passion, and where my experience lay.
When did you launch your first website, and what was it?
Empty Mirror Books was my first website. It was launched in June, 2000. Since then I've opened business as a webdesigner, and have designed many more sites, most of them related to literature or the arts. But, bookselling - and Empty Mirror - is still my first love.
How did you decide on a name for your website?
The name of my bookstore, Empty Mirror Books, is in homage to Allen Ginsberg and his book of early poems, "Empty Mirror." Ginsberg was a Beat Generation poet, and since we specialize in Beat literature, it seemed appropriate to use the title.
"Empty Mirror" is a Buddhist concept dealing with clearing your mind of subjective consciousness - releasing the ego - in order to achieve a higher consciousness. Empty in this sense doesn't there is nothing there, it means there is complete openness of mind, and that the mind is free of those things which keep it from achieving enlightenment. That is essentially how I understand it anyway, though I'm sure there are much better words to explain it than these. I'm not a Buddhist, though I am interested in Buddhism and have studied it a little.
What makes it different from other, similar offerings?
There are other booksellers on the web who specialize in the Beat Generation or small press poetry and art. However, we've built our site to offer much more than that.
In addition to selling books, we also offer a multitude of resources, which include interviews with, and articles about writers, poets, and artits, art & photography galleries, tributes, book reviews, poetry and fiction.
We also offer information on book collecting. And, another part of the sites offers advice for those who'd like to publish their poetry or fiction.
This is what really sets us apart from the rest. Our site is something like a magazine with a bookselling section!
What is your eventual goal? (To sell it, keep it for income, secure a book or other mainstream media deal?)
Our primary reason for existence is to earn a living.
But, we also find it extremely rewarding to present informative & entertaining content for our visitors.
How does your investment of time and money balance against your success?
The site is profitable, and we find that our exclusive articles & other features draw many people into the site who ultimately become customers. So, though it takes time to source those articles & get them up on the web, it is worthwhile to do that. (And it's fun anyway!)
If you had an unlimited development budget for development, how would you change your site?
I don't think I'd change much; I'm a professional webdesigner so do it all myself & am pretty happy with the site's technical status at present. But at some point I might upgrade the shopping cart.
If your site got really big, really quickly, would you be able to keep up with the demand?
I'm a one-woman band. So far I've been able to handle everything myself, though I sometimes work very long days. If the site exploded in popularity, I'd be thrilled! But I'd certainly consider taking on help.
What has been your biggest challenge?
Getting the word out, and growing the site's popularity. The web is a big place, and we're in rather a specific niche.
So it has been a challenge to establish ourselves as a destination on the web.
It's a challenge we face on a daily basis. And, almost every day I try to do something to promote the site.
What method has been most successful for promoting your website?
I think the most effective way to pull traffic to a website is to provide unique and interesting content. Our articles, interviews & reviews are a big draw, and once there folks can see that we also offer books on those topics.
But, the question is how to get those folks to find the site. We do announce new articles to online Beat Generation groups. All our pages are optimized to be search engine friendly, and visitor-friendly as well. We also encourage our visitors to link to the site, and we've also been linked to from related sites.
Those who write articles for us have been great about spreading the word, too.
Those are a few of the things we've found effective in getting visitors to the site. We're always looking for fresh ways to do it.
How has running your website differed from your expectations?
It's been more work than I anticipated seven years ago when we first went online. The hours are long.
But it's also been more fun - I've met a lot of great people, including some of the writers & artists I most admire.
How long have you run the site already, and how long will you continue to keep it up if you don't enjoy big gains in traffic, income or popularity?
The site has been online for over 7 years, and I've no plans to stop. Our traffic is great, and increasing, and we get great feedback on it. We are always looking for ways to improve and to make it more fun and valuable for our visitors.
Anything else?
Yes, I'd like to thank you sincerely for the opportunity to talk about Empty Mirror, and to promote the site. It's much appreciated.
What is your website address?
We are Empty Mirror Books.
