A lot goes into that moment, though. Someone has to pick that book from a list of publishers. Someone has to pay for that book. Someone has to pay another person to put that book on a shelf. And if that book doesn’t sell, someone has to send it back to the publisher.

“Just because the book is on the shelf, it’s not like this magic formula where a box of books appears and you just put them on display,” said Sarah Galvin. “No, a lot of thought and hard work went into that.”

The Lake Placid News recently sat down with Marc and Sarah Galvin, owners and operators of Bookstore Plus on Main Street, to talk about what goes into a retail business and some of the not-so-visible processes of selling books.

The summer and Christmas seasons are normally the busy times for Bookstore Plus, but there are two shoulder seasons in Lake Placid. The one we’re currently in runs from about April to June. After the winter tourists leave and before the summer visitors arrive, businesses such as restaurants and smaller hotels may take time off or work on renovations. However, most retail stores need to maintain a specific cash flow to stay successful.

Cash flow is not profit. Whereas profit is a positive remainder from sales and services, cash flow is the process of money coming in and out of a business. In the case of the Bookstore Plus, when customers buy books, money flows in, but then it flows out to pay for more books, employees’ wages, rent, insurance and the paper checks they write each month to an assortment of publishing companies.

When asked how many providers they order from, Sarah pointed to two large filing cabinets and said, “Part of what makes our job so fun and frustrating is every single book that we bring into the store, we hand-pick.”

Sarah sorts through all the children’s books, while Marc takes care of the adult literature.

“I’ll look at 20,000 children’s titles from probably 35 different publishers in a season,” she said, “and we choose about 1,500 titles.”

Sarah said having to order from so many accounts gives their store a leg up and keeps them detail focused. They could order from one wholesaler and keep cash flow pretty simple, but then they would miss out on certain products.

A popular section in the store features novels and field guides from local writers. On top of placing larger orders with big-name publishers such as Penguin Random House, Hachette and HarperCollins, Marc and Sarah are also making dozens of orders with self-publishers, sometimes for only one book.

“That’s one title, one author, one check at the end of the month,” Sarah said. “It’s a lot of different vendors.”

Marc added that because they have so many different products, they need to order from multiple providers.

“It’s definitely over 20,000 SKUs [store keeping units] between the books and the art supplies and the cards,” he said. “That’s why we have to deal with so many different vendors. It’s a lot to maintain.”

One of the most important consistent flows of cash out of the business is employees’ checks at the end of every pay cycle.

“Our mentality is, if we’ve hired you for a position, we’re not going to decrease your position during the shoulder season,” Sarah said. “If we’ve said you’re going to work three days a week, then you’re going to work three days a week.”

Certain events throughout the year also facilitate a healthy cash flow. For instance, this Saturday is Independent Bookstore Day in the U.S. It’s a day where mom-and-pop stores offer discounts, maybe some prizes and sometimes they bring in local authors for book signings. It also gives owners a chance to push products that haven’t sold all too well.

“Our inventory expands and contracts throughout the year,” Sarah said. “This time of year, we’re slimming out the stuff that hasn’t sold in the past eight to 12 months and returning it back to the publisher. If a book made it through Christmas and made it through last summer and didn’t sell, that means it’s probably not going to sell. That’s the nice thing, inventory-wise. We’re able to turn around and send the books back to the publisher. It’s kind of the beauty and the beast because you buy them from the publisher at a low discount, but part of that price is built into the fact that you can return it to them.”

Plus, the date of Independent Bookstore Day is pretty ideal for Lake Placid.

“Yeah, we’re happy about it falling this time of year,” Marc said. “I’m sure it’s different all over the country whether this month is busy for some people – like getting ready for graduation if they’re in a college market – but for us, it falls perfectly.”