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| Credit Publishers Weekly |
Read HERE.
A snippet below:
Former attorney Jonah Zimiles, who founded [words] bookstore in Maplewood, N.J., three years ago with his wife, attorney Ellen Zimiles, is the first to admit that they are not typical bookstore owners. “We really didn’t have any retail background,” he told PW. “It was never our dream to have a bookstore; most bookstore owners have wanted a bookstore all their lives.” But one thing they do share is a commitment to their community. So when Ellen saw a sign in November 2008 that local indie bookshop Goldfinch was going out of business, they bought it to keep a bookstore in their community. Then they renamed it [words] and moved it nearby to a space with a 2,000-sq.-ft. selling floor and a basement that seats up to 100 people for events.
Many of the changes the couple made were linked to their second child, Daniel, who is autistic. They wanted to combine having a strong general independent bookstore with providing job opportunities for autistic teens. Jonah had become a stay-at-home dad after Daniel was diagnosed at age five. And six years later he returned to school to get an MBA at Columbia University, with the objective of creating a training center for young people like Daniel to place them in permanent retail jobs.
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