This blog post was first published on 09 October 2024, before Book Hero was open...
When I finished up at Mighty Ape I wasn’t exactly sure what I wanted to do with my time (or my life, really) but it turns out the answer was right under my nose the whole time — build the best online bookstore in New Zealand, and build it with my friends. Introducing Book Hero — opening later in October — let’s go!
I’ve always loved books — they’ve taught me new skills, helped me through tough times, introduced me to new perspectives, inspired me, and helped me to escape my current reality and imagine a better future for myself. Of all the products we sold at Mighty Ape — books were my favourite, by far.
I’ve always loved physical books and never regret time spent reading vs scrolling on my phone…
I’m a technology fan. I’ve owned a Kindle, countless iPods, iPhones and iPads…but I truly believe the world needs physical books now more than ever. We’ve all to varying degrees become addicted to screens, technology, social media — all designed to make us more distracted, more divided and shorten our attention spans. Reading books is like a palette cleanser and a much needed break from the digital world that’s consumed nearly every part of our daily lives.
But getting your hands on a physical book has become a bit hit and miss in New Zealand — being at the end of the world often means long waits and expensive shipping…
So it was decided — building a dedicated online bookstore for New Zealanders was a worthy goal, and a sensible use of the skills and experience I’d built up over the past 20 years. So now the business needs a name, which meant returning to my tried and tested methodology — the trusty old dictionary and thesaurus!
I eventually landed on Book Hero — which perfectly fit the narrative I wanted to build around books — books are the hero, people who read books in 2024 are heroes…the characters and of course the inspiring personalities within the pages are the heroes too.
It was around this time that Chat GPT was taking off, and having no illustration skills myself, I played around with some prompts and Chat GPT created the first Book Hero mascot…which would sit proudly at the top of the business plan, and would later form the basis of a brief for our designer and illustrator (we’ll introduce the Book Hero mascot in a future blog post).
Chat GPT created the first Book Hero mascot that would later be used to brief our illustrator
New ideas are fragile — and while people often describe me as confident and self-assured — I harbour self-doubts like anyone, and second guess even my most bold decisions. When it came to floating the idea of Book Hero to trusted friends and family — I’m not going to lie, I was met with a bit of skepticism from more than a few people. “A bookstore? In 2024? Um…OK?” “Not exactly what we imagined for you Dylan?” “What is this 1999?” etc. I had to mentally prepare for those conversations and take all the push back with a grain of salt…I knew deep down I needed to do this. It’s funny, during times like this I turn to books…with Ryan Holiday’s Courage is Calling sitting on my desk as a gentle reminder, one chapter at a time, that I could do this.
Thankfully there were those on the other side of the coin — more than a few actually. Book lovers, my supportive family, people who work in the eCommerce space…many of them could see the same opportunity. Books in New Zealand are becoming harder and harder to come by with the local industry ready for some fresh blood and new ideas.
One person I knew I could count on to share the vision of running a bookstore was my friend Tim — one of a handful of people in my life who knows more about eCommerce than me, and who owns more books than me too — at last count, over 600 in his personal library. I first met Tim during our time working together at Mighty Ape — he built Mighty Ape’s network of Shopify stores and would later become the leader of the marketing team. Most importantly, Tim was known as the biggest book nerd in the office and an all-around good guy that people loved being around. I think I made it about 15 seconds into my pitch before Tim said yes..phew!
My friend Tim (left) said yes on one of our many walk-and-talks and happily jumped on board the train toot toot. My cat Evie (right) supervised many of our early online meetings…
With Tim on board I knew the website would be in safe hands…but now I needed to find a physical space to operate the business.
As much as I’ve fantasised about the idea of opening a cosy bricks-and-mortar bookstore with Evie curled up in the corner, I knew that Book Hero needed to start as an online store with a physical warehouse packed full of books. A warehouse would allow us to more economically stock a broader range of titles and would play to our existing skillset. I knew the warehouse needed to be in close commuting distance and easily accessible to my home in Hobsonville — which is convenient in that West Auckland is currently somewhat underserved so far as bookstores go. There’s a decent Whitcoulls in West Gate mall — but aside from that, things are pretty grim. I love popping into Unity whenever I’m in the CBD, and a visit to Time Out is mandatory whenever I’m having a coffee in Mt Eden village — but having a book shop close to home in West Auckland would be pretty handy, and I suspect for others too. So this meant finding a warehouse big enough for our books, with a small office for myself and a few others, and enough parking out front to encourage local customers to drive and pick up their order (I haven’t completed let go of the physical bookstore dream…)
It was around this time I was having breakfast at home with my friend Cherry, who just happens to know a lot about leases, and before I knew it we had ditched our eggs on toast and were calling agents and off visiting sites to find Book Hero a home.
My friend Cherry kindly reviewed my plans and put our scheduled breakfast to one side to go and look at potential warehouses with me…
My neighbour and good friend Kevin measures up a potential candidate and double-checked my dodgy maths…
I looked at a few warehouses around Hobsonville and most were compromised in one way or another. Too small. Awkward shape. No parking. Wrong office to warehouse ratio etc. I talked the ear off my neighbour and good friend Kevin — going through options for warehouses and shelving — trying to optimise the number of unique titles I could carry. Eventually I found the perfect home — a 200m2 space with a small office, lunch room and four parking spots for pick ups customers. This was a lease reassignment from an existing business looking to move — so with three parties including the landlord, each with their own lawyer — I’m not going to lie, it took a little longer than ideal but we got there in the end and Book Hero finally had a home!
With a brand still to create, a website still to finish, books to buy and a million other things to organise — I knew that next I needed a trusted pair of hands to setup and look after the warehouse — and I could think of nobody more perfect than my long-time and trusted friend Jeremy — an ex-builder with an eye for usability and efficiency. I knew Jeremy would treat our new space like his own and create a special place for Book Hero to call home.
I teamed up with my partner Alex (pictured holding Nellie) to gently persuade our friend Jeremy to hang up his tools (well, not completely…) and become a bookseller with us at Book Hero HQ…
With a warehouse leased, the essential members of a team in place, it’s time to throw together some quick business cards and for Tim and I to attend our first Booksellers conference and start tentatively introducing Book Hero to the world…
