Entrepreneurs / Small Business  August 10, 2015

New Longmont bookstore to feature Colorado authors

LONGMONT — A small bookstore featuring only Colorado authors will hold its grand opening Saturday in northwest Longmont.

Local Editions Books and Coffee, which will open in just 260 square feet of space at 2919 17th Ave., Suite 110, is the brainchild of Ron Vejrostek, who has run a tax-preparation and financial-planning business in Longmont since 1980 and came up with the idea for the bookstore earlier this year when he discovered how hard it was to market his own book, “Financially Intact: Making Money is Easy; Keeping It is the Hard Part.”

“I had my own book come out, and found out that we just don’t get a lot of support” from the big-box stores or national online booksellers,” Vejrostek said. “I thought it would be great if somebody opened a store that just specialized in Colorado authors – and a couple days later I decided I was somebody who could do it.”

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He has accumulated books from 82 different Colorado authors so far, with more to come. “It’s mostly for self-published authors, and we’ll do it on consignment,” he said. “They bring the books in and we pay them. Most bookstores take 50 percent of the cover price. We only take 30 percent.”

Since he will run the bookstore in part of the same unit where he has run his financial business, Vejrostek said, “My overhead’s my overhead whether I had the bookstore or not, so it makes it easier for me to pull this off.”

All the books will be displayed so the covers are facing out, Vejrostek said, because “I just hate to bend sideways to read the spines of books in a bookstore or library.”

The space will have a little coffee bar, he said. “Just coffee or tea. No Frappuccinos or anything fancy. And it’ll just be a dollar a cup.”

That word “local” is one of the store’s main drawing cards, Vejrostek said. “I know the writers like to meet the fans and the fans like to meet the writers. I know the libraries do it, but that’s just one day a year. We can do it every day.”

Authors to be featured at the grand opening, beginning at 9 a.m. Saturday, are Eliza Cross (“101 Things to Do with Bacon”) and Sharon Glassman (“Blame It on Hoboken”). Every Wednesday night beginning Sept. 2, the store will feature a “Meet the Authors Night,” Vejrostek said.

“I’ve sent out lots of invitations to writers,” he said. “If they all come, though, we might not have room in the store.”

LONGMONT — A small bookstore featuring only Colorado authors will hold its grand opening Saturday in northwest Longmont.

Local Editions Books and Coffee, which will open in just 260 square feet of space at 2919 17th Ave., Suite 110, is the brainchild of Ron Vejrostek, who has run a tax-preparation and financial-planning business in Longmont since 1980 and came up with the idea for the bookstore earlier this year when he discovered how hard it was to market his own book, “Financially Intact: Making Money is Easy; Keeping It is the Hard Part.”

“I had my own book come out, and found…

Dallas Heltzell
With BizWest since 2012 and in Colorado since 1979, Dallas worked at the Longmont Times-Call, Colorado Springs Gazette, Denver Post and Public News Service. A Missouri native and Mizzou School of Journalism grad, Dallas started as a sports writer and outdoor columnist at the St. Charles (Mo.) Banner-News, then went to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch before fleeing the heat and humidity for the Rockies. He especially loves covering our mountain communities.
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