What’s at stake?
In a city where independent bookstores have struggled to remain open over the years, the opening of a new brick-and-mortar bookstore Judging by the Cover in Chinatown could signal a new chapter for booksellers here.
Editor’s note: This story first published in October and is republished here.
Ashley Mireles-Guerrero says it shouldn’t be a shock to learn that Fresno is getting a new bookstore in 2024.
Then again, that sentiment is coming from someone who’s making it happen. She and her husband, Carlos, just opened Fresno’s newest brick-and-mortar bookstore, Judging by the Cover, in Chinatown earlier in October.
For anyone unfamiliar with Fresno’s literary game, “it might seem crazy,” she said, that the couple’s opening a store focused on print media here in the day and age of ChatGPT and digital reading subscriptions.
But for those tapped into Fresno and the greater Central Valley’s rich literary scene, it makes perfect sense.
“Readers still want books,” she said. “No matter how many versions of digital books are out there, they still want a physical copy. They still want books on the shelf.”
For those with a finger on the pulse of Fresno’s literary landscape, Judging by the Cover may sound familiar as well.
Though their physical location just opened its doors in October, the Mireles-Guerrero couple have been running Judging by the Cover as an online store and pop-up since about November 2023.
“We started shortly after the Board of Supervisors decided to ban books in Fresno libraries,” Carlos says, alluding to the county’s dead-for-now library review committee.
The Mireles-Guerreros’ store centers the books that have increasingly been targeted by such committees: works by people of color and writers from the LGBTQ+ community.
They think that’s part of why their enterprise has resonated with the Fresno community. Some of their customers, Ashley said, have shed tears “because they’ve never seen books like the ones that we have.”
That also appears to be playing a part in the recent comeback indie bookstores are experiencing nationwide, with an uptick in mission-driven bookstores – including Black-owned, queer-owned and feminist stores that often also provide mutual aid services – in particular.
Even one of the country’s last corporate bookstores standing, Barnes & Noble, has seen success in the wake of the pandemic, and is on track to open 50 new stores across the country this year. That includes a second Fresno location in Fashion Fair Mall with a target open date of Nov. 13, a company representative confirmed.
But none of that means it was easy getting here for Judging by the Cover, or will be easy going forward.
Finding their new space was a significant hurdle. It was hard to find a location in the city that wasn’t overwhelmingly large, or that came with affordable rent.
Ultimately, the couple secured one of two inaugural spots in Chinatown’s new Pop-Up Place. Located on F Street, the incubator is giving a six-month home to micro-businesses – rent, utilities and Wi-Fi costs covered – before helping them find a permanent location elsewhere.
The couple hopes to stay in south Fresno after their time is up at the Pop-Up Place, whether that’s Chinatown, downtown or the Tower District.
“We just want to make sure that there’s a bookstore on the southern side of town,” Carlos said.
Struggles getting to brick-and-mortar status
The Mireles-Guerrero couple went through some of the difficulties you’d expect for any new small business.
“The biggest challenge with anything book-related, really,” Ashley said, “publishing, sourcing books, having a bookstore – is money.”
“That was the obvious answer,” Carlos said, laughing, after hearing his wife’s reply. “I should’ve said that.”
His answer, when asked about the biggest challenge to opening their brick-and-mortar store, was time constraints.
In addition to running their startup, Ashley and Carlos both work full-time in publishing: Ashley as a director of sales and marketing for the Sanger-based publisher Familius, and Carlos as a graphic designer and art administrator for the same company.
But there were some unique hurdles for the Mireles-Guerrero couple as well.
“We were originally talking to the landlord of a different location, and they just didn’t want us in the space,” Ashley said. “Because of the books we carry, and the mission that we have.”
“That was what we concluded,” Carlos added, “because we were told that … the barrier was a credit score – being higher than a certain number, which we both have.”
On top of that, a lot of the available storefronts in south Fresno were either larger spaces than what they were looking for or the rent was unaffordable.
“I think that’s why there’s a lot of pop-ups right now,” Carlos said. “Because there’s no actual spaces available to rent, and if they are, they’re too high.”
The Pop-Up Place pops up
Two opportunities came along that helped Judging by the Cover achieve their dream of opening a storefront in Fresno.
First, they were selected by the Book Industry Charitable (or BINC) Foundation to join its BincTank incubator pilot program. The pilot supports entrepreneurs that identify as Black, Indigenous (and) People of Color, or BIPOC, with launching a bookstore in underserved communities.
Then came the Chinatown Fresno Foundation, which selected them as one of two tenants to operate out of the nonprofit’s new Pop-Up Place.
The space was designed to help micro-enterprises like Judging by the Cover get a headstart at opening up a storefront, said Jan Minami, project director at the Chinatown Fresno Foundation.
“Keeping expenses low is very important for startup businesses,” she said. “Maintaining the storefront is a different kind of thing than doing pop-ups and being primarily online. It’s a learning experience to have a storefront.”
“We hope they do really well,” Minami added, “and become successful enough that they can rent their own spot.”
The Pop-Up Place project is funded by a $40,000 grant from the City of Fresno. The money helps subsidize rent, utilities and Wi-Fi for the two micro-enterprises in its space: Judging by the Cover and retro clothing store Vintage Drip.
The F Street building now home to the Pop-Up Place had been vacant for over two years, said June Stanfield, whose family owns the property.
Stanfield also chairs the Chinatown Fresno Foundation’s board of directors. As for avoiding a potential conflict of interest, Minami said the board didn’t have a hand in selecting the ultimate location of the Pop-Up Place.
“If we had to avoid properties owned by our board members, that would be most of the buildings in Chinatown,” Minami said. All but one board member is a property and/or business owner in Chinatown, she added.
Staff selected Stanfield’s building, after contacting multiple property owners, because it was in “rentable condition,” she said.
Though Minami said the Foundation would love to see the micro-enterprises in the Pop-Up Place find a permanent location in Chinatown after their six-month stay, it’s not a condition of the grant.
“Doing business in Chinatown is a challenge,” she said. “It needs a lot more marketing than other locations might.”
The next chapter for Judging by the Cover
Currently, 100% of Judging by the Cover’s inventory is new books.
They’re considering adding used volumes in the future to keep their products affordable.
In the name of accessibility, the couple also operates a “book fund,” which accepts donations to cover the cost of giveaways to customers who can’t afford books at full price.
“If they’re like, ‘I want to get this, but I have to come back for it next week, or when I get paid,’” Carlos said, “we’re like, ‘You know what, we have enough in the book fund. Go ahead.’”
In addition to filling their shelves with authors of color and queer writers, Judging by the Cover also wants 30% of their inventory to be non-English books.
Right now, about 20% of their books are in languages other than English, Ashley said, including Spanish, Armenian, Tagalog, Mandarin, Hindi and Greek.
Carlos and Ashley also want to stock as many local authors as they can, though that can be challenging. Sourcing them can be more complicated, as they often have to obtain copies from the authors directly, rather than from the publisher or wholesalers.
But there’s a strong appetite for those books among their customers.
“We can’t keep Joseph’s book in stock,” Ashley said, referring to Fresno poet laureate Joseph Rios’ poetry collection, “Shadowboxing.”
“His publisher puts out like 10 (copies) at a time on our wholesaler website,” she said, “and we take them all and then sell them immediately.”
One of their other, more existential goals is less about inventory and more about neighborhoods and community.
Carlos was stunned by the outpouring of love and support the Tower District community showed another small business, Spokeasy Public House, after it suffered a devastating fire earlier this year.
That’s the kind of community he hopes Judging by the Cover will cultivate with neighboring businesses in Chinatown, or wherever they end up. The kind of community where, when tragedy strikes, neighbors take care of each other and show “the good parts” of Fresno.
About Judging by the Cover
Judging by the Cover is located at 1029 F Street.
It’s open Tuesday through Friday from noon to 6 p.m. and from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturdays, according to its Instagram page.
The store will have its grand opening celebration Friday, Nov. 1 from noon to 6 p.m. The event will include a ribbon-cutting at 12:30 p.m. as well as raffle prizes and food from D&G Hot Dogs.
Find them online at www.judgingbythecoverbookstore.com or on Instagram via @judgingbythecover.books.
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