Book Shop starts new chapter at The Block

RIO RANCHO — A page is being turned at The Block soon and it’s not a restaurant menu.

Enchanted Books will bring wonder and imagination to the back right corner of the facility. Owner, author and publisher Winston Malone spoke July 7 on the independent bookstore, with an opening date to be determined.

”I started it with the idea of supporting local and independent authors. Because I’m an independent author myself,” Malone said.

He said The Block was the ideal location for his store.

”There’s something about the community aspect of The Block. That’s really going to help it work out because when I first walked through The Block and I saw the retail space, I was like, ‘oh, that would be a perfect spot for a bookstore’. I didn’t feel nervous about it because of the community kind of nature of the way this place is structured, the formation of it, and it just felt like a more secure way to do it in terms of having built-in foot traffic. And of course, the event space is perfect for when I want to do author events or book signings or poetry readings, or things like that, because that’s what I’ve always wanted to have for the bookstore,” he said.

He started writing his first novel in 2015 and didn’t know how to get it published. He then started his own publishing company in 2021 to help others edit and publish their works.

“But as I was navigating the market and realizing that it’s really difficult to get books into bookstores and there’s so many reasons for that, I thought what a great idea to serve the independent market and to just start my own bookstore and be able to publish independent authors that way,” he explained.

This new store will be a combined effort to help people publish and sell their books. There will also be a combination of local authors and mainstream authors available for purchase, according to Malone.

“It’s very experimental because I don’t know how the business is going to go profit wise, but I think local authors include self-published authors and more well established authors like George R. R. Martin and others, Rebecca Roanhorse,” he said. “In terms of the Indie side, that includes online as well, I’ve networked with a lot of authors online over the past five years and I’ll be able to stock their books that way.”

Though books will be available online from the shop, Malone said he plans to have store exclusive books. He added that different methods of reading should be encouraged, which will reflect in the shop’s product.

“There’s definitely room for both because I tend to read like three books at a time. I’ll do an audio book, an eBook and then a physical book, and that way I can kind of compartmentalize it that way. But I definitely see a resurgence in physical books,” he said.

Some of the challenges Malone foresees with the store have to do with purchasing stock.

“I didn’t necessarily take that into account when I first started because I just didn’t realize how expensive it was going to be, but I’m thankful that there really hasn’t been that many roadblocks in terms of actually starting the store. It’s been very smooth so far,” Malone said.

Books in the store will be from a variety of genres, according to Malone, but he does have genre preference when it comes to his own writing.

“I am a Sci-Fi fantasy author at heart. I’m kind of in a learning phase because I’m branching out and reading a bunch of different genres right now. So, I’m still developing. As a writer, I’ll always be developing, but I think the store will initially start out with heavy speculative fiction titles, so it’ll be a lot of sci-fi fantasy genre blends, some horror. There will be romance. I don’t have children’s books yet, but I think that will definitely grow in the future,” he said.

He is also looking forward to seeing the local authors’ products. He said as a transplant from Utah, the history and culture of New Mexico are interesting to him.

“I hope to be able to serve the community as best as I can and that I’ll be able to feature the books people are interested in. I’m just excited to meet. local authors and the book community in general,” Malone said.

Visit enchantedbooks.shop for more information.