18 years ago, the new millennium was only a few weeks away. I had recently fallen off of a forty foot cliff and had been forced to take a pause. The experience caused me to want to make some changes in my life. In a few weeks, I would start dating the person that I would eventually marry. Neither of us felt very happy in our current jobs. We decided to become business partners and work for ourselves.
We hadn’t yet decided what type of business to open. Toni was leaning toward a coffee shop or little café. I wanted a book store. In Cleveland, Ohio in 2000 Borders was pretty new, and Starbucks stranglehold was not yet complete. However, we did not have the opening capital for a coffee shop. And so, In a Bind Books was born.
We thought we were pretty cool, in our late 20’s owning our business in the ‘edgy’ Madison Village area of Lakewood, Ohio. We had a nice collection of small press, underground comics, new and used books with an emphasis on anything outside of the mainstream, and a wall of periodicals dedicated to art, literature, LGBTQ interests, holistic medicine, etc.
Unfortunately, it turns out you can’t pay the bills with cool.
While it was a great experience, sales weren’t sufficient to keep it going. In a Bind Books closed as a book seller after two years.
But it was not dead.
More than a decade later, In a Bind Books was resurrected as my imprint. So far two novels have been published under the In a Bind Books name. Look for more to come!
The Fiction of Erik C. Martin 