When Matthew Berger was a kid in Corona, his dad used to drive with him to San Diego to meet authors at the Mysterious Galaxy Bookstore and browse through its book collection.
The shop wasn’t the place to find classical literature, self-improvement books or biographies. It stuck to its menu of mayhem, murder, Martians and magic — for which it earned a prestigious Raven Award from the Mystery Writers of America in 2013.
Now, time travel forward with Berger from teen to age 30 when he spotted a Mysterious Galaxy post online. The owner of the shop had one month to sell or liquidate. Its Clairemont Mesa retail space had been leased to another business.
Matthew huddled with his wife, Jenni Marchisotto, whom he had met in the English department at Cal State Fullerton. The couple had moved to San Diego in 2013 and were regular Mysterious Galaxy customers.
They shared a love of books. In fact, their wedding had a literary theme with tables bearing book titles, and their vows inspired by favorite literary ages.
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“Mysterious Galaxy was such an important place for us,” he explained. “We had a 3-month-old, and this was a place we wanted to celebrate with her as she grew up.”
Neither of them had ever run a bookstore before nor did they have any experience in the business. Jenni teaches literature at UC San Diego, and Matthew is a content marketing specialist.
There was no time to hesitate. They closed their eyes and took a giant leap into purchasing a bookstore that had lost its lease and inheriting the payroll for a dozen or so employees who came with the deal.
“We were lucky enough to find somewhere to move right away, so there wasn’t a huge gap during which the business was closed,” Matthew says.
They finalized the purchase of Mysterious Galaxy on Jan. 2, 2020, and in mid-February opened in their new 50-percent larger store in the Rosecrans Shopping Center at 3555 Rosecrans St., which once upon a time was a Tuesday Morning store.
Little did they know that extra space they included for author events barely would be used for 2.5 years because the pandemic erupted. Six weeks after re-opening, the store closed.
“Our first concern was our employees because a lot of places were furloughing or laying people off,” Matthew says.
Their approach was to create new jobs and switch employees into fleshing out an online presence for shopping and sales, virtual author talks and presentations via Crowdcast. They also created a podcast and Patreon.com subscriber hips that offered perks and incentives.
They dispensed loyalty loot and promoted subscriptions to monthly book crates — a staff-selected book shipped to the customer’s home each month, along with surprise goodies and literary swag. They expanded romance, young adult and horror inventory.
Meanwhile, the couple kept working their day jobs while overseeing operation of the store without collecting salaries.
Like the paper dragon that hangs over their cash , the bookstore owners had a financial dragon to slay and dipped deeply into their personal resources. They also relied on the help of “an intrepid brigade of volunteers,” especially during book festivals.
After much pro-and-con discussion, they launched a GoFundMe campaign called: “Help Mysterious Galaxy Bounce Back,” which relates their story.
They hope to raise $225,000, primarily to streamline brick-and-mortar operations, upgrade audio-visual equipment and update technology to convention and book festival business as well as online sales, shipping and communications.
While the idea of asking for help was intimidating, the couple is striving to make the store financially stable. “We know better times are ahead, but we could use some help getting there. We’re committed to the store’s long-term success,” they wrote.
“We’ve stayed afloat these two-plus years thanks to the dedication of our booksellers and the commitment of indie-loving book readers and authors.”
The annual April San Diego book crawl, a literary treasure hunt from local bookstore to bookstore, was a great success, with 13 stores participating, reports the manager of the bookstore.
They currently host a bimonthly Dungeons & Dragons group meetup, a monthly book club discussion and writer talks each week. Kritika H. Rao (“The Surviving Sky”) and Andrea Stewart (“The Bone Shard War”) speak tonight at a virtual event. Kate Khavari will discuss “A Botanist’s Guide to Flowers and Fatality” on June 20, and Linda Kao (“A Crooked Mark”) will address customers in the store June 22.
Last month, Mysterious Galaxy turned 30. The owners threw an in-store birthday party that included three s of writers. “We’ve had tremendous from the authors,” Jenni says.
They also have gotten positive via email and social media. Jenni paraphrased some of the messages: “This changed my life”; “This made my day”; “This was the book I needed to get me through my life.” She says these messages and their personal connection with customers are what matter most.
Stacee Evans, of Escondido, has been a loyal customer for 12 years, following Mysterious Galaxy through three San Diego locations.
“If you’re in the mood to read something and you’re not sure what it is, Mysterious Galaxy is place to go,” Evans says. She praises the knowledge of the staff, saying she can describe the type of book she wants or an author she likes, and they respond with a title suggestion. “I’ve never seen them stumped yet.”
“I don’t consider them booksellers,” Evans says. “They’re like friends and family.”
If you ask whether the new owners would have saved the business if they had known about the impending pandemic, Matthew responds: “Absolutely. There was definitely no time we thought about abandoning it. But we probably would have done some things differently — such as move to a smaller space.”
While foot traffic halted during the pandemic, many folks ramped up their reading and became more engaged in social media and appreciative of the staff reading recommendations.
Jenni observed a growing interest in romance books. “Everybody wanted a ‘happily-ever-after’ ending.”
It looks like the Mysterious Galaxy is living its own “happily-ever-after” story, as well.
