Franklin’s Wild Geese Bookshop has energy that keeps authors, readers coming back

Wild Geese Bookshop’s namesake Mary Oliver poem gives the reader permission to “let the soft animal of your body love what it loves.” Owner Tiffany Phillips invites readers to do just that: Geek out over romances, share favorite books and collect autographs from best-selling authors.

The small bookstore in Franklin is regularly drawing big authors and bigger audiences. Phillips, who founded the store in 2016, is humble about the spotlight: “There’s a long list of people who we pitch and we don’t get,” she says.

She also doesn’t want to discount the early authors that Wild Geese hosted events for, like Jack Carr, Mike Rowe and Margaret Renkl. But the store now hosts New York Times best-selling authors on a more consistent basis, she said.

“It’s a little bit like throwing a birthday party for a child; you really worry, like, ‘What if nobody comes?’” Phillips said.

But they keep coming back. A close-knit community of readers has coalesced around the small shop at 40 E. Madison St.—in the quaint Johnson County city of about 26,000 residents—and around Phillips. Meanwhile, those in the book industry see a special combination of local collaboration, radical hospitality and Phillips’ drive as reason to return.

The appeal has hooked A-List authors like Ali Hazelwood, Meg Shaffer, Fredrik Backman, Lyla Sage, R.F. Kuang and John Green. Readers have repeatedly sold out events at The Historic Artcraft Theatre at 57 N. Main St., which has more than 600 seats. The 1920s movie theater displays visiting authors’ names on its red, glowing marquee—perfect for photo ops.

About a year ago, the marquee bore the pseudonym of two women who write under one name: Christina Lauren. The duo—composed of Christina Hobbs and Lauren Billings—were promoting “The Paradise Problem.” The crowd sold out the theater.

That’s when Phillips experienced a clear turning point.

“There was something about the energy of that night that I just felt, even in that moment, like, ‘Oh, something shifted,’” Phillips said.

Billings said she felt that shift. It dawned on her and Hobbs as they signed all the books in The Artcraft Theatre’s adjoining cottage that “we can sell out these big venues.”

“I would love to say it was Christina Lauren that started it all for Wild Geese, but that’s just not true,” she said. “It’s them. They’re the ones building it, and we just showed up.”

‘The extra mile’

Publishers regularly release event grids that detail when their authors will be on tour and what parameters bookstores must follow to be included. That’s when independent booksellers like Wild Geese have the opportunity to respond with a proposal to host an author. Phillips said she also reaches out to publicists or authors to express interest.

But Katie Bassel, a publicist at New York City-based St. Martin’s Publishing Group, said Phillips need not go through the formalities anymore for her group.

“She doesn’t need to fill out the grid; we just go and do it, and I know it’s going to be great,” Bassel said. “I have full faith in her.”

Bassel coordinates for Texas-based romance author Katherine Center. Center hosted her fourth event with Wild Geese Bookshop this month for her newest release, “The Love Haters.” This time around, she departed from a long-held tradition of kicking off her book tours in her native state of Texas to return to Franklin. She attributes much of that decision to Phillips’ enterprise.

Center signed 1,000 books and held two events in Franklin. The first was a VIP-only crafting event at Main and Madison Market Café, steps from the bookstore at 100 N. Main St. The next was a more traditional reading and question-and-answer session at The Artcraft. She said the warm glow of the vintage lightbulbs in the art deco theater surrounded by readers felt like home.

Phillips “is just such a fantastic, enthusiastic human, and she is always … thinking of ways to go the extra mile, thinking of ways to enhance whatever basic sort of book experience anybody might be about to have, and just make it 50 times better,” Center said.

From Center’s first Wild Geese event, for the 2020 release of “What You Wish For,” Phillips’ event prowess was clear. Given the constraints of the pandemic, Phillips organized a virtual book club where members received gift bags that included a candle from Franklin’s veteran-owned Middle Davids Candles, customized to the author’s favorite scents.

Bassel, her publicist, estimated that the first in-person event Center held at Wild Geese might have brought in 200 people. Now, her events draw more than 600.

Center said she keeps up with Phillips and Wild Geese’s success through social media.

“I’m not just watching my own crowds grow and grow,” Center said. “I’m watching everybody else’s crowds grow and grow, too. And I’ve just been so excited for her and so proud, because I’m like, ‘This lady is crushing it.’”

Although they might appear lucrative on the outside, these events aren’t huge moneymakers. Much of the ticket price for the events is for the cost of the book itself, Phillips said. Occasionally, Wild Geese Bookshop has to pay for additional security and accommodations for the author and their team. Events also require additional staff hours.

“It’s not a cash cow by any stretch of the imagination,” Phillips said, but events drive in-store sales and at the store’s tables at the events. Hopefully, she said, they also help the store cultivate community and market to a broader audience.

The shop also hosts an annual “Summer Camp for Grownups.” Phillips said that event—which has grown from three days to seven—is meant to draw retail shoppers during the slow summer months, when businesses can’t compete with the Johnson County Fair. The “camp” offers readers a retreat that includes author meet-ups, a brunch, yoga, a book swap and more.

“I think a lot of the narrative around shopping indies is that it’s positive, and it’s good for your community,” Phillips said. “I do love all of that stuff, but I also know that it’s up to me to create experiences that are relevant to people’s lives.”

The frequent events have necessitated some change at the store. For example, Loren Collins, who previously worked specifically with Phillips on children’s events, is now the events coordinator for Wild Geese. Other staff members have also begun working more frequently on events.

Local synergy

Phillips attributes a portion of her success in booking authors to her partnership with The Historic Artcraft Theatre. It provides a large space that lends itself naturally to hosting best-selling authors.

Nonprofit organization Franklin Heritage Inc. runs the theater and plays host to other Wild Geese events, like “Knit at Night” evenings, where lights are left on during a movie so the audience can craft while watching. Wild Geese provides craft supplies and books related to the movie.

The partnership between the bookstore and Franklin Heritage came naturally. Phillips got much of her furniture from Madison Street Salvage, a store that sells items the nonprofit receives from home rehabilitation. And around 2020, Phillips was searching for a new space and became a tenant in Franklin Heritage’s building, taking up the first floor while the nonprofit uses the second as office space.

Dave Windisch, marketing and advertising coordinator for Franklin Heritage, can’t pinpoint when Wild Geese began hosting events at The Artcraft—there was a time when Phillips had a need, and Franklin Heritage had the space. He said she and her staff have since built a brand that event-goers flock to.

“We’ve got people lined up three, four hours before the event starts just waiting to get inside,” Windisch said. “I’ve waited for general admission concerts like that before, but never for an author. … This is new to me.”

Emma Maze has already met 11 authors at Wild Geese events this year. She displays the proof on a tote bag bearing the store’s facade, signed by the authors with a permanent marker.

“I just freaking love this bookstore. There’s nowhere else like it where you can see this many authors in one setting,” said Maze, who lives in Franklin.

The Thursday before Indy 500 weekend, she was at Wild Geese to celebrate Madge Maril’s debut book release for “Slipstream,” a romance about a Formula One driver.

Jayne Rhoades, another attendee, has lived in Franklin since she was 13 years old. Now in her 60s, Rhoades said Phillips has had an “unbelievable” impact on the city.

Phillips, a Kentucky native and former attorney focused on medical malpractice and wrongful deaths, opened the shop when her husband got a professor job at Franklin College. She said she sort of viewed herself as “an outsider.”

“I was really interested in listening and learning about what the community has to offer, and if there were areas where synergies could be created by bringing people together,” Phillips said. “I get excited about that kind of thing.”

When people come to a Wild Geese event, maybe they realize for the first time that Franklin is a walkable city with free parking and local businesses worth supporting. Anecdotally, it seems to be working, Phillips said.

Windisch spent his Memorial Day morning setting up the marquee for the next event—a May 29 reading with Sarah Pinborough for her book “We Live Here Now.” Setting the stage for another weeknight where hundreds of people will fill a theater in Franklin, likely with dinner or drinks before or after.•