The liberty
The online bookshop of Gaia
Hi Gaia, Welcome to Easy Travel hosting! The liberty, Much more than a simple online bookshop. When you decided to give life to this project and what the process was to succeed?
Ciao, Thanks for asking me this interview!
The "Il Libercolo" project as name already existed: When I closed my independent library (It was located in the historic center of Rovigo) In the 2019 I transformed the social pages of the La Magnolia library into "Il Libercolo", Continuing to write some books I read by recommending them to readers. It was a bit like continuing to make booky but without the commercial aspect of the trade.
In June 2020 I was preparing to close a working experience in the press office of a large company, it had been a very formative period for me and stimulating from many points of view. I was thinking about what I would do later - the territory in which I dress does not have much to offer on a professional level - and it was then that the bookseller inside me started again to make his way.
Digesting the closure of the library had not been at all simple for me and compared to the first time I found myself dreaming with my feet much more anchored on the ground. But the desire to build something to be proud of and to return to work with the books has been stronger than everything.
I "seen" what is the liberty today on a Saturday morning while cutting the lawn. From there to a few months the site was online.
To finance the project I decided to start a crowdfunding campaign on the production platform from the bottom; I was lucky, Thanks also to them, to receive a co -financing from Naturasí, who collaborates with the platform to support projects of ecological and cultural interest.
The result surprised and excited me: without great media forces available I managed to successfully close the campaign, receiving from supporters much more than money only, they wrote to me in many, Enthusiastic and eager to see Libercolo land online.
Everything else was the design and construction of my digital shop.
Four months seem very few to set up an entire project, But I want to say that I came from a similar experience, even if "physics", who had taught me a good part of the work.
As for the new instead, I learned to build and manage the site with my father, which has skills in the web and social fields, And I started experimenting with the artisan part (illustrations on the boxes, creation and binding of notebooks and notebooks, watercolor, And all the things you can buy on the site as "handmade by book").
– Gaia has also just spotted us that he is making a collection of jewelry “literary” Handmade by her with das, Metal and pages of books intended for waste, To recover books that would have been passed off and restore beauty and value to him.
The word "Liberec" means text or book of little value or interest. Why this choice for the name of your library?
In the world of books and culture in general I happened very often to observe certain attitudes a little too "serious" - pass me the term - that they made that this elitist halo was created around the reading, as if it were an activity for a few, As if the "real readers" were erected a step or two higher than the others.
Very often I myself was criticized by colleagues because I had not read this book or, on the contrary, I was talking to the love of a book considered too commercial or lower value.
As much as I can share the opinion for which there are books and books, who exist commercial books designed to sell and books written by incredible authors, designed to tell, I am also convinced that to promote reading and make any book appreciate it is not the right way.
Transmit too much intellectual and exclusive image of reading (and the world of publishing) remove the people from them instead of bringing them closer.
And because any booky like me should want less people around the books? It would be a contradiction!
Libercolo is a name in which I identify myself for these reasons. It is ironic and self -deprecating, I chose it when I wrote only about books to say clearly "these are only my emotion and my reading of these books, without the pretense of educating anyone, but only to share and disclose them ".
It's a bit like certain books: You don't always need to say a lot and use refined words, Sometimes they are the simplest things that arrive in the center.
Also offer many services, such as workshops and readings for children, reading groups, literary favors and a lot more. You could talk about the most popular services and how your audience reacts to these?
Yeah, Sometimes I'm afraid that my offer is too wide!
Certainly in these first months of activity the heart of Libercolo were the Personalized boxes: boxes containing books and artisan products tailored to the person to whom the box is destined.
They were mainly requested as a gift and it works like this: Customers contact me and tell me, in the way they prefer (video call, messages, email) what they want of the person to whom they will give the box. Based on that information - Favorites and authors, musica, season, fiore, animated, etc.. Favorites - I choose the most suitable books and products for them and confine everything.
Actually, Before Christmas, many readers have ordered customized boxes also for themselves, An original and personal way to discover new titles and writers find it.
Among the "intangible" services, So far the reading group & Psyche I organize together with Francesca Castro, A psychologist and psychotherapist of Rome, as well as a dear friend of mine.
Reading & Psyche is a reading group where the book we read together every month becomes a tool to find useful ideas for our daily and emotional life. Thanks to the presence of Francesca, We read the book on several levels, exploring his deepest meanings and listening to what the characters resonate more in us.
Obviously it is not a therapeutic and healing path, But with Francesca we are planning for the second half of the 2022 also a real path of book therapeutic group, where readers can also bring their emotional difficulties and find support to them through the proposed books and group work.
The first online courses will soon begin with Libercolo, A conscious reading, To learn to read more present and actively, and one of creative writing, Also suitable for those who have never written anything.
If any reader was interested, Registrations are still open and the information can be found at this link: https://illibercolo.it/i-servizi/corso-di-scrittura-creativa/
The literary favors are in the design phase and in a few weeks I will publish photos and materials with the information and examples of how I can make them.
A collaboration I keep very much is also the one with Michela Maltoni, A yoga teacher who opened the Let It Yoga online school just before the pandemic. We have created a project that must remain secret until mid -February but I can't wait to talk about it! My advice is to follow us on social media and train your fingers to be fast!
Ups and downs are a constant for those who work on their own. There is a book that has helped you come out of a difficult situation and that you would recommend to other women who are thinking of opening their business?
My readings are mainly novels, So I certainly don't have a manual or a practical book to recommend.
What I discovered as I read is that help can hide everywhere in a book, even in the most unexpected corner.
Certainly the thing that comforts me and supports more in a story is when I find something about me in a character or in an affair, very often without even realizing it.
There are books I come back when things get difficult, This for me is one of the most powerful things of reading: Being able to return to live a book, a story, where we were fine, When we want and relive known sensations but also new, Because books change every time with us.
Among the books that have this power on me I would mention: What can be seen from here by Mariana Leky, The infinite story of Michael Ende, The end of the world and the Wonderland of Murakami Haruki.
They absolutely do not speak of self -employment or the like, But they are stories capable of bringing out the best part of us, together with a right dose of courage and happiness.
But I believe they don't exist magical books, It all depends on us, as always, from how we put ourselves in front of the book, from how we enter history, If we raise walls or remain open, also at our risk.
Stories can put us in front of the elements, get out of emotions, But then it all is about our determination, to our will and our ability to listen to us and be honest with ourselves.
As Easy Travel Hosting will know, use renewable and eco-sustainable energy to power your servers. A tree is also planted for each new hosting, actively helping the reforestation and absorption of CO2. What do you think of this project and in general, Do you think it is important to search for a more sustainable lifestyle?
Being contact with you I was very pleased for your commitment to your and your customers sustainability.
I sincerely believe that it is necessary to do a lot, I don't know when this will become "enough".
Personally I try to limit my imprint and that of my work as much as possible, for what is in my possibilities.
In the private sphere I try to minimize waste, be they water, energy, Food or waste in general, At home we try to buy what you need, renouncing some whims, especially for clothing. We have a fairly large vegetable garden that my partner cultivates without the use of chemical substances or fertilizers and gives us enormous satisfaction.
This year we also planted some trees and bushes to revive the ground, Unfortunately in agricultural areas like the one where we live there has remained very little of what is the true nature to develop intensive agriculture. It is a theme that I feel particularly.
Then there is the part concerning my work. I am aware that being an online activity that provides shipments will never be quite sustainable, but I try to compensate in everything.
The courier I entrusted to I have started several solutions to decrease the impact of CO2 and the consumption of plastic.
Always on the plastic front, I have practically reduced its disposable use to zero: The boxing boxes and materials that I use for my products are al 99% of recycled paper and cardboard or FSC. Where it is necessary to use pluriballs or scotch trees, I always opt for the recycled one, coming mainly from other shipments I have received.
Then there are the products, for example the notebooks and notebooks that I produce at 100% hand: I start with recycled cardboard to make the cover, Using the boxes with which the suppliers deliver the books to me. The fabric with which the purchase is covered by a wholesaler who sells the smallest clippings, unsuitable to be processed for their original purpose and which would have been otherwise thrown. I am looking for an economically sustainable solution also for the internal pages.
All the brands with which I collaborate have made sustainability their strength: Sparkles&Clouds produces candles inspired by the literature classics, In soy wax and essences 100% natural, non -toxic and hand flowing one by one in reusable jars in many ways.
Bottega Oh-Oh! realizes with hand sewing articles for early childhood and for the person, while the FSC wooden toys I sell in my shop are by Legler Small Foot, A German company that works wood at km0 only from sustainable forests, attentive to the reforestation and the use of non -toxic substances for children, also reuses all processing waste.
I could go ahead but I seem to have already stolen too long from your readers, but in short, Here at Libercolo we deeply love the earth and we commit ourselves every day to cure it.
Easy Travel Hosting Thanks a lot Gaia for participating in our interview for the column dedicated to Small female entrepreneurship.
If you want more information, You can follow it on your site By clicking here.
And also on social media!
Easy Travel Hosting It is hosting 100% ecological.
You want to tell us about your story? Contact us here.