Escape Fiction Books stands as one of Salem’s strongholds against the impersonal all-inclusiveness of internet conglomerates and big box bookstores. They don’t sell coffee, CDs or toys in the back of their store. They just sell books, offered up with decades of experience and a goodly sum of human contact.

Scott and Maria Conover are Escape Fiction. The two of them run the bookstore alone, every part of it, with no other staff. They are open 360 days a year, seven days a week.

Opening in 1994, the store sprang from a book lover’s passion and a willingness to sacrifice.

“The bookstore was created because we have a love for books; we also have a powerful need to eat. When we realized that both were compatible, we started Escape Fiction Books,” said Scott Conover.

But in the early days, the Conovers found that the two concepts were not as compatible as they had hoped.

“We both worked two jobs for the first four or so years in order to build up the bookstore without taking salaries. After that, we were able to take small salaries and scrape by,” said Conover.

Escape Fiction has a wide variety of both new and used books, thousands of which line the walls of the shop’s labyrinth rooms. The store specializes in genre fiction, particularly sci-fi and fantasy, their selection of which they describe as “unparalleled.” The store also has an internet presence, at Abebooks.com.

“We also perform another service: providing special orders. We strive for a turnaround time of less than 72 hours. We meet this goal 97 percent of the time,” he said.

There are unique customer advantages to doing business with booksellers as intensely involved in the process as the Conovers are. They are attentive to both their customers and their product, beyond what could be expected from a nine to five employee. They take pride in their abilities to help readers choose new books based on old preferences, or identify a forgotten novel from a few barely-remembered scenes or characters.

“This is based on sixteen years of working in the bookstore. This is between both of us, myself and Maria, which gives our reading community 32 years of cumulative experience, plus a lifetime of reading for the both of us.”

Scott expounds on the benefits of passionate owner-involvement. “We are always listening to our customers, and finding out about new books and new authors. Since the owners are always available, new books and authors are incorporated much faster. This extends to customer service; since you are always dealing with the owners, you always get the best possible customer service.”

The Conovers are not speaking in clichés when they say they believe love is one of the most important factors in a successful bookstore. Love has a practical application in their business. It was ten years before their bookstore could support “a frugal living.”

Conover said, “I do not believe we would have made it in those first ten years if we did not enjoy the very process of running the store, because we love books.”

And that love needs to extend beyond just books. “Of course, you need to love each other, because you will be around each other all day every day. That is the formula for success at the store: love. Love for books, love for running the business, and love for each other. Also, you must at least like your customers; you do not need to love all of them, but if you are not a people person, this is not going to go well," he added.

They stress that owning a book store is a lifestyle, and not one that produces great wealth.

Conover said, “The one love you should not have if you want to run a bookstore is a love of money - it will not be forthcoming. You can live a modest life running a bookstore, but it is not a path to riches, quick or any other kind.”