Meet Dominique Burleson of Paperbacks & Frybread

Today we’d like to introduce you to Dominique Burleson.

Hi Dominique, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start, maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers. 
I have wanted to own a bookstore for as long as I can remember. My love of reading started when I was really small, with my grandpa always taking me to the public library. I began reading at 4 years old and wrote my first book in the first grade (which I still have!). 

As a little girl, I never really got to see myself in books. Ever. Sometimes, the school librarian would read about Indigenous Peoples in a Thanksgiving story-but that was pretty inaccurate and never written by anyone in our culture. I was also a military brat, so I didn’t to grow up with my traditions. I identified as Indian but didn’t know much more about my people than that. 

In 2015, I began a book blog. I started working with various publishers, PR teams, and indie authors promoting their books. A majority of the books sent to me to promote were from white authors. I rarely ever received a book from an author in a marginalized community. This was the start of the wheels in my head turning and my calling coming into place. 

When my kids were of school age, we started homeschooling, and I worked with a lot a curriculum companies reviewing material. None of the companies I worked with had diverse books for history. Not a single book about the history of America included books by actual Indigenous authors. They always promised they were working on this, but years later, nothing really changed. 

This really bothered me because I didn’t have those stories with accurate representation, and now it seemed my children wouldn’t either. I didn’t want them to miss our on learning about their roots like I did. I, too, wanted resources to connect with my culture so it wouldn’t be lost with the next generations. 

Where were our stories, where we were the heroes and not just some unintelligent beings in loin cloths? Then I realized we weren’t the only family that would experience this. How many other families wouldn’t see their representation in books? 

After sitting on this information for a bit, the national book bans started. My soul hurt. I couldn’t stand by and watch these children have their stories stripped away from them. I woke up one morning with clear direction on what I was meant to do. I was going to open up a bookstore. 

I had no idea what I was doing, but did all the research I could. I joined the American Booksellers Association and began soaking up all the information they had available. I joined bookseller Facebook groups and asked all the questions. We opened up Paperbacks & Frybread around February of 2022. 

I had a small growing platform on TikTok that was slowly getting the word out about our shop. I was doing a few book fairs and did one in the summer at a local restaurant. It was a BUST. I think I sold 3 items. My anxiety over this was terrible, so I did a funny video about how it feels when no one shows up to your book fair and posted it on TikTok. No one could prepare me for what happened next. 

That video started to take off. Then, a TikTok mutual with a large account at the time (who is now my best friend) offered to do a video for me because she really believed in my mission. I said, “Sure,” not thinking anything would happen. Within an hour of her posting her video, my account went viral. I was having orders coming in every few mins. Her video and my video of our empty book fair were being shared like crazy. I was being dueted by larger TikTok accounts. The Indigenous community showed up HUGE. I was being dueted and shared by famous creators like the cast of Reservations Dogs, including Dallas Goldtooth, Little Mike, and Funny Bone. 

It took me six weeks to complete all of those orders. 

The shop has been growing steady ever since. Now not only do we offer a huge selection of diverse and inclusive books, but we are also working with schools-including tribal schools-to get more “own voices” books into their libraries. We are also striving to do a lot more collaborations with local businesses in North Carolina who’d like to do their own book fairs and also to show up at NC pow-wows more consistently as well. 

P&F has been a dream come true and has brought so much healing to my inner child. It’s helped me connect with the Indigenous community in a way I never thought possible. I hear on a regular basis how grateful people are that they have a place they can access books that feature people like them. Not only for their children but for themselves! So many adults healing by the power of books. 

We all face challenges, but looking back, would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Definitely not a smooth road! My husband works full time, 12/hr. swing shift. We have six kids that I homeschool. I live out in the boonies without a nearby support system. There were many, many days I did not think this would work. 

The biggest difficulty is finances. I mean, our biggest competitor is Amazon. This is a corporation that purposefully loses money on books to dominate the market. They price their books many times lower than even I can get on wholesale directly from publishers! 

I went into this industry with a fear no one would buy from us because there was no way I could compete with those prices. But turns out there are folks who would much rather invest in a small business than to send a CEO into space. 

That being said, I also know that Amazon makes books accessible for many people who cannot afford them at full price. So, you won’t see an ounce of shaming from me. I promote that if you are able to buy from us-please do. If not, sharing our content or telling others about us is equally as important! 

As you know, we’re big fans of Paperbacks & Frybread Co. For our readers who might not be as familiar, what can you tell them about the brand?
Paperbacks & Frybread Co. is an Indigenous-owned online book boutique that specializes in diverse and inclusive books for families of all kinds. 

That’s our official elevator pitch. And although there “we” in a lot of the copy for the shop-in reality, it’s just me. My name is Dominique Burleson, and I am the owner and founder of P&F. I’m part of the Lumbee tribe here and North Carolina, and I created this little bookshop so little kids from all communities could see themselves in books. Whether it’s on social media, the graphic creation, the website design, the person who answers the customer service line, the person packing our subscription boxes-that’s me. Although my husband is a huge supporter and is the one doing all the heavy lifting at pow wows and pop-ups, it’s me running the bulk of the business. 

The name of the shop has a lot of meaning. When it comes to my people, both “paperbacks” and “frybread” are signs of our resilience. As a culture that strongly embraces storytelling-having our stories put into the world permanently on paper is beautiful. And frybread-this came out of our pain. It’s a reminder that we survived what was meant to eradicate us. Both terms are also part of me. I’m an Indigenous bookwork! The pinecone that is in our logo is a nod to the creation of people, but most importantly, it represents the Lumbee people. The pinecone an image that shows up everywhere, from our tribal logo to our regalia. I put it in the logo to honor my people. 

One of our most used slogans is that we are helping folks “decolonize their bookshelf.” Although decolonizing is more than a metaphor, it can’t really begin without education. Without empathy. Without seeing humanity in people who don’t look, think, or believe like us. Books are a powerful resource for that. 

Our shop carries the storytellers of the Indigenous community but also from the Black community, From West Asians to Pacific Islanders. From the Neurodivergent to the LGBTQ+ community. We are always adding new books from new storytellers. 

These books are personally curated for the shop by myself. I do not add just any book. I try really hard to make sure that these stories do not bring harm to the communities they are written for/about. This means almost all of the books in the shop are “own voices,” meaning they are written by people within that community. I don’t always get it right-there have been a few misses-but I do look into each book as best as I can. 

One of our most popular offerings, and the ones I am most passionate about, are our subscription boxes. We have two kinds: *Pick Your Magic* Book Boxes. This is a subscription box where you tell me a little bit about your book interests, and I personally curate a box of diverse and inclusive books based on what you’ve told me. I’ve done it from graphic novels to picture books to even cookbooks. Whatever books you’re into-I can find books that will stretch your comfort zone. We have these in three different price ranges to ensure that a wide range of budgets can participate. 

The other box is our Decolonize Your Bookshelf Box. This goes along with our yearly Decolonize Your Bookshelf Reading Journey. This year’s has 32 prompts. Each month everyone gets a book that goes along with one of the prompts. The prompt for January 2024 was “a book by a disabled author”. 

When people sign up, they tell me what age range (Adult, YA, Middle Grade, Children’s Picture Book), and then everyone in that age range gets the same book. They won’t know the book until they receive it because- who doesn’t like a surprise? 

Our subscription boxes are a little different than most. You’re not gonna find super fancy branded packaging. I try hard to keep costs at a minimum for these so that I can keep prices as low as possible. I hand-wrap every single subscription box. I also hand-write thank you notes. This is important. I want people to know they’re supporting a person- a family. 

We’re always looking for the lessons that can be learned in any situation, including tragic ones like the Covid-19 crisis. Are there any lessons you’ve learned that you can share?
I wasn’t opened during lockdown, but I was building a platform on TikTok at that time. I was sharing my journey as I deconstructed my faith and began reconnecting with my tribal roots. I saw first-hand how so many people were open to learning more about the Indigenous community. TikTok did wonders to bring so many Indigenous creators to the masses. From pow-wow dancers to artists to activists to fashion designers. Covid forced people to take a pause. This opened up a door for my people to say we are still here. 

Contact Info:

• Website: paperbacksandfrybread.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/paperbacks_n_frybread
• Facebook: facebook.com/paperbacksandfrybread
• Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/dominique-burleson-b8278b2aa
• Youtube: www.youtube.com/@NerdyNativeMama
• Other: https://libro.fm/?bookshop=paperbacksandfrybread

Image Credits
Tory Bae