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On supporting independent booksellers...
Dec. 3rd, 2006 02:09 pmSo we just got back from a breakfast and shopping expedition which included a stop at one of my favorite local bookstores, Query Booksellers (http://www.querybooks.com/). I stopped by to talk to Lyle, the owner, about hosting another women's erotica reading in the Spring to follow up on the wildly successful one we did last April. He informed me that he may not be open in a month, but hey, if he is, he'd love to have me/us back in to read. For the record, Lyle has excellent taste and a great range of stock; I've never set foot in that store without finding something I needed to take home and read.
This information comes on the heels of a "we're melting, we're melting" email from Amazon Bookstore Cooperative (http://www.amazonfembks.com/), another local bookstore, coincidentally the oldest feminist bookstore in the country. So it occurs to me that what I have to say here bears repeating.
We are amazingly lucky to have so many great independent bookstores in the Twin Cities area. They include, but are not limited to: the two stores named above, DreamHaven Books and Comics (http://www.dreamhavenbooks.com/);Uncle Hugo's and Uncle Edgar's (http://www.unclehugo.com/prod/), now the oldest sf and f bookstore in the country; Orr Books and Cards; Birchbark Books (http://birchbarkbooks.com/); Once Upon a Crime (http://www.onceuponacrimebooks.com/); Arise Bookstore and Resouce Center ( http://www.arisebookstore.org/) and Mayday Books (http://www.maydaybookstore.org/). And that's just this side of the river. Most cities in the US have very few, if any, independent bookstores left which sell new books, let alone 9 +. Independent bookstores, as a rule, are generally more progressive than the chains. They are more likely to host readings by and sell the books for local authors, particularly new authors. They put more money back into their local communities. They take risks.
Barnes and Noble and its ilk sell books with a promotional budget behind them. Books can be remaindered in a matter of weeks and if the publisher isn't shelling out the big bucks, chances are good that most books from nonbestselling authors fall into this category. As for reinvesting in local authors and local communities, sometimes they do but generally unless they're in direct competition with independents, it's not a priority. Anyone think it's a coincidence that Borders opted to close the Calhoun Square store, one of the few in the country with a unionized staff? In short, if you avoid big box retailers for all the good and valid reasons to do so, why buy your books at the bookselling equivalent?
That said, I think alot of us out on LJ read quite a bit. Look around at your shelves. What was the last book you bought from an independent bookseller? A small press? A local author? Maybe it's time to look at buying your next book at an independent. Maybe someone on your list could do with a gift certificate or two. Think of it as an investment in your writing and/or reading future. Believe me, it counts.
This information comes on the heels of a "we're melting, we're melting" email from Amazon Bookstore Cooperative (http://www.amazonfembks.com/), another local bookstore, coincidentally the oldest feminist bookstore in the country. So it occurs to me that what I have to say here bears repeating.
We are amazingly lucky to have so many great independent bookstores in the Twin Cities area. They include, but are not limited to: the two stores named above, DreamHaven Books and Comics (http://www.dreamhavenbooks.com/);Uncle Hugo's and Uncle Edgar's (http://www.unclehugo.com/prod/), now the oldest sf and f bookstore in the country; Orr Books and Cards; Birchbark Books (http://birchbarkbooks.com/); Once Upon a Crime (http://www.onceuponacrimebooks.com/); Arise Bookstore and Resouce Center ( http://www.arisebookstore.org/) and Mayday Books (http://www.maydaybookstore.org/). And that's just this side of the river. Most cities in the US have very few, if any, independent bookstores left which sell new books, let alone 9 +. Independent bookstores, as a rule, are generally more progressive than the chains. They are more likely to host readings by and sell the books for local authors, particularly new authors. They put more money back into their local communities. They take risks.
Barnes and Noble and its ilk sell books with a promotional budget behind them. Books can be remaindered in a matter of weeks and if the publisher isn't shelling out the big bucks, chances are good that most books from nonbestselling authors fall into this category. As for reinvesting in local authors and local communities, sometimes they do but generally unless they're in direct competition with independents, it's not a priority. Anyone think it's a coincidence that Borders opted to close the Calhoun Square store, one of the few in the country with a unionized staff? In short, if you avoid big box retailers for all the good and valid reasons to do so, why buy your books at the bookselling equivalent?
That said, I think alot of us out on LJ read quite a bit. Look around at your shelves. What was the last book you bought from an independent bookseller? A small press? A local author? Maybe it's time to look at buying your next book at an independent. Maybe someone on your list could do with a gift certificate or two. Think of it as an investment in your writing and/or reading future. Believe me, it counts.