I’m trying something new. I’m going to be happy about the plight of the indie bookstore. I realize I’ve just contradicted myself by saying happy and plight in the same sentence. That sums things up, but I’m done complaining.
\nAre indies facing a huge battle? Totally. Is there anything we can do to compete with the Amazons of the world who deeply discount, don’t pay sales tax and do everything they can to drive us out of business? I’m not sure. But a good indie is getting to be a rare thing, and this needs to be celebrated.
\nNo, I cannot sell a bestseller for 46% off its cover price. What I can do is help you when none of the bestsellers look appealing. Are you looking for something totally different, but don’t know what that is? Then an indie is the place for you to be. We know our stock, we’ve read most of it and we all have amazing memories which allow us to get you the right book almost every time.
\nDoes your child need help finding a chapter book that not only looks appealing , but that he will devour? Well, come on down, I can do that, and so can anyone on my staff. All we do is share our love of books with anyone who walks in the door, and that is a powerful thing that needs to be heralded from rooftops.
\nWe are not Amazon and we don’t want to be. We don’t want to be a chain store. We want to the store to be a place you come in when you’re sad and need to smell the books to feel better or get a hug from someone who is sad that you’re having a terrible day. We want to be the store you can call at closing and we’ll leave a book you need for a present on the doorknob for you to pick up after work.We want to be the store you can spend hours in amiably chatting about books, life or your pets. We are the place that thinks of you and your reading habits when we place frontlist orders. We are the store that does everything we can to make sure you have a good experience every time you shop.
\nWe are entrenched in our communities. We pay sales and property taxes that fund the schools, the roads, and the Little League field and we’re happy to do it. We bring authors to the schools and host wonderful, free events for the whole community.\u00a0 We need you as much you need us. It’s just sometimes we need to remind you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I’m trying something new. I’m going to be happy about the plight of the indie bookstore. I realize I’ve just contradicted myself by saying happy and plight in the same sentence. That sums things up, but I’m done complaining.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4174","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4174","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4174"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4174\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}