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Open Book arises from my many investments in the health of independent bookselling. As a writer, as an owner and board member of a cooperative bookstore, and—most of all—as a devout reader, I need indie bookstores to persist and flourish. Each month, I sit in board meetings and help analyze the financial data for one heartfelt, struggling indie, and for years now I’ve wished that we could tell the larger story of what it takes to keep going in the face of steep obstacles. If you are more than a casual bookstore customer, I think you will find this story riveting and even urgent.
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As I write in the first chapter of Open Book, books are beloved, consumable items and if you like them, you like them a lot—you might even be addicted, and you’ll try to addict your friends and family. So why is indie bookselling so hard? The answers are surprising, interesting, and great for thinking.
I want to use indie bookselling as a laboratory for reflecting on art and commerce. If we value literature, what are we willing to do to sustain the structures for producing it? How can we bend capitalism to our needs as a reading public? What role do locally-owned bookstores play in creating communities in a healthy democracy, and how can we design and fine-tune the industry to amplify that? All proceeds from paid subscriptions flow to Buffalo Street Books, so reading about indie bookselling benefits indie bookselling. |