Reposted from Edgy Christian Fiction Author
I've been talking to booksellers lately who report that times are hard. And local booksellers aren't known for vast reserves of capital, so a serious dip in sales can be devastating. Booksellers don't lose enough money, however, to receive congressional attention. A government bailout isn't in the cards."We don't want bookstores to die. Authors need them, and so do neighborhoods. So let's mount a book-buying splurge. Get your friends together, go to your local bookstore and have a book-buying party. Buy the rest of your Christmas presents, but that's just for starters. Clear out the mysteries, wrap up the histories, beam up the science fiction! Round up the westerns, go crazy for self-help, say yes to the university press books! Get a load of those coffee-table books, fatten up on slim volumes of verse, and take a chance on romance!"There will be birthdays in the next twelve months; books keep well; they're easy to wrap: buy those books now. Buy replacements for any books looking raggedy on your shelves. Stockpile children's books as gifts for friends who look like they may eventually give birth. Hold off on the flat-screen TV and the GPS (they'll be cheaper after Christmas) and buy many, many books. Then tell the grateful booksellers, who by this time will be hanging onto your legs begging you to stay and live with their cat in the stockroom: "Got to move on, folks. Got some books to write now. You see...we're the Authors Guild.""Enjoy the holidays."
Roy Blount Jr.
President
Authors Guild
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Blount then sent this "P.S." to the above:"The Guild's staff informs me that many of you are writing to ask whether you can forward and post my holiday message encouraging orgiastic book-buying. Yes! Forward! Yes! Post!
Sound the clarion call to every corner of the Internet: Hang in there, bookstores! We're coming! And we're coming to buy!..."
6 comments:
Spread the word - books make great gifts not just at Christmas but all year!!! All the book stores are having 20 to 30 percent off sales.
Rhonda,
Books were about the only things I could afford, but you know it was so fun shopping for books for non-readers. I went to the bargin tables and looked at the coffee table books (you know the ones with the pictures) and spent time figuring out what was good for who. It was so much less stress than flipping through the sweater rack at Macys. I'm going to make it a tradition. Books for everyone.
Kim Hutchinson
Sounds like a great plan to me and a bailout I can get behind!
Gwyneth
Great idea! :-)
I went to my local book store and purchased over $60.00 worth of books and met a friend. I love book stores - hee-hee
Also many of the brick & mortar stores here in Chicago have closed down and some moved to an online presence. Its sad that old icons where I shopped is no more; and with the way the economy is heading it might get worse.
Afrocentric Books
Da Book Joint
African Images Books store
I just came back from the local B&N and made my last deposit for the Christmas season. I am hoping the brick and mortars make it. I do buy quite a bit online throughout the year, but I try to balance it and put my dollars in the stores in my community.
I know it's tempting to always buy online, but if we don't support our local stores who will and the empty storefront will just become another ugly eyesore.
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