independent bookstores
-
James Patterson, Philanthropist
Bestselling author James Patterson is giving school libraries $1.25 million in grants of $1,000 to $10,000 for books, reading programs, and technology, reports the Washington Post. Patterson has previously pledged $1 million to 175 independent bookstores. His generosity is all…
-
Bookstores, Strike A Pose
For Slate, David Rosenberg explores the work of Bryan David Griffith, who spent the year photographing independent bookstores around the US. According to Griffith, the project is not meant to be nostalgic, but rather serves as a “study about the retail space,…
-
Indie Bookstore Road Trip
Independent bookstores will save the world, or at least the publishing industry, maybe. Josh Weil and Mike Harvkey took a road trip across the country, exploring independent bookstores. They found a collection of dedicated shops and local literary communities, but…
-
Indie Bookstores On the Rise
A few years ago it seemed Amazon was about to send independent bookstores the way of Blockbuster Video. Now more than ever though, we’re living in a new Renaissance of independent bookstores. Slate explains why: Independent bookstores never had to answer…
-
Cover Prices
Printing pricing information on book covers has long been a standard practice to help track inventory. The suggested pricing also helps increase the perceived value of books. The internet, especially Amazon, has changed that perception of value leading some booksellers…
-
The Bookstores Will Survive
A bright spot in the midst of all the back-and-forth in the Amazon battle—Kate Brittain, at The Morning News, writes about the state of independent bookstores: I began my search in a nervous mood. But as I entered name after name into…
-
Rumpus Round-Up: The Fight to Unionize a Bookstore
Late last month, employees of Book Culture, an independent New York City bookstore, voted to unionize. Five employees were promptly fired. Punitively firing employees who participate in labor unions violates federal labor law. On July 2, the remaining workers went…
-
Saving a Book’s Life
The rules of shelving can seem arbitrary, even arcane, but the fundamentals are easy to learn: two hard covers, and no more than three paperbacks of the same title, on each shelf. The exception is the face-out. If the jacket…
-
Summer Reading List
If you’re looking for independent bookstores to visit on your Southern road trip—or, in the absence of a road trip, want to know what Southern booksellers are reading this summer—then check out this interview with five Southern indie bookshop owners.…
-
Indie Bookstores Win Amazon/Hachette War
The ongoing battle between Amazon and Hachette has been a boon for independent booksellers. Hachette’s refusal to capitulate to Amazon’s demands has meant that big-name books, like J.K. Rowling’s latest mystery The Silkworm (published under the pen name Robert Galbraith), can’t be…
-
Wimpy Bookstore with Strong Ideas
How does a child experience a book? It’s such a different experience reading on a tablet or a smartphone. A physical book has a heft, a permanence that you don’t get digitally. So our hope is that the bookstore will…
-
Literally in Pictures
“Literally” is a photographic project by Steve Kenward. Each shot in the series is a portrait of an independent bookseller in his shop—head over to Kenward’s website to see all the pictures.17