#indie bookstores

[bookaddict24-7]

I found these photos of a couple of bookstores from my trip with my bestie back in January! Sigh, I love a good indie bookstore!

[whilereadingandwalking]

Chicago has the best indies in the universe, and even James Daunt’s audacious bullshit won’t keep the new Barnes & Noble location from hurting my favorite stores. Support your locals!

[charliejaneanders]

Here are some pics from past bookstore and chocolate crawls! It's a lovely time where we swarm into bookstores, buy all the books we can carry, and then move on to the next store, sustaining ourselves with chocolate. Hope you can join us on Saturday!

[swansongofalyre]

Wait I lied, one more book post—if you want to get a copy of my book AND support an incredible local Asian woman-owned bookstore AND get a sharp stabby beautiful letter opener with a mother-of-pearl inlay handle (plus, of course, a gorgeous bookmark and bookplate), look no further, because Yu and Me Books has this all for you (while supplies last):

Mother-of-pearl handicraft has played an important part in Korean history and art, as well as in the history of my own family. My most cherished piece of furniture is a lacquered mother-of-pearl cabinet I inherited from my 친할머니 (paternal grandmother), who was one of the main inspirations behind my book. Those who have already read the book know that it is written partly in the form of letters and messages.

In this age of digital convenience (which I love, don't get me wrong), I would love for this to inspire you to write a note to someone you love telling them something you wish you had told them long ago, and perhaps you might get a letter back that you can open with this.

Or if not, the letter opener is also great for opening junk mail pretending to be real mail, and is sharp enough to open packages and/or the veins of your enemies in a pinch.

If you are in or near New York, I highly recommend you stop by Yu and Me Books in person. Its founder, Lucy Yu, has created a really remarkable, warm, cozy place that is dedicated to the community and to curating an incredible curated selection of books with a focus on immigrant stories. It is the first bookstore I've ever gone into where my immediate reaction was, "Literally every single one of these books is relevant to my interests." The bookstore suffered a terrible fire last year, and somehow bounced back in just seven months. Even if you don't care about my book at all, I would love for you to check out the selection and support the store in another way if you can!

If you aren't nearby, you can also order online while supplies last!

Okay NOW I am done with book posts for real.

[ashen-crest]

Update: The Book Burrow exceeded its goal this week!!

They were aiming to sell 1000 books by the 12th to afford a new home. Thanks to your support, they sold over 1600 books by the 10th!

A big, big thank-you to everyone who bought stuff from the store or even just shared my previous posts about supporting it. You had a direct hand in saving a queer indie bookstore in Texas. You’re the best. 💕

It sounds like the Burrow has some very exciting things in the works, so please follow them on Insta or FB for updates!

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Happy Independent Bookstore Day!

Tomorrow (Apr 25) I’ll be in San Diego for the launch of my new novel, Red Team Blues, at 7PM at Mysterious Galaxy Books, hosted by Sarah Gailey. Please come and say hi!

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It’s Independent Bookstore Day! I love bookstores, especially indies. I’m a recovering bookseller (love you, BakkaPhoenix!) and an inveterate and absurdly optimistic buyer of books — just this weekend, I bought three books at the LA Times Festival of Books, from Pages and Octavia’s Bookshelf!

If you’d like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here’s a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/24/tax-loss-harvesting/#ibd

Supporting indie bookstores doesn’t mean foregoing the convenience of buying online. Libro.fm pioneered a model that lets you nominate your favorite local bookstore, which receives part of the proceeds from every audiobook you buy at Libro (where all the audiobooks are DRM-free).

Libro is celebrating indie bookstores all week with stellar deals on an incredible lineup of audiobooks, from Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower to Chokepoint Capitalism, the book Rebecca Giblin and I wrote about how monopolies (including bookstore monopolies like Amazon) destroy the livelihoods of creative workers, and how to fight back:

https://libro.fm/ibd

You can also back your favorite indie bookstore when you shop online at Bookshop.org, who — like Libro — donate a portion of the cost of every book you buy to a nominated local bookseller:

https://bookshop.org/

Of course, nothing beats actually visiting your local bookstore, browsing the books, reading the shelf-reviews, and talking to knowledgeable, intelligent, passionate booksellers in person. I’m about to embark on a tour for my next novel, Red Team Blues, and I’ll be stopping at many great indie stores on the way.

Tomorrow, I’ll be in San Diego at Mysterious Galaxy Books for a launch with Sarah Gailey. On Wednesday, I’ll be in Burbank at Dark Delicacies. On May 5, I’ll be in Mountain View with Mitch Kapor at Books, Inc. There are plenty more stops, in PDX, Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, DC, Gaithersburg, and all over the UK, finishing in Berlin:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/19/whats-wrong-with-iowa/#red-team-blues-tour

I hope to see you there! Also, my family has asked that you stage an intervention if you see me buying more books while I’m on tour!

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Catch me on tour with Red Team Blues in San Diego, Burbank, Mountain View, Berkeley, San Francisco, Portland, Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, DC, Gaithersburg, Oxford, Hay, Manchester, Nottingham, London, and Berlin!

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[Image ID: A shot of the legendary El Ateneo bookstore, 'the world's most beautiful bookstore,' housed in a former grand theater in Buenos Aires, Argentina.]

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Image: Liam Quinn https://www.flickr.com/photos/liamq/5459406835/

CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/

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[librofm]

Every time I’m in a bookstore and I see an index card with handwriting I know I’m in for a treat!!

[lilithsaintcrow]

“But Daunt also wants to empower booksellers to pick books based on their own particular tastes. If someone is interested in historical fiction or manga, they’re invited to develop a good selection of books in that category. Daunt says that often, these booksellers’ picks drive readers towards lesser-known books.”

I find this interesting. The breathless tone of “taking on Amazon and WORKING!!!” elides the fact that the approach—listening to the actual booksellers—has always been the right one though it’s been cost-cut almost out of existence by larger chains, which is why the chains died.

The framing—that it’s “revolutionary” to actually listen to the people selling the books—is just awful. And the further framing that B&N is “stealing” indie bookstore strategies instead of focusing on what’s ALWAYS worked for bookstores sets up unnecessary “rivalry”, which is what bigger chains use to fuck up the entire ecosystem anyway.

The framing—that it’s “revolutionary” to actually listen to the people selling the books—is just awful. And the further framing that B&N is “stealing” indie bookstore strategies instead of focusing on what’s ALWAYS worked for bookstores sets up unnecessary “rivalry”, which is what bigger chains use to fuck up the entire ecosystem anyway.

[mollyringle]

Amazon's ebook charts are full of AI-generated spam I have said it before, but it bears repeating now more than ever: please buy your books from independent booksellers rather than Amazon, whenever possible.

I got the above article from a friend who works in the mass-book-printing side of the industry, and he reports that Amazon does not offer any assistance at all in weeding out AI-generated nonsense books like the ones in this article. They say it's all up to the printers and publishers to flag those—and to take on the legal liability if they fail to catch one and it turns out to be pirated, say.

Meanwhile, from the more obvious consumer end, allowing junk AI books to get listed on their site makes Amazon harder to browse for meaningful content, because there's too much dreck clogging up the list.

Legit bookstores have legit humans selecting the titles they sell. Please reward them for being sane and helpful by buying your books from those.

I will add that there are of course legit humans writing and self-publishing on Amazon, and that may be one of the only ways to buy their book. (Though I urge authors not to go exclusive with Amazon, given the issue above and about a hundred other issues.) To support author friends who are known humans, do order wherever. 🙂

[bigcats-birds-and-books]

so i've gotten almost none Actual Work done today at work, but!: i have selected which books i'll be ordering from which stores on independent bookstore day, so we're counting that as a win

[kmbezner]

hello hello!

My name is KM Bezner 📚 I'm a queer former bookseller / current librarian in the making!

I write some things, edit other things, and make arts & crafts of many varieties!

Currently I write about books at Cannonball Read and sometimes other places like Women Write About Comics.

I copyedited and proofread two books in 2022 for West Warwick Public Library Press! One is a queer anthology of mostly speculative fiction, and the other is a fiction collection of women writers of the Middle Eastern & North African diaspora.

I love embroidery, pattern design, making zines, playing with graph paper, and making fun stickers and buttons.

I also love tabletop rpgs, and am running one D&D 5e campaign and one Thirsty Sword Lesbians campaign! Right now these are just for fun and friends, but who knows what the future holds 👀

Content here is a mix of what I make and what I like, and you can find me on most other socials @kmbezner!

Links! All the links!

[raphexim]

Aw, wish I'd seen this sooner!!

READERS: FYI BOOKSHOP.ORG HAS FREE SHIPPING FOR ANTI-PRIME DAYS

This is a cool platform that gives back to local and small businesses so I'm affiliated with them. If you want to use my link to buy anything I'll get a small cut which is appreciated, but regardless this is still a neat opportunity to dodge Amazon's monopoly especially if you don't have prime.

[whilereadingandwalking]

This Independent Bookstore Day was everything I needed. Post-layoff, and especially after this past week, I really needed this day of celebrating bookish spaces and the incredible bookstore owners of Chicago.

7 hours, 15 bookstores! I had to restrain myself while still supporting our amazing indies. I tried to funnel my energy into buying books for my friends’ kids, but even so, I took home a good couple reads for myself. And now I have 15% off for the year! Thanks to my partner for taking photos and helping me to carry all these books, and to all the kind booksellers I saw in person today. 🩵

[charliejaneanders]

Reminder!

The BOOKSTORE AND CHOCOLATE CRAWL is this Saturday, Sept. 21, from 1 PM to 4 PM on 24th street in SF. Eat chocolate! Support local bookstores! Make new friends! This is a chill, friendly, all ages event for anyone who loves bookstores.

[lifeofafemalebibliophile]

Indie Bookstores to Visit in Metro Detroit Pt.5

[bigdipperenthusiast]

Pilsen Community Books in Chicago kicks absolute ass and they recognized me at the counter and said it’s always good to see me 😌 and I got new books 😌