Bookstore Blues

 

We're losing another mystery bookstore, it seems. Christine Burke, the owner of Clues Unlimited in Tucson, Arizona, announced in a Facebook post that the store, which she's owned since 1996, is a casualty of "the global pandemic and advancing age." Until the store closes, all new releases will be 20% off, and all used mass market paperbacks will be $2. Used trade paperbacks and hardcovers, will go for $5. The store will be open for appointments until Saturday, December 26. "We have been selling the best mysteries and have presented some of the great writers of the genre for signings and events, including Tony Hillerman, Lee Child, Anne Perry, Laurie R. King, Michael McGarrity, Craig Johnson, and C.J. Box," wrote Burke. "Thank you all for your support over the years. You have become more than customers--you have become friends and allies." (HT to Shelf Awareness)

This is a good time to remind everyone that bookstores are suffering in large numbers during the pandemic. Many have tried a combination of online ordering, limited in-person opening or shopping by appointment, or even delivery and curbside pickup. But even so, we're losing approximately one bookstore EACH WEEK, and many of those will never be replaced. During this holiday season, please remember your local indie bookstores as you shop for presents (books, games puzzles, chocolate, wine, and more). Most do have some form of online ordering, and even if they don't they may participate in Bookshop.org, where you can order books and proceeds will be shared with your local indies. If you prefer audio books, Libro.fm will do the same for that format. You can also donate to the Book Industry Charitable Foundation (BINC), which provides grants and aid to booksellers.

Indie bookstores don't just sell books, they are community centers that support literacy, host book clubs and author readings and lectures, contribute to local charities and so much more. Plus, the dollars, jobs, and taxes remain in your community.

Shop Small

Today is Small Business Saturday! These businesses are vital to our communities, and they've been especially hard hit by the pandemic. If you'd like to check out an indie bookstore near you, you can search this bookstore finder from IndieBound. (If you're outside the U.S. you can check out this international list.) Many of these have Covid-related restrictions like limited in-store shopping or delivery/curbside service only, so be sure and check with the store before you go ... or check out their website or visit Bookshop (for print books) and Libro.fm (for audiobooks), with proceeds supporting local stores.

Support Your Indies

Today is Independent Bookstore Day in the U.S., postponed from its previously scheduled date of April 25. Sponsored by the American Booksellers Association, some 600+ stores around the country are planning on participating in the event, which will this year be taking place mostly virtually, although some stores will have limited on-site events. Like many businesses, these indie bookstores have been largely limping along during the pandemic, with many seeing sales drop by as much as 30-60%. So this is a perfect way to help show your support during these difficult times.

Many of the mystery-themed bookstores are planning on joining in the festivities, with some sample features to include Mysterious Galaxy, which is participating in a Virtual San Diego Book Crawl, where you can win pins, prints, totes, and t-shirts by spending money in participating stores; Murder by the Book in Houston is featuring a conversation between James Lee Burke and Stephen King on YouTube; The Poisoned Pen in Scottsdale will have two virtual chats, Sophie Hannah discussing The Killings at Kingfisher Hill and Alex Pavesi discussing The Eighth Detective from 1-2 pm, and also Susanna Kearsley, C.S. Harris, Anna Lee Huber, and Christine Trent discussing the anthology, The Deadly Hours, from 2-3; and Madison, Wisconsin's Mystery to Me is celebrating the day by reopening to in-store customers as well as offering exclusive merchandise and a few special surprises.

But you can support your local indie bookstore just by ordering books (and not just today). For a listing of stores participating in Independent Bookstore Day, follow this link; for a listing of all indie bookstores, click here; and if you'd like to support Black-owned bookstores, here's a helpful list.

Give Indies Some Love

This Saturday is the fifth annual Independent Bookstore Day, a one-day national party that takes place at indie bookstores across the country to celebrate these invaluable treasures, which are not only stores but also community centers and local anchors run by passionate readers. Almost 600 indie bookstores will take part with a mix of author appearances, live music, food, scavenger hunts, kids' events, art tables, readings, barbecues, contests, and exclusive books and literary items. You can follow along with Tayari Jones who is holding a Twitter party for Bookstore Day or check out IBD on Facebook using the hashtag #BookstoreDay.

Some of the mystery bookstores joining in the fun include:

• Mystery Lovers Bookshop in Oakmont, PA, with coffee and mimosas, donuts, children's activities and snacks all day, and author visits from Kathleen Shoop and Cameron Brookins
• Once Upon a Crime in Minneapolis, MN, is taking part in a city-wide indie event where you can pick up a passport at any participating bookstore and get it stamped for coupons and an entry for grand prizes
• the Mechanicsburg Mystery Bookshop in Mechanicsburg, PA, has coupons for a free used book
• the Cloak & Dagger in Princeton, NJ, will have author chats with Jeff Markowitz, Kellye Garrett, Jane Kelly, and Albert Tucher, as well as giveaways, special discounts and contests, and a sidewalk book sale
• Mysterious Galaxy in San Diego has planned several author events and is participating in a Bookstore Crawl where readers can collect stamps from each bookstore and get free bookish goodies like tote bags, enamel pins, and be eligible to win some great prizes
• Murder by the Book in Houston, TX,will be hosting an encore presentation of Murder By The Book Recommends, where staff members share some of their favorite current and upcoming releases, with all featured titles 20% off, plus giveaways, cake, and wine
• At the Mysterious Bookshop in NYC, if you spend over $100 in-store, you'll receive an exclusive, limited edition 40th anniversary tote bag, the design of which features all the names of authors they've published at the bookshop over the years. 
• Centuries and Sleuths in Forest Park, IL, is celebrating the day with a Spring Wine Walk & Shop and are taking part in a multi-store passport challenge:  visit ten stores in one day and get 10% off at all bookstores listed below for an entire year or visit fifteen stores in one day and get 15% off at all bookstores listed below for an entire year 
• and One More Page in Falls Church, VA (my local store), is holding a bookseller bake-off, book giveaways, hourly raffles, romance-themed drinks, and more.

To find out what your local bookstore has planned to join in the celebrations, check out this handy store locator or this Publishers Weekly article about more Book Crawls - and support your indies!

Indies First

 

Today is one of the busier shopping days of the year, and it's also time for the annual Small Business Saturday, a day to celebrate and support small businesses and all they do for their communities. As part of that, bookstores are celebrating the sixth annual Indies First program, which now includes more than 500 indie bookstores around the U.S. To find the closest bookseller near you, check out Indiebound's Indie Bookstore Finder.

Happy 25th Birthday to Mystery Loves Company

Mystery Loves Company Booksellers in Oxford, Maryland, will celebrate its 25th birthday this year, which owner and co-founder Kathy Harig is commemorating with a party and book signing on July 4 reaturing author Fran White. The store, which opened in 1991 in Baltimore before moving to its present site in 2006, offers books on the Eastern Shore’s history, flora and fauna, and fiction for all ages, as well as an in-depth collection of mysteries, both new and gently used in hardback and paperback. The store also supports mystery authors throughout the mid-Atlantic with signings and by sponsoring special mystery events, as well as offering a monthly email newsletter of events, recommendations and new mystery titles. Even if you can't make it to the store in person, it recently added an online ordering system, so order a book today as a thank you and birthday tribute.

 

Indie Bookstore Bash

Last year, the California Bookstore Day celebrating indie bookstores was such a huge success that the project is going bigger in 2015. This Saturday, May 2, Independent Bookstore Day will include 400 indie bookstores across the U.S. participating in the inaugural national event. Meanwhile, our neighbors to the north will be celebrating their first Authors for Indies Day.

The U.S. organizations put it this way as to why they think the event is important:

Independent bookstores are not just stores, they’re community centers and local anchors run by passionate readers. They are entire universes of ideas that contain the possibility of real serendipity. They are lively performance spaces and quiet places where aimless perusal is a day well spent.
 
Indie bookstores, whether dusty and labyrinthine or clean and well-lighted, are not just stores, they are solutions. They hold the key to your love life, your career, and your passions. Walking the aisles of a good bookstore means stumbling upon a novel from India that expands your heart. It’s encountering an art book that changes the direction of your life. It’s the joy of having a perfect stranger steer you toward the perfect book.
 
In a world of tweets and algorithms and pageless digital downloads, bookstores are not a dying anachronism.  They are living, breathing organisms that continue to grow and expand. In fact, there are more of them this year than there were last year. And they are at your service.

We are blessed here in the greater Washington D.C. area with several terrific indie bookstores like Mystery Loves Company, One More Page, Politics & Prose and Kramerbooks and Afterwards Cafe. Check out the event website links at the top of this post for the participating bookstores and authors near you and stop by this Saturday. Help support your local stores and your favorite authors at the same time.

Mystery Loves Company

nna Quindlen once said "Those of us who read because we love it more than anything, feel about bookstores the way some people feel about jewelers." I've loved hanging out in bookstores since I was old enough to read, and now that I'm on the creative end of the pipeline, I see bookstores from dual perspectives as a reader and author. Bookstores are as important as ever to both.

Bookstore staff are also among the most supportive of crime fiction, which is why I was thrilled to see that Mystery Loves Company, in the town of Oxford on Maryland's Eastern Shore, included my novel Played to Death in their "New Hardbacks" catalog. I'm in some good company, with titles from Alan Bradley, Marcia Muller & Bill Pronzini, Paula Hawkins, George Pelecanos, and many more.

If you happen to find yourself in Oxford, please stop by and check out all the great books at Mystery Loves Company, and buy a few for reading during these cold February nights. And if you'd like to buy or order a copy of Played to Death, I'm sure owner Kathy Harig would be happy to oblige.

Whither the Bookstore?

A new bookstore in Texas caught my eye the other day. The Wild Detectives in Dallas is a combination bookstore (a small, curated section of books) and cafe and bar. Or, as the article in the Dallas Observer notes, "you can order up a Lakewood Lager, pull out your beat-up copy of a Jonathan Lethem novel or T.S. Eliot poems and read in peace. An eclectic playlist softly fills the space, only interrupted by the occasional conversation or the hiss of the bartender steaming milk." It also hopes to be a hub for creative thought, perhaps hosting author talks or book clubs, which is something many indie bookstores are already doing today.

So I wonder if this is the new norm for indie bookstores? Combination shops as opposed to books-only (or primarily) stores? I think it sounds like fun, and the owners seem pleased with possibly breaking even, but I can't help but wonder if this is another sign of the demise of traditional bookstores or just the inevitable evolution. Even Barnes and Noble integrated coffee shops into its locations years ago and now sells an increasing amount of non-book items like toys, games and software.

Would a concept like The Wild Detectives make you more or less likely to visit a bookstore?

Promote Your Independents

The annual Small Business Saturday is coming at the end of this month on November 30th, and indie bookstores are a large part of that celebration. Authors are pitching in, too, with more than 285 authors signing up to handsell their books at 225 bookstores across the U.S.

As Bookselling This Week reported, some of the authors already on board are James Patterson at the Classic Bookshop in Palm Beach, FL; Jess Walter at Auntie's Bookstore, Spokane, WA; Martin Cruz Smith at Book Passage, Corte Madera, CA; A.S. King will be at Aaron’s Books in Lititz, PA; Mike Lawson at the University Bookstore in Renton, WA; Ace Atkins at Square Books, Oxford, MS; and many more.

IndieBound.org has a map of participating bookstore locations and authors that you can check for locations near you. You can also follow the IndiesFirst Twitter feed using the hashtag #IndiesFirst for the latest news.