Hello Meltingpot Community,
It feels like day number 70 million thousand of our new lockdown lifestyle. Here in Philadelphia, where I live, we’re still allowed to go outside and take walks and bike rides, so I should hardly complain because many people have it much worse. But I want to give everyone permission in this community to complain and grieve and mourn all the things they’ve had to give up because of this global pandemic. There’s no reason to compete in a “Who has it worse Olympics?” We’re all suffering in one way or another.
But I would like to take this time to highlight the suffering of one particular group of people who are near and dear to my heart. Moreover, I’d like to encourage you all to join with me in lifting them up. The group I’m speaking of is the collective group of people who make up the book industry. From authors and illustrators, to the giant New York City based publishers (and their equally important indie cousins), to the big book chains, to the local book stores dotting our individual neighborhoods. Not to mention, the book reviewers, the book agents, the book translators and editors. This literary ecosystem is what keeps me alive both literally and figuratively, and I want to encourage everyone to take a moment to reflect on what our world would look like without access to the plethora of books we’re used to.
Horrifying isn’t it?
The Books Are Essential Campaign
Publisher’s Weekly, the publishing industry trade magazine, launched the #BooksareEssential campaign to raise awareness of the need for books in society in general, but even more so during this global pandemic. It seems pretty obvious that people need distractions when locked inside their homes 24/7, and books provide myriad ways of escape. But also, for all the parents who are suddenly thrust into the role of homeschooling principal and teacher, books are their new essential tools of the trade. And let’s not forget that books can also provide us with coping strategies for living in small spaces, dealing with unruly children, recipes for baking bread, and many of the other things we’re all dealing with for the first time and need reference materials. (Personally, I’m looking for books about plagues, pandemics and surviving house arrest.)
The main purpose of the Books are Essential campaign was/is to allow bookstores to remain open as essential businesses or at least to allow book sales to continue as long as they meet federally mandated guidelines. After all, if people can figure out how to stay six feet apart in a grocery store, pharmacy, Target or Post Office, then shouldn’t the same be true for a bookstore? And keep in mind, the bookstore is just the final link in the book supply food chain. If people can buy books, then authors can keep submitting their work to their agents, who can keep selling them to publishers, who can keep editing them and publishing them and sending them to the bookstores and we can keep buying them. And the cycle of life continues.
So what can you do to help?
How to Save a Life with a Book
Buy a Book (Support a Village)
Buy a book, or two or six. If you can only afford a paperback or kids’ book, buy one of those. If you can splurge for a hardcover, get one of those. Every purchase matters. That book purchase is supporting the author who wrote it (and maybe an illustrator too), the bookstore who sold it, the clerk who works at said bookstore and the publisher who published it (And all the folks who work at said publishing house.).
Support Local Bookstores
If you’re in a financial position to buy books, support local bookstores as much as possible as they don’t have the cash reserves to exist without a regular customer base. The way I see it, I’m not spending money on gas, clothes, birthday parties, random knick-knacks, etc, so I’m spending my discretionary funds on books. Independent bookstores often operate with very slim margins and/or depend on cafe sales to bolster their bottom line. Without foot traffic or coffee to sell, these shops will most certainly shutter without support. If you personally don’t love reading (say what?!) consider buying gift cards to give to friends or family, or make a donation to the store if they’re set up to receive it. I recently saw a new Black-owned indie bookstore here in Philadelphia – Uncle Bobbie’s bookstore – had shut its doors due to the pandemic but had set up a Go Fund Me campaign to help keep them afloat. It’s come to that for many stores. There is also a Writer’s Emergency Fund set up by PEN America that is accepting donations for the thousands of writers who are suddenly unable to find work.
Online distributors Need Love Too
Please DON’T keep buying books from Amazon right now. Amazon is not facing extinction by any stretch of the imagination. On the other hand, Barnes and Noble could use support. Powell’s bookstore is doing online sales. And then there’s the new kid on the block, Bookshop.org. I’ve written about Bookshop.org on the blog before, but I’ll repeat myself because it’s important. Bookshop.org is an online bookstore that was created to give Indie booksellers a chance to compete against Amazon. As an online retailer, they sell physical books and ebooks. Any FYI, they are still delivering books during the pandemic. (Amazon, not so much). More importantly, part of Bookshop’s model includes donating a portion of ALL OF THEIR PROFITS to indie booksellers, and not just during the pandemic. So, just buying a book directly from Bookshop distributes the love and the money to many struggling stores.
Spread the Word!
One person buying one book, or even two or even 10, is not going to save the publishing industry. But if one person shares this post with two people and those two people buy a bunch of books and they share the post, you can see how this could work. That’s why the Books are Essential campaign was launched via social media (#BooksareEssential). We need this thing to go viral. We need a whole lot of people to buy books and support this most vital industry. I mean, can you imagine a world without books?
Horrifying isn’t it?!
What are you doing to support the book industry? Do you think books are essential during a pandemic? Have you seen how devastating the pandemic has been to the comic book industry? It’s hard to know how comic book stores will survive. Let me know what you think. Or just tell me what you’re reading. I’m totally listening.
Be Well!
(p.s. That featured image is of me and author Chimamanda Adichie with her beautiful novel Americanah in 2013. That book was absolutely essential reading for me!)
