An Interview with Meg Wasmer, co-owner of Copper Dog Books in Beverly, Massachusetts.
Welcome to the next installment of the Bookstore Solidarity Project! Every month, we’ll be highlighting indie bookstore owners and booksellers across the country.
For October, we got to chat with Meg Wasmer, one of the co-owners of Copper Dog Books in Beverly, Massachusetts. It’s a great little store, with a strong focus on genre fiction. Horror and sci-fi fans would love their selection! (Plus, they have a slew of MIcrocosm titles.)
Your Name and Pronouns
Meg Wasmer, she/they
Tell us a little bit about the store and your community!
Beverly is the best. It’s right by Salem, but doesn’t suffer under the crush of spooky tourism in October. Our customers let me hurl tons of SFF and horror and witchy books at them but also, there are three colleges within five miles of us, so also lots of neat nonfiction.
What got you into bookselling?
The video store I worked at was closing and Borders was hiring and I knew I was good at alphabetically shelving rectangular entertainment media
What’s something about your store that you think will surprise people?
There is both a secret plushie collection and a very nice whiskey selection in the back office.
What are some of you favorite ways your community supports your store?
My favorite way that our customers support us is when they bring their friends who are visiting from out of town to see the store like they’re showing off the Crown Jewels.
What’s your current favorite book to sell customers?
The Navigating Fox by Christopher Rowe is stupidly good!
How can customers who aren’t local shop your shelves?
At Copperdogbooks.com!
Be sure to follow Copper Dog Books on Instagram and Facebook! (And check out their Bonfire store for sweet merch, including this shirt with the “best” review they got last year)
Check out Meg’s podcast interview with Joe and Elly here!