What if someone else just published the same book? (A People’s Guide to Publishing)

It happens all the time. One of our distributed publishers got in touch, horrified and terrified that MacMillan had just published the same book that she did the week before. She thought it would cannibalize her sales. Many authors and publishers keep this stuff close to the chest. Not us. We follow the Paul Hawken school of being your best, individualized self.

Get the People’s Guide to Publishing here, and the workbook here!
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Burning Rage of a Dying Planet: The FBI vs. the Earth Liberation Front

An insider’s view of radical environmentalism

Since the mid-1990s, the secretive cell organization calling itself the Earth Liberation Front (ELF, or Elves) has waged a brazen campaign of property damage and arson attacks against entities they hold responsible for environmental destruction, including timber companies, ski resorts, slaughterhouses, and car dealerships.

In Burning Rage of a Dying Planet: The FBI vs. the Earth Liberation Front, former ELF spokesperson Craig Rosebraugh charts the history and ideology of the ELF, as well as the repression strategies the government uses to destroy activist movements—including tactics we continue to see wielded against global liberation movements today. Rosenbraugh himself was the subject of a shocking New York Times article last year detailing the efforts of an informant connected to the FBI and the CIA to draw him into a book contract designed never to reach publication, but which provided authorities the opportunity to comb his drafts for clues that might help them apprehend ELF conspirators. Rosenbraugh, though, only ever transmitted anonymous communiques, and when he made a discovery about the man posing as his “book packager” that he writes “made my heart race, made my breath vanish, and sent me off to gather every weapon I had in my house,” the project came to an uneasy end.

Luckily, Rosenbraugh was still determined to let his story see the light of day after this harrowing ordeal, and the book was originally published in 2004. Twenty years later, Microcosm is proud to release this revised and updated edition, featuring a new foreword from Extinction Rebellion co-founder Tamsin Osmond. Burning Rage remains a valuable and illuminating insider account of the ongoing battle between radical environmentalist movements and the powers of the state; one that offers frank insight into the great personal cost of political action, but also the urgency of collective resistance to capitalist violence.

Read on for an excerpt of Burning Rage of a Dying Planet: The FBI vs. the Earth Liberation Front by Craig Rosenbraugh, now available for preorder from our site or from your local bookseller. Out everywhere 7/9/24.

(more…)

Can booksellers increase bonding over Corgis? Janet Geddis of Avid Bookshop (People’s Guide to Publishing)

Publishers often think of booksellers as our frontline marketing force; the people who we outsource our jobs to. This week, Janet Geddis of Avid Bookshop does a great job of outlining the actual role that bookstores play in a daily role. It’s more matchmaking than pushing the newest thing on some poor, unsuspecting browser. It’s a deep game of familiarity that ultimately results in hilarity of two people of disparate backgrounds relating to each other in the store at the same time. Publishers interested in taking her up on her “Hang out in my store and learn what bookselling entails” offer, get in touch!

And if you haven’t seen it yet, here’s a link to Avid’s Solidarity Project interview.

Get the People’s Guide to Publishing here, and the workbook here!
Want to stay up to date on new podcast episodes and happenings at Microcosm? Subscribe to our newsletter!

Bookstore Solidarity Project: An Interview with David & Dara Landry of CLASS Bookstore in Houston, Texas

Welcome to the next installment of the Bookstore Solidarity Project! Every month, we’ll be highlighting indie bookstore owners and booksellers across the country (and beyond!)

For June, we got to chat with David and Dara, the co-owners of CLASS Bookstore in Houston. CLASS started out as an online bookstore in 2020, and they are all about all about consistency, credibility, collaboration, and creativity. Check out our interview with the owners below!

Your name and pronouns?
David (he/him) & Dara (she/her) Landry

Tell us a little bit about the store and your community.
CLASS Bookstore is a Black-owned, family operated, indie bookstore based in Houston, TX. We are based in the Third Ward community and we like the following things about where we are: our proximity to two universities (Texas Southern University and University of Houston) and a high school (Jack Yates High School, the alma mater of George Floyd); the positive relationships that we have built with the members of the community; something good is always going on in Third Ward (Jazz Concerts at Emancipation Park; TSU Homecoming; UH Frontier Fiesta; Third Ward Block Party). We have a pet dog named Catcher, named after J.D. Salinger’s book, Catcher in the Rye.

What got you into bookselling?
The thing that got us into indie bookselling was our desire to actively resist the so-called “decline” of the Black-owned bookstore in America. Books have always been important to us from a young age and we felt that it was a business that we felt passionate about doing. Once we had talked to a few Black-owned bookstores that had been around for awhile and gain some perspective, we decided to make it happen.

How did you choose your store’s name?
The reasons why we named our store CLASS Bookstore are the following: it’s easy to write and remember; the word “CLASS” elicits the idea of literacy, social strata, and how one should view reading all at once. We capitalize the word CLASS so that it will stand out, very much like the late rapper MF DOOM capitalized his name.

What’s something about your store that you think will surprise people?
We are the bookstore that loves streetwear! We consider ourselves part of the sneaker and streetwear community and we love to dress fly and step out for events. We also incorporate elements from the streetwear and sneaker community in everything that we do, from the presentation of our physical space, to the merch that we release in store.

What are some of you favorite ways your community supports your store?
Every first Sunday of the month, we have a growing contingent of people who love poetry and spoken word who come to the store and share their work with each other and have been doing so every month for the past year or so. It is a safe space for people of all types to come to the shop and either spectate or participate. This is totally community organized and CLASS Bookstore just provides the physical space to do the event. Another way that our community comes through and supports us is our monthly event on first Saturdays called “Ladies First Saturdays”, where from 12p – 3p CST, women can come to CLASS Bookstore and have tea, talk, or just be. We have music playing according to a pre-selected theme and we sometimes even have speakers come through and talk on a variety of topics, such as mental health, metaphysics, and naturopathy.

What are two books you can’t wait for people to read, or your current favorite handsells?
Sacred Woman by Queen Afua; Everyone Calls Themselves an Ally Until it Is Time to Do Some Real Ally Shit by Xhopakelxhit

How can customers who aren’t local shop your shelves and support you?
People can shop with us on our website, and if they can’t find what they are looking for on our website, they can shop with us through our Bookshop affiliate link.

Anything else you’d like to share?
Thank you so much, Microcosm! We can’t wait to visit you all in person!

Be sure to follow CLASS Bookstore on their Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and Tiktok, and check back in a few weeks for their podcast episode!

You can read our other Bookstore Solidarity Project posts here!
And click here to get a copy of How to Protect Bookstores and Why.

How do you organize a Cat Party? w/ Katie Haegele (A People’s Guide to Publishing)

Katie Haegele has been passionate about cats for decades. They have been some of the most meaningful relationships in her life. This time around she’s organizing other people to share the most touching, heartwarming, wacky, and unbelievable stories about the behavior and emotional range of cats in her eighth book, Cat Party!

Get the People’s Guide to Publishing here, and the workbook here!
Want to stay up to date on new podcast episodes and happenings at Microcosm? Subscribe to our newsletter!

What does AI mean for publishers? (starring Jane Friedman) (A People’s Guide to Publishing)

Much hullaballoo and many predictions have been made about how AI will “disrupt” the publishing industry. Typically, with a new technology the steps are 1) fear the new way 2) figure out how to embrace it in a practical sense. How will AI affect publishers? Is the fear substantiated? What can publishers do?

(Note: We are aware that the video capture is frozen on and off for the first two minutes. Enjoy the listening experience during that time!)

Get the People’s Guide to Publishing here, and the workbook here!
Want to stay up to date on new podcast episodes and happenings at Microcosm? Subscribe to our newsletter!

Laddergate: Microcosm vs. Webstaurantstore; Fraud? Definitely not Legit.

Usually, when we tell strangers that we work in publishing, they picture us crafting the latest bit of editorial brilliance from an emerging, young mind over a candle-lit typewriter. Or they mourn the death of the publishing industry with some imaginary dreck like “nobody reads anymore.”

For better (and some days, for worse), paper books remain more popular than ever, especially with young people. This leads to an ever-increasing volume of warehouses, shelves, racking, paper, trucks, and…safety ladders. And this leads us to a snapshot of one of the key roles of a publisher in any era: negotiating with suppliers and figuring out material flow logistics.

a warehouse full of pallet racking and boxes

We organize our warehouses so that the most popular books are on the floor for easiest access. As books get older and less popular, they are placed higher and higher in the stacks, until they require a ladder to retrieve.

During the pandemic supply chain crisis, we were at the mercy of material shortages and manufacturer delays. It took three times as long as usual to print a book. But it wasn’t just books. On October 18, 2022, we attempted to order four more safety ladders from Webstaurantstore. The estimated delivery date was “March 2023.”

“Wow,” I thought. “That is a long time to wait for four ladders. But we need ’em.”

We placed an order for shelving parts at the same time. Another $2,324.99 of your hard-earned money was spent on more of our behind-the-scenes infrastructure.

We waited. On November 7, 2022 we were surprised to receive a delivery from a company called Ballymore. We received no tracking information or advance warning that a delivery was coming, including no information about what was in the order. We were not given a Bill of Lading (the legal document that shows what is contained in a delivery), we weren’t told that this was part of our Webstaurantstore order, and the delivery driver did not even request the standard signature confirming delivery or allow time for us to inspect the boxes before he left. Upon opening the four boxes on the pallet, they proved to each contain one out of four pieces of a single ladder, which needed to be assembled. And we’ll never forget that, because assembly seemed to take all day.

An attractive orange step ladder

Due to the lack of communication or notices, we were baffled. “Weird. I guess materials are in such short supply that they are going to send these one at a time?” I thought. Honestly, I didn’t think much of it—we frequently receive items from a single order in multiple shipments over a period of time. Our online Webstaurant store order was not marked as complete, so we assumed that the other three ladders were coming in March 2023, as quoted. 

We had still not received the remaining three ladders when we were scheduled to on March 21, 2023, so we followed up with the Webstaurantstore. Instead, we were told that it was too late to notify them of a shortage, since it was more than 5 days since the delivery of the single ladder. They updated our shipping status to “delivered.” We argued that it was less than five days since the items were expected to be delivered. They told us that their records showed that we had received four ladders, none of which should have required assembly and insisted that three ladders were lost in our warehouse. “Look around and you’ll find them” was their solution. It was as insulting as it was baffling, as if we would contact them before “looking around” and had somehow managed to misplace three seven-foot ladders. They said there was nothing that we could do.

When it became clear that Webstaurantstore’s claims were illegitimate and they were not going to send us the ladders that we had paid for, we filed charges with Mastercard on March 28, 2023 because the merchant was not interested in resolving the matter. On April 4, 2023 Mastercard attempted to close the case in our favor but Webstaurantstore persisted.

On May 15, 2023, Webstaurantstore responded to the complaint but did not send sufficient documentation to dispute the refund. Then a week later, on May 23, 2023, our claim with Mastercard was denied, as, in the words of the Mastercard rep, “Usually a merchant does not go this far or provide this much paperwork…unless their ability to accept Mastercards due to a volume of disputes is being threatened.”

a microcosm warehouse worker with green hair shows off a large pallet of outgoing mail

How did they do it? Webstaurantstore falsely asserted that we had signed for the shipment and they “found” the bill of lading that had disappeared. Suddenly, they had “proof” of shipment to provide and claimed that we had waited past Mastercard’s 90-day window after delivery. They sent shipping proof for the single ladder as “four pieces,” claiming it was four ladders. They adjusted facts and timelines as was convenient for their argument. They argued that the estimated delivery timeline and lack of communication were irrelevant, so the 90-day window would be calculated from the date of the original order in October. They tried to claim that the unsigned bill of lading was a legal document “proving” delivery. If it was, we had no way of knowing what was allegedly contained in this delivery because it had never been provided to us.

On June 1, 2023 we filed a second dispute with Mastercard, citing that 90 days had not passed since the delivery window, the shipment in question did not contain all of the items that we ordered, there was no communication provided to us that Webstaurantstore believed the transaction was complete, and the bill of lading was never signed or delivered, so we had no way of inspecting it for damage or shortage, as is customary and the purpose of these documents. 

On June 29, 2023 Webstaurantstore again asserted to Mastercard that we do not have charge dispute rights through, as the Mastercard representative put it “Barraging us with a sheer volume of information and paperwork.” but again falsely claiming that the 90-day dispute window after delivery had already passed when first the dispute was filed. This time, Webstaurantstore went so far as to claim that the date when we placed our preorder was actually the date that the items had shipped. 

the labyrinth of metro shelving in our Cleveland warehouse

We looked for other ways to resolve the situation. And this is where things became much more insidious. Since Webstaurantstore is based at 2205 Old Philadelphia Pike Lancaster, PA 17602, we filed a complaint both with the Better Business Bureau (BBB) and the Pennsylvania attorney general. Both organizations seem strangely powerless and act more like dispute mediators than having any authority over a private business (“participation in the Bureau’s mediation process is voluntary for both sides, and we cannot compel a business to agree to a solution.”) that apparently does billions of dollars in annual revenue for the state.

BBB suggested filing notices with the Attorney General’s Office Bureau of Consumer Protection in both Ohio (where they were delivered) and Oregon (where we are based), but these organizations disagreed that this was appropriate. So we explained Webstaurantstore’s deceit to Mastercard once more, who agreed that they were obfuscating the facts and attempted to try again.

a worker pensively waits with two pink pallet jacks for a truck to unload pallets

We repeatedly called the Webstaurantstore customer service number, (717) 392-7472, thinking that if this company is as legit as they claim, they would understand that a perfect storm of events had gone wrong and resolve it. Instead, we were issued a concerningly lengthy claim number, 20231100079631, which would indicate that we are close to their 80 thousandth case of not delivering what someone paid for (or if you ignore what is likely a date, more amusingly, their 20 trillionth). Indeed, each customer service person variously implied that we were confused or lying. Perhaps this “perfect storm” was a feature, not a bug?

Webstaurantstore does not appear to have the ability to be reviewed on Google, but does have a fraudulent page of glowing “google reviews” that they maintain themselves. Clever, misleading, and somewhat baffling.

While the Pennsylvania Attorney General said “you are free to pursue a lawsuit privately,” it turns out that this isn’t entirely true. You see, Webstaurantstore has a particularly shocking “Terms of Service” document:

“You agree that any disputes and claims related to or arising from these Conditions of Use and/or your use of this website, including disputes arising from or concerning their interpretation, violation, invalidity, non-performance, or termination, will be resolved through final and binding arbitration under the Rules of Arbitration of the American Arbitration Association applying the laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, instead of in court. An exception is that you may assert claims in small claims court, if your claims qualify. To begin an arbitration proceeding, you must file a Demand for Arbitration with the AAA, according to the AAA’s rules. Payment of all filing, administration, and arbitrator fees will be governed by the AAA’s rules. We will reimburse those fees for claims totaling less than $10,000 unless the arbitrator determines the claims are frivolous. Likewise, WebstaurantStore will not seek attorneys’ fees and costs in arbitration unless the arbitrator determines the claims are frivolous. You may choose to have the arbitration conducted by telephone, based on written submissions, or in person in the county where you live or at another mutually agreed location.”

This sounds reasonable until you learn that the AAA arbitration fees would cost us a total of $1,725, for a dispute of items costing $1,142.59. It appears that these policies are intentional. Particularly after we learned about the multitude of lawsuits that Webstaurantstore receives from its own employees about alleged illegal labor practices, or as one former employee filed in a lawsuit, they “have not been provided real access to arbitration.” This was very concerning, as is the principle of the matter and our commitment to preventing this from happening to others.

Despite the fact that we did not sign a contract, this is significantly more expensive than a lawsuit costs to file. Fortunately, their terms of service are probably not legally enforceable.

Since we were not made aware that Webstaurantstore erroneously claimed that the order was delivered in full and they did not communicate this fact to us, we remain incapable of fulfilling and agreeing to the terms of sale. Hence, we were not able to notify Webstaurantstore about the delivery shortage within their timeframe because they changed the delivery time frame of the delivery without notifying us of this change. 

As I began to research the company, I learned that numerous labor disputes have risen to the level of lawsuits, for everything from retaliation for attempting to collect overtime pay to multiple cases of civil rights discrimination. They also like to argue about intellectual property and have been sued for this as well. And it appears that we were not the only ones who suffered because of their misleading business practices.

Who was this Webstaurantstore? It appears that their game is controlling the SEO around all restaurant equipment, and they are great at this aspect of their job:

One aspect of their strategy is posting innumerable “articles” that would turn up when you search for “Webstaurantstore fraud,” and instead of the hundreds of entertaining stories of customers not receiving what they paid for and third parties blaming each other, you’ll receive “Webstaurantstore’s guide to preventing fraud at your restaurant.” A Forbes article touts that Webstaurantstore earns more in a day than we do in a year.

A friend pointed out the obvious: Microcosm has great SEO so the area where we could best protect potential future customers is through adding this story to their search results. We simply wanted the items that we paid for or a refund. Instead, nearly two years later, we’ve sunk hours into efforts at basic customer service interactions.

We’re still weighing our next steps. We have either until October 2025 or March 2026 (depending on Webstaurantstore’s obfuscations) to escalate the dispute legally. You might be thinking at this point, “Wow, Microcosm is really obsessed with this ladder thing, maybe they should move on.” Are the time and expense worth it to us? Maybe. Definitely not in terms of money—any legal settlement would need to be much larger than the bilking of the ladders in order to cover the time and costs we’ve already sunk into this issue. We could just let this go—we’re large enough at this point that the loss of three expensive ladders won’t sink us. But even just five years ago, it would have seriously compromised our ability to make payroll and we wouldn’t have been able to do a thing about it. We know we’re not the only people who’ve incurred losses by dealing in good faith with this company. We don’t have limitless resources, but it still seems worthwhile to use some of them to try to hold accountable a giant company that does twice our annual revenue every day but won’t make it right when they mess up.

As book publishers, we all know what it’s like to struggle in the shadow of a giant online retailer that plays dirty and seems to relish endless growth at the expense of everyone else in its ecosystem, including its customers. When people ask us what our day to day job is like, they don’t imagine a years-long dispute over ladders, but what else is there? A ladder helps us safely and quickly get you the obscure book you took a chance on, it helps us protect our workers and our colleagues, it helps us always reach higher.

Post Script: Within 24 hours we heard from numerous businesses who experienced the same phenomenon when attempting to order from Webstaurantstore; one of which went out of business afterwards.

What are the Limits of What You Would Publish? (A People’s Guide to Publishing)

In the dawn of a young publishers’ life, they focus on their own tastes. Gradually, they see which books are well-received and branch outward. Some publishers quickly find that the most popular books are things that aren’t exactly the reason that they got into publishing! So this week on the pod, we talk about the limits of a press’ curation and why that’s important.

Get the People’s Guide to Publishing here, and the workbook here!
Want to stay up to date on new podcast episodes and happenings at Microcosm? Subscribe to our newsletter!

How to Promote Your Book: Actually Helpful Advice for Writers

Introduction

Publishing a book is both the end, and the start, of a long process of bringing your writing into the world and getting your book into the hands of readers. Promoting your book starts long before publication day, or even before the manuscript is finished, and continues long after your book comes out. As a writer, marketer, and community builder, I know that promoting your book can feel intimidating, burdensome, overwhelming, nerve-wracking, and exhilarating all at once. The exercises in this workbook break down the process into manageable, understandable pieces and make it fun along the way. 

The fact of the matter is that whether your book is self-published, published by an independent press, or put out by a major publisher, you as the author are the one who needs to work the hardest to get it out into the world. Whether you are still in the process of writing your book or eagerly waiting for its publication day, working through these exercises will enable you to confidently create a sustainable promotion plan that makes sense for your book, audience, and life. 

No one is born knowing how to promote themselves or their work. Marketing and promotion are skills that are learned. As you practice, you will feel more comfortable putting yourself and your work out into the world and will learn what works for you, your writing, and your community of readers. The exercises in this workbook are ones I’ve used myself to promote my books and honed for over a decade through helping creative people develop the business side of their practice and build support for their projects. I’m excited to share them with you so that you can use them to take concrete steps to create a supportive environment for your book to thrive and succeed. 

How to use this workbook

This workbook is intended to complement my book Promote Your Book. For deeper context, insight, and advice from a wide variety of authors as well as literary, marketing, and community-building professionals, I suggest you read the book alongside this workbook and do the exercises in order. For those doing these exercises in conjunction with reading the book, I’ve noted the chapter that each exercise corresponds to. But whether you are using this workbook as a companion to the book or as a standalone, it is designed to take you step-by-step through the book promotion process so that you gain a holistic understanding of how to reach your readers. If possible, I recommend working through these exercises before your book comes out and using them to create a full book promotion plan, which is outlined in the last section of this workbook.

While there is no one pathway to success for a book and no proven formula to make your book a smash hit, there are concrete actions you can take to support your book and its trajectory in the world. Consider this workbook your starting place.

Chapter One: Building literary community 

While the act of writing is often an isolating one, publishing a book means connecting with the wider world. Being a writer of any kind, whether you are writing in a specific genre or about a specific subject, connects you with a community. The sooner you can start building and deepening connections with communities who can support you as a writer or who would be interested in the subject of your book, the broader the basis of support you will have during and after publication. Community is not a one-way street, but rather an exchange between people with shared interests and values. This is important to keep in mind as you complete the exercises in this section, which will enable you to make a plan to connect with and engage your community. 

These exercises correspond to Chapter One of Promote Your Book.

Identify your community

Reflect and brainstorm. Write down three communities you are already part of:

1.

2.

3.

Now, write down three specific communities your book might speak to:

1.

2.

3.

Reflect: Where is there overlap? If there isn’t overlap, why?

If there’s no overlap between the communities that you are a part of and the communities that your book speaks to, that indicates space to grow and a potential place to prioritize. You may find that you need to focus your energies on building community in places that are interested in what you are writing about. The next set of exercises can help you focus on how to engage, and as you do so, you may find more overlap.

Want to keep reading? Check out Promote Your Book Workbook, along with Eleanor C. Whitney‘s other titles!

Bookstore Solidarity Project: An Interview with Janet Geddis of Avid Bookshop in Athens, GA

Welcome to the next installment of the Bookstore Solidarity Project! Every month, we’ll be highlighting indie bookstore owners and booksellers across the country (and beyond!)

For May, we’re featuring Avid Bookshop in Athens, GA!

Avid is an iconic indie store who have been up to all kinds of cool things lately, including calling for the University of Georgia to collaborate with local bookstores and businesses for their events, and suing Gwinnett County Jail over their mail policy that prevents Avid and other bookstores from mailing books to incarcerated people.

We spoke to owner and founder Janet Geddis. Check it out below!

Your name and pronouns?
Janet Geddis, she/her

Tell us a little bit about the store and your community.
In 2004, I moved to Athens, Georgia for what was supposed to be a two-year stint during my graduate program. I had grown up in nearby Atlanta but hadn’t lived in Georgia since I was in high school. Because most Athenians I knew back then were students, I figured there wasn’t much going on if you weren’t affiliated with the university; if I wanted to live in Athens, this was my one chance. I couldn’t have been more wrong. Athens is my forever-town, somewhere I can’t imagine leaving for long. I fell in love with this creative enclave, a little blue dot amid the mostly-red state. Even before announcing my plans to open a bookstore, I felt a strong sense of community. Once I started Avid Bookshop, my connection to the community grew ever stronger.

In 2007, a friend and I decided to begin researching the possibility of opening a bookstore in Athens. In 2008, we announced our plans and immediately garnered lots of encouragement and support from the Athens community, our friends, our family (even if they were trepidatious!), and the then-unfamiliar book world. Those of you who weren’t adults in 2008 (or those of you who’ve blocked out that period) might have forgotten that that was the year of a recession that was devastating for millions. Not the ideal time to ask banks and private lenders for capital to help open an independent bookstore, especially as folks [whose feedback I wasn’t actually asking for] openly said what a bad idea it was to open a bookstore, especially with Amazon’s continued dominance and the growing buzz about these “ebooks” that were going to make paper books totally irrelevant.

Because we’re still open now, in the year 2024, you know that I did manage to open a bookstore. In 2011, I finally opened a small shop on Prince Avenue, an 800 sq ft historic space less than half a mile from where I was living at the time. In 2016, we opened a second location in a different neighborhood of town. And, on the last day of 2019, we voluntarily closed our original store. (Within a few months, the decision to pivot back to a one-store business model proved to be an inadvertently genius move, as keeping one store going amidst a pandemic was hard enough.)

I am so proud of my store and of my staff past and present. My current crew is especially tight, and I love how we share with each other, support each other, ask for help when needed, and hold each other accountable. And yes, the “we” includes me even though I’m ostensibly the one who’s in charge of it all. It’s not always easy to hear, but getting my colleagues’ feedback on is instrumental and I am grateful for how well we communicate with respect and appreciation, no matter if we’re praising one another or asking folks to step up.

We look to our mission statement to guide our decision-making, our buying, our decision to speak out (or not), our relationships with customers, and more. Check it out here.

What got you into bookselling?
A lifelong obsession with reading; a BA in English; understanding that, while I was a good teacher, I didn’t feel truly inspired or alive while teaching; my deep love for Athens; the fact that this college town didn’t have the kind of community-focused bookstore it so richly deserved.

How did you choose your store’s name?
My friend Amy, who was my original business partner in the early planning stages, thought of it. While I liked the name, I was vying for “Word.” We had thought of tons of options (crowdsourcing from friends during happy hour was always fun), but Avid and Word were the top two contenders. Then, in 2009 or so, I was visiting a dear friend who lived in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. We emerged from the subway and I stopped in my tracks: there, right in front of me, was an eye-catching neighborhood bookstore called WORD. Someone already had the name! “Oh,” my friend said, “This is the bookstore I wanted to show you. Isn’t it cute?” Reader, it was cute. It is cute. And it is the reason I told my friend that we should go with Avid. My one sticking point was that we call it Avid Bookshop, not Avid Bookstore. The emphasis on “shop” conjures a cozier, friendlier, and decidedly indie vibe. (Side note: not long after seeing WORD for the first time, I became buddies with the then-manager and the owner. Fast forward to now, and the founding owner of WORD, Christine Onorati, is one of my dearest friends and confidantes!)

What’s something about your store that you think will surprise people?
Depends on which people you mean.

Those in and outside of the book world might be surprised to know that—despite Avid’s being in a state where employees are not legally entitled to as many rights as they should be—I voluntarily and eagerly offer paid time off, sick leave, and a generous family leave policy. In spring 2022, we redefined “full-time” as working 35 hours per week instead of 40 (without a corresponding decrease in pay).

Those not in the publishing-bookselling ecosystem might not realize that a bookstore can do as well we do yet still struggle mightily to pay our bills each month. In spite of our high sales, accolades, community support, and excellent hand selling skills, it’s profoundly difficult to stay in the black (outside of the holiday season, at least). This industry is a notoriously tough one in which to turn a profit, and it’s getting harder. But we’re still here and I have zero plans to give up trying to find a better way.

What are some of you favorite ways your community supports your store?
I could write a book-length response to this, but I’ll stick with this: I am deeply honored that many in our community share their hearts with us. They come here knowing that this is one place where they will be seen and appreciated by us and by each other.

Amid personal and worldwide crises (post-Election-Day 2016), people feel safe at Avid. In moments of boundless joy (a pregnancy was just confirmed! a marriage proposal went off without a hitch!), they celebrate with us. During hours or months of staggering bewilderment and grief (a life-changing diagnosis; a friend’s death), they know we will welcome them exactly as they are. When significant things happen in their lives, or when they’re dealing with big feelings, Avid is among their first destinations, a place where booksellers and patrons can bear witness to whatever they want to share.

What are two books you can’t wait for people to read, or your current favorite handsells?
Briefly Perfectly Human by Alua Arthur; Liars by Sarah Manguso.

How can customers who aren’t local shop your shelves and support you?
Buy yourself one of our famous subscriptions (a twice-named best gift idea from Wirecutter!), or virtually order just about any book that’s still in print from our website. Check out our staff pages, where you can see what our different booksellers are into. Find a bookseller whose taste jives with yours? Buy a staff pick from their list, or ask if they can be your personal bookseller choosing titles if you do buy one of those subscriptions. You can find us on X & Instagram: @avidbookshop. We’re most active on IG!

Anything else you’d like to share?
We <3 Microcosm!

Be sure to follow Avid Bookshop on their socials, and click here to see their interview on the podcast!

You can read our other Bookstore Solidarity Project posts here!
And click here to get a copy of How to Protect Bookstores and Why.