Encouragement For Independent Bookstores

It's no secret that independent bookstores are fighting for their survival. As a writer who cares about books and bookstores for many different reasons, I was fascinated to see this story about The Poisoned Pen, an independent bookstore in Scottsdale, Arizona. It appeared in our local newspaper The Arizona Republic.

Unfortunately most of the news I've been reading in recent years has been about the downsizing or closing of independent bookstores--which used to be a thriving part of the publishing world and a place publishers and writers could depend to push their books out out to the public. The people who work in independent bookstores love books, read books and constantly recommend books to their customers. In the business, we call this "hand selling" a product. If you read this article, you will see that it’s still happening but much less than in the past. I found the article encouraging and celebrate this booksellers commitment to books.