Where the Love of Books and Music is Always Brewing

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After love, book collecting is the most exhilarating sport of all. -- A Book Hunter's Holiday, A. S. W. Rosenbach
 

When Barbara Kingslover appeared at Book Passage in Corte Madera, California on October 28, 1998 to read from her novel, The Poisonwood Bible, she prefaced her reading with these supportive--and unsolicited--comments about the importance of independent bookselling.

"Thank you for supporting your independent bookseller. Authors like me would not have a career as a writer if it were not for independent booksellers. And if you don't understand how that's true, I'll recap it very briefly. When I wrote--and my publisher agreed to publish--my first novel, The Bean Trees, I think they agreed to publish about 3,000 copies of the hardcover book. And they expected those to maybe sell or maybe not and then that would be the end of me.

"I have nothing against my publisher. But this is what happens to first-time novelists unless they are taken in hand by independent booksellers, who say to their customers, 'Have you seen this?' That's what happened to me.

I was lucky enough to be 'hand-sold' as they call it in the book industry. Independent booksellers all over the country read my first novel and liked it, and they sold it to their clients. And, lo and behold, it went into a second printing, and then a third and so on. And now the collectors of the world know that the first edition is a rare thing. What it meant was that my first novel was read and that I sold enough to make a living. And I could write another book, and another, and another, instead of going back to my day job.

"Independent booksellers in this world read, and they select and hand-sell books. They select books that are appropriate to their region, because they choose what to order and what to sell in their stores. What it means is that the First Amendment is at stake--the special books, the regional books, the particular books that can mean something to you are sold by your independent bookseller. Even though they don't get the break that allows them to sell a best-seller at a $2.00 discount, they deserve your business."

(If you are interested in any of Barbara Kingsolver's other books, we'd be happy to help you: Animal Dreams, Pigs in Heaven, Prodigal Summer.)