I read the PW piece about the $5 Amazon promo for folks who use their price checker app in a store and then buy the same item on Amazon (thus using the stores to shop but not giving them any cash) and of course I thought it was pretty lousy (basically everyone thinks it is lousy) but I particularly got annoyed because I know how much bookstores have made the difference when it comes to my book and if Amazon ruled the world (or at least the bookstore world) then I, and all authors like me, would be screwed.

So yeah. Not liking the promo.

Every time anything about Amazon versus bricks and mortar stores comes up you see the same arguments put forth as in the PW piece: that they pay sales tax and contribute to the community and support little league teams and on and on and on. This is all true and good and valuable and it ought to count for something (it ought to count for everything actually) but these are things most people already know. I have something new to bring to the table, namely that for most authors bookstores are vastly more significant than online venues when it comes to getting the word out on your books. In most of the ways that count (as in actual books sales), they are everything.

Now I'm going to get specific.

My book came out Thanksgiving week and it most certainly was available from Amazon (and BN.com and Powells.com and more). I have had some online sales and I'm might grateful for all them. As someone who lived in places (both growing up and in AK) where there were few options to buy new books, I appreciate the opportunity to order online. But, those online sales will go only so far. If you can't get the word out (continuously) to keep people ordering the book then it won't get ordered. And now that there are far fewer outlets for reviewing (goodbye newspapers and boy do we miss you) we are all stuck trying to get heard by anyone online that will hear us so that other people will read those blogs and websites and tweets and they will buy the book.

This could be full time job of crazy if we let it.

If you are a lucky author though, then it's not all about online venues. If you are lucky then your book is also out there on the shelves in bookstores all across America with its bright shiny covering luring new readers in (I love my cover). Personally, I am not so lucky. As far as I can tell the only B&N stores to be stocking my book are in Alaska (which makes sense) (that's two stores by the way). I have not found one yet in WA State that is stocking it (this surprises me actually). This means that B&N shoppers, until they read certain websites, don't even know that my book exists. This is very sad for everyone but especially for me.

But then there are the indy bookstores.

All of the indys in AK are carrying my book as are many others in lots of other states and I'm plotting with my former manager (who now manages a book in Juneau) on Monday about kicking off an AK tour next year. (Hopefully when it is not 40 below in Fairbanks.) (Don't laugh - it has already been 40 below in Fairbanks this winter.) In Washington my local store hosted me last week at an event that they publicized with their email list and through their customers and we put up fliers around town and there were 54 people there. This small store has already sold 50 copies of my book (most of them to folks I do not know - they are hand selling like crazy). I'm actually going to sign more today as they had to order another shipment. More than the event and the sales though, the owner is reaching out to other indys in the region and helping me set up events with all of them (including some Seattle stores who have been quite hard to crack) and also urging them to stock my book (if they aren't already). This is a very big deal because the better I do here, the better shot I have stores in OR and Northern CA and Idaho and on and on and on.

It's a long view picture I'm living in people and without the indy stores behind me I'm not going to make it.

So all of this is why I believe all authors should be supporting their local bricks and mortar bookstores. More than all those solidly decent community reasons, you should do this for your own naked self-interest. You want your books to sell then you damn well better support with your dollars the places that sell them. If you don't do this then one day you are going to run out into the world with your bright shiny new book and there will be no one there who cares. Over at Amazon there are millions of books - millions of them - and you are just one of the many.

Support bookstores and you support yourself, period.