Five Colorado independent bookstores are collaborating to lure more touring authors to the state.
The stores—Denver's Tattered Cover Book Store, BookBar (also in Denver), Boulder Book Store, the Old Firehouse Books in Fort Collins and the Bookworm of Edwards—will each host the authors on a single trip. "Make your next author tour a vacation," announced a press release. The five stores are all within driving distance of Denver and authors will be hosted at BookBed (the AirBnB owned by the BookBar) free of charge and will be used as a "home base." The cost of flights to Denver will not be covered.
The Bookworm, which is 100 miles west of Denver and near Vail and Beaver Creek ski resorts, promises authors the opportunity to take advantage of guided hikes and even skiing.
"We are so fortunate to get many wonderful authors to Colorado," Nicole Sullivan, owner of BookBar, told PW. "We do often see, however, that some top authors' tours focus on the east and west coasts. And, if they come to Colorado, they may not make it out of Denver. We will be sending proposals to primarily front list authors who we are very excited about do not have a Colorado visit on their schedule. Authors can contact any one of the five stores and we will then work together to coordinate a schedule. But most collaborative events will be bookstore driven via proposals."
The partnership between the stores, Sullivan explained, allows the booksellers to "share all that Colorado has to offer and help make it even more of a literary destination. If this program proves to be successful for all involved, we don't see why we wouldn't continue to do this indefinitely." She then added: "It's a great things when indies come together for a common purpose. We all like each other, so it has been fun to work together on this."
This article has been updated to add further details about the program.
