This week WORD Bookstores in Brooklyn and New Jersey have launched, WORD Association, a new promotion to raise money for charities on behalf of authors.
The way it works is that throughout this week, WORD has committed to return 10% of the proceeds from a curated list of books by a set of authors to an agreed upon charity each day. Monday, for example, saw a portion of the sale of books by Molly Crabapple, Valeria Luiselli, Francisco Goldman, or Myriam Gurba go to Make the Road NY.
Tuesday, featured books by Roxane Gay, Tracy O'Neill, Samantha Irby, and Lauren Francis-Sharma with proceeds going to Black Mamas Bailout.
Wednesday offers books by Cathy Park Hong, R.O. Kwon, Frances Cha, or C Pam Zhang and 10% of the sales will go to the Asian Pacific Environmental Network's Emergency Community Relief Fund.
Thursday will promote titles by Amelia Gray, Rob Sheffield, Rebecca Makkai, and G. Willow Wilson to the National Domestic Workers Alliance.
Finally, Friday, Food Chain Workers Alliance will receive 10% of the sales of listed books by Andrea Lawlor, Garth Greenwell, Jordy Rosenberg, and Alexander Chee.
The promotion will continue in the coming weeks with a new roster of rotating writers, including Lynne Tillman, Benjamin Percy, Carmen Maria Machado, Sarah MacLean, and Hanif Abdurraqib.
"We're the final link that connects readers to the authors we both love, but also sometimes the gatekeepers to the world readers want to inhabit, both in and out of books," said Jeff Waxman, the bookseller who organized the promotion. "To call ourselves independent is at once a bold claim and a kind of a trust. It's a obligation to create community and serve that community in the same way that an author creates a text. When people come to an independent bookstore, they're usually looking for more than a simple transaction and WORD Association is an attempt, hopefully a successful one, hopefully an ongoing one, to reconnect readers to every part of the life of their community that we need to be absent from at this time."
