To the Editor:
I am writing in response to the letters in the September 14 issue of PW, both taking issue with what I, and others in the book industry, do: bring books and authors to an additional audience. Booksellers “outside the bookstore box” are a positive, energetic part of the healthy bookselling ecology: we are committed to finding an audience for books outside of bookstores—and there are millions of readers, book buyers in our country, whose jobs/lives/hours/families/inclinations make attending a bookstore event untenable. Yet we all know that meeting an author and discussing the book with others is a meaningful way to connect people to books. By weaving authors and books into people's daily lives—workplaces, restaurants, conferences, resorts, community organizations, cocktail parties—we help an additional audience of book lovers meet an author and reinvigorate their love of reading.
When a person at one of my events becomes a fan of an author, they will seek out later books (or backstock) at, most likely, a bricks and mortar bookstore, so what we do actually benefits these traditional booksellers.
In addition, at a time when publishers' tour budgets are drastically diminished, we can frequently offer to pay travels costs, which makes it affordable for more authors to be out on tour. Many of the authors we bring to the West Coast would not be here if not for this travel help and the bulk purchases of books we are able to guarantee. And when the author is here, we work with the publisher to arrange media, too—so when that author is interviewed on our local media, all booksellers benefit from that interview and exposure.
As a former “bricks and mortar” bookseller at two different bookstores, I believe this infighting between booksellers is a waste of energy and time. One cannot control access to anything in the new marketplace. People will purchase what they want in the format and environment they want, and forcing them to do otherwise is a losing game. We in the world of books have a much larger problem to tackle, and we should do it together: engage more people in the excitement of reading. This is the work that needs to be done, and we need all hands on deck to get it done. In fact, if I were the president of the American Booksellers Association, I would make “honorary members” of Nancy Pearl, Bill Moyers, Oprah Winfrey and any second-grade teacher who helps a child fall in love with books! Let's stop arguing about whose forks are in the pie and work together to make more pie.
Kim Ricketts
Founder, Kim Ricketts Book Events
Seattle, Wash.
