Slattery is the general manager of Skylight Books in Los Feliz
and former board member of the Southern California Booksellers
Association.
By Kerry Slattery
This is an exciting ““ and particularly challenging ““
time to be an independent bookseller. I don’t know any owner
or manager of an independent (read non-corporate, locally-owned
storefront location) store who hasn’t become highly
politicized in recent years. We believe that what we do matters to
our community, and we take this challenge seriously.
Today’s reader has many choices for new books such as
online ordering, “big box” chain stores, book clubs,
discount warehouses, as well as that old ““ and
fast-disappearing ““ standby: the general and specialty
independent bookstore.
According to Simone Wallace, co-founder and co-owner (with Adele
Wallace) of the late Sisterhood Books on Westwood Boulevard.,
“When we opened Sisterhood in the early ’70s, Westwood
was the hub of culture in the city. Over the next 20 years, from
UCLA to Pico, it was filled with great independent bookstores, at
least 20 including Westwood Books, A Change of Hobbit, Sisterhood,
La Cité French Bookstore, several great, unusual little art
bookstores and a number of others.
“We even had an association of Westwood bookstores which
met regularly to share information, solve problems and deal with
community issues. It was a very exciting and intellectually vital
time, and customers could “˜poke around’ in one
bookstore after another. We provided course books for many UCLA
classes, whose professors, especially in the English department,
actively encouraged their students to come there.
“But in the early ’90s, the world just changed so
drastically and people’s buying habits changed dramatically.
One by one, the independent stores closed.”
Sisterhood reluctantly closed in 1999 after 27 years, and La
Cité finally closed just last month.
 Illustration by KRISTEN GILLETTE/Daily Bruin The American
Booksellers Association, which represents independent booksellers
around the country, reports that its membership plummeted from
5,000 bookstores 10 years ago to about 3,000 today, with more
independent stores closing all the time and more of the
“market share” being taken over by large corporations
(either “bricks and mortar” stores or online).
Wallace notes that it’s a time of great contradictions,
because there seems to be a flowering of great literature right
now. People are interested in reading as much as ever before,
joining book clubs and attending literary “events”
(like the L.A. Times Festival of Books). And there seems to be a
hunger by readers to find out about not just the
“mainstream” best-sellers, but also the new and diverse
literary voices representing different cultures, styles and points
of view. And we’re right in the midst of it.
Incredibly, Southern California is the largest book market in
the country. But it’s crucial for consumers, as never before,
to “politicize” themselves about the choices they have
““ and to recognize how endangered some of these choices are
““ if they want to retain these options in the future.
Why does all of this matter? What one reads is very personal and
helps form our view of the world. The future of our culture depends
on exposing the reader to a wide variety of voices.
In a recent article, Bill Petrocelli of Book Passage in Corte
Madera, Calif., notes that it is the sheer diversity of independent
stores that gives worthy authors a chance to be heard and a chance
to develop a following. No two independent stores look alike, and
the inventory that they carry is likely to reflect the values and
interests of both the owners and the people who shop there.
Stores with different specialties help create a demand for
different kinds of books and encourage authors and publishers to
publish books that meet the needs and interests of their customers,
adding texture to the world.
He cites the fact the chains frequently pass over important
books, only to buy them later after the books have built a
word-of-mouth following in the independent stores. Many authors
know that without this word-of-mouth phenomenon in independent
stores, their careers would never have gotten started. Authors who
have publicly acknowledged this include Barbara Kingsolver, Amy
Tan, Anne Lamott, Faye Kellerman and Frank McCourt.
Without passionate “handselling” by those
independent booksellers, many of these books would not have stayed
around long enough to become best-sellers.
Choice in what we read is one of the freedoms we must fiercely
guard. A “homogenization” of culture is not healthy for
anyone, but major publishers (many of which are themselves merging
into larger and larger corporate entities) will limit what they
publish when they need to gear their lists to the tastes of a few
corporate buyers who make the decisions for their stores around the
country. It’s already begun to happen.
With the loss of more independent booksellers, books that are
either controversial, or not obviously commercial, may not get
published at all, or get lost.
But the remaining independent bookstores are taking this
challenge head-on, in the face of the sophisticated marketing
machines of corporate competitors. We’re determined to stay
in the running, and we need your assistance.
We are focusing on being even better at what we uniquely do,
including contributing and listening to our individual communities
and neighborhoods, to which we are passionately loyal and greatly
indebted. We are also fighting for fairness in the playing field,
bringing to light special “deals” not available to all
booksellers.
And, most importantly, many of us (over 1100 bookstores around
the country) are joining resources with our fellow independent
booksellers in a positive way with an innovative program called
BookSense, which helps us retain our own quirky individuality and
commitment to our communities, while providing consumer services
and marketing clout that individually we could not afford.
BookSense has several important components such as a National
Gift Certificate program that allows you to buy a gift certificate
at, say, Duttons Brentwood, and redeem it at our store, or Midnight
Special or Cultura Latina or Book’Em Mysteries or at hundreds
of other unique bookstores all around the country.
It also includes a BookSense Best Seller list and a number of
stores have recently added the sophisticated online ordering
component called “booksense.com.”
So what can you do? Help ensure the diversity of the
marketplace. Be aware of all your choices, because the buyer has
great power and whatever you do has consequences. If you choose to
order online, be aware that there are many online options ““ a
number of independents now have excellent Web sites with online
ordering and fully searchable databases of all books in print. (If
you don’t know where to start, check out booksense.com and it
will take you right to the site of your nearest booksense.com
store).
Know that you have the power to determine what is sold, and
therefore what is published and promoted. Your vote counts here. If
you support this diversity only when you need that unusual or
offbeat or specialty book, the choice may not be there at all when
you want it later.
It’s one thing to look at your favorite bookstores in a
sentimental or nostalgic way, it’s another to support them in
an active way that helps them stay alive and thrive.