Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Support Your Local Independent

I've been very fortunate to be invited back to the Midtown Scholar Bookstore in Harrisburg, PA.  I'll be part of an author panel on Saturday, November 12th, from noon until 2:00 pm.  Nearly all genres of writing will be covered by our panel.  I'm every excited and we'll be signing our books for anyone interested after our presentation. 

The owners of the Midtown are hoping to make this book festival an annual thing.  Though this is only the second year, I have high hopes that it will be going on for many more years.  You can check out the flyer at the Midtown's website.  I know most of the readers of this blog don't live near Harrisburg but hopefully you have an independent store near you.  Visit them.  Support them.  With the demise of Borders and the current struggles of B&N, we may soon see the last of the 'big' stores.  As readers we'll only be able to get our browsing through the stacks 'fix' at those wonderful independent bookstores and libraries.  Even though I'm now making almost all my book purchases as ebooks, I still love being in a bookstore.  As an author, I have an even bigger interest in keeping the stores alive.

For authors like me, published with small independent publishers, those small, owned by real people, bookstores, are our only avenues for booksignings. So though I don't expect you to introduce yourself to me in Harrisburg on Saturday, I hope you visit a bookstore today.  Buy a magazine, a cup of coffee, a muffin or even better, a book. 

I'll report next week on all the good advice my fellow panel experts share.  Have you ever been part of an author panel? What was the toughest question a member of the audience asked you? 

10 comments:

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

Knock 'em dead, Susan!

LD Masterson said...

Sadly, our last local indie has closed its doors. Hope the Festival is a huge success.

The Happy Whisk said...

The Borders that closed near us and the one that was an hour away, both did local book signings. It was nice. They used to have local musicians as well, but that stopped.

Have fun and sell lots.

M.J. Fifield said...

I love my local independent bookstore. They do a lot for local authors; it's great.

Good luck with the panel!

Golden Eagle said...

Good luck at the book festival! :)

Susan Gourley/Kelley said...

Thanks for all your well wishes. This local store does all kinds of artsy things including musicians, poetry readings and plays.

jan said...

Did you know that the Midtown Scholar hosts a writing group on the third Sunday of the month from 2-4:00? Nice group of local writers. Great coffee, too.

Carol Kilgore said...

Have fun at the festival!
Thanks for commenting at Under the Tiki Hut.

The Happy Whisk said...

Our Barnes had a play going on today, as well. We didn't see it as we came in toward to end. But it sure was nice to sit in the cafe.

That's what our local used bookstore is missing. Somewhere to sit and work. Otherwise, we'd go more. But as it stands now, it's the kind of local bookstore interested in having buyers stick about long.

The Happy Whisk said...

Not interested in having us stick about, I meant to write. Thought I wrote that wrong. But it's past my bedtime and I have prep in the morning.

Happy Writing.