Apr 30

Apr 30 Episode #60: How to help indie bookstores right now with special guest: Lexi Wright!

The Book Friends Forever welcome a special guest on the their episode this week: Lexi Wright. She is the owner of the new local bookstore High Five Books in Florence, MA! Alvina, Grace, and Lexi talk about what it’s like for independent bookstore owners in the time of a pandemic and how you can continue to support them.

First, as they do in each episode, they will catch-up on each other’s lives and find out what’s new.

“So, how have you been?”

Alvina has “reached the puzzle stage of the pandemic” and sometimes stays up way too late working on the 1,000 piece puzzle a friend loaned to her. It is a very colorful and cheerful puzzle of Cuba. She’s finding out why people do puzzles and why they’ve sold out during the pandemic; they are calming and distracting. A great time for audio books! She’s been listening to Sadie, by Courtney Summers.

Grace has been busy as usual with many virtual projects online for homeschooling like the reading and drawing videos on her YouTube channel that are wrapping up soon. Now that her anxiety has subsided, she’s going to start focusing more on her creative writing.

Lexi: “The name of the game right now is pivot and hustle” is how she’s described trying to run the bookstore in the middle of these swift changing times of uncertainty. She has driven about 110 miles around the Pioneer Valley to deliver books on front porches. “It’s kind of sad and happy at the same time”. Kids are waving in the windows and they’re so happy to see her arrive with new books and a mask that she made a smiley face on. Her store has been closed for about 5 weeks now and they are just waiting to see how May unfolds. Even if business re-open, she’s not sure what that will look like for High Five Books …other than they plan to be as safe as can be.

“Tell us about your store and the pandemic.”

Lexi begins to nutshell how she left publishing and opened a bookstore in her hometown. She wanted to feel more connected to her community has she had been partially living/working in Manhattan. After picking the brain of her child’s art teacher who owns Art Always in Florence, they partnered up 6 months ago to open up High Five Books. She wanted to create a community place where people could drop by for a bit and feel welcome and connected. When the shutdown began, the store scrambled like many others, to find a way to not completely shut its doors. The store had a website but nothing for sale on it because their intent was really about having an in-person experience. In one weekend as the community closed down, they put the entire store inventory online. They began with curbside service but as restrictions began to change, they switched to deliveries only. “So we are just kind of rolling with it”. The community has been so supportive and she’s really been feeling the love and generosity. Sales have actually risen because so many parents are in need of homeschool help and there is just nowhere to take books out.

Some pandemic challenges that Lexi describes:

May not be able to do special orders due to shipping and warehouse regulations, unable to track the books, distributers halting or changing technicalities, etc…and many publishers are not shipping.
Can no longer do pre-orders or hold events for those with new book releases. There are so many new releases and she can’t get to them yet! She described a lot of compassion for authors who have worked so hard on books and aren’t able to get them out there.

How can readers support indie bookstores?

First, call your local independent bookstore. See if what you’re looking for is available. They may have it or be able to special order it. Many can deliver locally.
Please use Bookshop.org! “Without question, that is what is going to keep us a float during this time.” Lexi says. It is faster than Amazon and supports independent bookstores.
If you’re looking to buy audiobooks, you can go to Libro.fm. They distribute money back to independent shops. If you’re E-books, try Hummingbird, an indie E-book platform.
Purchase e-gift cards from the stores if they have them. (Gifts for essential workers, teachers, new babies, etc…)

How can authors support indie bookstores?

If you know that your local bookstore has something in stock, please try to partner with them. For example, Jarret J. Krosoczka has a drawing everyday on his website. “For every one of his episodes, High Five Books created a custom bookshop landing page for that author and then he uses that to tweet out to his followers. The residuals of those sales go to us.”
Authors can signal boost or tag stores in a post! This is super helpful to get the name of the store out.

What are we grateful for?

As always, the book friends end each episode with what they’re grateful for this week. Alvina is grateful for puzzles and other fun distractions like Fiona Apple’s new album and her virtual zoom dance parties.

Grace is grateful that she applied for the payroll protection program and she qualified! It’s not that much but it’s something to keep them above water during these tough times.

Liz is grateful for the time she has out in the world driving around making deliveries with her 9-year old son. They’re obsessed with the Arlo Finch middle grade fantasy series on audio!

2-Minute Book Review by Alison Morris:

When Stars Are Scattered by Victoria Jamieson and Omar Mohamed

A wonderful graphic novel about growing up in a refugee camp, as told by a Somali refugee to the Newbery Honor-winning creator of Roller Girl.

“It is remarkable for its ability to truly humanize the plight of some of the world’s 31 million refugees…”

Alison Morris is a nationally recognized children's book buyer with an infectious enthusiasm for reading and 20 years' experience matching books to readers. As the Senior Director of Title Selection for nonprofit First Book, she oversees the curation of children’s and young adult books on the First Book Marketplace, hand-selecting a diverse range of titles that speak to and address the needs of kids in underserved communities, with a keen eye to inclusion, authenticity, and kid-appeal. She previously served as Senior Editor at Scholastic Book Clubs, Children's Book Buyer for Wellesley Booksmith and The Dartmouth Bookstore, and was the founding blogger of the ShelfTalker children’s book blog for Publishers Weekly. She'll be joining us from her home near Washington, DC where she spends LOTS of time discussing books with her husband, illustrator and graphic novelist Gareth Hinds.