'We Have to Step Up and Engage'

Shelf Awareness

"My watch phrase that I run everything by is, does this cut the bookstore out of the loop? If the answer is yes, then I work to find ways to change that. This could mean working with a publisher to find a better way to do a particular promotion that works with bookstores, or it could mean talking to a federal lawmaker about e-fairness. Independent bookstores remain the cornerstone of bookselling; without us, it really doesn't work. It's up to us to be visible and vocal as to how best to use the strengths of our bookstores to best support authors and their books in the marketplace of ideas. Publishers need us but we can't expect them to be mind-readers. We have to step up and engage."

 

--ABA board member Kris Kleindienst, co-owner of Left Bank Books, St. Louis, Mo., in a Bookselling This Week q&a about "her life among books."