Better Atmosphere. Better Book Recommendations. Better for the Community. And the Best Place to Meet Authors In Person.
As both an avid reader and an author, I love independent bookstores! Local bookstores have played a big role in both inspiring the stories I write and supporting my book launches. Each indie bookshop has its own personality and distinct charm, and yet they all offer additional, community-building activities, such as book clubs and author events.
Local bookstores have been at the helm of preserving our national book culture, and so have you if you’ve been shopping there!
Read on to discover why supporting your local bookstore will make your life better and make the world a better place…
GREAT BOOKS FOR THE LOCAL CULTURE
One of the most amazing things about local bookstores is that they cater to the interests, needs, and culture of their communities. Your local bookstore has curated specific books that are relevant to the community where you live. This often results in the store selling a diverse yet appropriate collection of titles, which are displayed prominently and therefore easy to find. At The Bookstore Plus, for example, readers can easily find books about the Adirondacks that range from maps & hiking guides to great works of literary fiction.
COMMUNITY INTERESTS & ENGAGEMENT
Brick-and-mortar bookstores are one of the places you’ll find niche communities in the town or city where you live. Your local bookstore organizes author events and book signings where you can meet your favorite scribes and also make friends with other readers who love them, too. Most bookstores host book clubs, which is another community-building benefit where readers can discuss the latest club book in person.
CREATIVITY, INNOVATION & BOOK CULTURE
Shopping for books online, though pragmatic, simply isn’t experiential. Going to your local bookstore is an experience, which means that leaving with great books in your shopping bag is really only part of the overall fun. Independent bookstores intentionally create atmospheres that people will enjoy—from the comfy decor to the presentation of book categories and the way their staff interacts with the readers who shop there. Browsing the aisles at your local bookstore is a visceral, tactile experience that also provides opportunities to meet people and chat with the staff. Only the independent bookstores are preserving our “book culture” and fostering a community around the love of reading.
Local Bookstores Offer More Than Books! Check Out the Additional Perks:
- The staff at your local bookstore are avid readers, who basically serve as personal shoppers! Tell them the types of books you like, and they will easily recommend the perfect titles for you to buy!
- Local bookstores provide positive environments for readers of all ages, especially children who are developing their appreciation for stories.
- The relaxed atmosphere at bookstores often includes lounges where you can stay and read, organized book clubs where you can meet like minded readers, and coffee shops where you can hang out, read, and get your caffeine fix.
- Your local bookstore also has an online shop connected to their website, which is a great place to find an even wider variety of titles that they may not carry in-store. By shopping for “out of stock” books on your local bookstore’s website, you can support their business while still obtaining hard-to-find titles, like Mira Gibson’s mystery novel, Who Killed Leeanne?
SUPPORTING LOCAL BOOKSTORES HELPS THE LOCAL ECONOMY
According to Business Wire, during the peak of the pandemic roughly 20% of the independent bookstores across the country were in danger of going out of business. In the four years that have passed since then, a portion of those bookstores did not survive, and the ones that did are still struggling to financially recover. When a local business closes, the local community suffers economically. This is because the revenue generated at local businesses re-circulates within the local community, whereas dollars spent at big box online retailers only re-circulates 4% back into the local economy.
SHOPPING AT INDEPENDENT BOOKSTORES HELPS PREVENT MONOPOLIES
Thanks to the Sherman Antitrust Act, forming monopolies and conspiring to form monopolies is illegal in the United States. But preventing businesses from gaining momentum towards achieving monopoly is really every consumer’s responsibility. When we become less conscious of where we’re shopping, we may accidentally fund corporations that have secret plans for world domination that involve stripping our communities of their natural charm, one penny at a time.
A HEALTHY SOLUTION TO COUNTER DIGITAL CONTENT
We can probably all agree that technology has made our lives better. But as devices have become necessities and digital content has become, frankly, addictive, the medical industry has started to notice some significant health disadvantages that have resulted from high digital device usage. At the top of the list are disrupted sleep patterns, decreased attention spans, eye strain, and even increased negative mental health impacts. Reading physical books causes literally none of these problems, and reading before bed can help you fall asleep faster!
Allowing Bookstore Staff to Help You Find Great Books, as Opposed to Relying on Search Engine Algorithms, Includes the Following Benefits:
- One of the greatest joys in life is enjoying niche communities where love for a common art, in this case books, is shared.
- 28% of the revenue generated from local businesses is recirculated into the local economy.
- Shopping at locally-owned businesses generates 3x more economic benefits for your community than shopping at a major online retailer.
- Your local bookstore can help you recover from the “one-click paradox”, i.e. an addiction to buying books online, experiencing a dopamine rush, and then realizing it will be four days before you actually have your books in hand. Yes, you were duped, and the “immediacy” was a lie. When you go to your local bookstore and buy a book, however, you really will have your book immediately!
This guest blog was brought to you by Mira Gibson.
Hi! I’m Mira, an author, hiker, and all around lover of upstate New York! I went to college in the Hudson Valley, and I used to live in the Catskills, often making trips up to the Adirondacks when I was feeling adventurous. I write mysteries, which has included just about every subgenre of mystery that exists! I’ve been heavily influenced by the places I’ve lived and the people I grew up with.
When I sat down to write my latest small town murder mystery, Who Killed Leeanne?, a character emerged that I knew was loosely inspired by an old high school friend of mine named Kris Freeman. Throughout high school, my friend Kris spent time in Lake Placid at the Olympic Training Center where he trained as a ski jumper. He eventually went off to compete in the Olympics twice.
Like Kris Freeman, my character, Scotty de Barra, begins the process of training for the Olympics in Lake Placid, NY. Who Killed Leeanne? is an intriguing murder mystery that tackles controversial subject matters, and though this novel isn’t “about” Scotty’s experiences training in Lake Placid, it does capture the beauty and character of upstate New York, spanning the Catskills, the Adirondacks, and even the Capital District.
When Mystery Royalty published Who Killed Leeanne?, I started researching the independent bookstores in New York state that might be interested in carrying this title. I discovered The Bookstore Plus located in Lake Placid. I reached out, knowing it was the perfect spot, and here we are! You can purchase Who Killed Leeanne? in their online bookstore. And for a limited time, you can also obtain this paperback at their bookstore location in Lake Placid, NY. Stop by their store anytime and talk to their knowledgeable staff. Why? Because supporting local bookstores matters now more than ever!
About Mira Gibson
Mira Gibson is an author, playwright, and screenwriter. She graduated from Bard College as a playwriting major and quickly garnered attention in the New York City theater scene, receiving a commission from The Sloan Foundation for her one-act play, The Red, White, and Blue Process, and winning the 38th Annual Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Play Competition with Old Flame. As a screenwriter, she penned the feature-length arthouse drama, Warfield, produced by Summer Smoke Productions. Mira has authored dozens of mystery novels. She lives in Oceanside, NY, where she continues to write when she isn’t attending ballet class, making homemade soap, or hanging out at the beach.
Connect with Mira Gibson
Facebook @AuthorMiraGibson
Instagram @AuthorMiraGibson
Twitter @MiraGibson Newsletter Sign-up
Who Killed Leeanne?
Passionate, wounded, and fiercely alive, Leeanne Hessinger has never felt free. She wants something more, something bigger than the life she’s stumbled into, but fleeing to a town unknown to her with a single promise in mind—to finally write a novel—comes at a very high price.
When she’s found brutally stabbed to death a year later, a small town’s darkest secrets come to the forefront as the sheriff investigating the crime covers up her own treacherous involvement with the dead woman.Full of twists and turns, WHO KILLED LEEANNE? reconstructs a year in the life of Leeanne Hessinger, as she walks the brink of her own destruction and inches closer and closer to death. The cost of freedom, for Leeanne, is ultimately her life.