Having done serious time as both a touring rock musician and an author of books, I can’t help but notice a stark contrast between the two careers. In the music world, you show up to the club and load in through a dark, urine-soaked alley, greeted with a grunt from a hungover soundman who could double for Charles Manson. Our band would count ourselves lucky to be offered a warm six-pack of beer.
On the contrary, as an author, when you arrive for a reading or a signing at an independent bookstore, you enter through the front door, and are often greeted with a warm hug from the proprietor, along with a chilled glass of chardonnay and an artisan cheese plate. Guess which one I prefer?
Independent bookstores are the curated, coursing lifeblood of the book world, and they are an endangered species. That’s why, just like the roaring worldwide success of Record Store Day every April, a special day in May has been declared for independent bookstores. It’s about time.
Like Record Store Day, the bookstore day concept was cracked open in the US, back in 2013, with something called Indies First. The idea is that authors volunteer at their favourite local independent bookstores as guest booksellers. Authors greet customers, recommend books, and offer readings and signings, along with various other special events and activities. Vancouver author Janie Chang (Three Souls) heard about the American initiative and thought it would be a perfect event for BC bookstores. Before she knew it, the idea quickly became a major page-turner across Canada.
Canada’s first-ever Authors For Indies Day is this Saturday, May 2. At press time, more than 600 Canadian authors, including bestselling scribes like Joseph Boyden, Terry Fallis, and Ann-Marie MacDonald, are all taking part in over 130 participating independent bookstores from coast to coast.
Here in the Lower Mainland, more than a dozen shops are actively celebrating, with packed schedules throughout Saturday. You’ll find author JJ Lee (The Measure of a Man) at Black Bond Books in New Westminster, Arno Kopecky (The Oil Man and the Sea) at the People’s Co-op Bookstore on Commercial, and Zsuzusi Gartner (Better Living Through Plastic Explosives) at the Kits location of Pulp Fiction, just to cherry pick a few from their busy lineups. Many kids bookstores are involved, too (check out the entire schedule at AuthorsForIndies.com).
Vancouver-after-dark author and recent BC Book Prize winner Aaron Chapman (Live at the Commodore, and Liquor, Lust and the Law) will be at Book Warehouse on West Broadway. As a writer of local history, he can’t say enough about the local bookstores. “You can’t really say you have a neighbourhood unless you have a neighbourhood bookstore,” says Chapman. “The bigger chains may not often focus on important local subjects, and more importantly give the spotlight to them.”
Myself and the internationally bestselling author John Vaillant (The Golden Spruce, The Tiger, The Jaguar’s Children) will be among several authors celebrating Saturday at the North Shore’s last-standing independent bookstore, 32 Books in Edgemont Village. Even though he’s achieved mainstream success, Vaillant has long been a passionate supporter of the independents.
“Indie bookstores and booksellers are the local carriers of community and culture” says Vaillant. “They are a pub for stories and ideas, and some of them even serve beer,” …as if you needed any added incentive.
If you’re a lover of books and community, and a supporter of independent businesses, I hope to see you at one of our many excellent but endangered local bookstores on Saturday. They deserve your support. I’ll even promise to save you some cheese.
• Grant Lawrence is the author of two award-winning nonfiction books: Adventures in Solitude and The Lonely End of the Rink.
