Why authors should support indie bookshops

The Bookseller

Author Rachel Joyce explains why she believes it's important for authors to support Independent Booksellers Week:

"Whenever I enter a bookshop I know something is going to happen. It will involve a book, of course. But it will also involve a ritual of a kind, a process of choosing. I’ll leave with something I didn’t have before and that is exciting.

In order to write this, I’ve been trying to remember the first time I visited a bookshop as a child. All I can picture is our local library. We went once a week after school (a Wednesday, it was) and we were allowed four books. The more I write about my old library, the more I remember. The vanilla smell of the books, the plastic covering, the label to be stamped by the librarian with the return date. The detail was part of the journey. I chose carefully and at great length.

Sometimes the librarian would suggest a different book, or ask how I had enjoyed the previous one. A local writer might visit and it was as if the books came alive and—quite literally—became a person.

The books belonged to us. Words and thoughts; they were there for us to take away. You just had to find the right ones. When I finally left with my four books, I knew I had something ahead of me. Something I didn’t know yet. I remember running home.

It doesn’t exist any more, my old library. I know we can buy books on the internet now, but there is nothing like the local bookshop. It does all the things my old library used to do and more.

Bookshops are all different, of course, but what impresses me over and over is the way indie booksellers know their customers, and the way the customers
treasure their booksellers. When we leave with a book in our bag we want it to be the right one.

Books are not just about commercial ownership. They are written to be talked about and opened and chosen and shared. Libraries are going, I fear, but indie bookshops continue their heritage. As writers it is our job to look after our bookshops. If we can help to keep them on the high street by attending a signing or an event, that is a small thing.

I wasn’t there when my childhood library was closed but I am here now—for my local bookshop. And I will shout for it."

Joyce’s new novel, The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy, will be published on 9th October (Doubleday, £12.99).