Invitation to a Book-Buying Binge!

C'mon. You know you wanna....

If you've found your way to this tiny blog, chances are you love books. But based on constant rumblings over the last several years, books are in trouble. Fewer people are buying books, publishers are announcing cutbacks and layoffs -- and in the current economy, I know I've cut back on my own book-buying this year.

But if we want books to stay around, now's not the time to forget them. Check out this holiday message from Roy Blount Jr., President of the Author's Guild:

Buy Books From Your Local Bookstore, Now

December 11, 2008. I've been talking to booksellers lately who report that times are hard. And local booksellers aren't known for vast reserves of capital, so a serious dip in sales can be devastating. Booksellers don't lose enough money, however, to receive congressional attention. A government bailout isn't in the cards.

We don't want bookstores to die. Authors need them, and so do neighborhoods. So let's mount a book-buying splurge. Get your friends together, go to your local bookstore and have a book-buying party. Buy the rest of your Christmas presents, but that's just for starters. Clear out the mysteries, wrap up the histories, beam up the science fiction! Round up the westerns, go crazy for self-help, say yes to the university press books! Get a load of those coffee-table books, fatten up on slim volumes of verse, and take a chance on romance!

There will be birthdays in the next twelve months; books keep well; they're easy to wrap: buy those books now. Buy replacements for any books looking raggedy on your shelves. Stockpile children's books as gifts for friends who look like they may eventually give birth. Hold off on the flat-screen TV and the GPS (they'll be cheaper after Christmas) and buy many, many books. Then tell the grateful booksellers, who by this time will be hanging onto your legs begging you to stay and live with their cat in the stockroom: "Got to move on, folks. Got some books to write now. You see...we're the Authors Guild."

Enjoy the holidays.

Roy Blount Jr.
President Authors Guild

I'd like to thank a favorite author of mine, Curtiss Ann Matlock, for drawing my attention to this in her own blog, Pressing On.

So get out your holiday shopping list, check it twice, and see what you'd like to pick up from your local bookstore. (You know you wanna....)

Merry Christmas!