Today’s guest on the Morning Media Menu was Gayle Shanks, founder of Tempe, Arizona’s Changing Hands bookstore and the former president of the American Bookseller’s Association.
Shanks discussed the controversial immigration law currently being challenged in Arizona, exploring how her bookstore has become a central hub for debate in her community. She provided an inspiring model for other indie booksellers to follow as they face challenges from online vendors and digital books.
Press play to listen.
Here’s an excerpt: “This immigration issue is a good example of what independent bookstores do in their communities. They provide that gathering place for people to come together and talk about serious issues. The booksellers provide the forums. The authors who write the books that we sell are on the road, and we are constantly requesting (or sometimes even begging) them to come to our stores so that they can both promote their books and promote the ideas in their books.”
Shanks concluded: “It is a sad community that doesn’t have an independent bookstore in it any longer. Unfortunately, the economics of our world are making it harder and harder to stay in business, but I think it is up to independent bookstores to continue to find out ways to reinvent themselves and to provide more and more things that cannot be gotten from reading a book on a device. There is ample opportunity to do that, but you have to be extremely creative, hardworking, and ready to figure it out anew every single day.”