The Hue-Man Bookstore in Harlem will close its physical location on July 31st. In an open letter, the staff explained that they are working on building “our amazing bookstore of the future,” continuing the bookstore’s work in some new way.
The email also looked at the current state of the publishing industry, predicting that “the industry will be forced to reconcile the future place of ‘real books’ in their business models” at some point in the future. Here’s an excerpt from the email:
We will continue to be involved in the publishing of books and will ramp up our agency services to writers and publishers alike. Though we can not give you the future in a nutshell, we can tell you that on September 6th 2012 at 7:30 PM we will launch our new event format with Miami Heat Dwayne Wade. Partnering with a state of the art facility we can begin to create the kind of multi-platform customer experience we’ve always imagined. Stay tuned! You can continue to buy online…..In fact, for 3 months beginning Aug 1, 2012 we will be discounting our entire website offerings 30% or better. You can still reach us through facebook and twitter. You can continue to reach us at the same phone number and at the same website and e-mail address … YOU CAN GET DEEP DISCOUNTS ON OUR EXISTING INVENTORY WHICH WE NEED TO LIQUIDATE. (Via Polite Society & Shelf Awareness)