on the importance of independent book stores.

Hello friends,
Being in the middle of a little 'book signing tour' I combined with my husband's travel, I had a wonderful experience in an independent bookstore named Sleuth's Mystery Bookstore in Little Rock, Arkansas.
Until now, my focus has been on the big chain stores, the likes of Barnes & Nobles, Hastings and so on. I always thought that I couldn't go wrong visiting the 'big ones' promoting my book.
But what makes a book signing truly memorable and unique is the special attention the independent bookstores put into a writer’s visit.

In my case it was Laura, the owner of Sleuth’s Mystery Books. She went WAY out of her way to make me feel welcome. There was advertising in several local newspaper's columns, she’d added a link to my website on hers, her store was beautifully decorated and several print outs talked about my novel 'Relocating Mia'. There was even a marquee announcing, in flashing red, my name and the date of the event.

One of Laura’s friends is a gourmet chef and she arrived with a huge bag of home made goodies to spoil my readers and me during the signing.
The atmosphere was relaxed and more intimate as I knew from book signings at the bigger stores. The visitors mingled longer to enjoy the great food and fun conversations. I was asked much more into detail about my past and future work.

What can I say; the book signing at Sleuth's Mystery Books has been not just successful, but a very memorable one due to the owner’s kind efforts.
I think I will concentrate future signings more into the direction of the independent book stores. We all love browsing the little 'Mom and Pop' stores, don't we? And there is much talk out there about the big, cooperate companies elbowing the little stores out of business. My husband and I own a small bicycle retail store in Utah. Believe me; I know what it’s like to compete with Wal-Mart down the road.

Well, of course I wouldn’t want to find myself without Barnes & Nobles and the likes, not even to mention the online book retailers, where most of my novel sells through, and I shop a lot myself.
But I don’t want to oversee the smaller, independent stores to share business with. The friendly atmosphere and unique story each and every one of these small stores have to tell are inspiring to me. Besides the great book signing experience in Laura’s store, I also came across a few Agatha Christy Mysteries printed back in the early 1970’s, I’m not so sure if I would have found them in a chain store.

So, regardless if you are a reader or a writer; I would like to encourage you to get out there, browse, and support the independent book stores! I’m glad I did and I will continue to do so.

Rebecca Lerwill
Relocating Mia