My most recent “Talking Indies” column is about independent bookstores and whether their interests mesh with promoting indie authors. The piece is called “Why Bookstores Aren’t Helping Indie Authors—Yet.” You can read it in the Spring Edition of Talking Writing (find the column link at the end of this entry).

I wanted to post an addendum to my column here because a number of indie authors I heard from after the piece was published  have gone on record saying they really don’t care about their book being shelved in bookstores. The basic argument is the rather facile one I began my first draft with: “Why put effort into interacting with small businesses that may see a few score of customers a day when posting to Internet books sites provides you with an entre to billions of potential readers?”

The obvious answer, since most writers have limited time to market and sell their work, is “Yes, why?”

If you think short-term, that’s probably a good answer. But bookstores really are, as Continue reading →