I have the privilege of working with several dozen of the Midwest’s finest independent bookstores, and in the two+ years I’ve been repping, I’ve seen a number of habits that these indies are using to hold on and serve their communities while Amazon.com gobbles up more of the market, while eReaders go mainstream, and while the big chains go through their own drama.

Here are some of the most important things that good indies do right (IMHO):

The Personal Touch — I have booksellers who know all of their regular customers by name, with personal relationships and investment in the customers’ lives.  When I go in to sell my new lines, these booksellers already have buyers in mind for books as they order them from me, maintaining a strong revenue stream by offering A+ customer service, acting as personal reading consultants to these avid readers.  That high level of handselling mastery and individualized service is something that, I think, simply cannot and probably will not ever be really matchable by digital bookselling.  Even if you have a relationship with a bookseller or blogger online, the in-person ongoing connection, with the bookseller-customer relationship growing into a friendship performed through direct interaction is a singular and marvelous thing.

The Thirdplace Effect — Digital bookstores are space-agnostic — they exist everywhere with an active internet connection, but they don’t have their own cafes, they don’t have cozy chairs or connections to a  local theatre to host a large author event.  Some of my best bookstores are also some of the best community centers, drawing people for the environment they create and maintain — often with a cafe, and always including great partnerships with local organizations, local authors, book clubs and book groups.  As a teen, my after-school hangout was a game store (The Game Preserve in Bloomington, IN), and much of why I loved that store was the way that it served as a community center for geeks of Bloomington.  Bookstores do that for readers, writers, and other groups.  Online relationships can be strong, but for me, online interaction with friends is just a hold-me-over until I get to see them next in person.

Giving Back — Indies make jobs locally, spend their money locally, and are invested in helping other local businesses.  Not that chain stores aren’t invested in local business, but in my experience, my indie booksellers are deeply invested in their local business bureaus, independent retailer organizations, philanthropic groups, and more.  When nearly all places online are one place, the preservation of the local is something that many people are re-discovering — trying to preserve and support local identity and local culture.

So when I see people complaining about independent bookstores charging for author events (http://www.edrants.com/paid-author-events-the-future-of-independent-bookstores/), I ask readers to remember everything indies do for the community, and that the real price for a bookstore to run an event is very high.  In times where many booksellers are overworked and fighting to keep the lights on, I’m happy to buy an author’s book to get into a signing/reading, or to pay a cover to give back a little to the store so they can keep hosting awesome authors and being community centers.

What if you already have the book they want you to buy?  Give it to a friend and share the awesome.  Especially since you can probably get that book signed and personalized to the friend, making it a fantastic gift.

Ok, that’ll do for now.

*Steps off of Indie Bookstore Cheerleader Soapbox*

I attended Clarion West in 2007 and it was a fantastic, transformative experience.  Those six weeks constituted a quantum leap forward in my writing skills and the work started there continues to bear fruit years later.

And so, when the Write-a-Thon comes along, I feel very strongly about participating.

But what’s a Write-a-Thon?  Simply, it’s similar to any other Thing-a-Thon (Walk-a-Thon, Dance-a-Thon, Pankration-a-Thon), where participants will ask for sponsors, and pledge do so some thing.  In this case, I’m pledging to write three new short stories during the six-week Write-a-Thon, and I’m looking to collect pledges which will go directly to support the Clarion West Foundation to provide scholarships to writers and to fund the workshop.

My participant page is up at the Clarion West Site: http://clarionwest.net/events/writeathon/MikeUnderwood

So if you are willing and able, I’d love if you could sponsor me for the Write-a-Thon, or sponsor any of the other awesome writers who are participating: http://clarionwest.net/events_page/write_a_thon#wat-list

I’ll be posting updates about my writing progress here, so you’ll be able to follow my trials and tribulations, trying to produce awesome fiction while traveling around the Midwest selling books.

I’ve been trying to read more this year, and my luck has been excellent (mostly due to the fact that I read things that come highly recommended or are written by friends).

So here are two short reviews of books I’ve read in the last couple of weeks:

Napier’s Bones by Derryl Murphy (ChiZine Press) — ISBN 9781926851099

This is a recent contemporary spec fic novel from Chizine, one of the publishers I represent (through Diamond).  It’s a weird, awesome urban fantasy kind of book where Math is magic.  A select number of people called Numerates can see and manipulate the numbers inherent in all things, traveling around the world to collect number-powered artifacts called Mojo.  Dom and Jenna, along with a Numerate ghost named Billy get swept up in a plot by a long-dead Numerate, and fight their way across three countries and two continents to prevent the ghosts of long-dead Numerates from seizing an artifact that would let them re-define reality itself.

I wasn’t expecting this book to fly like it does.  The pacing is fantastic, and made it a great book to read during plane travel.  The characters are decently defined, if not remarkable.  Strong plotting covers up many things, and I found myself happy to follow the leads through their weird Donald in Mathmagicland-esque adventures and throwing number blasts.  I was reminded of the tabletop RPG Unknown Armies, except the setting wasn’t as bleak.

Among Thieves: A Tale of the Kin by Douglas Hulick (Roc) — 9780451463906

Doug Hulick is a friend I met through the SCA, and his historical knowledge is put to amazing use in this premiere.  If you are a fan of Joe Abercrombie’s gritty fantasies or Scott Lynch’s Gentlemen Bastards books, you should definitely check out Doug’s premiere.  Among Thieves is the story of Drothe, a thief who works as a Nose, keeping tabs on other thieves (aka ‘The Kin’) and reporting to his boss.  Drothe is a sharp, morally grey character (grey at best.  He is not a good person, though he does have his own sense of honor, to his fellow Kin), but is very compelling and sufficiently sympathetic to make me happy to spend a book with him.

Drothe finds himself in possession of an artifact that if used by the wrong people, could swing the balance of power or even destroy the empire which his home city of Ildrecca is a member.  All Drothe wants to do is keep from getting shanked by the various factions maneuvering to obtain the book — either to destroy the book or use it to take power for themselves.

The two most notable strengths of this book for me are the thieves’ cant and the fight scenes.  Doug started Among Thieves after picking up an encyclopedia of thieves’ cant, and the love of language is evident throughout the book.  As the story moves along, Among Thieves masterfully enculturates the reader into Drothe’s version of the thieves’ cant, with shorthand, slang, and stock phrases.  By the end of the book, a reader can happily parse a whole paragraph where most all of the verbs and nouns are in the cant rather than the common tongue used by non-Kin.

And the fight scenes, oh the fight scenes.  Doug has studied renaissance martial arts extensively, and that knowledge grants his fight scenes a great sense of self-confidence and clarity.  The blocking and choreography of the fights in Among Thieves is some of the best I’ve read in years.

If you are looking for a fantasy romp with backstabbing, sneaking, rumor-mongering and a deadly game of ‘Where’s the McGuffin,’ give this book a try.

More reviews later if I have the time.  Right now I’m super-excited to start reading China Mieville’s Embassytown.