Let’s Hear It for Dave Eggers — and for Indie Bookstores

Author (and old pal) Dave Eggers likes to push the publishing envelope. And god bless him, Dave is doing it again — announcing that his fall novel, The Every, will be sold only at independent bookstores in hardback. Fuck Amazon — which, like the giant corporate octopus in Eggers’s new novel, has wrapped up everything in is tentacles, including book commerce.

I wish I had thought of releasing my new book the same way, cutting out Amazon — which will NEVER be allowed to sell the hardback version of The Every. But, as Dave has explained, it’s very difficult to deep-six Amazon, even for McSweeney’s, the independent publishing company that Eggers started in 1998 (not long after he worked briefly for me at my online media startup, Salon.) Like all New York book companies, my publisher undoubtedly has an ironclad contract with Amazon that doesn’t allow an independent path.

But as a lowly author, I can — and do — encourage readers to buy my books from indie bookstores. In my hometown of San Francisco, my two favorite stores are legendary City Lights, which hosted my book launch event last week, and Green Arcade, which has thrown fun and wild book parties for me ever since the publication of Season of the Witch. I autographed stacks of my latests book, By the Light of Burning Dreams, for my good friend Patrick Marks, the effervescent proprietor of Green Arcade. And if you live in the Bay Area, you can buy one of those autographed copies at Green Arcade on Market Street (just a few doors away from Zuni Cafe), where Patrick is offering outdoor service.

Keep indie bookstores alive — coming out of the pandemic, they are more endangered than ever. Make an effort to purchase books from your favorite local stores. And if you don’t live near one, order online from one or from Bookshop.org — a consortium of indie bookstores.

Seriously — fuck Amazon.

Dave Eggers