James Patterson has started giving money to independent bookstores throughout the country.
He started a program to give $1 million of his money to bookstores to use in improvements, new programs or even bonuses for employees, according to The New York Times.
The grants will be given out this week starting with 55 shops, according to Publishers Lunch, worth about $267,000 in the first go-around.
Patterson told the New York Times:
“I just want to get people more aware and involved in what’s going on here, which is that, with the advent of e-books, we either have a great opportunity or a great problem,” he said. “Our bookstores in America are at risk. Publishing and publishers as we’ve known them are at stake. To some extent the future of American literature is at stake.”
Bookstores have shown mixed successes over the last several years. Some of the downturn has been blamed on the success of the digital market with the proliferation of ebooks and online book stores such as Amazon.
Patterson seems to look at his money in the same vein as the government bailing out the car and bank industries. He took out full-page ads in The New York Times Book Review and Publishers Weekly arguing for federal financial support for bookstore businesses, according to the NYT article.
A check is nice for any of these bookstores who have spent years selling Patterson’s best-selling books.
I don’t really care for bailouts. However, in this case, it’s Patterson’s money (and not taxpayer money) and if this is how he wants to contribute, I look forward to seeing what these bookshops will do with it.
Here’s a list of the bookstores receiving money as listed on the Publishers Lunch website.
A Whale of a Tale – Irvine, CA
Alamosa Books – Albuquerque, NM
Anderson’s – Naperville, IL
Andover Bookstore (Hugo Books) – Andover, MA
Bank Street Bookstore – New York, NY
Bookshop Santa Cruz – Santa Cruz, CA
Book Bin – Northbrook, IL
Book Culture -New York, NY
Book Passage – Corte Madera, CA
Book Revue – Huntington, NY
BookPeople – Austin, TX
Books & Books – Coral Gables, FL
Books & Greetings – Northvale, NJ
Books of Wonder – New York, NY
Booktenders – Doylestown, PA
Bookworks – Albuquerque, NM
Brazos Bookstore, Inc. – Houston, TX
Brewster Book Store – Brewster, MA
Broadside Book Shop – Northampton, MA
Browseabout Books – Rehoboth Beach, DE
California Bookstore Day
Children’s Book World – Los Angeles, CA
Children’s Book World – Haverford, PA
Doylestown Bookshop – Doylestown, PA
Eighth Day Books – Wichita, KS
Gallery Bookshop/Bookwinkle Children – Mendocino, CA
Hicklebee’s – San Jose, CA
Innisfree Bookshop – Lincoln, NH
Lake Forest BookStore – Lake Forest, IL
Little Shop of Stories – Decatur, GA
Malaprop’s Bookstore and Café – Asheville, NC
Mysterious Galaxy – Redondo Beach/San Diego, CA
Nicola’s Books – Ann Arbor, MI
Norwich Bookstore – Norwich, VT
Oblong Books – Millerton, NY
Odyssey Book Shop – South Hadley, MA
Old Firehouse Books – Fort Collins, CO
Page & Palette – Fairhope, AL
Park Road Books – Charlotte, NC
Parnassus Books – Nashville, TN
Percy’s Burrow – Topsham, ME
Phoenix Books – Essex Junction, VT
Porter Square Books – Cambridge, MA
Reading Reptile – Kansas City, MO
Red Balloon – St. Paul, MN
Russo’s Marketplace Books – Bakersfield, CA
Schuler Books and Music – Okemos, MI
Subterranean Books – St. Louis, MO
The Bookies – Denver, CO
The BookLoft – Great Barrington, MA
The Bookstore Plus – Lake Placid, NY
The Children’s Bookstore – Baltimore, MD
The Yellow Brick Road – San Diego, CA
Wellesley Books – Wellesley, MA
Wild Rumpus – Minneapolis, MN
Wonderland Books – Rockford, IL
