In a world where curation is increasingly algorithmic and impersonal—based on little more than behavior cues and statistical probabilities—the knowledgeable bookstore staffer stands in stark contrast. The online retailer will say, “customers who bought this wrench and this potting soil also bought this book on the care of cats,” even though you don’t have a cat. The bookstore professional says, “customers like you who enjoyed that book would also really like this one.” This is the increasingly hard-to-find personalized recommendation—one that embodies judgment and taste. Independent bookstores are where books stop being products and start becoming relationships.
For a debut author like me (and the readers who might like my work), bookstore curators are especially vital. They are willing to take a chance—not just by stocking a book from an unknown author, but by actually putting it into readers’ hands. The bookseller who says, “trust me—this one,” is doing more than making a
recommendation; they’re expanding the market for books. In a landscape already crowded with titles, it would be easy to stick with safe choices and familiar names, reinforcing a system that already leans toward winner-take-all dynamics. Doing this before the badges and blurbs—before the choice is safe—takes guts, taste, and experience. The best independent bookstores have all three.
On this day, I’d be remiss not to thank the first four stores who took a chance on the Silas Lopez Mysteries: Wellesley Books (Wellesley, MA), The Bookshop of Needham (Needham, MA), Provincetown Bookshop (Provincetown, MA) and Elm Street Books (New Canaan, CT).
Stores like these are more than “local brick and mortar.” They’re not just charming or nostalgic, or even just “third spaces.” They are part of the infrastructure of the book world—taste-makers who shape communities, guide readers, and help new writers get discovered. They are how deserving books actually find their way into readers’ hands.
Shopping with an online retailer is seductively convenient. Something pops into your mind, you click a few buttons, and it shows up at your door a couple days later. It can feel like mindlessly eating chips in front of the television. Going to a bookstore is something else entirely. You pick up a book, feel its weight, flip through it, see what it’s shelved next to. You read the opening lines, scan the praise page, notice what draws your eye. And that’s before the conversation—with a bookseller, with another reader, or at an author event. Bookstores are where books become real. Heck, they’re where authors become—or at least feel—real.
I’m fortunate to have a series of events lined up this spring and summer in support of The Washashore, and I’d love to meet readers in those spaces. If you’re near one, I hope you’ll join me.
On Independent Bookstore Day, I’m especially grateful to the people behind the counter, the owners who take the financial risk to stay in the business, and the readers who support them. Long live the independent bookstore. Without it, our reading ecosystem would be far poorer.
If you are interested in ordering The Washashore you can find it at—or order it from— these local bookstores:
Wellesley Books (Wellesley, MA), The Bookshop of Needham (Needham, MA), Provincetown Bookshop (Provincetown, MA) and Elm Street Books (New Canaan, CT)
Or as an ebook here:
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