St. Louis Bookstores Launch Alliance

Left Bank Books, Pudd’nhead Books, Subterranean Books, Main Street Books, and The Book House have formed an alliance to help raise awareness of their stores and their unique contributions to their local communities. Now, a growing number of other locally owned independent bookstores in the St. Louis area are joining them in the new St. Louis Independent Bookstore Alliance. The four stores came together to create the alliance after Subterranean Books announced it might have to close later this year.

“One of the benefits of the cooperative org is that we are in a better position to respond to issues that affect us all when we work on it together,” said Kris Kleindienst, co-owner of Left Bank Books. “Booksellers are a very passionate and dedicated group of people, and when we put our collective passion together it can be very powerful.”

Through the creation of unique content specific to St. Louis readers, special literary events, and a collaborative atmosphere, the St. Louis Independent Bookstore Alliance seeks to ensure that St. Louis continues to have “a wide variety of independent bookstores, each specializing in their own passion for books, staffed by expert booksellers and stocked with the most amazing books; to support the creative and literary efforts in our city…” The alliance will also advocate in a variety of ways on issues that affect independent bookstores.

The alliance launched a Facebook page on Tuesday, February 15, and had more than 150 “likes” in its first day online. Future projects include the launch of “a website (stlindiebook.com), which will provide a monthly list of St. Louis Bestsellers, a shared calendar of literary events, a city-wide reading group, videos and blogs about books and news in bookselling, resources for local authors, and e-commerce capabilities to include the sale of physical books as well as Google eBooks.”

A series of kick-off events are also planned. Currently on the schedule are a St. Louis Indie Bookstore Cruise – actually a bus tour – featuring author visits, refreshments, giveaways, and other happenings, and a Technology Petting Zoo.

“We’ve been excited about working with other local bookstores since we opened two years ago,” said Pudd’nhead Books owner Nikki Furrer. “St. Louis has an extraordinary number of independent bookstores, both general service and specialty. Instead of bemoaning corporate chain stores or e-books or harmful online stores, we should be celebrating the fact that St. Louis is one of the most literate cities in the country, with a thriving literary arts scene for both children and adults, and an independent bookseller for everyone’s reading tastes.”

Jarek Steele, co-owner of Left Bank Books, added, “Booksellers are kindred spirits. Even if we operate competing stores, there is a bond that develops from facing similar challenges. Healthy competition doesn’t make us enemies. In fact, it challenges us to be better booksellers and business owners.”

The St. Louis Independent Bookstore Alliance is also on Twitter at www.twitter.com/stlindiebook.