I recently got in an argument with an old bookstore colleague about how I think booksellers, generally and always, should commit to stocking books from a variety of voices, particularly #ownvoices.

He argued with me because he said, as the buyer, he has to buy what the community wants otherwise the store couldn't survive. He can only bring in a few things off the beaten path "so the store can survive."

We also had a big falling out over American Dirt a few months ago, so not exactly new territory.

In a bookseller FB group today, I saw that some stores are facing out books exclusively by authors of color and stories about characters of color. They mentioned how their sales of those books are up, even though customers don't seem to notice the tactic. And like, honestly...

That is ALWAYS the case. So, again, I say to those bookstores who said they had to stock American Dirt and other trash like it: You are full of it. FULL OF IT. People often buy what they are told to buy and, as gatekeepers, we get to guide them to the best of the best.

I mean, think about it. We handsell what we've read or what we've heard our coworkers recommend again and again. So, if you're not reading diverse books, you're not recommending them and you're not really trying. Those books don't sell because YOU don't sell them.

Bookstores choose not to carry new titles every single day because it's not possible to carry them all. And there are so many books that "the community wants" then never sell a single copy.

I don't really know what this thread is for except that I'm really tired of indie bookselling as a whole skating by and not addressing this in a meaningful way.

There's a sense of entitlement from being the little guy next to Amazon and the like that caused a lot of stores to stray from the thing that is supposed to make them great: creating a sense of community and connecting readers with the right book at the right time.

And yet there's this idea that if the store is an indie, they must be good and deserving of our money. Of course I support indies over Amazon, but I don't support them blindly because I know what gets said behind closed doors.

I've worked at stores where I was pressured to sell specific titles to attract the attention of the publisher, even if that book was crap or clearly the wrong book for that reader. I've been told that diverse books don't sell and to order less.

I used to not be brave enough to talk about these things publicly because, in career bookselling, who you know can have a big impact, especially within a region, but I should have raised my voice before.

I guess, what I'm trying to say is, booksellers: Step up. Not just because it's a money-maker right now, but because it's the right thing to do.