This is the bookstore labor piece I was hoping for and I’m grateful for it. So many questions and thoughts. https://longreads.com/2018/10/25/the-state-of-the-bookstore-union/

I’m not going to go through the piece bit by bit for you. It’s too good—go read it instead! But here are some of the questions I had before reading it that it opens up for further discussion/investigation/imagining.

First, is there such a thing as a sustainable bookselling model that doesn’t depend on impoverished workers? How do you define “underpaid”? It doesn’t help to make the same crappy entry level wage as other retail workers if none of you can pay rent, for example.

As McCarthy notes in the piece, The Strand is not successful because it sells books, it’s successful because it owns expensive real estate and has been good at marketing its brand through merch and other services.

McCarthy is very good on the odd place that booksellers occupy in the hierarchy of retail—the way the job involves lots of physical shifting of boxes and ringing up but being *good* at it means reading a great deal and being interested in books.

People often aren’t paid extra for book knowledge tho, so selling books becomes a refuge, as she says, “for people who can’t afford unpaid internships.” A step toward a salaried job or a job in publishing/writing.

We talk about how low wages in publishing end impact the class/race of people working there, how do they impact book selling, promotion and events? Maybe they don’t! Maybe only the people with money make those decisions. I really don’t know the answer.

I was also very interested (ofc) in the section where McCarthy talks about booksellers being unable to rally support from authors for their labor struggles. The piece suggests a disconnect around class, which is no doubt true but I think there are other things happening as well.

For example, just tweeting this thread feels super dangerous to me as a writer! I know booksellers and also bookstore owners. I am dependent on the good will of independent bookstores while also knowing some of their terrible labor practices. It is hard to talk about this stuff.