From Roy Blount, president of Author's Guild.

Susan Kearney asked for this to be posted:

>From Roy Blount, president of Author's Guild. Pass it along!

I've been talking to booksellers lately who report that times are hard. And
local booksellers aren't known for vast reserves of capital, so a serious
dip in sales can be devastating. Booksellers don't lose enough money,
however, to receive congressional attention. A government bailout isn't in
the cards.

We don't want bookstores to die. Authors need them, and so do neighborhoods.
So let's mount a book-buying splurge. Get your friends together, go to your
local bookstore and have a book-buying party. Buy the rest of your Christmas
presents, but that's just for starters. Clear out the mysteries, wrap up the
histories, beam up the science fiction! Round up the westerns, go crazy for
self-help, say yes to the university press books! Get a load of those
coffee-table books, fatten up on slim volumes of verse, and take a chance on
romance!

There will be birthdays in the next twelve months; books keep well; they're
easy to wrap: buy those books now. Buy replacements for any books looking
raggedy on your shelves. Stockpile children's books as gifts for friends
who look like they may eventually give birth. Hold off on the flat-screen TV
and the GPS (they'll be cheaper after Christmas) and buy many, many books.
Then tell the grateful booksellers, who by this time will be hanging onto
your legs begging you to stay and live with their cat in the stockroom: "Got
to move on, folks. Got some books to write now. You see...we're the Authors
Guild."