Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Guest Post: Stephen Blackmoore

Mr. Blackmoore has been a friend of Do Some Damage for quite some time. His debut novel City of the Lost is out today. He has some words for you readers out there, so check this out:

My debut novel, CITY OF THE LOST drops today like a coked-up baby into a school prom trashcan.

For those of you who haven't been inundated with my incessant yammering about this book, CITY OF THE LOST is about an unrepentant thug, Joe Sunday, who gets murdered, brought back to life and finds himself in the middle of a whole bunch of Very Bad People who want the thing that raised him from the dead. Lots of violence, lots of blood. Lots and lots of swearing.

And I'm here today not only to ask you to shell out a few bucks to grab a copy, which I appreciate and know that it's a lot to ask, but to buy a copy from an independent bookstore.

Now I'm not the type of person who looks at some gargantuan retailer like Amazon, points and shrieks, "EVIL!" Questionable policies aside, they're businesses, like any other business and I'm not here to say one's better than another. I shop there. I even buy books there. I have a Kindle, after all. And my book's available on it. Nook, too.

But there are some things that a neighborhood bookstore can do that a place like Amazon can't.

Amazon doesn't have a face the way a bookstore does. There is no one there who you can walk up to and say, "What's good?" and have them shove a copy of something incredible into your hands.

It can't be a part of a local community. You can't browse the shelves, get lost in the smell of paper and glue, feel the rough pages between your fingers as you decide whether to pick up your latest passion.

You can't wander over to the Literature section, and try to nonchalantly impress that cute redhead in glasses thumbing a copy of Dostoyevsky only to realize later that the book you grabbed was TWILIGHT. And that you held it upside-down.

There are, after all, no cute redheads in glasses waiting for you between the pages at Amazon.

You will never have stories to tell about shopping at Amazon the way you will shopping at a bookstore. You'll never meet people, make friends and have coffee with someone as you both try clicking BUY NOW for the same book at the same time. They are not there to meet.

And so I'm asking you to get out of that comfy chair, go downtown to your local bookstore and buy a copy. And if they don't have it, ask them to order it. It will take about as long to get it as you would with Prime shipping and it'll help keep them in the black.

And, failing that, then click here and buy a copy from them on-line.

You see, Amazon's not the only on-line game in town. Indie-Bound gives you the chance to buy from and support independent bookstores.

And, because I love this place and these people, I'd really, really dig it if you'd buy a copy of CITY OF THE LOST from Mysterious Galaxy.

Indie bookstores are part of a community's fabric in a way that Amazon can't be. They hold us together as readers and writers and the only way we can keep them from going the way of the dinosaur is to shop with them.

So be a pal and shop with them, would ya? Thanks.

4 comments:

Sean Patrick Reardon said...

Big time congrats, Steve. Looks awesome, and best of luck and success with it.

Anonymous said...

We are lucky in Austin (TX) to be the home of one of the best independent bookstores in Book People. I like the looks of the book so I'll be swinging by at lunch to get your book.

Jason T. Hurley said...

The book looks good. I read the blurb on Amazon. It's five dollars cheaper there, so that's where I will buy it. I like what you said about going to a local bookstore because you can sniff glue there though.
But fuck that because it is the same book.
Why would I pay five dollars more for the same book?
Have a Big Mac delivered to my house for a dollar or pay six dollars to go to the store and pick one up? Hey, send it to my fucking house because that is where I am.
I have glue here if I want to sniff it.
Good luck with the book it looks real good.

David Cranmer said...

I am looking forward to the read.