Jaime Clarke’s new novel, Vernon Downs, will be published in 2014 by Roundabout Press. But you don’t have to wait ’til then — Roundabout will ship the book directly to you in December.
The catch?
Don’t preorder the book on Amazon — order directly from the publisher. You can read Jaime’s personal message at his aptly named website, http://pleasedontbuymybookonamazon.com/.
A disclaimer here: Jaime and his wife Mary are friends, and also co-owners of Newtonville Books, an independent bookstore here in Boston which I like to link to (you may have noticed). But even if Jaime weren’t a friend (and a great writer, and a great curator of the written word — see Baum’s Bazaar), I’d still be writing about his excellent plan. It’s a gutsy move that’s gotten some press, and I hope it reaches a wider audience.
If you order Vernon Downs directly from Roundabout before its official April release, perks abound:
1. You’ll receive your copy in the mail in December — five months early.
2. You can enter the name of your favorite independent bookstore in the Special Instructions section at checkout, and Roundabout will send 50% of the monies (excluding shipping) to that store.
3. Jaime is forgoing all royalties until April, so your entire purchase supports independent publishing and bookselling.
And, as a special treat, if you order before midnight (EST) on October 28th, Roundabout will send you an audio clip of Chris Cooper (!) reading a selection from Vernon Downs. I’ve been pretty much entirely in love with since Chris Cooper October Sky, so . . . yeah.
I’m excited. I hope you are too.
If you have any other great ideas or news items about saving independent presses, please share!
Rosemary and Reading Glasses 
You may very well have seen this article, Carolyn, but I’ll share it here anyway in case (or in case any of your readers might be interested). http://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/2013/10/13/indie-bookstores-hang-owning-one-becomes-new-fantasy-career/mECgvUmqINWv19srlKJhZL/story.html
I’m seeing a slow movement percolating to save indie stores…was it just a few weeks ago that a number of well known writers were spending a weekend day at a different store..? I had read something about the campaign.
I recently came up with an idea just for myself. I struggle a lot with motivating myself to exercise, but there’s a lovely indie book store (and cafe) that’s 2.5 miles from us. I decided that I would walk there x number of times a week, and after a certain number I would reward myself with a book 🙂
That’s a great idea, Cecilia! I wish Newtonville Books were just a little closer to us — our little dude is too small to walk that far right now.
I think there’s a plan to get authors into their local bookstores to sell books on Small Business Saturday — pretty sure I read about that in Shelf Awareness.
I have to admit to buying books from Amazon, but I also buy from our local independent book store, BookPeople, which seems to be thriving. I love that place. This is an interesting tactic of Clarke’s. I will certainly think about doing this.
🙂