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  • Published: 15 July 2011
  • ISBN: 9781609801397
  • Imprint: Seven Stories Press
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 336
  • RRP: $29.99

Rebel Bookseller

Why Indie Bookstores Represent Everything You Want to Fight for from Free Speechto Buying Local to Building Communities




We hope this book will act as a rallying flag for independent booksellers and their supporters--including other independent arts retailers, mom-and-pop shops in other fields and industries, and those who battle the big-box stores.

The revival of independent bookselling has already begun and is one of the amazing stories of our times. Bookseller Andy Laties wrote the first edition of Rebel Bookseller six years ago, hoping it would spark a movement. Now, with this second edition, Laties’s book can be a rallying cry for everyone who wants to better understand how the rise of the big bookstore chains led irrevocably to their decline, and how even in the face of electronic readers from three of America’s largest and most successful companies—Apple, Amazon, and Google—the movement to support locally owned independent stores, especially bookstores, is on the rise. From the mid-1980s to the present, Andy Laties has been an independent bookseller, starting out in Chicago, teaching along the way at the American Booksellers Association, and finally running the bookshop at the Eric Carle Museum in Amherst, Massachusetts. His innovations were adapted by Barnes & Noble, Zany Brainy, and scores of independent stores. In Rebel Bookseller, Laties tells how he got started, how he kept going, and why he believes independent bookselling has a great future. He alternates his narrative with short anecdotes, interludes between the chapters that give his credo as a bookseller. Along the way, he explains the growth of the chains, and throws in a treasure trove of tips for anyone who is considering opening up a bookstore. Rebel Bookseller is a must read for those in the book biz, a testament to the ingeniousness of one man man’s story of making a life out of his passionate commitment to books and bookselling.

  • Published: 15 July 2011
  • ISBN: 9781609801397
  • Imprint: Seven Stories Press
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 336
  • RRP: $29.99

Praise for Rebel Bookseller

"A must-read." --Publishers Weekly (starred review of first edition)
"Everything you always wanted to know about the book business but were afraid to ask." --Eric Carle, author of The Very Hungry Caterpillar
"Andy has put so much passion into his book that it is impossible to read before bed: the book incites a disturbing concoction of adrenalin and hormones that rages against that good night. Not only does Andy not go gently there, he refuses to go, period. This book is heartfelt and honest." --Bernie Rath, former executive director, American Booksellers Association

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