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Coronavirus: a Bookstore Renaissance in the Making

Pittsburgh: A Tale of Two Renaissances
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I spent the majority of my life living in Western Pennsylvania, and close to twenty of those years living in Pittsburgh.  As the rust belt center of the steel industry, Pittsburgh was a gritty, dirty blue collar town, full of mills belching black smoke that obliterated the skyline.  As the steel industry was in its waning years the city needed to reinvent itself.  The city was in desperate need of a makeover to shed itself of its unfortunate but deserved reputation.  Thus began, in the 1950s, the Renaissance I era, followed in the 1970s by Renaissance II . (Trivia tidbit: one of the first projects of the Renaissance I era was Mellon Square, the nation's first park/parking garage complex that was awarded National Historical Landmark status in 1985). 
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Pittsburgh's two Renaissance periods are typically associated with revival through urban planning and the resurrection of downtown rivers, parks and buildings into today's iconic cityscape, but they indisputably contributed to a transformation more akin to that of the European Renaissance era.  Today, the city is a vibrant place renowned for world class universities and healthcare and serves as the headquarters for seven Fortune 500 companies.  With a thriving arts and culture scene and a growing reputation as a foodie destination, Pittsburgh is now frequently seen on Best Place to Live lists.  
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Pittsburgh's literal rise-from-the-ashes serves as an apt metaphor for what one can observe about the independent bookstore industry, past and present.  Under unprecedented pressure from the burgeoning growth of chain stores and the Amazon juggernaut, independent bookstores were forced to reinvent themselves to survive.  This first renaissance saw the rise of the shop local movement, deeper ties to community and a generational shift of affinity for all things "indie."  News headlines related to the bookstore industry between 2008 and present show a marked transition from doom and gloom to more recent articles that tell the tale of a rise-from-the-ashes story similar to Pittsburgh's. 
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Bookstore Redux
 
The catalyst for this resurrection could certainly serve as the topic for someone's business school masters thesis, but having spent a considerable amount of time browsing independent bookstore websites, I'll posit that embracing social media was instrumental.  One of iheartbookstores' core interests is in how independent bookstores connect with customers and community through social media. Future features will focus on some of the all-stars and how social media helped to foment the epic rebirth of the independent bookstore. 
 
The vast majority of brick-and-mortar bookstores now leverage at least one social media platform, mostly commonly Facebook, to showcase their offerings. Bookstores that only offer only books to customers are a thing of a bygone era.  Yes, they still exist, but the bookstores I see thriving are those who are using social media platforms to communicate with existing customers as well as to reach out to potential customers. Hallmarks of this type of bookstore include hundreds of pictures posted, dozens of in-store events featuring authors, demonstrations and community group meetings, e-commerce capability, focus on local causes and issues, and a constant stream of updated content.  Renaissance I complete...
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How does any of this tie to the Coronavirus pandemic?  We're witnessing the cusp of Renaissance II in the bookstore industry.  Clearly the toll that the pandemic has had on our nation's economy and the lives of people impacted is heartbreaking.  However, what we have witnessed over the last month or two in the bookstore industry is nothing short of remarkable.  Quarantines, business shutdowns and social distancing have pushed bookstores into uncharted waters, but the outside-the-box responses have been extraordinary.
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Renaissance II: Thirty Things in Thirty Days
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As iheartbookstores has worked to keep a proverbial finger on the pulse of the bookstore industry, a trend of inventiveness has emerged.  Hardscrabble independents are doing whatever it takes to scratch out a subsistence income stream.  So many independent bookstores are now interwoven into the fabric of the communities they serve and call home that people are making donations to shops they patronize. While there have been many staff layoffs and both temporary and permanent closures, there's evidence that Renaissance I is paying dividends.  Communities and the book industry itself have proven willing to not only contribute to causes supporting laid off employees, but also to bookstores themselves.  A number of GoFundMe campaigns have been fantastically successful, providing a vital lifeline for many independents and proving that we want bookstores to remain in our communities.
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Renaissance II isn't just a hat-in-hand tale of independent bookstores begging for their lives.  Rather, it's the story of how bookstores rolled up their sleeves and applied that old adage, "necessity is the mother of invention."  Bookstores are leveraging social media to stay connected with customers and communities despite not being able to welcome them inside. Over the course of the last month iheartbookstores has been surprised at the number of clever ways bookstores and the industry in general has fought to survive and support others in need.  Plucked from a variety of places, here is iheartbookstores' list of Thirty Things in Thirty Days:
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1. Politics and Prose (Washington, DC) moved their author talks online and gave virtual attendees the ability to ask questions and make purchases through links.  There could be an appetite for this trend to continue post-quarantine as huge numbers of bookstores have implemented similar online offerings.
2. A multitude of bookstores have reached out to patrons and the communities they serve with crowdfunding requests.  Their goals range from modest to ambitious, and while this probably doesn't represent a go-forward survival strategy, results in the short term have been phenomenal.  One of the most successful has been City Lights Booksellers (San Francisco, CA) GoFundMe initiative that netted nearly half a million dollars in donations.
3. Oblong Books & Music (Rhinebeck, NY) along with Print: a Bookstore (Portland, ME) and other booksellers, took to Twitter with an #AskABookseller session, encouraging to find out how to support bookstores during closures ad 
4. Avid Bookshop (Athens, GA) came up with a novel way to drum up business and support a local cause at the same time.  Grab bags of books were placed curb-side and a portion of each $20-$30 donation went to a local homeless shelter.
5. Nicola's Books (Ann Arbor, MI) teamed up with a neighboring shoe store to offer a unique delivery deal.  Purchase an item from both stores and receive free delivery.
6. Capitol Hill Books (Washington, DC) made an offer to customers that is almost too good to pass up.  Make an appointment and you can have all three floors of the store to yourself for shopping.
7. Twenty Stories (Providence, RI) hosted a live author event on Instagram and drew more than 100 viewers.
8. Kona Stories Bookstore (Kailua-Kona, HI) launched an Education Support Drive to turn public donations directly into educational materials needed by local children for homeschooling.
9. Green Apple Books (San Francisco, CA) posted a number of high-resoluation images of their store interior for customers to download and use as Zoom 
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