The Problem With Gay Bookstores

Jesse’s Journal: Gay bookstores, a dying breed

The demise of Oscar Wilde and Lambda Rising bookstores (among others) leave behind only a handful of exclusively GLBT bookstores, including Giovanni’s Room, Outwrite, Little Sister’s and Lambda Passages, all teetering on the edge of insolvency. These and other stores can not compete with major chain stores like Barnes & Noble or Borders, or mail order houses like Amazon.com. Though the existence of a GLBT book section in a major chain store is of course a step forward for our community, it cannot take the place of our small, independently-owned, queer bookshops. Long before B&N and Borders took notice, our community bookstores were making GLBT books available, supporting GLBT authors and fostering good GLBT literature. Deacon Maccubbin himself criticized gay writers who put links to Amazon and other online sellers on their Web sites: “I wonder if they really think they would have been published at all if not for the gay bookstores that sprang up around the country in the 1980s and 1990s. . . . In the 1970s, that literature barely existed.”

Huh? When did gay bookstores ever publish anyone? I don’t get that connection really. Sure retailers sell books but actually taking the risks on a gay lit book is usually on the publisher end of things. As far as I know it was publishers like Ballantine or Dell or Bantam that took the risks and published those early gay lit books.

My biggest problem with Mr. Maccubbin’s assertion though is that when I even try and find a particular gay book listed on a local gay bookstore website I usually wind up with something like this… White Rabbit Books or how about one of the big guys… Lambda Rising.

There you go. The “local to me” gay bookstore does not have a fully functional website and if they do my experience has been like A Different Light they do not have the particular book I am reviewing or promoting because they do not have the stock to sell or like Lambda Rising their “solution” was they wanted the customers to call them long distance. THAT IS WHY! Even if people are concerned they have been stuck linking to Amazon or Barnes & Noble or Alibris because that is where the books are being sold online not at the local bookstore.

The gay bookstores forgot that supporting the “whole gay community” these days means making yourself available online in the same way that Amazon makes itself available for purchases online and to disregard that is to isolate yourself by only supporting local purchases from your local gay community and that limits the type of money you will make. I sure hope a lot of gay people live near your store or you tend to go out of business and the truth is most gay people cannot afford to live in your cities gay community anymore.

I don’t like the fact gay bookstores are dying because of bad business decisions or the traditional gay community centers are dying because no one can afford to live there. I started out going to those gay bookstores and gay communities when I was really young during the late seventies and that will always be part of how I see gay bookstores and gay communities and their function. On the flip side I do not yell and rant about Amazon for being the leader in getting these gay books online available for purchase and at a good price including shipping.

Gay bookstores have had that same chance to get online as everyone else out there and they were the ones who decided to not bother so yell at the owners. Just like how gay publishers like Cleis Press lack a solid commitment to provide a selection of classic gay lit eBooks. They have had years to make this happen but they chose not to and when they die out I will not be surprised either.

Oh and to not be a huge bummer thank god A Different Light is trying to change things.

Tags: eBook Commentary, eBookStores