June 16th is Save the Bookstore Day…

…or as we like to call it here in Durham Region, the 2nd Annual BLUE HERON BOOKS BOOKSWARM!

Before explaining the details, I’d like to give credit where credit it due:

Save the Bookstore day is the brainchild of literary agent KELLY SONNACK of the Andrea Brown Literary Agency. Ms. Sonnack was tired–like everybody else–of seeing independent bookstores closing their doors. Save the Bookstore Day was created as a way to bring people into their favourite brick & mortar bookstore…to encourage them to support that bookstore before the unthinkable happens.

Here is a blurb from last year’s Facebook Event page for SAVE BOOKSTORES (I’ve updated it with this year’s info)!

Who: You
What: Buy a book (or 4)
Where: Your local bookstore (or Powell’s ships)
When: June 16th (The Saturday before Father’s Day!)
Why: Because we need to support our storefronts. No more obituary section in publishing news, please!

That WHY is a very good reason to get thee to your favourite independent bookstore on June 16th and buy some books!

You can click on the poster below to go to LAST YEAR’S Facebook Event page for Save the Bookstore:

I will post a link to the event page for this year, once it is created. This is a North American event…so wherever you are, all you have to do to participate is go to your fav independent on the date and buy a book (or 4).

You can also organize an event for your local store. It’s extremely easy. You just talk to the owner to let them know what you’re doing. Then, you advertise. Use Twitter, Facebook, a blog if you have one, email, etc. Just get the word out there that everybody’s meeting up at your fav indy bookstore to show support and celebrate its existence.

I organized one for my fav bookstore last year. You can read about it here. If enough people show up, there’s nothing like a party in a bookstore. You can meet new locals who share your interests…you can have great conversations about your favourite books. Last year was an amazing day. It was great to see BLUE HERON BOOKS filled with booklovers. Our fav. bookstore is well and truly loved. They support the arts in our community like nobody else. We’re lucky to have them. Participating in Save The Bookstores Day was a no-brainer for Uxbridge, Ontario and the surrounding area.

So, on to the 2nd annual!

In the heart of the cozy wildly artistic community of Uxbridge, Ontario sits a sentinel. (Ha…sounds a little too Star Warsy. But it’s true.) Blue Heron Books is in the centre of town and in many ways it is the town’s pulse! Owner Shelley Macbeth is a whirlwind. She’s the bookseller for the annual nearby Ontario Writers’ Conference, and the bookseller at the monthly nearby Writer’s Community of Durham Region Breakfast Meetings. She has writing workshops running at the bookstore. She organizes zany and wonderful events such as the HUNGER GAMES reaping in the streets of Uxbridge last week to celebrate the release of the blockbuster movie that began life in independent bookstores across North America (Thankfully nobody died in the playing out of that particular reaping)! Shelley also hosts author talks and lectures. Her BOOKS & BRUNCH series is extremely popular. In a word, Shelley Macbeth and her crew at Blue Heron Books HAVE IT GOING ON! (That’s four words, but I hope you’re not counting)

Blue Heron was recently named in the TOP 10 BOOKSTORES OF NORTH AMERICA. If you think that’s a small feat, you’re crazy.

In appreciation for all Shelley and her fine employees do for BOOKS, WRITERS, READERS, UXBRIDGE, DURHAM REGION and BEYOND…I ask that you mark June 16th on your calendars. AND that you make EVERY EFFORT to get to Blue Heron Books on that day. We’re going to celebrate them in the way that they spend the rest of the year celebrating books and the creative community.

2nd Annual BLUE HERON BOOKS BOOKSWARM – In participation with SAVE THE BOOKSTORE!

DATE: SATURDAY JUNE 16th, 2012

TIME: 10:00am – 1:00pm

PLACE: Blue Heron Bookstore – 62 Brock Street W. Uxbridge, Ontario (905) 852-4282

Please come. Please bring friends. Please tell everybody you know about it. Please buy a book (or 4) while you’re there. (-: