Hello again, I'd like to thank everyone for your support of Booksellers. I read every comment you post and I'm hearing a lot of great stories, so keep them coming! First off, I got to talk with several of the staff members at Booksellers today and they are all very touched by the outpouring of support from the local community. After talking with Eddie Burton, who has worked at Booksellers for over 30 years, I really started to get a feel of how important Booksellers is to so many people. Today I also had the opportunity to visit 43 different local businesses with a small group of supporters in and around the Laurelwood area and share with them the vision of this petition. Hearing heartfelt memories from almost everyone I visited was touching beyond anything I could have imagined. It also convinced me that IT'S NOT TOO LATE to save Booksellers. While our time to act may be small, our support and community are just the opposite. Alright, there are two points that I want to really get across with this update: dispelling myths about this issue and explaining what you can do to help. Myths/ Common Questions "It's the Competition That's Forcing Booksellers to Close" Yes, Amazon and other online store giants are drawing attention away from local bookstores among other businesses, but they aren't necessarily drawing financial support away from Booksellers in particular. Booksellers has been making a relatively stable revenue over the past few years; however, its the size of the store that't the major problem. With the store model they have in place currently, the size of the store is just not feasible to keep up with. What about local bookstores like Burke's? You have to remember that this is not just a loss for Bookseller customers, this is a loss for the local literary community. As I was writing this, I even noticed that Burke's books had signed this petition to show their support for Booksellers. This loss hurts, not helps, other local bookstores because it raises the question of whether their store might be next. "Can't We Just Raise a Bunch of Money to Help Booksellers?" While raising money for the store is a noble cause, the uncertainty of the future of Booksellers makes donating money (for now) not our best solution. If Booksellers were to somehow raise enough money to keep the store open, they would still not have enough money to explore their current business model and rebuild a new successful model. What they need is a financial backer, someone willing to work with the store heading into the future to help them get back on their feet. "Why Didn't We Know About This Sooner?" Trust me on this one: the Bookseller employees were just as devastated and surprised as the rest of the Memphis community. They only found out about this recently and have had very little time to react. "Can't They Just Downsize?" While the option of downsizing the store and possibly moving to a new location is currently being explored, it's not time to give up on saving the store. Booksellers would never really be the same if they downsized. As I've said before, Booksellers is all about the experience of finding just the right book. The current size of the store allows for the social aspect of the store to flourish and displays the unique quality of Booksellers. We still have time to find someone to wants to invest their time and financial resources into our beloved store. "It's Too Late" This is the most common response I've heard from other people. I'll reiterate again: IT'S NOT TOO LATE. The store has yet to announce an official closing date and until they do (which I hope they don't have to) we must push to keep our community store open. The Petition Is Great and Everything but What Can I DO? I've heard from countless people that they want to do something... and not to fear, I will be giving you that opportunity very soon. In conjunction with Booksellers, we are planning an event of sorts to help support the store and bring in some local authors to help publicize the event. More to come on that as we work out the details for this event. For now, these are the things you can do: 1. SHARE this petition. I cannot emphasize this enough. Already shared this on Facebook? Share it again. Share it on Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, and any other social media platform you might use. This is the only way we can keep the momentum we have going for saving Booksellers. So maybe if you have some time tomorrow, share this petition and don't be too shy to not share this with someone you may not know as well. If you don't use any of those platforms, no worries there because you can still share this PDF flier with your friends: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwD6Qj4yD5f0eDF1NGxVZWZBWEU/view?usp=sharing 2. CONTACT anyone you can reach and share with them that you care about this issue. Maybe its someone you know that has invested in local businesses in the past who would be interested in supporting Booksellers. Maybe you are that person who wants to support Booksellers. If you fit in either category, feel free to email me at savebooksellers@gmail.com. Also, feel free to reach out to your local officials and let them know that this issue is important to you. 3. CREATE ideas. The easiest way to keep this issue alive is by creating ideas for solutions to help Booksellers. Creating and sharing ideas allows people to think about potential solutions and encourages them to get more involved in an issue they care about. Got any great ideas? Send them to savebooksellers@gmail.com Until tomorrow remember YOU are the change makers, #GetMemphisLit, and share this petition, Emmett Miskell (savebooksellers@gmail.com)