Well, we’re almost halfway to our 5,000 signature goal. I would like to thank everyone for continuing to share the petition and saturating our local media with Booksellers information. It’s rare that a cause like saving Booksellers makes it on the local media numerous times in one week, but stories about Booksellers have made the Commercial Appeal six out of the last seven days in some form or fashion with the petition even being included in several articles. As of this morning, we also made national news on the Publishers Weekly (an extremely popular bookselling-news source) magazine homepage as the featured story (http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/bookselling/article/72455-memphis-bookstore-not-likely-to-be-saved-says-owner.html). I’d also like to give a shout out to Betty Westmoreland of Collierville and Sandra O’Donnell of Arlington for both writing “Letters to the Editor” in the Commercial Appeal. The continued display of the love our Memphis community has for Booksellers has had an impact on the way articles regarding Booksellers have been written over the past week. The day after Booksellers first announced they would be closing (bet they didn’t expect this kind of support) last Tuesday, an article from the Memphis Daily News read “Booksellers…will close its doors…probably in February.” This negative outlook on the future of Booksellers was unfortunately not a rare occurrence. Thankfully, just a few days later on Friday, an article from the same author read “somewhere in the back of our minds, I think most of us knew there were probably some circumstances under which Booksellers at Laurelwood might remain open.” This shift in outlook is representative of the work you have put in to helping this petition by sharing it and spreading the word. You’ve changed the headlines from reading “Booksellers Will Close” to “Scenarios Emerge to Keep Booksellers at Laurelwood from Closing.” You did this and I’d like to thank for your continued support for Booksellers. I’d also like to point out that the Laurelwood Shopping Center has had a change in heart. Instead of declining to comment about whether they would take steps to help Booksellers, they publicly said on Facebook that they will be “working hard to work something out.” Last note: If anyone attended the book signing this evening and took pictures, please send them to me at savebooksellers@gmail.com and I might feature them in an upcoming petition update! Way 2: Email and Send Letters Just like Betty and Sandra took the initiative to send in letters to the Commercial Appeal, I’d like to discuss why taking the time to email and send letters is an important way to help save Booksellers. When a petition, like the one we’ve started, begins to garner a lot of signatures, it might make the news for a day or two, but it soon cycles out of the news and is replaced with another “more relevant” subject. In this manner, petitions come and go without always claiming victory and improving their community; however, the community support for this petition has been different thus far. We’ve continued to produce positive attention for Booksellers and promote our cause by getting multiple articles written about Booksellers almost every day in the past week. Writing personal statements is one of the top ways you can promote Booksellers and show potential investors that you care about this Bookstore. It doesn’t take very much time, they don’t need to be formal, and their impact can be magnified. So, I’d like to strongly encourage you to consider writing a short statement 250 words or less and send them to any of the following organizations/people: Commercial Appeal Letters to the Editor: letters@commercialappeal.com Action News 5: desk@wmctv.com and/or abettermidsouth@wmctv.com. WREG: http://wreg.com/contact/ Local Memphis: http://www.localmemphis.com/contact-us Memphis Flyer: letters@memphisflyer.com Memphis Daily News: thollahan@memphisdailynews.com Memphis Business Journal: memphis@bizjournals.com Corey Prewitt (Chief Operating Officer & Marketing Director for Laurelwood): cory@laurelwoodshoppingcenter.com Continue sharing our story by sharing this petition and remember YOU are the headline changers, Emmett Miskell