Hello, all!

I'm Janet Geddis, the business owner and founder of Avid Bookshop in Athens, GA. I have been running a brick-and-mortar bookstore for nearly 13 years. Since starting my book world journey, I have had the opportunity to take on both formal and informal leadership roles in the industry at large. That said, the survey I reference below is one of my own making and is not related to any other entity, group, or board I'm affiliated with.

I created this anonymous survey in hopes of getting a realistic snapshot of independent bookstores' financial realities: bit.ly/BookstoreMoneySurvey

The survey should take 5-12 minutes. It's for bookstore owners, managers, and staffers past or present. If you used to own or work with an indie bookstore but no longer do, I'd like for you to share your thoughts as well. Just add a comment in there somewhere that you are not currently affiliated with a bookstore.

BACKGROUND & GOALS

In numerous conversations with bookstore owners, managers, and staff over the years, I have learned that I am not the only one who routinely struggles with cash flow, publisher holds, etc. I'm guessing there are a lot more folks out there who are stressed about cash flow and its impact on their bookstores and their own health.

Physical bookstores are integral to publishers' success. When a small number of us tell credit or sales reps we're struggling financially, it's hard to know if anyone with decision-making power at the publishing companies ever understands (or even hears) just how serious this problem is.

Will the survey results reveal grander, more widespread problems that publishers can no longer dismiss as anomalies? Will a critical mass of responses prompt higher-ups at publishing corporations to enact serious, long-term changes to support bookstores? Once I share the [anonymized] data from the survey results, will we self-flagellating booksellers be able to see that we're not the only ones kept up at night due to money-related stress?

Will folks from all aspects of the book industry realize that we must take action sooner than later? Will those of us who've self-isolated due to shame and/or stress be brave enough to stop operating in our bubbles and instead broach brave conversations with one another? Can we forge new paths that will ensure the success and the future for all of us?

As stated in this message and on the survey itself, your responses are anonymous by default. I am not collecting email addresses and will not know whose response is whose unless you explicitly share your contact information at the end.

Please share this with friends and colleagues. It's my goal to amass at least 150 responses, though far more would be amazing. At the time of this posting, I've not decided when the survey will close.

[Disclaimer: Perhaps the news is better than I think, and I'll get a rush of folks saying they feel super-confident about money. That would be wonderful! But I suspect the opposite is true: that I'll discover that the cash flow frustrations my store perpetually faces are all too familiar to most of you.]