Patterson donates $500K to bookstores

In an effort to keep struggling bookstores afloat, author James Patterson is offering some relief in the form of a hefty sum of money.

The bestselling writer of “Along Came a Spider” and “NYPD Red” announced on Thursday a personal donation of $500,000 to help save independent bookstores across the country. Many have been forced to shut their doors indefinitely or drastically change their business models to comply with measures imposed to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus.

Patterson also partnered with Hollywood star Reese Witherspoon and her platform, Reese’s Book Club, the Book Industry Charitable Foundation and the American Booksellers Association to promote the #SaveIndieBookstores campaign, which will run through April 30. The Book Industry Charitable Foundation will then distribute the funds raised to eligible independent bookstores.

“I can’t imagine anything more important right now, in terms of the book world, than helping indies survive,” Patterson said on a phone call Thursday. “It’s just so important culturally that we’re paying attention to the written word, that people are communicating with the written word.”

By combining forces with Witherspoon, he hopes the initiative will spread widely.

Patterson’s donation is the latest of several large outlays he’s made in recent years, including a $1-million gift in 2014. It’s also one of several valiant efforts nationwide to help ensure that indie bookstores survive the pandemic. Many of those that have stayed open are offering curbside pickup, in-store private browsing appointments, deliveries and mainly taking orders by phone and online.

Still, across the country, hundreds of bookstore employees have been laid off, including more than 30 from Los Angeles’ Last Bookstore (about 60 percent of the staff). Portland’s beloved Powell’s Books, meanwhile, recently rehired more than 100 workers after online orders soared. But even before the pandemic, only a third of indie bookstores were profitable, according to the American Booksellers Association.

Though bookstores have seen online sales grow since nonessential businesses were ordered to close under stay-at-home measures, many booksellers have said that online orders and deliveries alone doesn’t come close to physical sales on a typical day.

“It feels like we’re working five times as hard for five times less money,” said Joshua Spencer, owner of the Last Bookstore. Though online sales are four to five times higher than they were before the COVID-19 pandemic, “it’s enough to keep paying our staff, but it’s not enough to keep paying our rent.”

The Last Bookstore has had some success with a creative new business model. Customers can schedule private browsing appointments during business hours to ensure social distancing.