There may be people who receive more indie bookstore e-mail newsletters than I do, but not many. In the instant gratification age of social media, this traditional format is apparently retro enough to have become hip again. Think Steampunk, with a brass "Subscribe" button.
"E-mail newsletters are so hot right now," wrote Klint Finley in TechCrunch last month, adding: "Two or three years ago every site on the Web was doing all it could to trick coax readers into 'liking' them on Facebook. Today much of that focus has shifted towards getting readers to sign-up for an e-mail subscription." 
I have a particular interest in the topic since I work for Shelf Awareness, which partners with more than 80 indie booksellers to send out co-branded editions of Shelf Awareness for Readers. But I've also been subscribing to indie bookstore e-newsletters for a long, long time, dating back to my years as a bookseller. They are a digital wellspring. One of the best ideas I ever heard came from an "Authorless Events" seminar at the 2008 Mountains and Plains Independent Booksellers Association fall show in Colorado Springs: Bookstores should subscribe to one another's e-mail newsletters so they can steal (well, share) great promotional concepts.
"So why all this effort to herd readers into a medium that is supposed to be dying? And why are we, as readers, so willing to invite even more e-mail into our lives?" Finley asked, then offered five good reasons:
- E-mail Gives Publishers More Control
- Readers Pay More Attention to E-Mail
- E-Mail Is Cross-Platform
- E-mail Keeps All Your Clutter in One Place
- E-mail Is the Original Social Media
"For years, those of us who have advocated the indie or federated Web have called for social networks to be more like e-mail, but it turns out e-mail itself is a pretty good social media platform," he observed.
A well-conceived and executed bookshop e-newsletter feels like a personal message in ways Facebook, tumblr, Twitter or Instagram posts don't (though I love those as well). And Russo's Books, Bakersfield, Calif., shows that e-newsletters can even be used to invite further interaction: "Booklovers, engage with us.... Keep the Conversation Going. Our homepage features our Twitter and Facebook feed, plus a 'book video of the day.' We encourage you to visit us daily and contribute to our content."
At their best, e-newsletters are informative and entertaining--quick, welcome updates from good friends (who happen to read great books). Consider a recent sampling from my inbox:
Village Books, Bellingham, Wash.: "You know that feeling of a freshly painted and re-carpeted room? We do. That's because our downstairs space, where we hold our events, is all done up nice with new paint and carpeting. Folks on staff have put in hours of work to make this update happen (we're not JUST booksellers, you know)."
Rainy Day Books, Fairway, Kan.: "Roger & Vivien celebrated the [Labor Day] Holiday in the mountains along the Animas River in Durango, Colorado, and brought the cooler weather back Home to Kansas City with them. They wanted great weather here to launch their autumn season of Author Events!"
Broadway Books, Portland, Ore.: "After one of the warmest, sunniest summers we can remember, there at last is a tiny chill in the morning air and we find ourselves sliding into fall. And here's a bookseller's not-so-secret confession: it's our favorite time of year. Many of you know why. September marks the beginning of the fall publishing season, when the majority of new books for the year come out.... We greet our UPS and FedEx delivery people like conquering heroes this time of year, because of the bounty they bring to our shelves. So exciting!"
Mysterious Galaxy, San Diego, Calif.: "Also David Bajo's medical thriller, Mercy 6, is hot off the press for tonight's launch party at MGSD. Read more about how this 'great reads genre' novel affected Shelf Awareness's contributing editor Robert Gray here." [Note: Even my ego occasionally gets unanticipated nourishment from reading bookstore e-newsletters]
McLean & Eakin Booksellers, Petoskey, Mich.: "Anticipating new books must be one of the greatest pleasures in life. The delayed gratification probably has something to do with it. There's something about finding a book on the shelf that you've been waiting for and then having that, 'You are JUST what I was looking for!' moment."
Agreed. And I often feel that way when a new bookstore e-newsletter edition arrives, too. How about you?
Perhaps, as Alexis C. Madrigal wrote in the Atlantic recently, e-mail has become "a refugee from the open, interoperable, less-controlled 'Web we lost.' It's an exciting landscape of freedom amidst the walled gardens of social networking and messaging services. Yes, e-mail is exciting. Get excited!" --Robert Gray, contributing editor (column archives available at Fresh Eyes Now)