fwriction:
This look at writer/booksellers by J. Courtney Sullivan inThe New York Times Book Review is a great read.
Like all good independent bookstores, BookCourt in Brooklyn has a robust section of staff recommendations. There, nestled in with titles by Jennifer Egan, Haruki Murakami and David Foster Wallace, is “Other People We Married,” a collection of short stories by Emma Straub. A handwritten note taped to the wall below reads: “I wrote this book. Please buy it. I love you.”
In 2009, Straub published a novella and celebrated with a party at BookCourt. She started working there the next day. Last month, when Riverhead bought her first novel with a significant advance, a co-worker asked if she was planning to quit.
“I told him absolutely not,” Straub said. “I’m a writer, but I also love selling books.”
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“I had twin secret dreams my entire life,” said Ellen Meeropol, whose first novel, “House Arrest,” was published in February. “One was to work in a bookstore. The other was to write fiction.”
