LGBT and Feminist Bookstores
7 Jul 2006, 3:32:44 pm

AfterEllen.com just published A Survey of the Lesbian Fiction Publishing Industry.

The article begins:

"In June of 2002, Martin Arnold wrote in his “Making Books” column in the New York Times that gay and lesbian bookstores were “seriously endangered” and may “soon be extinct.” Now, four years later and their numbers diminished, gay and lesbian booksellers are still struggling in the age of big book chains and Internet retailing."

The article also claims that "feminist bookstores have been even harder hit than LGBT stores."

All of this reminds me of two debates. One, the typical "are big chain bookstores killing all the independent stores" discussion, is still rather on-going in my mind, and will be saved for later.

The second debate is about the idea of such themed bookstores in the first place.

Like any book with a more limited appeal or presumed to have a smaller market, it seems on the surface, that themed or niche bookstores would be the way to go. But does labeling a book as 'feminist' or 'lesbian' actually do a disservice to the work? Why 'feminist' and not historical? Why 'lesbian' rather than 'sexual' or in the case of fiction, just a plain old 'mystery' or 'thriller' etc.? Perhaps the labels actually limit the work's scope and appeal.

In a not-too-long-ago round-table discussion called the Labeling Lesbian Fiction Debate, a group of us discussed the merits of categorizing books in just such ways, and I believe most if not all of the same arguments apply to themed bookstores.

While I personally do enjoy shopping in feminist bookstores and can imagine the LGBT crowd may feel the same, is the segregation part of the problem? For example, do the store themes limit the customers with the niche label and the offerings of that label? And if there were no small 'feminist' and 'LGBT' bookstores, would 'the big boys' be more willing (i.e. forced) to carry more of these works?

I don't know for certain -- as the blog states, "we don't pretend to know what we're doing." But I do have to wonder if themed bookstores are dying off not because of less customer interest, or even the effects of the big chain book retailers... Maybe it's because customers don't want to be limited by the labels.

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