With independent bookstores increasingly coming under attack for the books they carry, the events they host, the views they express, and the identities of their staff and owners, Shelf Awareness has spoken to several booksellers from around the country about the incidents they've experienced and the ways they've coped. Last week, we published the accounts of three indie booksellers; here are two more.
"We've been kind of dealing with this for a long time," said the owner of a bookstore in the Boston, Mass., area that specializes in providing diverse and inclusive titles. Though harassment, threats, and attacks are "not new," the behavior seems to have "been more emboldened and brazen in the last several months. That is definitely nerve-wracking."
Elaborating on the nature of the incidents, the bookseller said there has been harassment online, over the phone, via e-mail, and in person. Asked about the frequency, they said it can "ebb and flow" quite significantly. There will be stretches where it occurs in some form once a day, and others where there is nothing for two weeks.
There are also times, such as when the bookstore was targeted and the owner personally doxxed, that it has become an "onslaught." The bookseller described it as roughly 72 hours of near constant harassment. They received phone calls, e-mails, comments on the store's social media channels, and a flood of bad reviews on Google and Yelp.
The bookseller and their staff never responded to the comments, as that would only "add more to the fire." Though the actual post that started the doxxing was never taken down, the team did hide comments that were on the store's pages. The negative Google and Yelp reviews were reported, but only Yelp acted on those reports, and the bookseller never disconnected the shop's phones (the bookseller noted that when answering the phone, team members only say the store's name and never their own, "for protection purposes.") Eventually, the harassment began to taper off and "sort of slowed down on its own."
During that time, American Booksellers for Free Expression reached out to offer support and let the bookseller know that the post had been reported. At the time, the bookseller was trying to deal with the crisis on their own and "wasn't thinking about who to talk to." They encouraged booksellers dealing with harassment to speak to ABFE, as the more ABFE knows, "the more help they can provide."
The bookseller worked with ABFE, and had their first major incidents of harassment, related to hosting Drag Story Hour events. They implemented an emergency exit plan because of that, and they have instituted a number of other procedures and protocols to keep themselves and their staff safe. The store now has a security system, staff members are instructed to not answer the phone if the call is anonymous, and the bookseller keeps an incident log, among others. The team is doing harm reduction and de-escalation training as a staff, and they plan to do a know-your-rights training related to ICE raids.
Expanding on the in-person harassment they've faced, the bookseller noted that the store moved recently and in its new home, which is in a more "neighborhood-y" area rather than a strip mall, people evidently feel less "brazen" to walk in and start harassing staff. That said, there has still been some harassment and name calling outside the store while staff were doing things like taking out the trash. Some of the harassment has included death threats and accusations of being pedophiles.
"We're in Massachusetts, and a lot of people in Massachusetts think we're in a bubble," they said. People don't understand that there are "cracks within that bubble," and despite the state's liberal reputation, "there is still hate that exists."
The bookseller has found it helpful to talk to other indie colleagues who have gone through the same thing. While it not only helps to know that one isn't alone, it can also be of practical help. They recalled receiving a phone call from a number that was not hidden, and in talking to other booksellers realized the same person had made the same harassing calls to other bookstores. It also helps to learn from stores that have much more experience dealing with harassment and threats.
Asked what support they would like to see from the American Booksellers Association in addition to the support it already provides via ABFE, the bookseller said it "might come down to more trainings," not only for handling specific types of incidents but also for taking care of the mental health and well-being of one's self and one's staff during and after the incident. They also hoped for trainings to be made as widely available as possible.
One problem for anyone trying to deal with harassment, they continued, is making sure not to feed the trolls. "You don't want to add more fuel to the fire, but at the same time, how do we fight the fire?"
While acknowledging that many of these questions don't have easy answers, they emphasized the point that the problem "needs to be talked about." Harassment "hasn't slowed down" and likely isn't going to slow down, because "these folks are going to feel more emboldened."
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"Between the combo of being in D.C. and having politics in our name, we've always been a little bit of a lightning rod," said Carolyn Godavitarne, chief operating officer at Politics and Prose in Washington, D.C.
The store, which first opened in 1984, has dealt with protests and other disruptions "for a long time," and has procedures in place for many different types of incidents. Because of those procedures and related staff training, Godavitarne and the P&P team can address new issues "pretty quickly" when they do arise.
In March, Godavitarne recalled, a group of anti-abortion activists conducted a "massive, paper the city with propaganda" campaign, which involved members of the group going around town and putting pieces of paper with anti-abortion messages in a variety of places. The pieces of paper looked like "fake dollar bills" and were deposited in grocery stores, Little Free Libraries, and many other locations, including Politics and Prose.
Two members of the group entered the bookstore and began walking around and placing the flyers in between books, on shelves, and even inside books, with some sticking out like bookmarks and others completely hidden between pages. After staff began finding them, Godavitarne took a look at the store's security footage and realized they'd gone all over the bookstore. Staff "dropped everything" and were assigned shelves to comb through. The team wasn't able to find every bill until they used the security footage to figure out exactly where the two people stopped.
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Godavitarne said it wasn't the first time propaganda has been left in-store, but it was the first time in a while, and she added that it was "not uncommon" for people to turn around or hide books related to various topics.
P&P often hosts politicians, journalists, and others in the political realm for events, and that can draw quite a bit of attention. Most often that comes in the form of phone calls complaining about the inclusion of this or that speaker, but sometimes there are in-person protests. In these instances the team relies on the store's existing protest procedures.
Asked whether the store has seen an increase in these incidents, Godavitarne said it didn't seem like it, and reiterated that the store has seen this sort of thing off-and-on for a long time. She did, however, say that she anticipates seeing "an uptick in far-right protesters," and she noted that the bookstore is just a few doors down from Comet Ping Pong, the pizzeria that was raided by a gunman in 2016 and continues to be a focal point of far-right conspiracy theories.
Godavitarne said that perhaps the best thing booksellers and organizations like the ABA and ABFE can do right now is share information and best practices. She praised the training sessions held at conferences like Winter Institute and said she was "sure it would be welcome" if the association expanded those offerings.
"We've been dealing with it and have dealt with it," remarked Godavitarne, saying she'd be "happy to help" other stores looking for guidance about how to handle these situations. --Alex Mutter