If the last few months have taught us anything, it’s that bookstores and booksellers can be counted on to step up and support their communities.
But who steps up to support the booksellers and bookstores – who operate on the slimmest of financial margins during even the best of times – when disasters like the Eaton and Palisades wildfires hit?
Turns out, the Book Industry Charitable Foundation does. The nonprofit, which got its start as an organization connected to Borders bookstores nearly 30 years ago, went national in 2012 with a mission to help book and comic book sellers across the country when times get tough.
“We are the only national nonprofit dedicated to assisting book and comic people,” says BINC communication coordinator Erika Mantz. “Our core program is we help the actual book people – booksellers, comic retailers and owners of stores and comic shops – with their personal financial crisis needs.”
“We provide an emergency financial grant – grant, not a loan,” says Mantz. “There’s no repayment.”
“We don’t write a check to somebody,” she says. “We pay the bills.”
While BINC’s support is confidential, Fables & Fancies bookseller Ana Buckley volunteered during an interview that she’d gotten help from the nonprofit – and wanted others to know how good the experience with her program manager had been.
“She called me back the same day,” says Buckley. “They really are what they say they are.”
BINC focuses on helping individuals with housing, healthcare or other issues, such as a death in the family.
“It could be a housing stability issue: Your landlord says, ‘Sorry, you have to leave; you need to find a new apartment,’” says Mantz. “We can help with the first month’s deposit, the starting out, getting you there.”
Or as some booksellers across Southern California have learned, BINC could help those impacted by the Eaton and Palisades wildfires.
“We can help in times of natural and manmade disasters – and obviously the wildfires,” says Mantz. “Before that was the southeast region of the country with the terrible flooding. … In other states, hurricanes Milton, Helene, Ian.
“Natural disasters are certainly the ones in the news cycle,” she says. “But you know, every day, even during the wildfires, we’re having just as many related to, you know, dental bills.”
But sweeping away these seemingly small obstacles can create profound improvements in a person’s life.
“If you can just get that paid and get ahead, you can take off from there and soar,” says Mantz.
The help, which Mantz says on average is about $2300 or so, doesn’t have to be large to be effective.
“A household can quickly become vulnerable. You know, we’re not talking about grants of tens of thousands of dollars. We’re not talking about massive amounts of money.
“You have a family member who passes away, you’ve got funeral expenses, you need to travel. You don’t have the extra money for that. This is where book and comic people can come in and help. We’ve distributed over $11 million to more than 10,000 individuals and stores in our history – and those numbers probably need a little updating.”
Mantz describes the process, which involves BINC program managers who take time to listen and determine the best way to help.
“We have program managers who talk one-on-one with anyone who comes seeking help or is referred to us for help. It’s completely confidential,” she says. “Your store owner doesn’t have to know. Your coworkers don’t know, and we work with you.”
“We offer resources. It might be financial – working on your finances, your taxes, free resources. We offer access to free mental health and wellness,” she says. “They’ll give resources for how to negotiate your medical bills, to get the cost down.
Mantz praises the nonprofit’s partners for their support and fundraising, which allow them to do this work.
“We really rely on our amazing partners – the big publishers, the small publishers, Libro.fm, Bookshop.org. These organizations share the same values and see the value in what we do,” says Mantz. “We really could not do it without them.”
The admiration goes both ways, says Mark Pearson, CEO and co-founder of Libro.fm.
“Libro.fm is immensely grateful for BINC’s vital role in supporting booksellers and comic retailers in need. The needs are so great across thousands of bookstores that without BINC, no other organization could handle the needs at this scale,” says Pearson via email.
“BINC is uniquely positioned to redirect contributions from book lovers to booksellers who need it most during an emergency.”
Mantz says the goal is to keep our bookstores and comic book shops open and serving the community. Because that’s good for everyone.
“These stores are a safe harbor for ideas and equity and access, but without that help a lot of book and comic people would have to leave their profession and their communities,” she says. “We feel passionately … that the safe space they provide is so vital.
“I think most anyone I talk to has their store – they love their bookstore, and they wouldn’t want to see it be gone,” she says. “We provide this safety net for the people who work there, the employees who give them great hand-selling recommendations, and the stores who stay open and get in the materials that they’re looking for.
“If you want to keep your store in your community, this is one way you can help.”
For more about the Book Industry Charitable Foundation, check out its website.
Corinna Vallianatos shares a secret link between her stories
Corinna Vallianatos is the author of “Origin Stories,” which arrived 13 years after her Grace Paley Prize-winning debut collection, “My Escapee,” came out to raves. She’s also the author of the 2020 novel, “The Beforeland.” She spoke with correspondent Michael Schaub and took the Q&A.
Q: Is there a book or books you always recommend to other readers?
I’ve been recommending Joy Williams’ collected stories, “The Visiting Privilege,” to students and friends for years. If I sense they have a slight inner appetite for chaos, I’ll recommend “The Quick & the Dead” too.
Q: How do you decide what to read next?
I keep a stack of books on my bedside table. It’s often a matter of what kind of mind, what sort of logic and language, I want to be privy to.
Q: Can you recall a book that felt like it was written just for you (or conversely, one that most definitely wasn’t)?
Since I love being surprised by the strange workings of someone else’s mind, I prefer reading books that don’t feel as if they were written just for me. But I am grateful for the thuds of recognition that come over me when I read something that strikes me as particularly true, darkly true or courageously true or strangely true or hilariously true. That last is the best.
Q: Is there a genre or type of book you read the most – and what would you like to read more of?
I mostly read fiction — short stories and novels — but I find I’m reading more nonfiction lately, especially books by Janet Malcolm and Emmanuel Carrère.
Q: Do you have a favorite book or books?
“The Great Fires,” a collection of poetry by Jack Gilbert, is a book I return to again and again. And I read “The White Book” by Han Kang at least once a year.
Q: Is there a person who made an impact on your reading life – a teacher, a parent, a librarian or someone else?
The children’s librarian at the Burke Branch library in Alexandria, Virginia. Mrs. Reinhart, possibly? She dressed up like a lion for story hour and showed Charlie Chaplin movies on a projector and pull-down screen and was tall and dashing and in possession of excitement and gravitas. My brother and I used to check out towers of books from the library each week.
Q: What’s something about your book that no one knows?
Two stories — “New Girls” and “Blades in Silver Water” — feature a common character named Emily. She’s a secondary character in “New Girls,” and the protagonist in “Blades in Silver Water.” “Blades” goes back in time — she’s younger there by several years. The story’s interested in understanding how she came to be. It’s not important that readers make this connection, but it’s there nonetheless.
Teen legal challenge
Huntington Beach teenagers sue over book review board, restricted access to books. READ MORE
• • •
The week’s bestsellers
The top-selling books at your local independent bookstores. READ MORE
• • •
Bookstores to the rescue
How bookstores in Pasadena and Monrovia became local aid resources after wildfires. READ MORE
• • •
- Sign up for The Book Pages
- Miss last week’s newsletter? Find past editions here
- Dive into all of our books coverage
New time for ‘Bookish’
The next event, which is Fri. March 21, at 4 p.m., will salute SCNG’s Notable list of California authors and feature novelist and writer Lidia Yuknavitch.
Want to watch previous Bookish shows? Catch up on virtual events and more!