Pictured: Susan Buschmann, bookseller (for around 15 years)
Interviewee: Candy Purdom, events & publicity coordinator for 17 years
Owner: Becky Anderson — once ran for Congress, now overseeing construction of her new home in Michigan this summer
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Store Awards & Recognition Include:
2002, 2015 Lucille Pannell Award – Best Children’s Bookseller (General store) for the best bookseller of children’s books in the nation
2002 Charles S. Haslam Award for Excellence in Bookselling – Becky Anderson Wilkins
2007 James Patterson Page Turner Award: buyer Mary Yockey
2007 Chicago Tribune Chicago’s 10 Best Bookstores
2009 Voice of the Heartland Award from the Great Lakes Independent Booksellers Association lifetime contribution award: Becky Anderson Wilkins, Anderson’s Bookshops
2011 Publisher’s Weekly Bookstore of the Year
2019 Mental Floss’ Best Bookstore in Illinois
SURVIVING LOCKDOWN
This northern Illinois bookshop was founded as a family pharmacy in 1875, which still operates today as Oswald’s Pharmacy. Anderson’s Bookshop became a standalone bookstore in 1964, with a second location in Downers Grove. The store, an hour west of Chicago in DuPage County, promotes local authors and has been deeply engaged in neighborhood charities, even during the pandemic.
Pre-Covid, the store hosted over 400 events a year. Candy Purdom, the store’s events and publicity coordinator, says, “Now things are virtual and much slower as far as events and school author visits. We’ve taken a real hit, as you can imagine. It’s been rough. Fall is looking busy but virtual-only so far.
“But [during the pandemic] online sales helped us during the period we were closed…We upped our game and our tables were thankfully full of orders to be processed and shipped or picked up.”
INVENTIVE WAYS TO PROMOTE BOOKS
Until recently, Anderson’s Bookshop aired the program, Authors Revealed, on the local community television station. Three hundred episodes were filmed. The show included a segment called The Lightning Round.
“It was just easy, crazy rapid-fire questions about guilty pleasures, the book you ‘faked’ reading in school, favorite cereal, simple, fun things. We’d all get a kick out of hearing answers from these celebrated authors!” Purdom recalls.
“Celebrities such as Henry Winkler, Stephen King, John Grisham, JK Rowling, Stephenie Meyer, and presidents, athletes, renowned historians and scientists, stars of stage and screen have visited over the years,” she adds.
SUPPORT FOR LOCAL AUTHORS
Anderson’s Bookshop has not hosted a Local Author Showcase since the pandemic but is hoping to do so again in the future. There is no short supply of talented writers in the area. Among the shop’s favorite nearby authors are some that have found wider success. “We love Andrea Beaty, a children’s author, who is local and we’ve watched her explode. Novelist Emily Giffin is a former Naperville girl too who has hit it very big,” Purdom says.
The store welcomes local authors, but has a strict, hyperlocal focus. Authors must live within a 20-mile radius from the store or a 30-minute drive. Purdom explains, “We have that rule because when you publish a book, we want to be the place your friends and family will visit to buy that book. It also needs to be newly published. …That is the best way to get sales and attention. Local, local, local!”
“We probably take a dozen or two of self-published titles [on consignment], but authors must take the unsold books back,” Purdom says. (Authors who meet the geographic qualifications can learn more here.)
GIVING BACK TO THE COMMUNITY
Purdom emphasizes how Anderson’s Bookshops is deeply involved in the community, unlike larger online booksellers.
“We pay taxes here. We support our schools with author visits, holiday book drives and special opportunities. We give to our hard-working military men and women with our Support Our Troops book drives. We get books into the hands of families with needs, as we did this summer again. We raffle signed books to raise money for local charities.”
The store’s participation in local charity work goes beyond books, as well. “We host community fundraisers giving area groups another way to raise funds for their great efforts to make our communities strong,” explains Purdom. “We are a drop-off point for winter coat drives as cold weather arrives. We also help with Toys for Tots. We help our neighbors, [unlike Amazon] we do not try to put them out of business!”
Purdom concludes, “We have a real family feel at our store. … Buy local and support your real community!”
