By John Lee
BRANDON, MISS. (Take 30 News)--The Coronavirus, also known as COVID-19, is taking the world by storm. Schools and businesses everywhere have shut down due to the virus, and select places are remaining open such as grocery stores and some restaurants. Most places have downgraded to curbside service. One of these businesses being affected is the book industry, as bookstores are now following the curbside service trend, and authors are now having to resort to mostly selling their works online. Lemuria Bookstores in Jackson, Mississippi, is doing curbside service and is maintaining sales well.
“Our sales have maintained really steady, which has been absolutely shocking and surprising for us, and our doors are closed, so it’s just curbside and web orders but the community support has been incredible,” Abigail Watkins, Management Worker at Lemuria Bookstores, said. “Things look different than they did a couple weeks ago, but our sales have maintained steady which is absolutely phenomenal.”
One of these book publishers, Joe Lee, owns a small but traditional publishing house headquartered in Mississippi called Dogwood Press. His company is one of the many businesses that have been affected by the virus.
“The biggest time of year for book sales is the few weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas,” Lee said. “Right now, I’m hopeful that when we get there, we’ll still sell a lot of books.”
A writer for Dogwood Press, John Floyd, is currently quarantined in Brandon, Mississippi. His newest work, a book of short funny poems called Lighten Up a Little, is one of these works being sold online, as he can’t go out to bookstores and do in-person book signings.
“I’m not sure how much this will affect the online business, I’m sure people will continue to write,” Floyd said. “Maybe there will be some adapting of how some of this stuff goes to market.”
Dogwood Press is one of the many publishing houses being affected by COVID-19. Many books need to be sold, Lighten up a Little being one of them. As everyone attempts to get used to the changes caused by COVID-19, the book business is right along with them.