Risk, reward, and reality for indie bookstores – with Griffin Shea

There is no place more universally loved than a good bookstore. For its owner, achieving that is not as simple as it seems.

The best book shops are much more than books on shelves and a coffee bar. Behind the tranquillity, its tiny team is buzzing for twelve hours a day, liaising with publishers, distributors, authors, literacy projects, landlords, even local government, trying to build a community of people who’ll buy books and help others to buy books.

No one exemplifies this energy and broad-mindedness better than Griffin Shea, our guest in this episode. Born in Louisiana, USA, and once a journalist with AFP, Griffin now runs Bridge Books in Johannesburg, and the incredible African Book Trust, a non-profit that gives African books to libraries and schools across South Africa. He and Arthur talk about sourcing and pricing books, working across languages, connecting booksellers, the highs and lows of running a business in the inner city, and judging South Africa’s most prestigious non-fiction award.

Links from the show:

• Bridge Books
• The Golden Rhino by Griffin Shea
• Bridge Books Underground Booksellers Walking Tour
• The African Book Trust on forgood
• Griffin Shea and Ekow Duker in the Sunday Times, on chairing the judging panels at the 2022 Sunday Times Literary Award
• ‘“Star Wars” locations that actually exist’ by Griffin Shea for CNN, annotated by Mark Hamill
• Electric Book Works