|
Beyond
the Book Festival |
The inaugural
Sedona Book Festival, held earlier this month, was a success,
if I do say so myself. Our objective was to have a great, small
festival and, thanks to all the participants, volunteers, partners
and sponsors, I believe that we met that objective. Approximately
1,500 people stopped by during the day, entertained and educated
by over 100 authors, publishers, organizations, musicians and
others. All in all, it was a good day.
Feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, and many people are
already ask-ing about next year’s festival. Yes, we are
hoping to have the second annual fes-tival during the first
weekend of October 2010, but there are a couple of important
issues to address before we get there.
The first issue is financial. Our objective for this first festival
was to break even financially. Although we have not completed
our final accounting as of this writing, I believe we will meet
this objective. This is very important, as the financial risk
for the festival was entirely on The Well Red Coyote and Verde
Valley Caregivers.
And that brings me to the second and equally important issue
– support.
If it is expected that we assume all of the financial risk,
and I have no problem with that, if the festival is something
Sedona has needed for a long time, if we are making a contribution
to the cultural diversity of Sedona, if The Well Red Coyote
has become and the Sedona Book Festival will hopefully be a
community asset, then your support, each and every one of you
that reads books, is not only necessary, it is required.
And by that I mean, buy a book – locally. Buy from The
Well Red Coyote, but also support Golden Word Books & Music
and The Worm Book & Music Store. Most of the authors at
the festival have their books for sale in one or more of Sedona’s
bookstores.
We support the City of Sedona, not only through our inventory
of books, our author events and, of course, the book festival,
but also by the sales tax revenue we generate for local use
to run our government and city services.
Amazon does not pay any sales tax to Sedona, to Arizona or to
any other entity. Amazon has 600,000 square feet of warehouse
space in Phoenix, yet pays no sales taxes on the literally billions
of sales dollars that facility generates. It is es-timated that
Arizona is losing upwards of $250 million dollars of sales tax
revenue on this internet commerce.
The Well Red Coyote occupies 2,100 square feet in West Sedona
and pays 3% of its sales revenues to the City of Sedona and
6.35% to Yavapai County.
And it’s not just about books – less than 50% of
Amazon’s revenue comes from books. It is selling electronics,
household goods, clothing, shoes and more – all without
paying any sales tax.
So what, you say? Why shouldn’t you get the cheapest price
for a book, and not have to pay sales tax to boot?
Well, you can if you want to. You have choices. We don’t
take your business for granted – we have to earn it. And
I believe we have.
Just remember, aside from the sales tax issue, aside from the
other dubious Amazon business practices detailed in previous
columns here, Amazon has never sponsored nor will it ever sponsor
a book festival. Amazon has never hosted nor will it ever host
an author book launch, book signing or writing workshop.
Support and community are two-way streets. Please support us
– all of our local, independent businesses – if
you want us to be here next year and beyond. And that goes for
the second annual Sedona Book Festival, too. |
|
|
/Dreamweaver/Macromedia Dreamweaver 4/Well Red Coyote/images/spacer.gif){kind=spacer}
