For what it’s worth, I’ve gone and signed up on Indiebound, using the artfully cryptic name tobiascarroll. For more on just what that is, I’d recommend The Written Nerd on the subject.

***

I’ve been meaning to post a lengthy response to this Jennifer Nix piece on print-on-demand and progressive publishing for a while now. As it’s been up for nearly a month, I think it’s doubtful that this response will ever happen, but I do think that one aspect of Nix’s argument — that, essentially, independent booksellers should be actively supporting the Obama campaign — is given something of a wrinkle by a quick glimpse of Indiebound’s bestsellers page. Specifically, the one for hardcover nonfiction, which (as of September 11, 2008) includes both Goodnight Bush and Obama Nation in its top ten– the presence of both suggesting that the politics of the people who shop in indie bookstores is less monolithic than one might think.

(That said, I think Nix’s piece sets off my inherent contrarianism more than anything, given that I am essentially a lefty who shops primarily in independent bookstores. So, yeah.)