"Spread the Word" from the "Living Among Meat Eaters" column of Animals' Agenda, 22, no. 2 (March/April 2002), p. 29.

by Carol J. Adams

Recently, I was in Ohio and took a few hours to browse through a second-hand bookstore. I told the owner as I purchased my books that I was sad to hear he was closing at the end of the month. The owner explained why he had to close, "Radical don't buy books."

It is one thing to be published (and undeniably that is very exciting), but it is another thing to promote one's published books. Promotion is very difficult, or at least for the first ten years of being an author it was for me. I know books are expensive. At first I was very apologetic about the costs of my books. But movies and CDs and Rice Dream frozen desserts don't cost that much less. Book reading and book giving and book buying need to be seen as a part of animal activism.

Many animal activists are also anti-consumerism, and for good reasons.

But I want to encourage animal activists to buy books. It is for activist reasons that I urge this. As an author I want you to read what I have written. Every author desires this. But as an author, I need you to buy what I have written. Every author needs this, too.

Publishers publish books because they assume there is a market for the books. If there is no market, there will be fewer animal-related books. Lantern Books, a new publisher, has taken great risks to bring us important animal-related books. They have republished books that were out of print. They have published an anthology of writings from this magazine. It is in our best interests as animal activists to help them succeed, and to support any publisher who takes risks with this material.

Think about what a book does. It announces simultaneously, "this topic matters" and "this author has something to say."

A book may have changed your life.

A book can answer a question, "Doesn't the Bible grant dominion over animals?"

When someone says, "I can't talk to you anymore," a book can explain your feelings and beliefs in a safe, nonconfrontative manner.

When confusing and frustrating things occur, a book may help you interpret what happened, and see it in a new perspective.

When you feel overwhelmed, a book may provide solace and support.

When you find yourself unable to articulate something that is important, a book may provide explanations.

Books are tools of social change. Healthy blood, we know, circulates fresh oxygen. Books need to be in circulation too. They can keep us invigorated. They need to be read, passed around, discussed. Books need to be kept alive.

Support publishers who take risks with these subjects. In doing so, you are also creating a market for writers who are not yet published, writers who may not yet be writing. You, perhaps?

•   Get a book to lend to others.

•   Give vegan cookbooks and animal-related books that are important to you to people who      are important to you.

•    Recommend your favorite animal-related books and vegan recipe books to your local library       or give them copies.

•   Give books to your local high school library.

•   Ask for books as gifts.

•   Start stocking books up now for holidays to be given as gifts to friends and family members.      Think of it this way: they won't be any less useful that some of the other presents they have      probably received.

You don't have to wait for a holiday. Give a book for mother's or father's day–"this explains who I am" or "here are some great recipes." Give a book for a birthday. Give a book spontaneously–that will be remembered. Get books into circulation.

Order them through your favorite vegan or animal activist catalog. If they don't carry it, ask them to. Ask for them, too, at Barnes and Noble and Borders–get them on the shelves for those who purchase only from these chains. (And if you favorite animal activist books are there, do some creative arranging and point the cover outward, so that it has the chance to be noticed.) Ask for them at airport bookstores. Order them from the Book Publishing Company and their Mail Order Catalog. Order them from an alternative bookstore or a feminist bookstore.

Ideas are free, but keeping them in circulation isn't. If there is a book of which you say, "This book changed my life," give it to others–perhaps it will do the same for them.