Wordsmiths Books gone, he’s a writer

Wordsmiths Books gained a loyal following for its diverse stock and special events, but closed after two years on the last day of February. Steele and his wife, Alice, have since moved to Athens.

“My wife had lived here for 10 years before we moved to Decatur. It’s pretty much her home,” Steele said. “After coming out of the bookstore, we wanted to be in as comfortable a place as we could be. As much as I love Decatur, going down to the Square is sad.”

Things started picking up last summer, and the popular annual book festival brought customers to his door. Then the bottom dropped out last fall, and the sluggish holiday season was no help.

“It’s very difficult for an independent bookstore to find a place where you’re both insulated and needed,” Steele said. “The economy drained any hope that I had. The Decatur Square is a bit like a big, open mall. People just stopped coming.”

Local literati mourned the loss.

“Zach and his partners fought valiantly to keep Wordsmiths afloat in difficult economic times, and we were very sorry to lose them in our community,” said Alice Murray, board president of the Decatur Book Festival and a longtime Decatur resident.

Many of Wordsmiths’ fans were authors.

“I cannot tell you how much I miss Wordsmiths,” said Collin Kelley, author of the poetry collections “After the Poison,” and “Slow To Burn & Better To Travel” and the new novel “Conquering Venus.” A customer who became a friend, he contributed to the fund-raising drive Wordsmiths held to try to keep the doors open.

“Independent bookstores still have their place and readers need to support them or face losing them,” Kelley said. “The cliche is true: You don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone. Joni Mitchell never lies.”

A happier cliche is at play for Steele, too. Just as his bookstore folded, his novel was published. One chapter closed, another opened. “Anointed: The Passion of Timmy Christ, CEO,” is a satire that sends up megachurches and large corporations.

“The second to last event we had at the bookstore was my book launch,” Steele said. “The timing was pure coincidental. I was very glad to have something to turn my attention to.”

These days he’s continuing to write as he plugs his new novel. His blog is puckishly titled “The Further Promotion of Me.” His stint as a business owner toughened him up. He doesn’t rule out a return to the bookstore business, but says “it certainly won’t be any time soon.” For now, he’s happy to be a customer.

“I’m more at ease going into bookstores now,” he said. “I love bookstores. I can’t imagine anything making me not want to go into a bookstore.”