The fact that there’s even a debate on the Tin House “Buy a Book, Save a Bookstore” program is pretty absurd. Hats go off to Vol. 1 favorite Justin Taylor for his response in the HTMLGIANT comment section. (Scroll down to see all of Taylor’s comment):

“If patronizing a physical bookstore in order to purchase a new book at its full retail value strikes you as morally derelict in some way, then you have no business asking Tin House Books–or anybody–to publish your work. It’s emphatically not a question about book-reading, but about book-buying. They are book-makers, and book-sellers, and they are looking for people who are interested in what they do: make books, and make books available to be bought. If you hate those things, and hate them for doing those things, why would you want to court their attention in the first place, or pursue this course for your own work?”