By Polina Smith
Sarah Lacy, a three-time published author, mother of two, CEO of multiple tech startups and co-owner of ‘The Best Bookstore in Palm Springs’. Photo courtesy of Sarah Lacy.
When Sarah Lacy moved to Palm Springs from San Francisco in 2019, she didn’t know she would become the co-owner of the only bookstore in town, let alone find herself on the front lines of preserving democracy.
“There are so many people who spend their lives dreaming of opening a bookstore, especially authors, and I'd say I was not one of them,” Lacy said.
Known for her polarizing and fearless voice in media, she was still holding up her middle fingers to nearly two decades of lies, threats, and sexual harassment in Silicon Valley. She raged against the global tech center’s toxic culture in the same blog post that announced the sale of her first media-tech startup, Pando.
"I have absorbed so many more stories than I have reported, more than I can ever report, about the dark side of Silicon Valley," she wrote.
Throughout Lacy’s nearly 30-year career in journalism, she also became a three-time published author, mother of two and CEO of multiple tech startups. And now, one of two founders of “The Best Bookstore in Palm Springs”.
In the heart of town, across the street from a drag bar and just a few blocks from an art museum, locals and visitors from around the world have access to over 30,000 titles in the 1,025-square-foot bookstore — She calls her block “DeSantis’ worst nightmare.” And now it’s her mission to get more books into as many hands as possible.
‘The Best Bookstore in Palm Springs’ display table with Sarah’s exuberant sticky note promos. Photo courtesy of Sarah Lacy.
Lacy and her partner, Paul Bradley Carr, founded the bookstore in late 2022 after they discovered that the closest bookstore was a Barnes & Noble in Palm Desert, a half-hour drive away.
“We kept being like, this is crazy that there's no bookstore here,” Lacy said.
“Once we actually believed that fact, we were like, well, someone should open a bookstore.”
Several factors brought the two serial entrepreneurs to the consensus that that “someone” may as well be them. And the more time they spent uncovering the logistics of the possibility, they realized that they had been gaslit into thinking that books were a terrible business. Print books are a $28 billion industry– and it isn’t just for Amazon.
Statistics show that the printed book market is alive and well, with 788.7 million books sold in the U.S. in 2022. And they have remained in steady demand, with trade paperbacks taking a large piece of the pie at 60% of total sales since the start of the millennium.
Data from Pew Research also shows that up to 67% of younger adults (under age 30) are also more inclined to read books at least once a week compared to older groups. This highlights the ongoing appeal of traditional books and suggests a strong future market among younger generations—even those who grew up in tech-heavy households.
Before opening, they anticipated about $600 a day. Their first day brought them ten times that amount and one million dollars in revenue in their first year.
It proved to not only be a sound investment but also the right thing to do.
Especially since the local community had already provided so much for Lacy and her family— more specifically, a safe haven for her transgender daughter.
To Lacy, at this time in history, when books are being banned before firearms, she cannot imagine a more important thing to be doing now in this country — fueled to make access to books easy, frictionless and seamless.
Selfie photo courtesy of Sarah Lacy.
“Books are the greatest empathy builder. They tell people who may not feel or look or be like the majority that they're okay and they're not alone,” she said
“All great storytelling is essential, essentially wired in our brains to be the original virtual reality. It takes you into another person's consciousness. It takes you into another person's lived experience. And political parties who wanna divide people, don’t want that.”
Palm Springs, a town of 40,000 people, in a blue state, is one of few queer-friendly cities in America and only has one book banned— in comparison to the 438 in Texas.
Lacy recognizes that the safety and freedom of expression where she lives is a shining beacon. And while most books can be purchased on the Internet, it’s just not the same experience as a local space where you can browse and discover or let alone receive a personalized recommendation.
“So a lot of what we wanna do digitally is bring all the magic of that block in Palm Springs to the world into everyone's school, everyone's library, everyone's home.”
In the summer of 2022, “Best Bookstore” founders Carr and Lacy discovered that along with their online storefront, they could reach a greater audience through text message. Customers can send a message to 1-877-822-1779, ask for book recommendations, just like they would if they visited the location in Palm Springs, and receive their order wherever they are located.
The extension of their brick-and-mortar into the digital space has gifted the two local business owners the privilege to offer such a personal experience to, now, thousands of more lives a day.
“They hold it to their heart,” Lacy says. She sees it time and time again, when someone speaks about a book that they love. “It’s a profound object, of importance that can heal people, that can connect people, that find people when they need it most.”
And while this story could very well end, on this very note for Lacy and Carr; this is just the beginning. Very similar to the moment when the two realized that there were no independent bookstores in Palm Springs – they see there are not enough voices pushing against the strategic attacks on democracy and rash of book bans in schools, leading to the stripping of our rights to diverse art, thought and necessary information.
Photo courtesy of Sarah Lacy.
“The object of profit is exactly why it might be a problem if schools or organizations opt out of books by queer and black authors. And why that's gonna then mean those authors don't get publishing deals,” she said. “It’s a terrifying slippery slope.”
In ten years, they see themselves as a very successful publicly traded company and poised to challenge the big publishing companies like Scholastic. And there is no doubt in their efforts to preserve this level of democracy in action with books and creative entrepreneurship. Case in point is their newest creation - the Palm Springs Readers’ Festival – which just wrapped a successful launch in early 2024.
“Mission-based causes and never caving in or making compromises on them is probably one of the only specialties that Paul and I have going back to our days as journalists,” Lacy said.
Today, the pair maintains their fervor for uncovering groundbreaking systems that revolutionize the book-buying experience while expanding their collection. What started as an unforeseen ambition has now evolved into a digital initiative aimed at promoting unity and nurturing empathy in a world divided by conflicting narrative.
“Join the Best Bookstore Concierge service! Just text JOIN to 1-877-822-1779 and you’ll be instantly enrolled in our Best Bookstore Concierge service! Just text the name of a book, the picture of a book, or a request for a recommendation to that number, and we’ll confirm we have what you want and get it to you immediately. It’s that easy! No shopping carts, no shipping costs, no BS!” says Sarah Lacy.
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About the author: Polina Smith is a staff writer for Seismic Sisters.