I was following along on twitter thanks to Steve Mitchell and Michael Deadman, and when Steve posted about the authors asking for more involement I twittered out it was a fantastic idea! as I too would love for authors to be much more involved.

On the general books side of things, as an indie bookseller, I am finding that with POD and partshare printing authors are in general becoming much more active at shop level, more direct contact, communication etc and I think this is a great thing indeed.
I love the creators and the reading/buying audience loves the creators too! there is a key correlation here and when the two come together often a little bit of extra magic (miracle?) can happen – and no not just an increase in book sales, though I can’t deny that’s nice too for me the bookseller and the author and the publisher/supplier :0)
It really is synergistic at the base level and when we work together more it works better :0)

So for me it would be so nice to see it more, authors should be more integral to the whole shebang, as you say no authors no products.
I’d love way more interaction on all the levels, trade and actaully in my bookshop please! Authors & artisans talks, signings, leading writers/book groups, doing seminars, talking and listening to whats needed, whats missing, sharing insights, collaborating. I love that idea.
Authors can tell booksellers a lot, booksellers can tell authors a lot – after all we are working for/with the same people at heart, and perhaps both authors and booksellers can tell publishers a little too and they us )

You know it’s lovely to be able to share an anecdote or two about the author of a book, a conversation you had, the type of person they are, etc – it all adds to the feeling of community – and I’m all about community (as anyone who reads the UKCBD Blog! or my own Unicorn Tree Books Blog will know ;o)

The more cohesive the community the better it works – as an indie bookseller I really know this and hold this to be true, as a christian it’s also a fundamental of my faith!
So it’s great to see us coming together and I certainly welcome more interaction with authors, as well as with each other as booksellers, suppliers, publishers and indee interacting with our larger communities and groups as well.

Hmmm… starting to look like a five-leaf clover now…