CSB

JOIN THE WORD UP CSB

Keep Word Up in the community run by the community, for the community.

CSB stands for “community-supported bookshop”— a neighborhood member program in which you pay for shares at your community bookshop. A basic share in the Word Up CSB is $20. Once you join, you receive a hand-silkscreened book tote bag and 6 wooden coins. Each wooden coin can be exchanged for a used book (average $3) at Word Up. You can redeem your coins once per month, or you can redeem them all at once. You can buy multiple CSBs, and you can buy CSBs in the name of other people as gifts. And you will know that the money you have committed to spending at Word Up will help keep us in the neighborhood, and will help keep us community-run.

The Word Up CSB is modeled on neighborhood CSAs, or “community-supported agriculture.” Neighborhood CSA members pay upfront for a season of produce at a local farm. They share in the risk and the reward that a farmer faces in a season. Members pick up weekly produce that usually tastes much better than supermarket produce because it is fresh and local—and grown with love! The Word Up CSB also comprises upfront seasonal payment, the risk and reward, the fresh, the local, the love—but instead of tomatoes we will provide you with BOOKS!

We will add other levels of the CSB soon. Meanwhile, if you would like to contribute more than $20 to the continued existence of Word Up, you certainly can! Checks can be made out to “Seven Stories Institute” (one of our supporting nonprofits) with “Word Up” in the memo line, and mailed to Seven Stories Institute, 140 Watts Street, New York, NY 10013.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Q: How do I sign up for a CSB?
A: The easiest way to sign up for a CSB is in person at Word Up, 4157 Broadway at 176 Street, during our shop hours (weekdays 4-9pm, weekends 12-4pm). There you can fill out the form and receive your tote bag and wooden coins on the spot, and you can even start redeeming the coins right away. If you would rather sign up online, you can sign up with the form at the bottom of this page. We’ll then send you a PayPal invoice. Your membership will be complete once we have both the completed form and payment.

Q: Where exactly would my money be going if I signed up for a CSB?
A: Money from CSB shares will be used for rent and associated operating expenses. We had a great time at our first Rent Party and hope to throw many more parties. but there are a lot of other expenses that go along with paying rent too. Did you know that, for our first six months, we did all we did without having phone or internet at the bookshop? Now we will take on such additional monthly expenses, and utilities, and more. But because we want to keep our book prices affordable and in line with the realities and needs of many of our neighbors, the profit margin on what we sell remains slim. By signing up for a CSB share and helping offset our rent and operating expenses, you pledge support for Word Up to stay in the neighborhood and to continue doing what it does best: circulate books and provide a gathering spot for the community.

In keeping with our declaration to support our local community,  our financial institution of choice is the Neighborhood Trust Federal Credit Union, which serves residents, workers, and volunteers in Washington Heights.

Q: Why wooden coins? Why don’t you have a punch card or something?
A: First, wooden coins look cool. Second, their sturdiness (in relation to card stock) lends them to continuous recycling. We know that, in a lot of cases, customers will be redeeming their coins pretty quickly, and once they do, we can instantly use the coins for the next person to purchase a CSB. And those coins look pretty cool.

Q: When I sign up online, will you mail me the tote bag and coins?
A: We will send you an official receipt that you can print out and bring to the store in exchange for your goods. That way, you only get the wooden coins once you are ready to start using them. If you are signing up for the Word Up CSB as an enthusiastic show of support from abroad and aren’t sure when you’ll next be in the neighborhood, we can at least mail you your tote bag; there is a spot on the form where you can indicate this preference.

Q: Why don’t you just do a Kickstarter campaign to raise rent funds?
A: There is no way that supporters can pledge to a Kickstarter campaign without going through Amazon Payments. According to Kickstarter, it is the only credit-card processing site that can handle the all-or-nothing pledge function that Kickstarter uses. After all that Amazon has done to damage the bookselling and publishing industries, we would rather not send all our well-wishers to sign up for accounts there, or provide a choice opportunity to Amazon to take a cut of whatever we gain in an online campaign. Perhaps more importantly, much of Word Up’s success has been predicated on its existence as a physical space. We didn’t build our audience online; we built it by being a live presence in our very populated neighborhood. So we think we’ll have better results live and in person anyway, rather than through an online campaign. Though you can still sign up online if you would prefer to.

SIGN UP ONLINE: