HELP WANTED

Are you interested in contributing your labor to the Massive Bookshop? As an enterprise founded on the principle of doing a minimum amount of work to provide the maximum net gain for the communities of which we're a part, we're open to considering any and all contributions of time and energy, no matter how small.

On this page are "job postings," if you like, but more so ideas we have for ways to grow the business. If you have the interest and capacity, we can surely use your help! And if you have your own ideas about specific initiatives we could undertake, please let us know. We are always open to new ideas that encourage the development of your particular expertise.

To apply for these positions send an email to massivebookshop@gmail.com expressing your interest and we will reply very shortly with more information.

APP HANDLER

Do you find yourself casually staging your books in poses that accentuate their finest qualities? Are you "very much online" a.k.a. always on the apps? Do you have a smartphone with a pretty good camera; and are you up for writing some engaging sentences to promote books to potential readers?

If you answered "yes" to one or more of these questions then you may be an excellent fit for our App Handler position. We'll provide the books and give you access to our social accounts. All you have to do is make the books look good!

$$ PAYMENT $$: Our payment terms are simple: you keep the books! That probably won't help you eat, but if you're someone who likes books and who is already very much online this could be--we hope--a mutually beneficial arrangement.

BOOKSELLER

Have you always wanted to be a bookseller but felt overwhelmed by the prospect of starting your own bookstore? The Massive Bookshop can help you get started! Your level of involvement in our venture is completely up to you. If you just want to list a few books we'll do that for you and give you 100% of the revenue if they sell. If you want to be a full partner we are open to that possibility, too. Really anything you can dream up involving bookselling is probably something we can help make happen. We are also happy to extend our trade discounts to other bookstores in our area who may not have access to publisher-direct pricing via their normal distributors.

$$ PAYMENT $$: Always 100% of the revenue on books you acquire yourself for resale in the Massive Bookshop. Bookstore-to-bookstore relations will be determined on a case-by-case basis.

THE TEMPORARY AUTONOMOUS BOOKSTORE (T.A.B.)

What is the Temporary Autonomous Bookstore (T.A.B.)? We guess it's a "pop-up shop" but it's more fun to call it something else! When it's safe to do so we want to start having IRL events: perhaps a week or a month occupying an otherwise empty storefront, selling books, screening films, hosting readings, etc. The T.A.B. can be anywhere--even multiple places at once! The name is a play on Hakim Bey's concept of the temporary autonomous zone (T.A.Z.). Like the T.A.Z., the T.A.B. can be whatever and wherever we make it: an idea "understood in action," not in advance!

What we need is some help coordinating these events. We invite your proposals for how, where, and when the T.A.B. might happen.

$$ PAYMENT $$: To be evaluated on a T.A.B.-by-T.A.B. basis. At a minimum, if you set up a T.A.B. and sell our books there, you will keep the net profit from those sales.

TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE

We have a number of ideas that will require technical assistance to implement. We'd like to add a simple Bulletin Board System (BBS) to the storefront, for example. We'd also like to create a Massive Book Swap (something like bookmoch or PaperBackSwap) that would enable users to list and trade books through the mail. What about a Massive archive of fre(e)books (a.k.a. "ebooks" or PDFs)? Maybe we could link to those free PDFs from individual product pages, too, so visitors could choose between getting digital or hard copies. Could we also host DIY recordings of audiobooks (see below)? How about streaming music and video (also see below)?

If you have some idea of how any of this is or could be possible please let's have a chat. We are open to implementing any of your ideas as well. The storefront is yours as much as it is ours!

$$ PAYMENT $$: Negotiable, depending on time commitment and experience. Will it be money? Maybe. Something else? Possibly!

FILM & MUSIC PROGRAMMING

As Amazon's primary competitor, the Massive Bookshop is always looking for ways to do what they do--only better! Could we offer streaming music and video? Probably! Will it be better than Prime? Yes, definitely!

We are looking for curators, filmmakers, musicians, record labels, and anyone else who might be interested to help us create a Massive ANTI-PRIME service. With some technical assistance (see above), we will be creating film and music programs that provide more than just streaming access. Our online programs can and will have contextual notes and other bonuses. We can also screen films or have listening parties in person (see T.A.B. above) so that our programs happen both online and IRL.

$$ PAYMENT $$: Currently, the plan is to accept sliding scale donations for programs both online and IRL at T.A.B. events. Money collected for a given program will fund the next program, so that each artist or curator is paid from the receipts of the previous program.

ARTISANAL AUDIOBOOKS

Could we also produce our own audiobooks? The answer is yes! While there are rights issues to consider we have entered talks with our Friends at Looky Here to begin collaborating on limited print runs of public-domain (or otherwise rights-free) texts.

What if we also recorded DIY audiobooks of these texts? All it takes is a microphone (which the Massive Bookshop can supply) and a person with the time and the interest to record themselves reading aloud for several hours. The Massive Bookshop can also handle all audio post-production to ready your recordings for distribution.

$$ PAYMENT $$: At least one print copy of the book you record. These books will be printed in full-color with a Risograph machine and are likely to include original illustrations, so they will be very enjoyable possessions. We are also open to considering other forms of payment (e.g., that microphone we mentioned).