I was preparing for my next book signing, scheduled for Saturday, April 21st, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Book World at the Kandi Mall in Willmar (See my Events calendar), when I uncovered an unusual fact. To publicize this event, I contacted the West Central Tribune and several of the local radio stations whose call letters I learned consulting the city’s entry in Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia.  Over a dozen AM and FM stations serve the Willmar area and feature every type of format you can imagine, from country to adult contemporary to talk radio to smooth jazz.

Such variety prompted me to compare it to the stations that serve the Twin Cities area. I discovered that the largest metropolitan area in Minnesota, which you’d think would have the greatest diversity of radio outlets, in fact has the least. The primary radio format appears to be some variant of the oldies channel whether it calls itself classic rock, 80s, 90s and today, soft rock, or some other fogie rock hybrid. I found two adult contemporary stations and one station devoted to jazz. My particular favorite, smooth jazz, disappeared when 100.3 changed over to a talk radio format early last year.

This observation seems particularly trenchant in light of my having to travel to a medium-sized venue like Willmar to promote my most recent novel, Metadata Murders. The Book World chain, a mid-sized chain of bookstores serving the reading public in medium-sized cities throughout Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, has been very supportive of my efforts as an independent writer of fiction and non-fiction articles. They are an established, growing company willing to mine the niche market of media and book retail to these smaller cities. They also are willing to accept thinner profit margins and a smaller bottom line as a result.

Another result is their willingess to promote small-name and local authors such as myself. Because of Book World’s limited sales potential, J.K. Rowling or David Morrell may never appear at one of their stores, but many lesser-known authors writing in a variety of genres and formats will. While Borders and Barnes & Noble or Westwood One and Clear Channel try to cut into each other’s market share, small chains like Book World and independent book stores like Once Upon a Crime will feature the John Connollys along with the Robert Alexanders and Sujata Masseys of the writing world. They will even take a chance with an unknown like me. That is true commitment to literary diversity.