Ballast Book Company

A photo of an open book on a towel on a sandy beach. White serif text overlaid on top says 'the summer I didn't finish a single book on my TBR' (to be read)

based on real life events

OUR NAME NEXT TO SEANAN MCGUIRE'S NAME?! 😭🫡

A cream background with blue cursive text in centre that says 'Woman in Translation Month'. 6 books circle the text in matching blue/cream: Tender is the Flesh, The Employees, My Name is Emilia Del Valle, A Sunny Place for Shady People, The Wall, and The Vegetarian

Happy Women in Translation Month! A perfect time to celebrate and uplift women who write in languages other than English.
Some of our favorite translated authors are: Agustina Bazterrica, Marlen Haushofer, Olga Ravn, Sayaka Murata, Mariana Enriquez, Han Kang, and Isabel Allende!

And, baby, that's bookselling business for you ❤️‍🔥

From being unable to reach books on the highest shelf to climbing over the mountains of boxes delivered everyday, The Life of a Bookseller is beautiful, rapturous, and frightening 😌

Woman in a white and green renaissance outfit holding a basket and also holding back tears as her boyfriend gets down on one knee

A blonde woman in a white and green Renaissance outfit admiring the engagement ring on her finger as her boyfriend kneels down in front of her wearing a green bucket hat and white shirt

we had a proposal in our bookstore ahhh it's a love story baby just say yes !!

A stack of 5 books sitting on a stool with a blurred background. The books from top to bottom are All Fours by Miranda July, Service Model by Tchaikovsky, The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst, Bury Your Gays by Chuck Tingle, and Vicious by VE Schwab

Happy Paperback Book Day! Here's some of our bookseller favorites in paperback form 📕❤️

Oil painting of The Dedication by Edmund Blair Leighton depicting a knight and lady kneeling before an altar, likely dedicating themselves to a noble (AKA me dedicating myself to author T. Kingfisher like the noble she is). White text in a medieval font overlaid on top says "me pledging loyalty to T. Kingfisher"

yeah we really like books by the saint of writing @tkingfisher.com

5 baby orange kittens all walking in the same direction with a white text overlaid on top that says 'gang on the way to support small businesses' because shopping small and supporting indie businesses is COOL and helping billionaires rent historical cities is NOT

it's a prime day to shop small and support local!

3 photos like a comic a trip. In the first, a young woman with brown hair asks "what was the date?". Second: a young blonde woman says "it was just like going to an indie bookstore and looking at all the cute stickers and getting book recommendations." In the third the brunette says "My dream date. Cute. And he knows that." Because going to an indie bookstore is a much cuter date than shopping on Amazon dot com !

you are so welcome Mr. Leakyboots

why help a b*illionaire rent an entire city when you can help a local bookseller buy labubus instead

"I asked chatgpt" okay well I asked the cool bookseller at my local indie bookstore and they said read more gay books so

I can't tell you how invigorating and inspiring and hopeful it is to be in a crowd of people who also care. Took a group of teens to the last big protest and they were most struck by no longer feeling alone. If you're able to go, I encourage you to try. Get a group of friends & go together.

Need a little good news for your Friday?

We’ve officially raised over $39 million for independent bookstores 🎉

Pink and orange gradient background with 'sapphic westerns' written in fun orange font up top. Two book covers are in the middle ("The Ride of Her Life" and "Upright Women Wanted"). Additional text says 'saddle up!' And 'save a horse ride a cowgirl!' Cut outs of Chappell Roan decorate the bottom

lesbian cowgirl books 'cause baby I'm a giver 😌😘

We love all your books! Spoiler Alert was 👨‍🍳💋

LET ME JUST QUICKLY INCREASE OUR ORDER

www.ballastbookco.com/item/p5lAnqx... Zomromcom by Olivia Dade | Ballast Book Company

Asexual flag made from photos of galaxies

Non-binary flag made from photos of galaxies

New Pride flag made from photos of galaxies

Transgender flag made from photos of galaxies

Happy Pride month, all! Way back in 2018 I made these galaxy pride flags. They were shared many thousands of times, featured on Vice, and even made their way onto book covers and into video games.

Here are the original ones I created (in no particular order!) so Bluesky can have them too. 💙

If you get 20 signatures that feels like enough to justify this business expense

Text: Happy Pride, Sluts. Here are some trans books. All my book covers are arranged on a rainbow background. Titles are Chef's Kiss, Chef's Choice, Second Chances in New Port Stephen, Triple Sec, and A Gentleman's Gentleman.

What's up pride month it's me, your friendly & approachable nonbinary author here to tell you about my queer kissing books

Jokes! Painful earnestness! A fun time!

DON'T WE ALL NEED A FUN TIME.

Buy on @bookshop.org: bookshop.org/lists/my-boo...

Thank you so much for coming, Sami!!!

Bluesky's character count literally isn't long enough for how astonishing and out-of-pocket this woman was, lol. Like, there wasn't even room to add the bit about her being a master fencer who would humble your ass in duels for misgendering her

Photo of author Matt Dinniman smiling behind a microphone and sitting in a cushioned chair on stage. The table to his left has a stuffed car with sunglasses on who is supposed to look like Princess Donut from his Dungeon Crawler Carl book series

Authors Matt Dinniman and Django Wexler sitting in cushioned chairs on stage while they laugh. A stuffed cat sits on a table between them. The lower half of the frame shows the audience in shadow that they are speaking to

𝗡𝗲𝘄 𝗮𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁! 𝗘𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗛𝗼𝘀𝘁!
𝗬𝗼𝘂'𝘃𝗲 𝗵𝗼𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗮𝗻 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗯𝗲𝘀𝘁-𝘀𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝘂𝘁𝗵𝗼𝗿 𝗠𝗮𝘁𝘁 𝗗𝗶𝗻𝗻𝗶𝗺𝗮𝗻! 𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗺𝗲𝘁 𝘁𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗮𝗺𝗮𝘇𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗳𝗮𝗻𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗴𝗼𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴 𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗮 𝗳𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝗰𝗮𝘁.
𝗥𝗲𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗱: 𝗠𝗮𝘁𝘁 𝗗𝗶𝗻𝗻𝗶𝗺𝗮𝗻 𝗸𝗻𝗼𝘄𝘀 𝘄𝗵𝗼 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗻𝗼𝘄. 𝗚𝗼𝗼𝗱 𝗹𝘂𝗰𝗸 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁.

A photo of a fake stuffed cat from behind as she looks out over a large audience sitting in a theatre

Princess Donut exactly where she belongs—in front of a live audience 👑💖

Thank you so much for coming and for posting a photo!!! It was a blast 💖

Huge thanks to @ballastbookco.bsky.social for organizing an awesome event today with @mattdinniman.bsky.social and @djangowexler.bsky.social! I haven't laughed so hard since the last Dungeon Crawler Carl book I read!

I CANNOT WAIT FOR THIS

A hand holding a bouquet of red tulips with green stems, with a blue sky in the background. White text on top of the flower stems says 'indie bookstores' while each bulb has different white text like: a cute tote bag, a brand new book, bookseller recs, and iced coffee, and quirky stickers. All these things make up the bouquet that is an indie bookstore!

spring has sprook time to buy a new book!

yesssssss www.ballastbookco.com/item/MWp_c1q...