Since she conceived of and founded The Second Shelf, a bookstore centering rare and rediscovered books by women, writer, editor, and book dealer A.N. Devers has become something of a leader in the literary world for her championing of these titles. Although the store has only existed since 2017, when she launched it as an online bookstore at the Brooklyn Antiquarian Book Fair, The Second Shelf has become a mecca for those in search of its particular stock. It boasted a storefront in Soho from 2018 until the pandemic hit and they were forced to return to being online-only when Devers caught Long COVID, but that storefront is still iconic. So much so, in fact, that Devers has had to ask multiple publishers and imprints for fair use fees after they used the Second Shelf’s storefront—or at the very least, its likeness—on book covers.
In a series of tweets posted Tuesday, Devers called out Avon Books, an imprint of Harper Collins, for the cover of Lauren Bravo’s The Second Chance Store, which hit shelves earlier this month.
“Hi @avonbooks, We will be emailing a request to be paid for use of our former storefront’s image on the cover of this book without asking permission first. As we have successfully done with several other book covers. Cant [sic] believe this keeps happening,” reads the first tweet, which includes a post from BookTrib. In follow-up tweets, The Second Shelf account tweeted, “Always with ‘second’ is [sic] the title too,” and “All they did this time is reverse the storefront. It isn’t a discernible difference.”
Following the initial thread, which concludes with a note saying the Avon Books Twitter account had DM’ed The Second Shelf so they could get in touch with the proper people at the publisher, the bookstore posted another, snarkier tweet. This one placed the cover of Bravo’s book next to a photo of Devers in The Second Shelf’s doorway. There are definite similarities between the illustration on the book cover and the photo of the store, enough so that it’s generating a ton of conversation and disagreements in the comments. Alongside the photos, the tweet reads, “It’s me! Hi, I’m the problem it’s me.”
While some people in the comments claim Devers is “reaching,” others note that this has happened to her store on multiple occasions. The Second Shelf account says not being asked to use the store’s likeness is “incredibly rude” and explains why it gets under the team’s skin so much: “This is important to us because we have our own brand that our owner conceived of, our name as well, and we have copyright on the image that is being used by illustrators to put on this genre of book, one we have no problem with, but we have our own story to tell about our shop.” They continue, “So far no publisher has done this has denied this is a problem. We have made donations every time it happens and will make sure we get our fair use fee.”
In the past, The Second Shelf has done exactly that. According to their tweets, when they encountered a publisher last year who used the storefront’s likeness for a book cover, once the shop received the fair use fee, they put it toward The Second Shelf Scholarship for Women, which funds those who wish to attend the male-dominated York Antiquarian Book Seminar but can’t afford the cost. Devers tweeted that she has also always said “yes” to publishers who ask to use the storefront for book art.
Copyright law in the US protects tangible, original works, like photographs and illustrations. Technically, the former physical storefront of The Second Shelf can’t be copyrighted, which is what allowed its visitors to post photos of it to their social media accounts before it closed. When the storefront reopens, this will still be the case. However, the actual photo that The Second Shelf claims is being copied for book covers can be copyrighted, which they state in their Twitter thread. Devers can potentially also claim a fee for Avon Books violating a trademark, depending on how UK law applies these terms and conditions to disputes of this nature.
Whatever the result, it’s clear that Devers and The Second Shelf have made an indelible impact, so much so that the shop’s (and in some cases, Devers’s) likeness have become fodder for book cover illustrators and designers. It’s ironic that publishers and imprints seeking to promote and uphold books by women have opted not to acknowledge inspiration from The Second Shelf, which is focused entirely on that mission.
(featured image: morgan23/Getty Images)
