Hooray! It’s Bookstore Day!

It’s going to be a beautiful weekend! The forecast calls for paperbacks, hardbacks, and lots of happy browsing; that’s right, Saturday, May 2nd—that’s today!—is the second annual California Bookstore Day. It’s the perfect opportunity to show support for the small local businesses and offline havens that sell so, so, so many stories—and this year, for the first time, the whole country’s getting in on the action.

Indie stores across America are offering limited edition, festive goodies commissioned by names we know and love—Margaret Atwood! Stephen King!—and guess what? 3 Fish Studios, too! Annie and Eric teamed up with San Francisco stalwart Green Apple Books to design something special to celebrate the occasion.

The Literary Map of the Seas brings together some of the most famous fictional, fantastical characters from our most beloved watery worlds into one incredible print. It’s a place where Sebastian Junger’s Perfect Storm meets Melville’s Moby Dick, and the Swiss Family Robinson gang hang with Pippi Longstocking.

Just like with last year's Literary Map of California, Bookstore Day champion Samantha Schoech provided Annie with a list of the titles to include, and then it was up to her to come up with an illustrated icon to represent each. She sketched out everything first in pen and ink or a “tiny little brush” and black wash, then scanned the set with Eric to make adjustments and assemble everything together in Photoshop. “It was like putting together a puzzle,” she says. Now that it's done, it can also double as a handy reading to-do list for the nautically inclined. (If Eric gets his way, next year's will be set in space, but Annie has her sights set on drawing the ever-expanding YA universe.)

Almost a thousand were printed on-site here at our studio in the lovely Outer Sunset, then embossed, signed, and sent out for this very special, one-afternoon-only event. 

You can pick up a poster of your own on Saturday, May 2nd at Green Apple Books on the Park; Annie will be there from noon to 2pm doing live printing demos of a custom bookmark (with more goings-ons and info here).

Can’t make it for the fun in SF? Check out this handy map of indie shops around the US and find one near you, and follow the happenings at the official Bookstore Day Twitter feed here. 

Have a great time out there!