You can read the speech below. But you'll have to imagine how cute my pink-flowered dress and shoes were - lovingly picked out by a bevy of tweenage nieces.

Since today is the 4th of June, why don't we get a head start on celebrating Independence and call this “Independent - s' Day.” And give a round of applause for all the finalists and their editors and the rest of the folks that worked so hard to take each author's dream and turn it into a reality.

I, myself am a first time author and a longtime independent bookseller. My book, “Men Are Dogs: In the Best Possible Sense!” will be published by Sourcebooks this October.

Why did I Choose an Independent Publisher?
For a first time author, the success of your book is everything. It can be the key to launching your career as a writer. It will be the experience that establishes relationships and sets the tone for the publication of later books and, for the lucky, it will be the means to earn back the money that has been lost by quitting your job to finally make a go of “this writing thing.”

You can see how this hypothetical sleep-deprived, ketchup-soup eating, fragile-ego'd author of ours has a lot at stake. And she wants a publisher who also has something at stake. A publisher who's also hungry, and who feels her pain, or will, about 18 months down the road, if the book isn't a success.

She needs a publisher who has the motivation and means to join with the author in making the book a success. A publisher who needs this book, like every book it publishes, to join the black column in the ledger, not the red. A publisher who has vision and who is willing to take a few creative risks to bring interesting, unique voices to the marketplace.

An independent publisher is such an animal. When your publisher is in the same boat as you are, is also committed to challenging the status quo, has also quit his day job to make a go of “this publishing thing” (and I see a few familiar faces from the 99-cent store check-out line), our once-solitary author is no longer so alone in the mad-mad-world of publishing.

With all the conglomerations going on in the greater media world, the fate of one little book doesn't mean very much to a corporation that also produces movies, TV shows, Britney Spears or wine coolers.

But, to an independent with vision, that one little book can put her on the map. That one little book that our poor hungry author slaved over at the peril of losing his wife and over-mortgaged house, can be the one that launches his publishing company onto the Bestseller lists and into Oprah's totebag.

Why did I choose Sourcebooks as my independent?As a bookseller, I already knew of their wonderful and unique titles, such as Poetry Speaks in the Media Fusion division

I heard from the buyer and publicity director of BookSoup, where I work part time, of Sourcebooks' dedication to getting and keeping the Sourcebooks name and titles forefront in buyers' minds. And I was impressed with their statistics on dedicated publicity.

I personally knew and had read books, such as Nicole Hollander's hilarious comic collection, “My Cat's Not Fat, He's Just Big Boned” and Elizabeth Hilts' pithy “Getting in Touch with Your Inner Bitch” that were edited by My editor Deb Werksman for her imprint, Hysteria Books and was excited by Deb's enthusiasm for “Men Are Dogs” and the immediate personal interest and enjoyment she took in it

As a bookseller, I have worked for independent bookstores on and off for over 20 years (yes, I must have been QUITE young when I started), from Logos Book & Record in Santa Cruz, CA to Books & Books in Miami and now Book Soup in LA. And during many years living in Boston, I made friends with some extraordinary independent bookstores like Brookline Booksmith, Harvard Bookstore and Wordsworth.

Those of us in the business of writing, editing, publishing and selling books work for independents for the same reason we shop at independents for our books and for the other necessities in life;
for the personal touch,
for the feeling that the individual can make a difference and

for the freedom not to have to kow-tow to a higher power whose motivation may be at cross-purposes to our own.

As a writer and book lover, I seek out independent booksellers in every city I visit to browse their shelves and see what's new, and I can guarantee if I see a strong and fascinating title selection, its backbone will be books published by independent publishers.

Each month, we find a host of Booksense 76 books that are published by independents and we know we will get an intellectual treat when we pick one up.

There is a strong relationship between independent booksellers, independent publishers and independent thinkers.

Last night President Clinton spoke about the value of understanding our collective past in helping to figure out where we are going. About how, though things may look dark at a particular moment, we have always come through, thanks to our creativity, humanity, individuality and hard work.

In this time of near-daily threats to our civic and private rights, mind-numbing idiocy pumped through our TV screens, and every sort of anti-intellectual pabulum streaming to us through our eyes and ears from every direction, independent publishers (and booksellers) are our beacons in the storm. Let's keep the light burning.