"This effort by Karen Kingsbury and her readers has started something we never could've imagined. Nashville actors and artists ... people everywhere are wanting to save Landmark," said Joel, who owns Landmark Booksellers with his wife, Carol. "We will reopen one day and we will stay open because of the way people everywhere are coming together to help us. We're in tears. So thankful."

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In an uncanny truth meets fiction situation, Landmark Booksellers is the very store that inspired Kingsbury's bestselling 2016 novel, The Bridge, and her top-rated Hallmark movie by the same name. The Bridge is about a town that rallies to save a small bookstore, where inventory is completely ruined in a flood.

 

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"When I wrote The Bridge, I couldn't imagine anything more devastating to a small bookstore than a flood, " Kingsbury said. "I never dreamed an invisible virus would have the power to wipe out iconic stores like Landmark."

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Kingsbury's effort to save Landmark Booksellers began when she was on Facebook LIVE with a thousand of her closet readers. "Let's do what we can to save Landmark Booksellers," Kingsbury told them. "It's the least we can do."

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The response has been overwhelming.

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In fact, based on the way Kingsbury's fans have rallied around Landmark Booksellers, the Tomlins expect they might sell thousands of books.

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"What's happening because of Karen's readers is unreal," Carol Tomlin said. "We simply can't believe it."