About Bookhead
Bookhead was created by Sam McAlilly. He learned to code when he was a bookseller and the store wanted to redesign the website. Years later, after time spent working as a web developer, he decided to sell his book collection online but he wasn’t happy with any of the available software for bookstores.
After a lot of time spent coding in his free time, he decided to commit to Bookhead as a real business (no longer a side project) in July 2024. He’s excited about the bookselling software he’s been cooking up… The possibilities of new technology for independent booksellers… A future where we spend less time messing with technology and more time with books written by people and the readers who love them…
Mission
Bookhead’s mission is to help people use technology to promote literature. We believe literature is one of humanity’s most prized creations, and we can use technology as a tool to keep this gift alive. This is a fancy way to say: we promote the literary arts by providing book people with technology tools to help them with their work in bookstores, libraries, and publishing companies. We are here to serve book people.
Bookhead is not a startup. We are a small business who makes software. We are not looking for an exit. We will never sell to a certain company who we will not name or private equity or any Bozos like that. This sort of action would be a failure of our mission and completely at odds with our values.
We care about the people we serve. We value our relationships, working together as collaborators. We don’t take lightly the role we play in their businesses. We are committed to the success of our customers, because we believe healthy independent bookstores are crucial for a vibrant community. Without books, we would be nothing, and without booksellers, well…
That’s a lot to say, but we needed to spell out the implied parts of our mission:
We HELP PEOPLE use technology to PROMOTE LITERATURE!
Created by Sam McAlilly
I'm a programmer, writer, and former bookseller. I've led and contributed to software projects for local governments, journalists, researchers, and libraries. I worked for an independent bookstore where I designed an e-commerce website and print materials, promoted events, and marketed books online.
Email: sam@bookhead.net
