Bookpeople was an employee-owned and operated book wholesaler and distributor based in the San Francisco Bay Area.

They did operate a publishing house, Wingbow Press, which published books of local interest, such as early editions of Bargain Hunting in the Bay Area, by Sally Socolich,[13][14] and books on women's spirituality,[15] divination[16] and ecology.

Some of these titles included Mutant Message Down Under (a self-published title picked up by HarperCollins after amassing significant sales),[18] The Lazy Man's Guide to Enlightenment (picked up for publication by Bantam Books after 9 years with a small press), and the Whole Earth Catalog;[19] publishers included John Muir Press, and North Atlantic Books.

[20] The largest section of their business was wholesaling,[21] where they provided nonexclusive sales of books from major trade publishers as well as small presses.

[22] Their wholesale catalog was used by booksellers for years as a resource for surveying the state of alternative publishing, as they consistently carried new titles in such burgeoning fields as African American studies, feminism, holistic health, spirituality, gay and lesbian literature (including erotica), in addition to the aforementioned categories.