Are Indie bookstores making a comeback?

There's been a spate of mainstream news articles about how indie bookstores are making a big comeback.

Well...yes and no?

About 5 or 6 years ago, all the talk was about how ebooks were going to extinguish physical books. I never believed that. I always felt that there would be space for books. I figured that many ebook readers would come back. I think that's what happened. There is room for book platforms, and most readers will probably combine the two.

However, the publishers are a little disingenuous about this. They talk about how ebook sales have dropped, without mentioning the ebooks are still selling well through non-traditional platforms. If ebooks aren't selling as well for the Big Five, it's because they've priced those ebooks too high.

I thought the difficulties bookstores were having had more to do with how they were being run. On my travels, many of the bookstores I've visited were lacking in inventory. They appeared overstaffed, with too much money spent on appearances and "image" and not enough on inventory. They carried the same "bestseller" books, which were also available at large discounts at the chainstores and on Amazon. There wasn't enough individual personality and idiosyncratic selection.

Most of all, I felt that too much space was devoted to things other than books. Coffee shops and restaurants and no end of tchotchkies and knickknacks. Both trends are still in full force and I'm still not convinced it's the right path.

Basically, it's a grand experiment that won't be proven for a decade or more. Meanwhile, there are books they can sell. Lots and lots of books.

My own store is the way it is because of circumstance. I'm in a busy downtown, with lots of foot-traffic and a good amount of tourism. Because of that, the more quirky my books, the better. Customers aren't in my store to buy the latest bestseller. More likely, they'll pick up that cult book they've heard about or that classic they've always intended to read.

Because of my limited space, I don't have room for lots of odd-sized tchoitchkies. Books are stackable and I can pile them up. I have no space for people to sit, and certainly not for people to drink coffee and browse. I have also diligently striven to diversify my product. Books, yes. But also games, toys, and most of all, comics and graphic novels. None of these product lines are viable in Bend by themselves, in my opinion.

What I have learned is very simple--the more and the better the books I carry, the more I sell.

As far as the numbers of new bookstores are concerned--I'm not sure that proves anything but the willingness and the desire of people start up bookstores. Not enough time has passed to prove that these are going concerns--and there seems to be a fair amount of evidence based on turnover that many of them are not.

Book sales really haven't risen all that much over the last decade--so the pie is being sliced pretty thin.

So yeah, it's true that new bookstores are opening. It remains to be seen if that is going to work.