Independent bookstores used to be everywhere, but now with chain shops and online bookstores, many are danger of disappearing altogether. People who run indie bookstores don’t do it for money, that’s for sure. Most are introverted bookworms, who love to give you recommendations, and offer a community, not just a book.
For cookbooks, read our post on food safety for people and pets. It’s best to just bin allium scraps (garlic, onion, leeks, shallots, chives) and citrus/rhubarb scraps, as acids could harm compost creatures.
For gardening books, read about pet-friendly gardens and wildlife-friendly gardens. And trees to avoid near horses (including yew, oak and sycamore).
The main reason why indie bookstores are in such peril, is simple economics. Bookshop owners must (to survive) sell books at recommended retail prices. But big chains like Amazon can afford to massively discount (they lose money, as they make money on high-profit items like Kindles or electronic goods).
Books don’t cost a fortune, so pay a few pounds extra to keep your indie bookstore open. But bookshops can also do other things. They can’t compete on price, so it requires some creative thinking.
Sell Books That People Want!
You would think would be obvious. But if you just sell the same books that are on sale in WH Smith, you’re not going to survive. Niche down. If you live in a town full of vegetarian hippies, sell vegan cookbooks and books on permaculture. If you live in a Miss Marple type village, sell Agatha Christie novels, and books on growing your own organic roses.
If you live in a vibrant student city, sell books on changing the world and saving the planet. If you love books and you love your area, you likely know the vibe of local people, and can compete.
Here’s an example. Many people practice yoga or eat vegan food. But if you visit the average (even independent) bookshop, you likely won’t find the best books around on each subject. That’s why people go to Amazon. Go online (even to Amazon!) and do your research. Find out what people are reading and giving good reviews. Then stock those books instead. Not just DK standard versions of every subject under the sun.
Here are two examples, to start you off!
WH Smith stocks a few ‘coffee table’ vegan cookbooks, full of recipes with 100 ingredients and glossy pictures, but which won’t be used. We found Vegan Pantry, a lovely book by a Yorkshire chef, with simple 5-ingredient recipes using affordable ingredients for every budget.
WH Smith stocks AA manuals to drive around England getting lost and wasting money on petrol, to visit touristy hotspots. We found Bookshop Tours of Britain, a slow-travel book to discover indie bookshops, on foot or by public transport.
Host Author Events and Book signings
People love these. The big London bookshops may be able to get some big celebrity. But if you have a book on local history written by a pensioner who’s lived in the town all his life, invite him for tea, cake and an author talk.
This happens way more in the USA, with indie bookstores hosting events all the time. Such events will grow by word of mouth. Locals can chat with other bookworms, and make new bookworm friends! And of course, you get to sell more books, at each event. Amazon can’t host book signings, you can!
Make Use of Wasted space
If you have an indie bookstore with empty space above or behind the shop, then make use of it. After getting safety and licensing sorted out, you could add a little vegan café for coffee and cake, or rent it out for yoga or meditation classes.
You could even add a little related bookshelf. Say you rented the space out to an art teacher holding classes, display watercolour painting books for sale on a shelf in the room, to pay when leaving.
Join or Start a Lending Library
Although public libraries are free, again people go to Amazon, because most books inside them are uninspiring. You could create a half-way house, and ‘rent out books’ as a lending library for local people.
Ask for deposits and rent out some books for free or for a small monthly fee, just like an online book club. This gets people to support you, reduces waste and create a real community, for your local bookworms.
Create Loyalty Cards
Amazon does not offer a loyalty scheme (apart from free postage with Prime). So start your own. You could create little illustrated cards (perhaps from a local artist) and then people build points to buy books, for themselves or as gifts.
The Design Pixie offers lovely digital thank you cards, you can have her or yourself amend the wording, then print off at the local printer. People will see one, and want to order one themselves!
Embrace Plastic-Free Options
If you read the small print, you’ll that Amazon boasts it has ‘reduced plastic’, but it still uses tons of the stuff. Tell customers that you are 100% plastic-free, you could even print reusable totes with your bookshop name, to help spread the word about town for free.
Mr B’s Emporium (Bath) prints and sells its own reusable bags, with unique quotes. This gives free advertising by local people, as they shop around town. Why not do the same?
You could again niche this down. If you run a book that sells classic tales, you could have your totes with images and quotes from Shakespeare and Jane Eyre. Think outside the box, and put your right-brain creative head on!
Be Creative and More Creative!
If you run a struggling bookshop, always think ‘What can I do that the big stores can’t?’
How about free foot delivery to local people? No postage fees and no plastic, instead just a friendly face (instead of a delivery fan that may turn up when someone is out).
Get together with other local indie shops to do deals. People could use the local independent pub to collect deliveries in the evening when you are shut, and in return get a discount on a pint, to support the local boozer. The only limit is your imagination.
Install a book suggestion box. Most people like to buy books immediately. So include a suggestion box, so people can note down books they would like to read, rather than having to order from you. You could then stock them.
For example, say someone has a medical condition and would like to read a certain book. He or she may not wish to ask you in person (say a book about depression). But if that person puts the book in the suggestion box and you stock it, that person will likely buy it on returning.
Mr B’s Emporium of Reading Delights!
Mr B’s Emporium in beautiful Bath, is regularly voted as England’s best independent bookshop (and often in lists for one of the best bookshops in the world!) In the age where most towns have no (or one) indie bookstore, what can we learn?
The book has unique decoration with comfy armchairs for browsing, comfy armchairs, claw-foot bath book displays and even toilets illustrated by an artist!
Known for wonderful customer service, it was founded by a couple on their honeymoon. While they sipped gin and tonics, they were struck by a visitor to an indie bookshop the day before in Seattle, USA.
This was the beginning of a journey that saw them give up their jobs as lawyers, and setting up an independent shop in Bath (moving all the way from their home in Prague, another beautiful city).
Reading Subscription Gifts and Spas
At the heart of Mr B’s Emporium are their unique reading subscription gifts. These can be done by post or online, or you can even indulge (or indulge someone else) in a ‘Reading Spa’ where you physically visit the shop, and enjoy tea and cake.
First, you complete a simple questionnaire, to get to know you and the kind of books you would enjoy reading. You are then assigned a ‘bibliotherapist’ who hand-picks suitable books, and delivers them to you each month. This gift can be sent worldwide, and subscriptions run for 3, 6 or 11 months).
If your tastes change during the subscription, just let them know. So say for instance you decide to go vegan or your hobby changes from gardening to pottery, they can adjust your books accordingly.
Visiting Authors (and a Bookshop Band!)
The shop regularly hosts visiting authors (both local and national) and other literary names like Countdown’s lexicographer Susie Dent. Enjoy good conversation and sometimes good wine!
Even if you’ve never watched the show, Susie is a sharp wit. She roasted Boris Johnson when he was caught breaking the COVID rules, out partying:
Word of the day is maw-worm (19th century). One who insists that they have done nothing wrong, despite evidence to the contrary.
Susie was a huge fan of primatologist Jane Goodall, who with her team rescued a chimp from the illegal wildlife trade, then released her to her natural forest home (she’s thriving, with a daughter of her own). Just before going off to her new life, she gives a big hug to Jane, it’s the most heart-warming video you’ll ever see!
The Bookshop Band was formed by a local couple, and has become so successful via their concerts in the bookshop, that they have released several albums. All their songs are inspired by books!
Danny’s Campaign To save Bookstores
Danny Caine runs an independent bookstore in the USA, and has become his country’s poster boy for saving indie bookshops. He once wrote an open letter to Amazon’s founder Jeff Bezos (one of the world’s richest men) on how he needed to understand what his business model was doing to local communities:
Small business owners are led to believe that if their idea is good enough, they can grow their business and create more jobs. Yet your company is so big, so disruptive, so dominant, it’s severely skewed the ability for us to do that.
Maybe someday you’ll hear what we have to say. Maybe we can talk about it over pie and coffee at Ladybird Diner across the street, my treat. I’d love to show you around a vibrant community anchored by small businesses, here in Kansas, here on earth. Sincerely, Danny Caine, indie bookshop owner
In an interview, he explains the reason why small bookstores can’t compete with big chains. His prices are in dollars, but it translates the same here:
‘When we order direct from publishers, we get a wholesale discount of 46% off the cover price. Our cost for that book from the publishers would be $14.57. If we sold it for $15, we’d make 43 cents’.
So with an inventory of 10,000 books at less than 50 cents profit per book, his store could afford to stay open for around 6 days, if he did not now sell around a third of his books online.
If you have no bookstore, then support an indie bookstore online. All our books link to Blackwell’s, an Oxford bookstore that runs a good online shop.
And unlike Amazon, you are not supporting a company that sells real fur (or has questionable ethical practices re worker welfare, tax etc). And affiliates can request ‘direct links’ to avoid messy URLs.
Good Books (to save bookstores!)
In Praise of Good Bookstores is written by someone who runs an indie bookstore in Chicago. He explores why bookstores matter, in a world of one-click technology including the value of browsing, and why indie bookstores are places of discovery and refuge, for those towns still fortunate enough to have them.
The Bookshop That Floated Away is a funny tale of one woman, who (after being refused a loan for her illustrated business plan) opened a floating bookshop, which soon had happy visitors including eccentric readers and the odd moorhen.
Books were bartered for food, accommodation, bathroom facilities and cake. She also suffered a flooded engine, went out to sea, got banned from Bristol and (on several occasions), floated away altogether!
Remainders of the Day is a another funny read, from a Scottish indie bookseller, who stocks thousands of books along nearly a mile of shelves, along with a real log fire and Captain (the bookshop cat).
Over 20 years, his customers have included people who confuse bookshops with free public libraries, and toddlers looking for a nice cosy corner, in which to wee.
A woman spent about 10 minutes browsing, then told me she was a retired librarian, suspecting there was some sort of bond between us. Not so. On the whole, booksellers dislike librarians.
There is nothing librarians like more than taking a perfectly good book, covering it with stamps and stickers before (and with no sense of irony) putting a plastic sleeve over the dust jacket, to protect it from the public. Shaun Blythell
The Bookseller of Hay tells the story of Richard Booth, who after leaving university in 1962, opened a small shop on the edge of the Brecon Beacons, and created the world’s largest second-hand bookshop. It now attracts thousands of visitors, during the Hay Festival in the Welsh border town of Hay-on-Wye.
This is the man who invented the ‘book town’, and declared the town’s independence, despite it being by accident. A rebellious son of privilege (his mother was part of the soap-making Yardley family), this book portrays the man, interviewing dozens of local people and booksellers that knew him.
