BookWeb Feature Shines Spotlight on Strong Indie Channel

The indie bookstore renaissance has been the subject of widespread media coverage, including 10 stories since the start of 2016 in news outlets as varied as the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, the Hartford Courant, and the Seattle and New York Times. Those stories and more are accessible from the BookWeb homepage under the headiing “A Strong Indie Channel.”

One of the latest additions to the list is a March 24 New York Times story on Nashville’s Parnassus Books, which is expanding its storefront and launching a bookmobile, which will stop at food truck rallies, farmers’ markets, restaurants, and other venues around town.

“Dozens of small bookstores across the country are opening multiple locations, expanding into mini chains,” the Times article noted. “Books Inc., a San Francisco Bay Area independent store, now has 11 locations. Third Place Books in Seattle will soon open a new store, its third. Greenlight Bookstore, a prominent independent store in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, is opening a second Brooklyn store in Prospect-Lefferts Gardens.”

The Times article also noted that American Booksellers Association membership had grown to 1,712 member stores in 2,227 locations in 2015, “a big jump from 2009, when the group had 1,401 stores in 1,651 locations.”

ABA CEO Oren Teicher told the Times: “The trend is unmistakable, and we see it not only continuing but growing.”

ABA is asking members whose local media outlets are reporting on the resurgence of indie bookstores to share those stories by sending them to ABA Membership and Marketing Officer Meg Smith.