Independent booksellers continued to expand in 2023, with more than 200 new stores opening
The independent bookstore boom continues
NEW YORK — Three years ago, Erin Decker was a middle school librarian in Kissimmee, Florida, increasingly frustrated by the state's book bans and worried that she couldn't make a difference remaining in her job.
So, she and fellow librarian Tania Galiñanes thought of a way to fight back.
“We just put our heads together and decided a bookstore would help make sure students could get to books that were being pulled from shelves,” says Decker, whose White Rose Books & More opened last fall in Kissimmee. The store is named for a resistance group in Nazi Germany and features a section — ringed by yellow “caution" tape — dedicated to such banned works as Maia Kabobe's “Gender Queer,” Jonathan Evison's “Lawn Boy” and John Green's “Looking for Alaska.”
White Rose Books is part of the ever-expanding and diversifying world of independent bookstores. Even as industry sales were slow in 2023, membership in the American Booksellers Association continued its years-long revival. It now stands at 2,433, more than 200 over the previous year and nearly double since 2016. Around 190 more stores are in the process of opening over the next two years, according to the ABA.
“Our numbers are really strong, and we have a solid, diverse pipeline of new stores to come,” says the book association's CEO, Allison Hill. She cites a range of reasons for people opening stores, from opposing bans to championing diversity to pursuing new careers after the pandemic.
“Some are opening to give back to their community. And some still just love books,” she said during a phone interview this week.
Recent members include everyone from the romance-oriented That's What She Read in Mount Ayr, Iowa; to Seven Stories in
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