This week sees the return of Independent Bookshop Week: a celebration of all of the wonderful indie bookshops across the UK and the roles they play in the community. Now in its 19th year, Independent Bookshop Week aims to shine a spotlight on all of the good things indie bookshops do and to encourage readers to buy their summer reads at their local indie.
It’s a worthy cause to shout about too, but I feel in no small way bittersweet about it this year, as my local indie bookshop announced recently that they were closing. They’re not alone. The latest stats from the Booksellers’ Association revealed an overall drop in the number of indie bookshops across the UK in 2023 when compared with 2022. It’s a small percentage, but a drop is still a drop.
So, as it is Independent Bookshop Week, just what can we do to make sure that our indie bookshops aren’t only surviving but thriving?
The first and, let’s face it, the most obvious is to buy books from them. There are so many places we are able to buy books nowadays, but what you get at a bookshop is an unparalleled service in terms of the personal touch of recommendations or special interest books. Many publishers are now offering indie exclusives of first printings (both hardback and paperback) so speak to your local bookshop about preordering a copy through them. Many bookshops also sell online now, and I have never had a book mailed to me by a bookshop arrive poorly packaged or damaged. They take far more care over the product than if you’re buying from a large chain’s warehouse. Authors tend to be very supportive of their local bookshop as well, and you will often find that an author will offer signed, and sometimes even dedicated, copies of their work through their local bookshop.
A large proportion of indies nowadays have diversified and don’t only sell books, which means you have more ways to be able to support them, even if you’re not in a position to buy a book from them. I try to buy something, no matter how small, from every indie bookshop I visit. They have a cafe? Sure, I’ll buy a drink. They sell gifts? Let me grab a bookmark! Tote bags? You can never have too many of those. (My husband hard disagrees on this one, but it’s ok that he’s wrong.) Many bookshops also host events either in their premises or at other local venues. Sign up for their mailing list to see what events they have coming up and go along when you can. You’ll be able to meet an author, get a book signed and support your local bookshop all at the same time.
It doesn’t always come down to how much money you can spend with them, and I am acutely aware that it’s often just not possible to financially support every time. There is a power in just talking about things, however. If you’re not going to an event, you can still tell friends and colleagues about it. Any day is a good day to share things on your socials to tell people about your local shop, and you never know who is going to see your mention and pop along. I’m in a number of different Facebook groups with international booklovers and I always make sure I name drop my favourite bookshops when they are looking for recommendations of places to visit while on holiday. I’ve been spotlighting the indie bookshops I visit on my social media for around 4 years now, and every time someone tells me they either have or are going to pop along to a particular bookshop it makes me enormously happy. Whether it’s a few days or a few years later that they eventually visit, it doesn’t really matter. It all helps.
There’s something else that comes with supporting an indie bookshop that is maybe a little more intangible but no less real: when you support an indie, you’re supporting a community hub. My local indie offers book clubs and film nights that are well-frequented by older residents who maybe wouldn’t go out otherwise. They offer work experience to neurodivergent young people from the area to help them gain invaluable skills for future employment. They have a scheme to provide books to local schools with a high number of students from low-income families. Indie bookshops employ local people and give back directly to their local communities in a plethora of ways. If you get chatting to the booksellers of your local bookshop, you may find out other ways that they are supporting the community that you didn’t at first realise.
The reason I hear most frequently about why people don’t buy books from their local indie is that Amazon is just so much cheaper. I understand that desire for the best value possible, so I like to look at it like this: I could maybe buy two books from Amazon for £10 and own those two books. Alternatively, I could buy one of those books from my local indie for £10 and own that book whilst also supporting all of those other bookshop initiatives. My £10 is remaining in a community that experiences the positive impact of that bookshop day in and day out. If I really want to read that second book, I can always get it out of the library (another amazing community resource that I’ll wax lyrical about on another day).
The stats from the Booksellers’ Association that I mentioned at the start are not all doom and gloom, however. There may have been a 1% drop in the total number of indie bookshops last year, but the figures still show that there are nearly 23% more indies on our high street than there were in 2016. By supporting them, in whatever way we can, we can all make sure it stays that way.
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