Mark Twain told the world in 1897 that, according to legend, “Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.” Never mind that he really said, “The report of my death was an exaggeration.” The point is clear: He wasn’t dead, and the newspaper report was wrong.
A similar phenomenon occurred about 15 years ago, shortly after Amazon came out with its Kindle e-reader. Predictions of the demise of print books ran rife. In fact, e-books were outselling print books on Amazon by 2011. Bookstores declined in tandem. But they’ve rallied in recent years, providing cause for celebration of Independent Bookstore Day today, April 27.
“When they first gained popularity, industry watchers predicted e-books would soon be the preferred medium for younger readers who were growing up online,” Duncan Stewart, a consumer forecasting analyst, reported, “while print books would remain the go-to for their grandparents. It was the exact opposite story. Interestingly, Kindles and similar e-readers were more popular with the older generations we surveyed, whereas younger people were as interested in print, or more, than their older fellow readers.”
Pew Research Center reported two years ago, “Print books remain the most popular format for reading, with 65% of adults saying that they have read a print book in the past year.”
Stewart said in December that print book sales were up 10-14% over the previous three years in most major English-speaking markets.
One can speculate that a big reason for the print book preference is that it’s easier on the eyes. Plus, comprehension is significantly better with texts in print than on a screen, studies have proven.
So what about the stores that sell paperback and hardback books? The New York Times reported in January 2022 that more than 300 independent bookstores had opened across the country in the two preceding years.
“It’s kind of shocking when you think about what dire straits the stores were in in 2020,” said Allison Hill, chief executive of the American Booksellers Association. “We saw a rally like we’ve never seen before.” Small booksellers not only survived the pandemic, but many are thriving, the Times said. It added, “The rapid growth of physical bookshops is especially surprising at a time when brick and mortar stores face crushing competition from Amazon and other online retailers.”
The Tampa Bay area, where I moved to in September, has a wealth of independent bookstores. Covid took out the decades-old Haslam’s Book Store near downtown St. Petersburg, but Tombolo’s Books opened nearby a few months before and withstood the ravaging disease. Book + Bottle, in the city’s downtown, debuted near the same time, offering a bar serving wine, coffee and snacks. These stores are thriving. For lovers of used and antiquarian books, Wilson’s Book World has been an oasis in St. Petersburg since 1971. Several other stores dealing in used books also dot the city.
Farther north in Pinellas County, in charming downtown Dunedin, the Back in the Day Book Store offers a fine collection of new books. A few miles farther north in Tarpon Springs, The Gilded Page stocks new releases, beloved classics, local authors, and various bookish gifts.
Across Tampa Bay to the east, Tampa has two flourishing bookstores in disparate parts of Tampa. Oxford Exchange, near the University of Tampa on the edge of downtown, is a busy establishment in a European-inspired space containing a restaurant, coffeehouse and gift shop. Mojo Books & Records does a brisk business in the University of South Florida area in northeast Tampa, dealing in new and used books, music records and a coffee bar. Used books proliferate in spots across the city.
Several of these stores – notably Tombolo’s, Book + Bottle, and Oxford Exchange – host frequent appearances by highly ranked authors.
By comparison, Palm Beach County on the east coast is an independent bookstore desert. Outside of two stores in wealthy Palm Beach, the longstanding Classic Book Shop and the usually deserted Palm Beach Book Store, one of the geographically largest counties east of the Mississippi River has only one: The Dancing Elephant store in Lake Worth Beach, adjoining West Palm Beach, where none exist to my knowledge. My books Blood on Their Hands and Murder in Palm Beach sell well at The Elephant. Murder on the Beach in upscale Boca Raton at the county’s south end closed a few years ago.
The Tampa Bay region may not be as wealthy as Palm Beach County, but boasts a far richer cultural foundation. And I haven’t even touched on art and music.
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I just read a piece by literary maven Jane Friedman that I found encouraging in my authorial pursuits: “The best quality books are not the ones that typically sell.”
I’m egocentric enough to think Blood on Their Hands falls in that category. It’s engrossing, and I encourage you to read it. If you do, puh-leeze do this writer a favor and post a short review on Amazon. A reader wrote: “If you’re a Grisham fan, you’ll love this book.” Reviews are an author’s best way of defying Jane’s dictum. You kindness would be most appreciated.