Indie bookstores booming
- Since 2024, more than 700 independent bookshops have opened, and print sales have risen two years running. (x.com) - Cities and schools are even funding returns to print, with Denmark and Norway investing millions to replace screens with books. (x.com) - The trend is being framed as community‑driven retail growth, with local shops leaning into events and in‑store experiences. ( )
Independent bookstores are expanding again, with hundreds of new shops opening in the U.S. as print book sales rose for a second straight year. (bookweb.org) (publishersweekly.com) The American Booksellers Association said 323 new brick-and-mortar, pop-up, and mobile stores opened in 2024, after its 2023 report said more than 200 independent bookstores opened that year. That puts the two-year total above 500, with the trade group also reporting 18% membership growth in 2024 after 11% growth in 2023. (bookweb.org 1) (bookweb.org 2) Circana BookScan data published by Publishers Weekly showed U.S. print unit sales reached 762.4 million in 2025, up 0.3% from 2024, after a 0.5% gain in 2024 over 2023. Adult fiction stayed the strongest segment, with romance up 3.9% in 2025 and graphic novels up 9.2% after two years of declines. (publishersweekly.com) The store growth is landing as booksellers push shopping as an in-person event, not just a transaction. The American Booksellers Association said more than 2,000 stores in all 50 states and U.S. territories signed up for Independent Bookstore Day on April 25, 2026, the largest edition in the event’s 13-year history. (bookweb.org) In Seattle, KUOW reported 33 stores are participating in this year’s local Independent Bookstore Day promotion, which runs for 10 days and includes passport-style visits across the city. Estelita’s Library owner Edwin Lindo said local stores can offer “community” in a way Amazon cannot. (kuow.org) Schools are also shifting money back toward paper. Denmark’s 2024 primary-school agreement set aside 540 million Danish kroner for books to reduce screen use in class, and Norway proposed 300 million kroner for printed textbooks in 2024 before adding a 150 million-kroner books program for schools and kindergartens in March 2026. (eurydice.eacea.ec.europa.eu) (regjeringen.no 1) (regjeringen.no 2) Norway’s government said in July 2025 that it would spend 1 billion kroner more than current levels to raise reading skills, with daily reading, more physical books, and less screen time for younger students starting in 2026. Norway’s education directorate also reported in November 2025 that fifth-grade reading performance had slipped again from the year before. (regjeringen.no) (udir.no) The backdrop is not a full reversal of digital reading or online retail. Print sales remain below the 2021 pandemic peak of 839.7 million units, and the American Booksellers Association’s own advocacy page still frames Amazon as a monopoly threat to smaller sellers. (publishersweekly.com) (bookweb.org) But the numbers now run in the same direction: more stores, more print sales, and more public money for physical books. For independent booksellers, that has turned the paperback shelf and the store event calendar into growth categories again. (bookweb.org) (publishersweekly.com)
