Independent Bookstores

This seems to be "decline of independent bookstores" week, with a Slate article and Paul Collins’s VLS article.

Over at Slate, Tyler Cowen makes the point that chains like B&N are a good thing because they put bookstores in places where there aren’t that many stores. This is exactly correct. And in fact, I’ve spoken with lots of small presses that are quite excited to be in national chains in hard to reach parts of this country.

However, I don’t agree with Cowen’s leap that because chains have a better reach than indies, we should all just sit around and not worry while indies get replaced by chains. The reason I say this is because B&N has 1 literary fiction buyer. One. That’s it. You don’t sell to her, then you’re screwed.

With thousands of indies across the country, the situation is opposite. There’s going to be more chance that something obscure gets discovered. And then, once that book is discovered, the very Internet network that Cowen praises means that word about it can get around.

Not to mention, I think there’s something to be said for literary community common to indie bookstores that Cowen so casually trashes. I think it’s great when publishers and local media develop a relationship with their local indie bookstore. Often, it’s these very relationships that allow emerging authors to get access. Relationships are important (For instance, see what Corey Mesler has to say over at Dan’s blog), and they’re something that’s going to be more difficult to achieve with a chain.

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