All Bookselling Is Local

Conventional wisdom goes like this: for a decade, superstore expansion has barreled across the country, driving out all but a few plucky independents, turning bookselling into a monolithic industry with all the local flavor of a Banana Republic.

Fortunately, it isn't so. At the beginning of 2007, PW dispatched a team of staff editors, correspondents and freelancers to take a state-by-state look at bookselling in the U.S. In interviews with hundreds of retailers, publishers' reps and others in the book business, one undeniable fact emerged: bookselling, like politics, is local.

While the rapid growth of Barnes & Noble, Borders and Amazon has made the business more centralized, each state's bookselling industry is shaped by matters as varied as climate, geography, regional economy, population growth and local culture.

Washington and Oregon, for example, both have thriving bookselling scenes that some attribute partly to the perpetual drizzle of the Pacific Northwest. As agent Stephanie Griffin said of her Oregon city, “Portland has a huge literary community. It rains a lot so there's plenty of time to read.”

For booksellers in Alaska and Hawaii, geography creates a set of difficulties distinct from those in the 48 contiguous states—from having to wait longer to get books to not being able to attract authors to travel the long distances to their stores. Beyond that, their bookselling environments have turned out to be as different as their weather: Alaska, dotted with towns too small to attract a chain store, has half the population (656,000) but a third more (15) independent bookstores than Hawaii, where Borders is the dominant bookseller, with 14 locations.

Though mass merchandisers have become an important force in bookselling throughout the country, their influence is felt in some areas much more strongly than in others. Wal-Mart, headquartered in Bentonville, Ark., is the biggest bookseller not only in its home state, but also in Mississippi, which, with the lowest average household income in the country, has attracted comparatively few national bookstores.

While each state is distinct, PW did find some trends. Fast growth and high incomes would seem to be a plus for retailers, but booksellers say they're being priced out of some of the most prosperous and dynamic communities. “We're all getting gentrified, rents are so high,” said John Presta, owner of Reading on Walden, a Chicago bookstore that closed last year. “Sales were fine, but we could not negotiate a long-term lease.”

As for the independents' struggle to survive while competing against the chains, it continues, though most of the indies that are still in the game have developed strategies that enable them to avoid going head-to-head with national retailers on price and selection. That means locating in underserved areas as well as focusing on a niche. Take Indiana, where 97 of its 142 bookstores are independents, most operating in rural communities outside the greater Indianapolis area. “They're specialty and small stores in a state that is primarily agricultural and rural,” said Jim Dana, executive director of the Great Lakes Booksellers Association. “This is a state that—other than Indianapolis and the other cities—really depends on independent bookstores.”

For independent stores located in the shadow of a chain or big-box retailer, finding the right niche is key. “I think we're truly getting into the age of specialty stores,” said Ted Wedel, a Maryland resident who is co-owner of the sales representative group Chesapeake & Hudson. Wedel pointed to Maryland stores such as Atomic Books, specializing in pop culture titles, and Breathe, which focuses on New Age topics.

The one theme that runs through all types of bookstores and through all regions is the need to make the store a center for activity, not just a place to shelve books. That means hosting workshops, book clubs and even the much-maligned book signing. As publishers become increasingly reluctant to send their authors on national tours, booksellers take pride in showcasing local talent, whether it's Carl Hiaasen in Florida, Richard Russo in Maine or Rick Bragg in Alabama.

—With reporting by Claire Kirch, Lynn Andriani, Matthew Thornton, Judith Rosen, Bridget Kinsella and Ed Nawotka

The chart below ranks states based on the number of stores that sell books compared to population. The store count includes all Barnes & Noble, Borders and Books-a-Million outlets; ABA members; CBA members; Costco; Target; and Wal-Mart. Because of its low population, Wyoming has the most bookstores per capita, while crowded New York, though it has 437 outlets, has the fewest stores per capita.