The Independent Bookstore is Not Dead (Part II)

Last November, Ann Patchett wrote a piece in The Atlantic detailing how she opened an independent bookstore in Nashville, Tenn. after the remaining two bookstores in the city shuttered its doors. Her bookstore has become a success, due in some part to Patchett’s celebrity. But as a feature about Boswell Books in this month’s issue of Milwaukee Magazine shows, you don’t need to have the celebrity to have a successful indie bookstore.

Although the percentage of those reading with e-readers is increasing (16 percent in 2011 to 23 percent in 2012), for Goldin, this means there are still plenty of people reading physical books. That’s a good thing, and it’s converting to sales. Boswell’s business, Goldin says, has improved each year since it’s been open — about 10 percent annually. And business at Boswell is more than books. In 2012, 25 percent of sales came from hardcover books; 33 percent from trade paperback; 16 percent from children’s books; the rest from off-site sales, secondhand books, bargain books, textbooks and gifts.

And instead of ignoring the proliferation of the digital marketplace, independent bookstores, including Boswell, have decided to embrace it. Kind of.

Daniel Goldin, the owner of Boswell Books, doesn’t believe e-readers will save his bookstore. “’I still really feel strongly that if we overpromote it, it changes the ambiance for the customer who’s not interested,’ Goldin says, adding that the biggest complaint his customers have about Barnes & Noble is the Nook’s saturation.” Which is smart! When I go to the bookstore, I’m looking for books, not digital products. Long live the independent bookstore.

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