Despite the cost-of-living crisis, discount department stores and digital options, small regional bookstores have not reached their final chapter just yet.
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Celebrating 100 years, BookPeople, a non-profit for Australian booksellers, said bookstores are alive and well.
"There is the never-ending narrative that bookshops are in trouble and are going under and that the book is quote-unquote 'dead', and that narrative has never proved to be true," CEO of BookPeople Robbie Egan said.
Mr Egan said it was challenging to own a regional bookstore but it was not impossible.
He said each town was different but their national membership had gone up by 30 in the past four years.
"The dream of the regional bookshop is alive, and people want to open them and they do," he said.
"They are real community hubs, people go to bookshops without a purchase intention."
'More than a paperback'
Newcastle's Emily Devine and Katie Bleus have always loved reading and in 2022 they realised their bookstore dream with Betty Loves Books.
Ms Devine and Ms Bleus started their business at local markets and slowly built it into a physical store with a curated selection of new and second-hand books, and giftware.
Ms Devine said the community enjoyed a space to meet with like-minded people, and being able to see and feel physical books.
"We have a really lovely community of readers that access our store, and we also have the people who are travelling through who found us," Ms Bleus said.
"We offer so much more than a paperback."
The co-owners said readers were able to get personalised recommendations and have a conversation when they visit local, independent bookstores.
Betty Loves Books had a monthly book club and other events that cemented a community feel, they said.
Referencing Neil Gaiman's American Gods quote, "a town isn't a town without a bookstore", Ms Bleus said bookstores are vital to regional communities.
"They contribute to that sense of belonging and ownership of a place. If you know the owners, it is a friendship place for you to go and talk about shared interests," she said.
In Wangaratta and Albury, BOOKtique owner Michelle Delle Vergin said bookstores are often the "soul of the community."
Expanding to Albury two months ago, Ms Delle Vergin said the bookselling industry was a great community to belong to.
"It is really collegiate and open and everyone gets on with everyone else," she said.
Pressure bears down
Owning an independent bookstore is not without its challenges.
"With the cost-of-living increase - high-cost items - people just aren't buying them as much," Ms Devine said.
Along with people tightening their purse strings, local businesses face department stores selling books at discounted prices.
Ms Bleus said department stores were important for people of all incomes to access literature but it was hard to compete with their prices.
Booktique owner, Ms Delle Vergin agreed that she could not compete with stores selling books at wholesale prices.
She said it would be great if there were more of a level playing field between local business and large chains.
"They can't get this experience in Big W that they can get in my store, they will not find the serendipitous find, they won't find a book that is not on top 100 copies selling," she said.
Mr Egan acknowledged that regional bookstores were battling along with everyone else amongst macroeconomic conditions.
Rising living costs including rent and electricity have put pressure on most retail spaces, he said.
"We are a narrative species and we make sense of the world through stories, so I think we are kind of essential to everything," he said.
Jessica Belzycki
Journalist at the Newcastle Herald.
Journalist at the Newcastle Herald.
