Curation and World-Building: What Makes the Independent Book Industry So Unique?
Many thought e-commerce, ebooks, and social media would kill independent bookstores and publishers. They are thriving in surprising and unexpected ways.
As a teenager, I was drawn by the feminist movement in my country, Argentina: I had become friends with two feminist activists committed to the growing women's movement, which had reproductive rights in the spotlight. After abortion was legalized in 2020, the Argentine movement powered a revolution among Latin American women.
At the same time, I started to spend more time at my local bookstore reading other people’s thoughts, particularly women authors. The decision was almost unconscious, but reading writers such as Aurora Venturini, Mariana Enríquez, and Camila Sosa Villada helped me find my voice and gave me confidence that I too could express my thoughts, emotions, and social concerns through writing – both literature and non-fiction.
But more than just the books I was reading, there was something about the environment of the bookstore that drove my confidence. Maybe it was the flyers for readings from independent writers discussing human rights; the displays of support for abortion rights through books in the storefront; or the way you could chat with the bookseller about what both of you were reading lately. Or it could be the cross-over between socially engaged people, culture, and literature.
A few years later, now living in New York, I was walking randomly through the lower East Side in August when I passed Bluestockings – a feminist bookstore a friend of mine had recommended to me a few years earlier and that I mentioned in the first issue of this newsletter.
I remembered a different place: Now it was located somewhere else, it was much bigger, and didn’t only sell books. “Maybe it's my bad memory," I thought. But it wasn't. Today, Bluestockings is also a community space that provides mutual aid, harm reduction support, and a warming/cooling inclusive place for people of all genders, cultures, and identities.
I visited this and several other bookshops that focused on books and had a significant role in their communities. As days passed, I wondered: How have these literary spaces become crucial for their communities? What makes them so unique?
I needed to know more. So, thanks to my investigative journalism skills (stalking users on Instagram) I found one particular space that drew my attention: Mil Mundos. I DMed Bethania Viana Sachelaridi, one of the members of the bookstore/collective, which is also a non-profit. I met her and Lucía Cozzi, an Argentine artist who's also part of the collective, at their physical store located in Bushwick.
Bethania got to Mil Mundos almost the same way as I did – through social media. She texted María Herrón, Mil Mundos' founder, and told her she wanted to be part of it, to get more involved in her community. "We're careful about the books we put here. So, just like everyone who joins [the Mil Mundos’ collective], you don't have to have past knowledge. We're all teaching each other how to do these things," she says.
That's the first thing I note about independent bookstores: The importance of curation. Local bookshops don't choose random books; they do not base their choices on algorithms or sales. Book owners and booksellers have specific criteria, and although everyone has their own, there's certainly something in common within all of them. Like many other independent bookstores, Mil Mundos focuses on books "from Latinx authors, Black writers, Indigenous authors, really focusing on marginalized communities."
"You know, [we're] kind of going against what you might see in a Barnes & Noble, which is just everything," Bethania explains, "We're very conscious of what we're pushing forward. A lot of this is our history. So [we choose books] depending on where [the people who come here] are from, too. They are part of that conversation."
Booksellers are also part of what readers and literature lovers tend to highlight when speaking about indie bookstores. "I love the experience of going to a local bookshop, checking out the staff's picks –especially when they have notes on each– and getting to know the people passionate about managing these spaces," says Clara, who works as a business developer in Seattle and is also a reader of this newsletter.
"Big bookstores tend to be led by algorithms, while independent ones have booksellers. These reflect their communities, mainly through [the promotion] of local authors and community events," says Whitney Hu, member of the board at The Feminist Press and a former bookseller at Strand Bookstore, one of the most iconic independent booksellers in New York.
While talking to Bethania, I also asked her what helps build a community around bookstores, which is crucial for these spaces' continued existence. "It's the books. And that Mil Mundos feels like a safe space: Here you see people [who come in] and only speak Spanish, so when they see Spanish-speaking workers, they relax," she explains.
We continued our conversation, and it seemed Bethania kept thinking about the answer she gave me about the community around Mil Mundos. When I was leaving, she added:
Definitely world building; thinking towards the future, what we want to see beyond just dealing with what we have right now. That's a huge part of what makes the community around Mil Mundos so strong.
Is the Internet Killing Bookstores? It Might Actually Be the Opposite
These conversations about curation, world-building, and community empowerment made me wonder about what’s going on in the literary online world: Do these two universes –online and offline– clash? Are book influencers, Amazon, and social media killing in-person bookshops? Or can they coexist?
“[All of] these things have played significant positive and negative effects on the way books get read, the way they get found. It’s the cliche of the double-edged sword because there are so many positive things that have come from these, and there are unquestionably negatives as well,” reflected Jamie Byng, CEO of Canongate Books, an independent publisher based in the UK, during an interview with music producer, Rick Rubin.
“What all the great indie booksellers do is they made a virtue of their independence, their relationship with their customers, the curation of the space, all of the things Amazon cannot do. These places are great for discovery,” he added.
During this interview, Byng also addressed the role newspapers and print media played in literature outreach through the book review section and how book coverage has been decimated during the last 30 years.
Partly as a response to this, one of his colleagues, Morgan Entrekin, president and publisher of Grove Atlantic –another independent publisher in New York City–, together with Terry McDonell founded Literary Hub, a website dedicated to readers who want to engage with all things books, and which I love.
“It’s also hard because it’s made it more challenging to publish certain books or break new writers, but now we have websites like this and social media that have served as a counterbalance to other things that have made it harder,” Byng added.
Among the positives Hu and Byng mention are that social media has helped spread the word about books and bookstores, and vice versa, as it’s easier now for writers and authors to connect with their readers through their personal/professional accounts.
What’s Happening With Online Literary Communities?
In the flourishing online literary universe, communities have bloomed, too. While most of them are built around book recommendations and reviews, others have been created around niches that weren’t taken care of, such as Latinx, Black, Indigenous, and queer literature.
“When I first started my account, I was reading everything. I didn’t have a mission or a focus on anything, so I began to get caught up with everyone else’s reading. And I’m getting all these recommendations from people. Still, the common denominator was no one was reading Latino authors,” explains Lupita Aquino, founder of Lupita Reads, an account that aims to amplify and spotlight Hispanic/Latinx authors.
“Yeah, it was one in every 20 book recommendations that I came across. That’s where I started thinking I wanted to focus on ensuring that authors get the praise [they deserve].”
At the same time, local and independent bookstores played a massive part in forming Lupita’s online community, as “there was a huge part of connecting with local readers through meetups with people with whom you share a common interest.” Therefore, Lupita took her online community offline through meetings with readers and in-person book clubs.
Mil Mundos’ community and the online one built around Lupita’s Instagram have the same thing in common: The need to represent and celebrate cultural heritage.
“When I started reading more Latinx literature, I was like, it is amazing to read stories by people who share your experiences or even a different lens through the Latinx experience,” she says, “Growing up, I didn’t have exposure or access to Latine-authored books. It wasn’t until I turned 17 that someone came into my life and introduced me to my very first book by a Latina.”
And this isn’t just her story. “Earlier this year, I took to social media and asked Latinx readers to tell me how old they were when they read their first book by a Latinx author,” Lupita says. “Most reported not having read their first book by a Latinx author well past their teenage years. Amplification of Latine-authored books isn’t just needed; it's a necessity.”
Although many people thought Amazon and social media would ‘kill’ the independent book industry, they are thriving in unexpected but not surprising ways. While it might seem from the outside that everyone is doing the same thing online, both indie bookstores and publishers, as well as authors, creators, and writers like Lupita, are seeing it as an opportunity to build stronger bonds through empowerment, collective world-building, and the promotion of cultural heritage and literature around those who were historically –and continue to be– marginalized from societies.
Recommendations made in this newsletter
Jamie Byng’s interview at Tetragrammaton with Rick Rubin.
Literary Hub’s website.
Nuevas Páginas, Lupita Reads’ newsletter, where she chats with authors and shares newly published books.