INDIANAPOLIS— On Friday morning it’s quiet inside Golden Hour Books, but it’s not an indication on how things are going.
“I think in a lot of ways there’s never been a better time to be in the book business,” said Sara Gelston Somers, the owner. “We’re certainly seeing a resurgence of reading nationwide.”
The same can be said over at The Whispering Shelf.
“I just feel like the response from the community has been really, really optimistic for me as a business owner,” said Lena Burt, the owner.
Burt opened The Whispering Shelf ten months ago.
“It’s fun to see regular repeat people, people who say I haven’t read a book since I was in school and I’m reading again which is pretty cool,” said Burt.
People getting back to reading is fueling a resurgence inside independent bookstores. According to the American Booksellers Association close to 300 bookstores opened in 2023. Somers says from December 2023 to December 2024, sales at Golden Hour were up 18 percent.
What's fueling the resurgence of bookstores? Get the inside scoop in the video below.
“That’s pretty remarkable in an election year especially because retail tends to go down then. We were blown away by the response,” said Somers.
Somers says one of the reasons more people are coming into her store is because of the political climate.
“People are especially drawn to nonfiction for us, that’s one of our strengths, but I think people are looking for information and they’re looking to get it locally rather than online,” said Somers.
Others reasons are people wanting to connect in person again as well as social media. “BookTok” on TikTok and influencers sharing what they’re reading is pushing people back into stores.
“People come in and they’re like hold on a second, and they’re like do you have this book and it will be like someone dancing with a book like I don’t know that happens a lot,” said Burt. “For that reason, I’m happy that technology and social media brought people back to books which is they seem opposite to each other but for whatever reasons they’ve married well.”
“I would say the books we promote on social media are the books people screenshot and they come in looking for. Social media for us has been a really important marketing tool and BookTok and Instagram certainly do not hurt sales,” said Somers.
Both stores say they’ve also seen an increase in the number of book clubs they’re hosting with sessions selling out.
