2021 was an exceptional year for booksellers, it seems, with a 39% increase in sales compared to 2020, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Bookstore sales suffered in 2020, likely due to various pandemic restrictions leading to a loss of custom, with the year’s overall sales totalling $6.5 billion. This increased back up to over $9 billion in 2021, only 1% lower than totals in 2019 pre-pandemic. Book sales increased especially within the final three months of 2021, with December sales increasing by 33.6% compared to the December prior. This evident rebound spells good news for bookstores, indicating a return in footfall and the recovery of businesses that have suffered.
It would appear that some businesses haven’t suffered at all, with a reported ‘mini indie bookstore boom’ that led to growths in membership of the American Booksellers’ Association (ABA). Rent breaks from landlords allowed some individuals to afford to open stores, while others took the opportunity to open online bookstores that evolved into physical spaces later on.
There could be several reasons behind the overall success of bookstores in 2021. One of them may be that those working remotely were able to make more time to read, leading to the habit being sustained even after returning to work in-person. Another may be the growth of book-centric spaces on the internet. Forbes reports that in the US overall, 825 million print books were purchased across online platforms and bookstores in 2021, a 9% increase from 2020. Some of this increase could be attributed to the rise of ‘BookTok’, a corner of the TikTok platform dedicated to discussing users’ latest reads and reviews. An increase in reliance on online spaces during the pandemic may have drawn more people to the space and contributed to sales increases in genres such as YA. Some bookstores have taken advantage of the trend, with sellers such as Barnes & Noble boasting stands featuring books that have been ‘BookTok Favourites’ and others such as New York store ‘The Dog Eared Book’ opening TikTok accounts themselves in order to market titles.
Whatever the secret to bookstores’ 2021 success, it can only mean good things for an industry that many feared would not come out of the pandemic unscathed.
Words by Casey Langton
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