The Writing on the Wall

The writing may be on the wall for the UK's secondhand bookshops, but what does it actually say? Mike Goodenough, long-time bookshop owner and editor of TheBookGuide.co.uk, tries to make some sense of it.  Add a comment

I sometimes feel that secondhand bookshops have been 'under threat' for as long as I've owned one. Escalating rents and rates, the rise of book fairs, a decline in reading, and most recently the internet, have all, in turn, been predicted to bring about our demise. And in recent years barely a month has gone by without some journalist telling us that the game is up.

Thirty years is a long time to labour under Damocles' sword, but I'm still trading, as are a surprising number of the UK's secondhand bookshops. So, should we be lamenting some fabled golden past, or celebrating the resilience of this quirky sector of the British economy?

Despite six months of some of the most punishing trading conditions that I can remember, the evidence suggests that secondhand bookshops are generally holding their own, and in some cases, doing rather better than of late.

As editor of 'TheBookGuide' website, I maintain a database of secondhand bookshops, with entries based on information provided by both bookshop owners and their customers. Of course, presenting an up-to-date figure for the total number of secondhand bookshops in the UK is close to impossible. Understandably, bookshop owners are more inclined to announce their openings than their closures, but the collaborative nature of TheBookGuide encourages the prompt reporting of these events, and the numbers are certainly robust enough to illustrate the trend.

In 2005 I guestimated that there where at least a 1000 shops in the UK, in April 2007 our database held 1078, and in April this year we were listing 1097. Of the 2009 total, 114 are charity bookshops run by Oxfam and others. Over the past two years I have closed 74 shops and added 93 to the site. And in the first three months of 2009, 13 of the shops added where either new businesses, or shops that had closed and subsequently relocated.

This clearly shows that (even if you exclude market stalls and bookrooms), there are still well in excess of 1000 secondhand bookshops in the UK, the vast majority of which are independently owned and run. This is of course, strongly at variance with the commonly held and oft repeated view that secondhand bookshops are disappearing like snow on the water.

I know that this is of little consolation if you live in an area with no secondhand bookshops, but I would suggest that the reasons for this are more likely to do with local factors, than any overall national decline.

The two localities that have been hardest hit by closures are the centres of large towns and cities, and traditional seaside towns. Insupportable rent and rates seems to be the most common cause of closure in town and city centres, with London losing twice as many shops as anywhere else. And bookshops in seaside towns have suffered from a combination of falling visitor numbers and a decline in holiday reading.

However, if there is a nationwide factor common to shops shutting, it is that bookshop keeping has become the occupation of the rapidly aging. The 1980's bulge in bookshop numbers provides a partial explanation for this, when many early retirees saw bookshop owning as a pleasant occupation. And during the last decade in particular, younger entrants to the book trade have been much more likely to sell at fairs and on the internet, than to take on the commitment of a shop.

So, what of the future?

There's no doubt that the recession is impacting on secondhand bookshops, but not all of its effects will necessarily be negative. And during the last two recessions it was a commonly held view that secondhand booksellers were amongst the last to feel its effects, and amongst the first to recover. Recent newspaper articles, in which some larger secondhand bookshops have reported improved sales of up to 10% so far this year, are perhaps an indicator of this.

Shopping locally is increasingly popular, as is seeing and touching what you are buying, rather than relying on the vagaries of internet descriptions. At the same time, charity shops are struggling to attract donations as more people feel the need to try and turn their unwanted books into cash. And selling to bookshops could become an increasingly attractive option, compared to the time consuming uncertainty of ebaying one's own books.

All these trends should make life easier for independent secondhand bookshops that are able to take advantage of them

The recession is also likely to significantly depress rents, raising the possibility of a return to town and city centres by some secondhand bookshops. I also think that living over the shop could become a more popular option, and we are likely to see the increased reuse of old industrial and agricultural buildings as bookshops.

The internet has both transformed secondhand book buying, and created a huge new customer base. The challenge for independent secondhand bookshop owners is to exploit this by offering a customer experience not available on the net or in charity bookshops.

And as a younger generation begins to embrace downloadable text, I see the role of secondhand bookshops as a continuation of one they have always provided - to put one intimately in contact with our printed past.

Clearly there are still lots of opportunities to visit secondhand bookshops, so stop wringing your hands and lamenting our passing, prise yourself away from your computer, and get out and visit us.  Add a comment

Mike Goodenough
Editor 13.07.09

Comments:

When I was opening my first bookshop thirty years ago the pundits were saying that books would be a thing of the past by the end of the twentieth century. We now have more books published each year than ever before!

I don't believe that children (or adults) read less than in a supposed golden age long gone. Children watch the TV and play electronic games now but it is at the expense of playing out, getting exercise and going to church etc rather than reading.

My local secondhand bookshop is thriving and there are children sitting reading in their dedicated corner every weekend and throughout all the school holidays. A huge range of ordinary adult books are bought there and very few are sold to 'collectors'.

Running a successful secondhand bookshop needs a different set of skills from a generation ago but the internet offers opportunities to people with shops as well as 'competition'. What doesn't change is that the owner has to work hard and stay open consistently. Shop owners find books easier to source than anyone else and this will always be the greatest advantage of having a shop.

People who are not successful in business will always have someone else or some external factor to blame. That's human nature. The fact remains that there are still successful secondhand bookshops trading in exactly the same conditions as those that go under.

I do not believe that book fairs are thriving across the board and a lot of them seem to be little more than pleasant social clubs. That's fine by me but they are hardly a threat to the bookshop open every day to sell ordinary books to ordinary customers. - Pierce Roche 15.07.09.

I would agree with all the above comments. I was running one of the bookshops that closed last year, principally because I have many other family commitments and wanted my time free to fulfill them. The shop is very small with a stock of 6000 or so titles which I've tried hard to ensure are the truly collectable or most often sought after. Last year trade slowed but that was probably a reflection of my personal energy levels. Before that time business was very good indeed for a small shop in a small town in the north of Scotland. As has already been said, the book trade does indeed need hard work and constant enthusiasm to pursue the best stock. For a single person that level of focus and commitment can be hard to maintain, any shortfall showing quite quickly.

There is no lack of encouragement from the public however who frequently voice their preference for the the attraction of a bricks-and-mortar bookshop against the impersonal, non-tactile experience of internet browsing. Most of my customers also say that the secondhand bookshop is a more interesting place to visit than a chain store bookshop where only the newest titles are available.

High Street rents are certainly a deterrent but the innovative and adventurous can find ways of bye-passing the High Street to find more reasonably priced accomodation. Lock-ups and tiny back-street shoplets might not be high profile but people in search of books will find them out and once a business is up and running it can always move. The trick is to start small and not to over-stock. There are plenty of Charity Shops to stock the paperback fiction and endless glossy repeats of gardening or cookery.

I have re-opened for the time being and happily the old faces are returning with welcoming words. A town is better for having at least one bookshop in it.

PS. I meant to add that in my experience book fairs are still well worth the effort for the seller of collectable books. Footfall and sales numbers seem to support that. The fact that they are also a meeting place for familiar faces, both in the trade and amongst the collectors, is a pleasant consequence to be valued rather than sniffed at!

Carol Argyris, The Forres Bookshop 06.08.09