Bookstores Did Not Die. Here Is What That Actually Means for Your Book

The story most self-publishing advice still tells is that bookstores are disappearing, so print distribution barely matters. Half of that is out of date, and acting on it costs authors twice: once when they skip the settings that would let a store order their book, and again when they chase shelf space that was never going to pay. The real shape of bookselling is stranger and more useful than a decline narrative.

What actually happened to bookstores

The chains shrank. US Census County Business Patterns counted 8,876 bookstore establishments in 2010 and 5,629 in 2023. Census Monthly Retail Trade puts bookstore sales at $16.8 billion in 2007 and $8.2 billion in 2025. The money moved online. The Association of American Publishers reported that in 2024 online retailers took 52% of trade sales while physical stores took 22%.

Independents went the other way. The American Booksellers Association hit its low in 2009 with 1,401 member stores. As of May 2026 it reports 3,417 member stores across 3,783 locations, a 19% rise in one year, with 605 new stores opening in 2025. Barnes & Noble, which had 627 stores when Elliott bought it in 2019, ended 2025 with 702, after opening about 30 stores in 2023 and 57 in 2024. In the UK, the Booksellers Association counted 867 independent shops in 2016 and 1,052 at the end of 2024.

Two other numbers frame the opportunity. Circana BookScan tracked 762 million print units sold in the US in 2025, so print is still most of the market. And Bowker counted more than 3.5 million self-published titles registered in 2025. Bookstores are not scarce. Shelf space, per title, is.

Why your print book is probably not in a store

A bookseller buys through Ingram's iPage catalog or from a publisher's sales rep, on terms the trade settled decades ago: a discount of at least 40% off the list price and the right to return unsold stock for credit. Publishers Weekly reported AAP figures from 2015 showing hardcover returns at 26% and mass market at 48%, which is why returnability is not negotiable for most stores. A self-published title breaks those terms by default.

If you published through KDP alone, your paperback exists only inside Amazon. Enrolling in Expanded Distribution puts it in front of distributors at a 40% royalty rate, and KDP's own help page says this does not guarantee any bookseller will order it. Booksellers interviewed on Jane Friedman's site in 2025 add the practical objections: the discount Amazon passes on is about half what a store expects, and the copies are not returnable. Some stores refuse Amazon-made books outright. Broadway Books in Portland states it cannot stock any title produced through an Amazon program.

If you used IngramSpark, you set the terms yourself, which means most authors set them wrong. IngramSpark's own guidance is that a 53% to 55% wholesale discount with returns enabled is what allows a store to receive its normal trade discount. Many authors pick the 40% minimum to protect their margin, which gives the store a short discount and a reason to say no. The full IngramSpark setup is covered in our IngramSpark guide; the terms below are the part stores care about.

What the IngramSpark settings actually do

Two details matter. IngramSpark applies a 1% market access fee on every distributed sale, and if you switch a title from returnable to non-returnable, stores can still return it for 180 days. Set your list price to survive a 55% discount before you enable returns, not after. Our pricing guide walks through the arithmetic.

The other thing a buyer sees on iPage is the publisher name. A free IngramSpark ISBN lists the imprint as Indy Pub, and a free KDP ISBN shows Independently published. An ISBN you own lets you name an imprint, which is the difference between a catalog entry that looks like a publisher and one that looks like a hobby. Our ISBN guide covers where to get one, including Bowker and ISBNdirect.

How to approach a local independent

Start with the store you already shop at. Nearly every published consignment policy restricts the program to local authors, and several require that you be an existing customer. Read the policy page before you email, because the terms are set and the store will not negotiate them for a first book. Broadway Books takes two copies per title on a 60/40 split for six months. Politics and Prose in Washington keeps 45%, charges a $30 handling fee, stocks a maximum of three copies, and requires a store membership. Waucoma Bookstore in Oregon charges a $25 submission fee and keeps books for at least 180 days.

Consignment works because it removes the store's risk without an Ingram order. Bring a finished book with a printed spine and an ISBN, a one-page sheet with the title, price, ISBN and your marketing plan, and a plain request. Expect two or three copies, not a face-out display.

Events run on the same logic. Booksellers interviewed on Jane Friedman's site say they order about ten copies for an unknown author's event and expect the author to fill the room. Waucoma says multi-author events outdraw single-author signings. If you cannot bring twenty people, ask to join a group event instead of hosting your own. The launch team you build for your online launch is the same crowd that makes a store event worth the store's time.

When to stop trying

Bookstore placement is a marketing channel with real costs: 55% off list, the risk of returns, and evenings spent driving copies to shops. It pays when you have a local audience, a topic with a regional hook, or a nonfiction title that a buyer can hand-sell. It does not pay for a first novel with no readers yet, and it never pays for a book whose price only works at Amazon's 60% royalty.

If that is you, sell online, keep Expanded Distribution off, and hold IngramSpark for later. Bookshop.org gives you a middle path: any IngramSpark title with standard wholesale terms appears there automatically, and its affiliate program pays authors 10% of list on sales from their own page while sharing revenue with independent stores. Concentrate your first year on the platform where your readers are, which is the argument in why going wide too early costs you sales, and revisit stores when you have a second book and a reason for a buyer to say yes.

Next steps

Check your IngramSpark discount and returns settings this week, and price the book so 55% works. Buy an ISBN with your own imprint before the next title if you have not already. Find the consignment policy of your nearest independent and follow it exactly. Then decide, honestly, whether stores are a channel for this book or the next one.