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The Fate Of The Independent Bookstore

WUNC | By Anita Rao,
Frank Stasio
Published February 10, 2015 at 12:08 PM EST
The American Booksellers Association says that independent bookstores are not dying, and in fact they have been on the rise for five years in a row.
Flickr/ Chris Alcoran
The American Booksellers Association says that independent bookstores are not dying, and in fact they have been on the rise for five years in a row.
The American Booksellers Association says that independent bookstores are not dying, and in fact they have been on the rise for five years in a row.
Credit Flickr/ Chris Alcoran
The American Booksellers Association says that independent bookstores are not dying, and in fact they have been on the rise for five years in a row.

Host Frank Stasio talks with author Kelly Link and ABA president Steve Bercu who, is also the co-owner of BookPeople in Austin, Texas, about the fate of independent book stores

    

The digital age sparked a public discourse about the fate of the independent bookstore. 

Commercial giants like Barnes & Noble and Amazon loom large, but the American Booksellers Association (ABA) says the tides may be turning. They report that more than 400 new independent bookstores have popped up around the country since 2009. 

The ABA hosts its10th winter institute in Asheville this week, featuring publishers, authors and booksellers from around the country. 

Host Frank Stasio talks to featured author Kelly Link, who recently published a new collection of short stories called “Get in Trouble” (Random House/2015).  He is also joined by ABA president Steve Bercu who is also the co-owner of BookPeople in Austin, Texas.

Copyright 2015 North Carolina Public Radio
Anita Rao
Anita Rao is the host and creator of "Embodied," a live, weekly radio show and seasonal podcast about sex, relationships & health. She's also the managing editor of WUNC's on-demand content. She has traveled the country recording interviews for the Peabody Award-winning StoryCorps production department, founded and launched a podcast about millennial feminism in the South, and served as the managing editor and regular host of "The State of Things," North Carolina Public Radio's flagship daily, live talk show. Anita was born in a small coal-mining town in Northeast England but spent most of her life growing up in Iowa and has a fond affection for the Midwest.
See stories by Anita Rao
Frank Stasio
Longtime NPR correspondent Frank Stasio was named permanent host of The State of Things in June 2006. A native of Buffalo, Frank has been in radio since the age of 19. He began his public radio career at WOI in Ames, Iowa, where he was a magazine show anchor and the station's News Director.
See stories by Frank Stasio