NEW YORK (AP) — Through the first year of the pandemic, the country’s independent booksellers have so far avoided disaster. On Thursday, the American Booksellers Association told The Associated Press that membership increased from 1,635 to 1,701 since May 2020. The additions are a combination of brand-new stores and existing stores that hadn’t been part of the independents’ trade group. Association CEO Allison Hill and others had feared that hundreds of stores could go out of business during the 2020-21 holiday season. But the ABA has tallied only 14 closings so far in 2021, along with more than 70 last year. Hill says the landscape remains more challenging than ever for indie bookstores however.
