This week’s prompt from Top Ten Tuesday is an indie freebie, but I already talked about mostly indie bookshops in a recent post! So I’m going to talk about ten reasons to support indie bookshops.

1. Indie bookshops can be a huge part of their community.
   They rarely just sell books, but often have events, provide a space for meetings, provide local advertising space, etc.
2. The selection isn’t mandated by corporate.
   An independent bookshop can’t be told they “have to” stock gender critical nonsense or stacks upon stacks of the latest bestseller; they can exercise their own judgement.
3. The selection can be as weird and wonderful as the curator wants.
   Not only do they not have to stock things they don’t want to, they can choose to stock only books they personally champion, lesser-known gems, etc. At the end of the day they do need to sell books… but they can afford to have some on the shelves that fit more niche interests.
4. It helps the fight against monopolies.
   Amazon is so powerful because people feel like they can’t get what they need anywhere else. A thriving indie bookshop can be part of a local economy that says no to that.
5. They can specialise.
   Think of some of the bookshops I mentioned like Criminally Good Books (a crime and mystery shop) and Portal Bookshop (LGBT and diverse SF/F). Waterstones is never going to set aside an entire store for a single genre, and while they can get a decent breadth of popular fiction in each genre stocked, the quality of the stock will depend on the booksellers’ knowledge. If you’ve never noticed this, try going to different Waterstones shops: they have similar selections, but not the same. There was one I went to where they clearly had a classic crime aficionado on staff, because I found some real gems. But this is the default at a specialist indie!
6. Indie bookshops can order rare stock.
   Sometimes they have sources that a chain doesn’t or won’t use, like self-publishing platforms.
7. You probably don’t actually need next day delivery.
   This goes to the same point as #4. We don’t actually need instant gratification when it comes to most books. Sure, sometimes you might need a textbook or reference work really quick… but most of the time it’s not necessary, and indie bookshops can often acquire stock pretty fast if you ask them to order.
8. Indie bookshops can stock books from other countries.
   Sometimes when a book has only been released in the US, an indie can import it to the UK, and vice versa! Even if they don’t have a lot of imported books on the shelves (or you don’t know how to tell), it can be worth asking if it’s something they do.
9. Browsing a physical bookstore can be a lot of fun.
   And enlightening! This is true of physical chains as well, of course, but see my earlier points about indie bookshop curation. Browsing a well-curated indie can bring a lot of surprises.
10. More bookshops and more booksellers is always a good thing.
    Even if you also use chains sometimes (I do!) or rely on libraries for most of your reading (they deserve support too!), then it’s great to support the diversity of bookshops and bookselling out there.

I’m probably preaching to the choir here… but sometimes that’s fun!

I will finish by adding that since that aforementioned post recommending specific indies (only two weeks ago, and in fact on the very day I’d posted it), I learned about a new-to-me indie bookshop in Cardiff called Love Stories. You can find it in Castle Arcade, opposite Troutmark Books, the second-hand bookshop I previously recommended. Love Stories is small but has a pretty good selection, and I had a nice chat while I was there too. So consider that one recommended too!