COLUMBIA — South Carolina's capital city is seeing a sharp increase in the number of independent bookstores in the post-COVID landscape.
All Good Books opened in Five Points in early 2023, Queer Haven Books opened this month, Liberation is Lit is opening a pop-up in Rosewood this month and another online-only bookseller is trying to find the funding to open a brick and mortar.
The boom in bookstores follows a national uptick from the past few years. And despite working in the same industry, Columbia’s independent bookstore owners don’t seem to view one another as competition.
Eric Albritton, general manager of Ed’s Editions in West Columbia, which has been around since 2001, said the area may also be able to support more bookstores going forward because it's growing rapidly.
“In the early 2000s when we opened up, there might have been 10 bookstores in the city. And then there was the bookstore apocalypse, with online and e-readers. And then 2008 wiped the slate clean in a lot of ways,” Albritton said. “I'm happy to see new bookstores coming in. The more the merrier in some ways.”
All Good Books was opened by nine people, including Ben Adams, who previously ran Odd Bird Books in Columbia. It is a generalist bookstore that also does coffee and community events.
Adams said people missed the community aspect of buying books in person, rather than from online retailers.
“They lost all these fun, neat, interesting, unique things in their community in exchange for like 17-hour shipping or whatever,” Adams said. “If you can get everything you want at the click of a button in like 15 seconds, what do you do with the rest of your Saturday afternoon?”
Adams has noticed that new bookstores now often rely on fundraising online, which can help alleviate the overhead costs of opening a bookstore.
“Instead of being kind of indebted to Wells Fargo or whatever, you are indebted to a hundred different people in your community that donated to you,” Adams said.
Queer Haven Books, run by Georgia Southern professor Baker Rogers, followed this trend. However, they did not succeed in raising their original Kickstarter fundraising goal of $50,000. Rogers, who uses they/them pronouns, eventually raised enough during a second round of funding, thanks to a large donation, and opened April 9.
Keychains for sale at Queer Haven Books in Columbia, SC.
The bookstore focuses on LGBT+ literature and provides a safe community space for queer people in a space in Main Street's Arcade Mall. It is the first bookstore of its kind in the state. Rogers said they regularly communicate with other bookstore owners, including in Columbia.
“Everyone's advice is basically that we need this space,” Rogers said. “This space is important for the community. It's important for education. But don't do it unless you're passionate about it, because it's hard work.”
Having now opened two bookstores, Adams said starting with pop-up events at festivals and farmers markets is another common step for the modern indie bookstore. Queer Haven Books, Liberation is Lit and Eleven Tea + Books in Columbia all started with pop-up events.
Liberation is Lit, run by Tayler Simon, runs pop-ups almost every weekend. Her business is centered on diverse stories, community building and collective action.
Liberation is Lit is aiming to raise $75,000 to pay for a year of rent, hiring staff and business expenses. Currently she has raised $3,500. Simon also won a grant from the Made With Cola Love incubator program, which will pay for one month in a Rosewood Drive storefront and provide money to outfit the space for her business.
Simon said emphasizing bookstores as a community space is key to keeping them open.
“It's risky in a sense, where a lot of people are moving towards eBooks and audiobooks,” Simon said. “It's difficult sometimes for bookstores to keep up with that trend and technology, but I really believe in innovation and creativity, especially around hosting different types of events.”
During the COVID-19 lockdown, Chiquita Davis began doing book drives to hand out her kids’ old children’s books to people who might need them.
She realized that she would love to open a bookstore focusing on children’s literature, Eleven Tea + Books, and began to work towards that goal. But she took a step back after undergoing surgery for breast cancer in August 2022.
Now cancer free — and having built her mental health back from the strain of her health scare — Davis plans to return to Eleven Tea + Books with her first pop-up at Soda City Market on her birthday, May 25.
Davis said it's daunting to get back on track to open the bookstore, but her passion will carry her through. She has been going to visit bookstores around the country and talking to bookstore owners whose business models she admires.
Baker Rogers, left, is the owner of Queer Haven Books, the newest independent bookstore in Columbia.
Columbia’s bookstores — brick and mortar or not — market to different niches, which reduces the competition for customers.
All Good Books is a general interest bookstore, carrying new books. Queer Haven Books, Liberation is Lit and Eleven Tea + Books are all focused on diverse literature, but they do so in different ways.
“I think what sets all of us independent bookstores apart is community and community around education and learning and books,” Rogers said. “That also has spilled over a lot into activism with all the banned books things in the shop and at Tayler's Liberation is Lit, specifically having social justice missions for bookstores.”
Columbia’s longest lasting bookstores, Ed’s Editions and the Book Dispensary, both sell used books. But Ed’s Editions specializes in rare books, and the Book Dispensary tries to carry as broad a selection as they can.
Patti Spires, who manages the Book Dispensary and has worked in bookstores much of her life, said the most important thing to know before owning and operating a bookstore is that it will never be easy.
“It’s tough and you’ve got to love it,” Spires said. "Don’t go into it expecting to be rich. It’s a community.”
