But that kind of tough-it-out attitude seems to have gone the way of the Book-of-the-Month Club. The independent bookstores that remain have taken a hard-nosed approach to their business, more willing to experiment with new technologies and to tap the carefully cultivated loyalty of their customers.

Josh Mills, the longtime manager of The Bookstore in Chico, Calif., made a public appeal for $35,000 on Indiegogo when the owner decided to close the store and Mr. Mills stepped up to buy it.

In less than two months, he had collected $36,068, mostly in chunks of $15 and $25 from locals who were outraged at the thought of the bookstore shutting down. Donations seemed to come from everywhere: Mr. Mills received $25 from one former customer in Hawaii who heard about the store’s plight via e-mail from a friend in France. Acquaintances threw local fund-raisers, serving wine, crostini and deviled eggs, and then funneled the money into the online campaign.

“I felt strange about asking for money that way — baring my soul and sharing my personal business is not what I do,” said Mr. Mills, who now owns the store. “Bookstores are sort of an endangered industry for lots of reasons. But it would have left a huge hole in our little community if we had gone away.”

Independents have seen their business suffer in recent years for all of the usual reasons. Many customers have shifted their purchases from print books to e-books. Amazon’s market share keeps growing, making it the biggest seller of books in the country. And the price of rent has gone up in city centers.

A price war between Amazon and Overstock.com, another online retailer, that flared up last month resulted in print books being discounted even more steeply than usual — sometimes close to 60 percent — a price cut that a small bookstore cannot match. (Amazon and Overstock can make up for their losses on books by selling jewelry, furniture and diapers.)

But owners of independent bookstores also reason that if they cannot compete with Amazon on price, they will attract customers by having a more carefully chosen selection. If Barnes & Noble has uninformed salesclerks, theirs will have the fluency of a Ph.D. candidate in literature.