Lit city: How has Seattle's rep as a book town held up? In the wake of a local closure, independent bookstores are thriving against the odds

The Seattle Mystery Bookshop closed its doors permanently on Saturday, Sept. 30, 2017. The Seattle Mystery Bookshop closed its doors permanently on Saturday, Sept. 30, 2017. Photo: GRANT HINDSLEY/SEATTLEPI.COM Photo: GRANT HINDSLEY/SEATTLEPI.COM Image 1 of / 45 Caption Close Lit city: How has Seattle's rep as a book town held up? 1 / 45 Back to Gallery

Dan Ullom and his family had always been avid readers: His mom, his dad, his daughter. Deep down he thinks many of them had always harbored a dream to open up a bookstore, and four months ago that dream finally became a reality, with Brick & Mortar in Redmond Town Center.

The name came when he told his friend about the idea, and the friend incredulously clarified if he meant a brick and mortar store.

"Nobody says stupid," Ullom laughs. "I think they say brave. But when they say brave they often time have a questioning tone."

On its face it does sort of have a ballsy-ness to it: In this, the year of our Lord 2017, why would someone open up a bookstore? And in Amazon's backyard no less? Surely there must be something wrong.

But even though they've had a tough go of it for a little while – The Seattle Mystery Bookshop's closure on Saturday is yet another fresh wound in the city's scene – but the truth is independent bookstores are having a resurgence.

RELATED: Seattle Mystery Bookshop to close September 30

According to statistics from the American Booksellers Association, the number of independent bookstores has jumped 40.6 percent since 2009, to more than 2,300 in 2016. And Seattle is a strong market for them.

Photo: Courtesy Of Brick & Mortar Brick & Mortar Books opened up in Redmond this year, to replace...

"There's a handful of publishers outside of New York, but it's very East Coast-biased in general," Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association president Shawn Donley said. "You see it when they send authors on tour; some authors only do two or three cities and Seattle is one of them. So I think that goes to show you that reputation is known beyond New York.

Part of that reputation is known because our bookstore culture managed to weather the hard times, which are not too far in the distant past: Around the late 1990s and early 2000s, the expansion of national bookstore chains, the growth of internet sales and ebooks (not to mention retailers like Walmart and Costco getting into the bookselling business) was rapidly growing.

According to the ABA, there were 7,000 ABA member locations operated in 1995. But with the growth of the competition, many independent bookstores had to close before 2000. More than 1,000 booksellers went out of business between 2000-2010 and – well, the current ABA membership speaks for itself.

On the whole, it was a rough time for independent bookstores across the board, even those that seemed "more established."

"Everybody was watching their sales plummeting, and any profitability disappearing, and literally struggling for their lives," Peter Aaron of Elliott Bay said. "For us it was really a gamble of riding it out with a level of both inventory and payroll that was not justified by the level of business we were doing in the short term, and hoping things would balance out."

But now Borders is gone, Barnes & Nobles is struggling, and Amazon has started developing its own brick and mortar bookstores. The sense among booksellers is that somewhere along the way a pivot happened, and the local stores that are still here are the ones that figured it out.

"Anyone who shops at an independent bookstore knows they could find those books cheaper online. What we can offer is community," Donley said.

Photo: Joshua Trujillo, Seattlepi.com Customers browse the aisles of Elliott Bay Book Co. during the...

"Online retail is going to affect a lot of industries...but we've structured our business model to be about community, and be about localism and supporting independent business. So in some ways the big challenges that a lot of brick and mortar retail are facing are things we won't feel."

Which seems to be a consensus among many of the local booksellers in the Seattle-area: All things considered, the biggest challenges facing independent bookstores in this city are mostly the same things that are impacting businesses around the country. Higher cost of living, which bleeds into minimum wage, and cuts into rising rents for booksellers and customers alike.

The tricky part has been (and still is) that bookselling is one of the places in the market where the price is printed on the product. The option to charge the customer a whole lot more in order to pay employees or cover costs has not been an option; it's either increase sales or reduce costs elsewhere.

But whether it's analog backlash, diminishing competition, or just love of physical books, independent bookstores have survived a number of challenges that outpace their own production and undersell their prices.

While there is still the question of acquiring or keeping customers in the face of other options, many booksellers don't see themselves in competition with each other, or even Amazon to some extent. In fact, that Amazon has chosen to open up local, brick and mortar stores of its own has proven that independent booksellers are onto something.

RELATED: A Tale of Two Cities: Amazon opens a bookstore while Indiebound adds a 'Buy Now' button

"A lot of stores were able to exist only as a place to get what the consumer wanted, and when the consumer started having choices those reasons for the stores to exist needed to change," Third Place Books managing partner Robert Sindelar said, who notes that he sees Third Place's stores as a gathering place for everyone in the community.

Photo: GENNA MARTIN, SEATTLEPI Third Place Books in Seward Park, photographed Thursday, Sept. 28,...

"The stores that have survived have figured out ways to be deeply connected with our local communities. And that means something different as you go from store to store."

One of the biggest challenges now – something owner J.B. Dickey touched on in his blog post about Seattle Mystery Bookshop's closure – seems to be getting that Seattle culture of thinking local to stay loyal.

"There's a perception issue that 'Oh, I go into Third Place Books to walk out with a book today. And if I am somewhere else at home and need a book, well, I have another vehicle to do that,'" Sindelar said. "So the challenge is how to communicate (with) that disconnect: Hey, you like us...just make sure you're making decisions so that we will be here next year, and three years, and five years from now."

It's a feeling that none of the booksellers take for granted, even if they feel their community connection gives them an advantage.

"The day we opened (on Capitol Hill), they closed the street down, and there were thousands of people that showed up to celebrate the grand opening. It was just astounding; I've never seen anything like it in my life," Aaron said of Elliott Bay's reopening. "People love the experience of doing that kind of shopping, and they love the idea of giving that book as a gift."

Photo: Joshua Trujillo, Seattlepi.com Customers browse the aisles of Elliott Bay Book Co. during the...

Four months into the game, Ullom is still certain there can be room for both independent bookstores and competitors.

"Think of all the sorts of restaurants; they have room for everything, for people who want both types of experiences," Ullom said. "I used to the same analogy for grocery stores: There's Safeway, there's Whole Foods, there's room for both. And now Amazon owns Whole Foods."