Bookstores will always be a safe bet
The book sector closed 2021 as the best year of the last decade, surpassing 20% of the figure for 2019, very close to 2008 levels.
According to the Map of Bookstores in Spain (report presented by CEGAL), there are positive data despite the difficult situation experienced at this time affected by COVID-19. It seems that the market is doing well, the data reflect stability and resilience. Between 2019 and 2021, 45 bookstores opened in Spain and 41 closed. Between 2008 and 2013, more than 10% of Spanish bookstores closed. In 2014, 900 bookstores closed, four for everyone that opened. This translated into a density of 8.2 bookstores per 100,000 inhabitants. Today it is 6.8, it seems that readers still prefer paper over digital, although there will be those who differ.
New bookstores
In 2021, Mary Read, specialized in LGTBQ+ transfeminist literature, opened its doors in Madrid; La Cultural 12, with the aim of vindicating the traditional trade and the bookstore of a lifetime and where the latest literary novelties are present along with second-hand and antique books; Crazy Mary, a generalist author bookstore with new and second-hand books; La Mistral, a space where in addition to books (and coffee), you can find everything from handmade dolls representing prominent writers to pendants and brooches related to literature; Taschen, located in the old haberdashery in Chueca, is the bookstore of the most famous art and design publisher in the world; also La Imprenta, bookstore and publishing house in equal parts that aims to be a bridge between artists and activists; and, finally -although we are sure we are missing many-, Los pequeños seres: this space run by Venezuelans not only hosts a selection of books that goes beyond the purely commercial, it is also a place of encounter and reflection.
Aldo García de Machado also opens a bookstore on the 17th at Salesas 11.
And we can add the works to expand premises, such as last year in Salamanca the famous Letras Corsarias bookstore.
Although the book sector strengthened at the end of last year, we must not stop betting on small bookstores in 2022. Both the new ones and those that have been established for years in the different neighborhoods of each city, since the light and paper crisis is making it difficult for many booksellers to continue with their work due to the impossibility of paying distributors on time or in advance, causing a delay in the publishing novelties, in addition to the fact that these bookstores are lagging behind many others that can afford to buy on a firm basis and not work with deposits.
