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The strip mall parking lot鈥檚 yellow lights are the first greeting on the way to . Tucked between a San Antonio city councilman鈥檚 office and an intimate goods store, the small shop can be difficult to spot.But on a typical Friday night, you don鈥檛 have to rely on vision 鈥� you can hear it. If the young people spilling out the store鈥檚 front door doesn鈥檛 tip you off, then the rock鈥檔鈥檙oll echoing out should erase all doubt 鈥� this is where it鈥檚 all happening.
Don Hurd is Imagine鈥檚 owner.
鈥淲e call ourselves the loudest bookstore in Texas,鈥� he says.
It鈥檚 a counter-culture bookstore by day, but by night, it turns into a music venue for up-and-coming bands and a haven for San Antonio鈥檚 burgeoning youth culture.
Amazon and e-books have made bookstores seem like somewhat of an anomaly. In fact, just a few years ago, when Borders Bookstore closed, industry analysts and book-buyers testified that it was the 鈥渆nd of print.鈥� But independent bookstores like Imagine have been multiplying and enjoying a strong growth in sales. The reports independent bookstore sales were up 10 percent last year.
Publishers Weekly bookselling editor says Texas鈥� wide literary landscape is part of that.
鈥淭exas is a really vibrant bookselling area and it has some of the strongest indies,鈥� Rosen says.
Rosen says a number of factors contribute to the rise of indies. A trend toward buying and supporting local businesses gave indie bookstores a bump. Then the closure of big box stores like Crown Books and Borders created a vacuum indies could fill. That even helped Hurd start his business.
鈥淥ur shelving all came from Borders,鈥� Hurd says. 鈥淲e were opening the store when Borders declared bankruptcy, and so we bought all of our shelving and some of our furniture there.鈥�
The rise of social media also helped these stores cast a wider net and made them easier to discover.
Benjamin Rybeck is the marketing director for , the vanguard of Houston鈥檚 literary scene.
鈥淐ommunities are increasingly reached through online means, and you see the way communities connect themselves through social media,鈥� Rybeck says. 鈥淪o using social media is a key way of us connecting with Houston鈥檚 readers.鈥�
Though social media has helped indies in recent years, the rise of the internet was not easy, as Gayle Harris knows. She owns in Terrell, an indie bookstore run out of an old movie theater.
鈥淭here was obviously kind of a downturn, I think for most independent booksellers, because it was new to people,鈥� Harris says. 鈥淭hey could go online and find what they were looking for. There was a lot of internet shopping that started up. Then when the Kindle came out, that hurt for a while. But it appears to me that, over the last, I鈥檇 say, year and a half, it鈥檚 been picking back up.鈥�
Like Hurd鈥檚 store-by-day, venue-by-night, Harris also diversified her business.
鈥淪everal years ago I bought a little ladies consignment shop that was going out of business,鈥� she says. 鈥淪o we took a corner of the bookstore and turned it into a resale consignment shop called Silhouette.鈥�
Judith Rosen says this isn鈥檛 unique. It鈥檚 hard to make it exclusively selling books.
鈥淭here are a number of bookstore-coffee shops. There鈥檚 family-owned bookstores, like Twig bookshop in San Antonio,鈥� Rosen says. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e very much part of the indie revival that鈥檚 been talked about in the past few years.鈥�
And indies have one clear advantage 鈥� their appeal to niche audiences. Most indie stores are specialized, like Rybeck鈥檚 highbrow literary space or Hurd鈥檚 counter-culture store.
鈥淔or Brazos, we want to push our quirkiness, as a staff,鈥� Rybeck says. 鈥淲e want to push the things that we are very interested in and passionate about because that is the thing that you can鈥檛 get from an Amazon.com or a Barnes and Noble.鈥�
鈥淐ommunity is what it鈥檚 all about for us,鈥� Hurd says. 鈥淚 think that鈥檚 probably true in varying ways in independent bookstores. Like, they might have book clubs all the time, or cater to kids. They鈥檙e going to find a way to connect to people that makes it more than a shop-customer relationship.鈥�
Despite the growth, bookselling is not an easy gig. Hurd took a large pay cut to go from teaching to running Imagine. He鈥檚 in the store every day 鈥� which he loves 鈥� but he says his family had to adjust to consuming a lot less.
鈥淵ou definitely have to have a passion, and if you don鈥檛 have that, you鈥檒l probably leave,鈥� he says. 鈥淵ou can make more money doing most anything. It鈥檚 true. But it鈥檚 not just about money.鈥�
Still, Rosen predicts Texas 鈥� and the country 鈥� will continue to see independent bookstores grow. If it鈥檚 not the passion of booksellers, Harris says perhaps it鈥檚 just the books.
鈥淲ell to me, there鈥檚 something magical about holding a book in your hands and seeing the story unfold in front of you,鈥� Harris says. 鈥淎nd I don鈥檛 think you can get that on a computer screen.鈥�
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