For Christina Rosso-Schneider, co-owner of A Novel Idea in East Passyunk, Philadelphia’s independent bookseller landscape is rooted in community.
“I feel like we rival bigger cities like New York in terms of our literary community and the bookstore scene,” she said. “It’s very Philly, we all kind of have our own little niche.”
Philly’s indie bookstore ecosystem is vast – with over 40 small businesses within the city limits and even more bookstore chains, there are options for everyone.
Rosso-Scheinder says she and her husband decided to add to Philly’s independent book scene in 2018. Her idea started as an observation: East Passyunk didn’t have a bookstore at the time.
“One night we were walking around and looked into an empty storefront and I said something like, ‘Oh, this would be a great spot for a bookstore,’” she said. “And my husband was like, ‘What if we opened a bookstore?’ And we laughed about it, but then we kept coming back to this idea of opening a bookstore over the next couple of days.”
As an author herself, Rosso-Scheinder said there was a time in her career when didn’t see work from local writers represented in Philly bookstores. A Novel Idea aims to change that.
“So we have a dedicated section when you first walk into the store that features local authors and local presses, ranging from self-published to very large presses,” she said. “We have such incredible artists in Philadelphia, and it’s atypical for bookstores to have this much space dedicated to self-published or small-press authors.”
Carrying that community vibe forward, Rosso-Schneider said, she and her husband will host any unique activity or event they are able to at the store.
“We’ve hosted everything in the last seven years,” she said. “We have two monthly book clubs. We do a ton of book signings and book launches and author talks. We’ve had three weddings, we’ve had murder mystery parties, we had an original play, we have writing workshops, and then we have witchcraft workshops.”
Niche offerings
Other bookstores in Philly focus on specific genres or topics. Tina and Anthony Long own Thrillerdelphia and Cupid’s Bookshop in Manayunk.
The shops home in on their respective genres — horror and romance — with themed events, curated selections and fitting decor.
Tina said curating Cupid’s Bookshop’s selections and decor was a welcome challenge.
“I really wanted it to look like a Valentine’s Day Candy Box,” she said.
The bookshop now hosts events ranging from candlemaking classes to “Heated Rivarly” painting classes — in a nod to the popular show about hockey opponents who fall in love, based on a book series by Canadian author Rachel Reid. Of course, the store also carries a colorful selection of romance novels and series.
Thrillerdelphia has its own unique layout and fanbase.
“Manayunk does have a pretty lively Halloween community,” Anthony said. “And we also have a Haunted House on Main Street called Lincoln Mills that’s open a few different times throughout the year as well. So we felt like there was a good little spooky community here to cultivate as well.”
Gralin Hughes Jr. who co-owns Multiverse in Chestnut Hill, said community cultivation has helped grow his store, too. He said the fantasy-focused bookshop thrives from its regulars.
“We have people who come in weekly and occasionally daily,” he said. “We have families who are expecting now and getting to watch their kids grow up around these books and these stories with their parents has been really cool.”
Multiverse specializes in comics, sci-fi, fantasy and manga. Co-owner Sara Zia Ebrahimi Hughes said the store is meant to be accessible to everyone.
“Our vision was to create a space where all levels of fandom could be celebrated, so that people who were interested in sci-fi or fantasy or manga or comics could feel welcomed,” she said.
“So that you don’t have to be an expert or know all the characters or all the things to be able to engage, but also as a way to kind of bridge their interests to more independent things they may also be interested in.”
The store also offers events and partnerships – including Dungeons & Dragons events, and Valentine’s Day ‘date nights,’ she explained.
She said the store is meant to be a space that brings joy and calm to all readers.
“Sometimes, graphic novels and comics are dismissed as not ‘real’ reading,” she said. “We are big advocates of the idea that reading is reading, no matter what form it is, whether it’s visually driven or text only, or even in audiobooks. Having a space that celebrates all forms of reading is really important to us.”
Linda Gallant, project director at Head and the Hand in Fishtown, says her store offers a space for local artists to showcase their talents.
“I’m definitely most proud of our local lit shelf,” she said. “That’s the first section that’s positioned as you enter the space where we have authors based in Philly, we have books set in Philadelphia and the greater Philadelphia region, and we have publishers from Philly or who have a meaningful connection to the greater Philadelphia.”
Other bookstores, like Julia de Burgos Bookstore in Kensington, curate a bilingual book selection.
“It’s an amazing resource, because we have books for all ages of every genre in English and Spanish,” said Lisa Moser, the bookstore manager. “And so our best seller is by far the children’s books.”
Customers enjoy passing along Latinx culture to their children, she explained.
“If someone is second- or third-generation, they want to pass down both the culture and the language to their child,” she said.
The store also sells merchandise from local Latinx artists. Moser said purchasing products from the store is a “win-win,” as proceeds go directly to Taller Puertorriqueño, a nonprofit Puerto Rican cultural center in North Philly.
“We have a lot of different programs,” she said. “We have a free after-school program and a youth artist program. We do a summer camp. We do various community events throughout the year.”
Moser said the Philly bookstore scene is unique in the support individual stores show to each other and local authors.
‘A hard time to own a bookstore’
Jon Bekken opened the West Philly bookstore, Bindlestiff Books, in 2005. He said he has seen shifts in the city’s bookstore ecosystem over the last 20 years.
“In the city, there have been some new bookstores that have come in,” he said. “But, we’ve had a couple of long-established bookstores that have gone under in the time we’ve been open.”
Bekken said there needs to be more focus on things like the Philly Bookstore Map, which involved collaboration with bookstores all over the city.
Tina Long of Thrillerdelphia and Cupid’s Bookshop emphasized that creativity has been a “lifesaver” for her as a bookstore owner.
“I know it’s a really tough environment right now to help an all-general bookstore, because there are just so many titles that come out every week, and [it would just be hard to] store all of it,” she said. “And so, again, it’s tough. The margins are tight, so you have to find other ways to make it work.”
Tina’s husband and co-owner Anthony Long said owning a bookstore also comes with a lot of underlying work.
“To be a bookstore owner today is to wear a lot of hats,” he said. “And those are web and graphic designer and social media manager and to do all of the back end, and invoicing and financials,” he said. “And then everything still branches off the social media component. You have to engage with your community, but you also have to engage with authors, and you have to engage with the publishers.”
Gallant of Head and the Hand said her ability to successfully run her store relies heavily on the support of the community – both from other bookstores and customers.
“This feels like it’s an uphill battle,” she said. “So anybody that’s making that effort and really trying to be thoughtful about their curation and the programming that they’re offering to their supporters and their community members is just like, ‘Yes, please, keep going.’”
Collaboration and community
Rosso-Schneider said that, since opening up A Novel Idea over seven years ago, she has seen a lot of support from the surrounding community.
“A lot of people thought we were crazy to be opening, and since we opened, we saw other bookstores like Head and the Hand and Harriet’s open up,” she said. “Now we have multiple romance bookshops, and we’ve seen this kind of renaissance happening.
“And the biggest thing I love about the Philadelphia bookstore community is proving that bookstores and reading aren’t dead, and that people are really interested in it and are seeking community connection.”
Tina Long agrees, saying Philly’s dedicated book community makes it possible to sustain these shops.
“Philly loves Philly,” she said. “We support local businesses. So, I think it’s just been great. The outpouring of support we’ve had for books gives us more of a budget to buy more books, and expand to our second store.”
Sara Zia Ebrahimi Hughes of Multiverse said the network of community bookstores also helps her store stay community-oriented.
“We are one of four bookstores in the Chestnut Hill neighborhood,” she said. “We do collaborate with the other ones on different types of events, but we each have our own unique, narrow lane and I think that theme of ‘niche’ or themed bookstores seems to be on the rise, both in Philly and nationally.”
Over the last three years, she and her husband have created a space where community members like to collaborate and come together, she said.
“People come in specifically to talk to [my husband] on a particular day, and it’s part of their weekly ritual or experience,” she said. “And similarly, I’m more on the book side of the weekly book recommendations that we put up, that people like to see.”
And as Gallant describes, competition isn’t the norm among Philly bookshops.
“I feel like, in Philly, there’s a sense of us — ‘We can do this,’” she said. “There’s no sort of competition.”
