Most of the talk about local independent book stores comes from literary-style authors. Mostly fiction, though some nonfiction as well. The books that sell well in independent bookstores are much more heavily slanted toward literary fiction than the chain bestseller lists are. Even the New York Times Book Review regularly points out the differences between its lists and the best selling books at the independent bookstores it surveys. They don’t push the “bestseller genre” novel that clogs up the top of the sales charts and the fronts of the chain stores.
And it is very hard to sell literary books, especially novels by new authors, online or through the chains. They work best through word of mouth. Supposedly, the people who work at these bookstores spend much of their time reading their stock and talking to customers, so they can recommend specific books or just books that they are enthusiastic about to their regulars. This also works for memoirs, literary biographies, travel books, offbeat nonfiction, and other smaller works - often from smaller presses or university presses.
And local authors are often treated much better by these bookstores than by the chains. The independents will put their books in prominent positions, which can’t happen in chains because all product placement is up for sale. (Those new fiction and nonfiction tables? Spots there are sold to publishers at a thousand dollars a title up. Much more for the dumps - the cardboard or wire displays of a particular title.) Many chain stores will not have local authors do readings or signings, or at least not to the extent that independents do.
And, though they are a dwindling breed, many cities have specialty mystery or science fiction bookstores that stock far more books than any chain store. And again they are far more likely to have in stock dozens of small press works you will never see in the big chains. They are famous for their author care as well.
So that’s the story. I’ve never lived where any of this is true, so I don’t have any personal experience with one of these magical stores except when passing through as a tourist, hardly the same experience. Nor am I a literary writer, and my reading of literary fiction has also dwindled over the years so I don’t need a bookstore employee to advise me.
But a small, but influential and highly vocal subset, of the writing community and some of their acolytes, er, readers depend on such stores the way others may depend on a record store or clothing shop or neighborhood video store. Amazon and its riches are hardly a substitute for knowledgeable personal service and continuity.
I think it’s one of those things that if it works for you, there can be no substitute, but if you’ve never had it, you have no reason to miss it.