Mandy Myles founded the online-only, independent bookstore Bookety Book Books in 2020.
“But over the last few years, that has changed.”
Myles said strategies from competitors like Amazon have helped normalise “aggressive discounting” in the book industry, with readers’ expectations evolving in response.
And while the rise in audiobooks and e-books gave great open access to books, Myles said it was difficult to keep pace as a one-woman business.
“It is ultimately up to consumers to decide which businesses they want to support and see survive,” Myles said.
“That’s an incredibly difficult choice in the current economic climate.”
Myles noted online-only bookselling was different from a bricks-and-mortar approach, given it lacked the advantages of foot traffic, convenience, customer loyalty, impulse purchasing and physical space.
“The reality is that when you search for Bookety Book Books alongside a book title, you will often be shown advertisements for the same book elsewhere at a price close to – or sometimes even below – what I can buy it from publishers for.
“It just feels like no matter how hard you work, you’re always trying to catch up.”
Myles said it had been a difficult decision but she was confident she’d made the right choice, and had shared her reasoning to educate readers about operating a small business in the “highly competitive” industry.
Myles now planned to pivot Bookety Book Books away from retail, to focus on the growth of the community she’d built and bringing like-minded readers closer to content and each other.
“Our next step is to expand on all of this through a dedicated website, with better functionality than just our Instagram, where we can champion authors, bookstores, books, reviews, events and community, while creating even more opportunities for readers to connect with one another,” Myles said.
“I think there is a real opportunity online to keep reading accessible, fun, and joyful.”
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