Independent bookshops face existential challenges every year: online competition, rising rents, narrow margins, and changing reader habits. 2025 brought all of these plus economic uncertainty and ongoing supply chain complexities.

Here’s how several Australian independent bookshops survived and occasionally thrived this year.

The Melbourne Success Story

Readings (Carlton) had what owner Mark Rubbo called “our strongest year since 2019.” The key factors:

Recommitment to staff picks. Instead of defaulting to bestseller displays, Readings doubled down on bookseller recommendations. “Our customers trust us to know good books. We reminded them why,” Rubbo said.

Events program expansion. Readings hosted 180+ author events across their locations, creating community and selling books simultaneously. Events averaged 40-60 attendees, with high purchase rates.

Online integration. Their website redesign made online ordering seamless while maintaining the bookshop feel. “We’re not Amazon. We’re Readings online,” marketing director Sarah Coleman explained.

Membership program. The Readings loyalty card offers discounts and points. Sounds basic, but it drives repeat purchases and creates data about customer preferences.

Cafe addition. The Carlton location’s cafe attracts non-book browsers who often become book buyers. Coffee and books remain a winning combination.

The Sydney Struggle

Gleebooks (Glebe) had a “challenging but survivable” year, according to owner David Gaunt.

The challenges were familiar: online competition (particularly Amazon and Booktopia), foot traffic decline (Glebe has fewer casual browsers than a decade ago), and discount pressure (customers expect online pricing in-store).

What helped:

Specialty focus. Gleebooks’ academic and critical theory sections draw customers who can’t find what they need elsewhere.

Author relationships. Long-standing connections with literary authors mean exclusive events and signed stock.

Community presence. Gleebooks positions itself as a Glebe institution, not just a shop. Local loyalty matters.

School and university partnerships. Bulk textbook orders and course reading recommendations provide stable revenue.

What didn’t help: Rent increases. “We’re paying 30% more rent than five years ago while selling books at roughly the same margins,” Gaunt noted.

The Regional Bookshop Reality

Chapter and Verse (Armidale, NSW) is a small regional bookshop that nearly closed in mid-2025 before a community fundraising campaign kept it alive.

Owner Patricia Chen described the economics: “We serve a town of 25,000 people, 2.5 hours from the nearest major city. We can’t compete on price or selection with online retailers. We survive on being local and personal.”

The near-closure came after a perfect storm: supply chain delays meant books arrived late for Christmas 2024, a major customer (local school) switched to online ordering, and several expensive shop repairs hit simultaneously.

The fundraising campaign raised $45,000 through community donations, local business sponsorships, and a “buy a book for someone who can’t afford one” program. The money covered immediate debts and created a small operating cushion.

Chen credits survival to: Community support (“People genuinely didn’t want to lose their bookshop”), diversification (adding greeting cards, gifts, local author events), partnership with library (cooperative ordering to reduce costs), and realistic expectations (“I’ll never get rich doing this, but we’re serving the community”).

The lesson: Regional bookshops operate on goodwill and thin margins. They’re community services as much as businesses.

The Specialist Bookshop Approach

Embiggen Books (Noarlunga, South Australia) specializes in children’s and YA books. Owner Sam Davey reports strong year: “Specialism protects us. Parents trust our curation for age-appropriate books.”

Why specialism works:

• Deep expertise in category creates authority
• Less direct competition (general bookshops have smaller children’s sections)
• Easier to become destination rather than convenience shop
• Strong word-of-mouth (“If you need kids’ books, go to Embiggen”)

Challenges of specialism:

• Narrower customer base
• Seasonal sales fluctuations (Christmas is massive, February is dead)
• Limited ability to capitalize on adult bestsellers

Davey’s strategy includes: School visits (reading to classes, selling books afterward), birthday book clubs (parents buy books for birthday kid to donate to school library), subscription boxes (curated age-appropriate books delivered monthly), and author Skype sessions (connecting kids with authors when in-person isn’t possible).

The Second-Hand Model

The Constant Reader (Brisbane) sells only used books. Owner James Liu reports “surprisingly good” 2025.

Used bookshops have different economics than new: Higher margins (books are donated or bought cheap, sold at 30-50% RRP), lower rent (used book aesthetic tolerates less prime locations), treasure hunt appeal (customers browse for unexpected finds).

Liu’s challenges: Stock unpredictability (can’t guarantee having specific titles), condition issues (used books vary in quality), perception problems (some customers see used as lesser).

What works: Trade-in program (customers get credit for books they bring in), curated front tables (highlighting good stock stops the “junk shop” perception), genre organization (making browsing easier than chaotic used bookshop stereotypes), low prices (paperbacks at $8-12 vs. $20-30 new is genuinely compelling).

“We’ll never be Readings,” Liu said. “But we serve readers on budgets and people who like serendipitous discovery. That’s a real audience.”

The Bookshop-as-Community-Hub Model

Rabble Books (Maylands, Western Australia) explicitly positions itself as community space rather than just retail.

The space includes: bookshop (obviously), cafe, community meeting room (free for local groups), reading nook with couches, kids’ corner with toys, notice board for community announcements.

Owner Danielle Morton describes it as “third place” strategy: “We’re not home, not work, but the place people go to be around others while reading or working.”

Revenue streams: Book sales (40% of revenue), cafe (35%), events (15% - ticketed author talks, workshops), room rental (10% - paid bookings for private events).

The diversified model provides stability: “If book sales are slow, cafe might be strong. If cafe is quiet, maybe we have a big event. We don’t rely entirely on book retail.”

Challenges: Complexity (running bookshop + cafe requires different skills and licenses), staff needs (can’t be owner-operated), identity confusion (are we a cafe or bookshop?).

Morton’s answer: “We’re both. People come for coffee and leave with books. They come for books and stay for coffee. It works.”

The Online-First Independent

Ripping Reads (online-only, based in Adelaide) is an independent bookshop without physical location.

Owner Emma Tran operates entirely online with warehouse storage, and it worked well in 2025: “Lower overhead means I can compete on price better than physical indies. I can stock more inventory without paying retail rent.”

The model: Online storefront (custom website, not marketplace), personal curation (Tran’s recommendations, not algorithms), newsletter (weekly book recommendations build relationship with customers), social media presence (Instagram and TikTok drive discovery).

What she sacrifices: Browsing (online browsing isn’t the same), serendipity (harder to stumble on unexpected books), community (no physical gathering place), impulse purchases (people are more deliberate online).

What she gains: Lower costs, broader reach (ships Australia-wide), lifestyle flexibility (works from home), data (tracks exactly what sells and what doesn’t).

“I’m not better or worse than physical bookshops,” Tran explained. “I’m different. Some customers prefer this model. That’s who I serve.”

Common Survival Strategies Across Shops

Events and author visits. Every successful bookshop mentioned events as crucial for community building and sales.

Online presence. All have functional websites. Most ship nationally. Several have strong social media.

Staff expertise. Knowledgeable, passionate staff who hand-sell books differentiate indies from chains and online.

Community positioning. Framing as local institution rather than just retail creates loyalty and support.

Diversification. Gifts, cards, cafe, events—most shops have revenue beyond books.

Curated selection. Emphasis on recommendation over comprehensive stock.

Realistic expectations. No one’s getting rich. They’re surviving and serving their communities.

What Didn’t Work

Trying to compete on price. Indies can’t beat online discounting. Competing on service and curation works better.

Ignoring online entirely. Even physical bookshops need web presence for discovery and convenience.

Pure nostalgia appeals. “Support us because we’re old/traditional” doesn’t work without also offering value.

Resisting change. Shops that refused to adapt to changing reader habits struggled most.

The Bigger Picture

Independent bookshops in Australia are fragile but resilient. Most operate on margins too thin for comfort but deep enough to survive with smart management and community support.

They provide value beyond retail: Discovery, curation, community, events, local employment, and reading culture support. Those externalities don’t show up in revenue but matter tremendously.

The shops that survived 2025 combined savvy business practices with genuine literary passion. Neither alone is sufficient; both together create sustainability.

Looking Toward 2026

Cautious optimism seems appropriate. The shops we spoke with aren’t expanding rapidly, but they’re stable and adapting.

Threats: Rising costs (rent, shipping, wages), continued online competition, potential economic downturn affecting discretionary spending.

Opportunities: Growing appreciation for local retail, book culture’s unexpected resilience, event-based revenue, online sales growth for indies with good web presence.

Independent bookshops aren’t dying, but they’re not thriving either. They’re working hard to survive and mostly succeeding.

That’s worth supporting. Actively, financially supporting—not just expressing vague appreciation while buying from Amazon.

If you value independent bookshops, buy books from them. Attend their events. Recommend them to friends. Tell them you appreciate what they do.

They need customers, not sympathy.

Here’s to another year of survival and service from Australia’s independent bookshops. May they outlast the obituaries that keep getting written for them.