Are independent bookshops making a comeback? Everything on the exciting new opportunities for young booksellers

Recently, the Ministry of Culture published the call for applications "Librerie under 35" ("Bookshops under 35"), aimed at encouraging the opening of new bookshops run by young adults. The project – for which 4 million euros have been allocated – aims to boost the spread of culture across the country through a denser network of independent bookshops – meaning shops with no ties to major publishing groups or commercial chains.

The allocated funds are of two types. The first fund – worth one million euros – is earmarked for bookshops opened after December 30, 2023, in small municipalities (with a population of no more than 5,000 inhabitants) where no other businesses dedicated to books are present. The remaining 3 million euros are instead reserved for bookshops opened after June 30, 2024, or for those yet to be launched.

How hard it is to run a bookshop

The grant provided by the "Librerie under 35" call is non-repayable and can cover expenses up to a maximum of 24,000 euros – which can, for example, fund renovation work on the premises, among many other things. Additional support of up to one thousand euros is also provided for staff training.

Opening a bookshop nonetheless remains a complex and costly undertaking. Beyond the initial setup of the store, one must factor in the cost of rent, if applicable, and related expenses, the purchase of the first stock of books, furnishings and management equipment, along with administrative costs. In many cases, it is also necessary to get through an initial period in which revenue is not always enough to cover all expenses, making adequate starting capital essential.

It is therefore no coincidence that the struggles of bookshops are so often discussed, along with the difficulties of keeping a physical store alive in an increasingly competitive landscape. The growth of e-commerce for books, combined with the dynamics of the contemporary publishing market, makes it genuinely difficult to sustain the profitability of traditional bookshops. In many Italian cities the problems have long been evident: in Rome, for example, more than 200 bookshops closed between 2007 and 2017 – similar trends have also been recorded in many other cities, with no real reversal of the trend observed in the years since.

How the publishing market is changing in Italy

Industry operators have long observed that even major bestsellers no longer reach the sales volumes of a few years ago – with significant consequences for bookshops. The promotion and visibility window for books has shortened, and even the most successful titles tend to post more modest results than in the past. At the same time, however, thanks to the rise of BookTok, many books are being rediscovered years later, going on to achieve significant sales over much longer timeframes.

To respond to the structural difficulties of the sector, major publishing groups have gradually changed how they manage their bookshop chains, giving more space to their own catalogues and reducing the autonomy of individual stores. All of this has had a significant impact on independent bookshops, which have seen their market share shrink further.

More broadly, the strong integration between publishing and the distribution system has had a direct impact on the country's cultural offering. In Italy, in fact, many of the bookshops across the country are part of chains controlled by the major national publishing groups – something that significantly affects the range of titles in circulation. In other countries, such as the United Kingdom, France, or Germany, the model is different: publishing houses may own individual bookshops, but they do not broadly control entire distribution chains.