---
title: Books are burning — in the good way
description: After years of scrapping for survival, Barnes & Noble is expanding.
---

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# [Books are burning — in the good way](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/news/03202023-barnes-and-noble)

 Written by [Ben Berkley](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/news/author/ben-berkley) | Mar 20, 2023 6:49:58 AM

How’s this for a plot twist? The once-disappearing bookstore business is showing signs of a comeback.

Book sales [rebounded](https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/publisher-news/article/90440-2021-was-a-stellar-year-for-publishing.html) in a big way post-pandemic, with US publishers reeling in $29.3B in 2021. Though early 2022 [data](https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/financial-reporting/article/91510-publishing-sales-dropped-6-4-in-2022-aap-report-finds.html) suggests a slight dip, bookstores remain in expansion mode.

#### **Barnes & Noble is actually opening stores**

Throughout the 2010s, most stories about the chain included the word “embattled” as Amazon picked off business. Now, B&N expects to open ~30 new stores this year, [per](https://www.npr.org/2023/03/07/1161295820/how-barnes-noble-turned-a-page-expanding-for-the-first-time-in-years) *NPR*.

Credit hedge fund owner Elliott Management Corp., also behind top UK bookseller Waterstones, which bought a debt-laden B&N in 2019.

- Refocusing away from trinket sales, they gave local stores more autonomy over displays and welcomed influencers.
- Sales grew 4%+ last year.

Inner *You’ve Got Mail* fan worried about a Fox Books situation? Breathe easy — the number of independent bookstores is also on the rise. Last year, 334 indie stores [opened](https://www.theindependentbookseller.com/statistics.html) in the US.

#### **Women are driving this change**

Book sales didn’t increase in a vacuum — releases from in-demand writers flooded the market. Of the 25 [bestselling books](https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/bookselling/article/91256-colleen-hoover-was-queen-of-2022-s-bestseller-list.html) of 2022, male authors occupied just 10 spots.

- Colleen Hoover nearly took as many slots on her own, selling 14.3m books last year.
- Powered by TikTok, she even outsold the Bible, [per](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/09/books/colleen-hoover.html) *The New York Times*.

Some [reports](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/dec/07/why-women-love-literature-read-fiction-helen-taylor) estimate women are buying 80% of novels today. The market is aligning in this direction — in the 1970s, female authors [accounted](https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2023/03/women-are-now-publishing-more-books-than-men-and-its-good-for-business/) for ~20% of all books; in 2020, their share surpassed 50%.

[View full post](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/news/03202023-barnes-and-noble)

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