Dwindling LGBT sections in bookshops

JupiterKid

I'm a longstanding lover of bookshops. I loathe shopping in general - I see it as a chore more than a pleasure but one notable exception are good bookshops. I could spend hours browsing in one when I have the time.

I would always gravitate towards certain sections within the shops - travel, geography, architecture, crime fiction, sci-fi, science and nature, astronomy and naturally the LGBT section.

Certain bookshops had a much better range of LGBT reading material, like Chapters and Books Upstairs in Dublin. Waterstones when it was still around also had a half decent LGBT selection.

These sections were godsend for me when I started to come out in the mid to late 1990s. I read about experiences of being a gay man and I could identify myself and connect with the stories. Plus there were often erotic photo books and raunchy stories which were a definite incentive to check out the LGBT section!

However, in the past few years there has been a definite shrinkage in the LGBT section. This is unfortunate and regrettable but must be a reflection of changing trends. Obviously, LGBT books are not selling from high street bookshops as much as they used to.

What are the reasons for this? People buying these books online now? The mainstreaming and wider integration of LGBT issues and the community into wider society? Or just a general lessening of interest in paper books? The last seems unlikely as some bookshops still seem to be doing well.

Has anyone else noticed this and what are your views on this?

baby and crumble

I think it’s probably down to the availability of more of these niche texts online. I know when I was coming out in the late 90’s & early 2000’s I had to make myself go to the tiny LGBT section in Chapters. I knew I wanted to be over there but I was scared someone would see me.

Now all I’d have to do is google it and hit amazon. That’s a big game changer if you ask me.

lottpaul

Agree 100% - used to spend hours many years ago in Waterstones, Books Upstairs probably the best - and others -- the odd title would crop up in Easons etc but the selection available online means that its so much easier in every way just to go to Amazon or wherever... and then there's kindle too so physical books are rarer and sometimes more of a challenge to get. For anyone in more remote areas though with interests outside of the latest bestsellers the online stores are a godsend.
And sorry to say that when we moved home from Dublin over 25 years ago most of the valued purchases were put into the recycling bins A few favourite ones were packed into boxes but we literally dumped dozens and dozens.

Vojera

I would definitely say it's online shopping that's causing it. The sales from an LGBT+ shelf would be comparatively small compared to other sections in a bricks and mortar shop, so they're obviously going to dedicate space to what's selling.

L1011

During the period when they were at there largest there was a lot of awful dross - extremely bad novels in particularly that were probably printed due to publishers finding some awful stuff online and thinking that "if its on the internet it must be popular!" Similarly there were a lot more magazines/periodicals that have just ceased to be since.

Peregrinus

The book trade generally is suffering, and those bookshops that survive mostly do so by gravitating towards the most popular sectors of the market. So, lots of mass-market contemporary fiction, bay after bay of books about cooking, biographies of sports personalities and entertainers, lots of books about Ireland or aspects of Irish life. And less and less of the specialist/niche stuff. Whether your niche is LGBT, European fiction in translation or theology, online is where it's at these days.

L1011

Peregrinus wrote: »

The book trade generally is suffering, and those bookshops that survive mostly do so by gravitating towards the most popular sectors of the market. So, lots of mass-market contemporary fiction, bay after bay of books about cooking, biographies of sports personalities and entertainers, lots of books about Ireland or aspects of Irish life. And less and less of the specialist/niche stuff. Whether your niche is LGBT, European fiction in translation or theology, online is where it's at these days.

The bookshops mentioned in the OP are specialist, not suburban Eason branches. Books Upstairs don't even have cookery or mass market fiction!

There simply is less being made to sell.

Peregrinus

L1011 wrote: »

The bookshops mentioned in the OP are specialist, not suburban Eason branches. Books Upstairs don't even have cookery or mass market fiction!

There simply is less being made to sell.

Granted. But that could be, at least partly, because the mainstream bookshops are selling less of them.

JupiterKid

Thanks for the replies people. So I think it's generally agreed that online availability of LGBT texts from Amazon and other websites is directly responsible for this unfortunate trend.

Call me old fashioned but I fondly remember the small LGBT sections - at first I was nervous to hang around them- as were others- but got more comfortable as I went through my coming out. What's left of the LGBT section in Chapters - our biggest and best bookshop - is utterly tiny. It's sad.

And does anyone else think that today every minor so-called "celeb" and sportsperson has a biography out these days??