Company lists · Data refreshed September 2026
Top 25 Independent bookstores based in the United States
RevenueBase identified 531 independent bookstores headquartered in the United States as of September 2026 and tracks 6,452 professional contacts across them, including 1,077 with verified work emails. New York is the largest hub.
This list covers independent bookstores headquartered in the United States, matched on what each company actually does as described in its own words. Ranked by team size, largest first. Every row shows the company's own description, its RevenueBase Smart Search rating, and when it was last checked. Data refreshed September 20, 2026.
Published by RevenueBase, a B2B data infrastructure company. This list was built with RevenueBase Smart Search, the natural-language company search RevenueBase customers use to build their own targeted lists and unlock verified emails and direct dials at the companies on them. How these lists are built and judged.
The 25 largest independent bookstores based in the United States
Ranked by team size| # | Company | Contacts | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2,011 contacts → | ||||
Indirect evidence “Books-A-Million, Inc, is the second-largest book retailer in the nation, operating more than 200 stores in 32 states and online at Booksamillion.com.” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 20, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 2 | 1,110 contacts → | ||||
Indirect evidence “Be fair to customers and our employees, promote literacy, be kind to the environment and remain financially viable so we may continue.”, Our Mission Statement in the words of HPB…” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 20, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 3 | 295 contacts → | ||||
Partial evidence “Powell's is an independent bookseller serving Portland, Oregon, since 1971, with four store locations.” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 20, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 4 | 134 contacts → | ||||
Strong evidence “Green Apple Books is a trio of independent bookstores in San Francisco.” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 20, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 5 | 130 contacts → | ||||
Partial evidence “Independently owned and operated bookseller with 11 locations in the San Francisco Bay Area.” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 20, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 6 | 129 contacts → | ||||
Indirect evidence “86 Years and 18 Miles of Books and Counting: The History of Strand Books Where it all began: Bound by a Family The Strand was born in 1927 over on Fourth Avenue on what was then…” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 20, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 7 | 111 contacts → | ||||
Partial evidence “We believe that bookstores are essential to a healthy culture.” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 20, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 8 | 73 contacts → | ||||
Strong evidence “An independent bookstore based in Miami, with nearly an author event everyday, with locations in Coral Gables, Miami Beach, The Bal Harbour Shops, Miami International Airport, and…” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 20, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 9 | 63 contacts → | ||||
Strong evidence “BookPeople is Texas' largest independent bookstore, located in the heart of downtown Austin.” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 20, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 10 | 62 contacts → | ||||
Indirect evidence “McNally Jackson Books is a publishing company based out of 52 PRINCE ST, New York, New York, United States.” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 20, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 11 | 50 contacts → | ||||
Strong evidence “Washington DC's premier independent, locally-owned bookstore and cultural hub!” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 20, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 12 | 48 contacts → | ||||
Partial evidence “The American Booksellers Association is a national, not for profit trade association, and exists to protect and promote the interests of its members: independently owned…” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 20, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 13 | 37 contacts → | ||||
Indirect evidence “Book Culture was founded as Labyrinth Books in 1997 by current owner Chris Doeblin and his partner at the time Cliff Simms.” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 20, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 14 | 37 contacts → | ||||
Partial evidence “A bookstore built by book lovers, for people who believe in the joy of browsing, the pleasure of a well-loved paperback, and the thrill of finding exactly the right thing by…” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 20, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 15 | 35 contacts → | ||||
Strong evidence “Established in 1971, Tattered Cover Book Store is one of America's premier independent bookstores, a Denver institution, a community gathering place, and an experience you can't…” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 20, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 16 | 29 contacts → | ||||
Strong evidence “Village Books is Whatcom County's favorite independent bookstore, located in Historic Fairhaven and Lyden.” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 20, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 17 | 27 contacts → | ||||
Partial evidence “Harvard Book Store is a unique and special place to shop-a locally owned, independently run Cambridge landmark since 1932.” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 20, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 18 | 26 contacts → | ||||
Indirect evidence Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 20, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 19 | 24 contacts → | ||||
Strong evidence “We are one of New England’s premier independent bookstores, family-owned and locally run since 1961.” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 20, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 20 | 23 contacts → | ||||
Strong evidence “Kepler's is an independent, community bookstore.” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 20, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 21 | 21 contacts → | ||||
Strong evidence “Porter Square Books is a Boston-based independent bookstore with locations in Seaport and Cambridge.” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 20, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 22 | 20 contacts → | ||||
Partial evidence “On the site of the historic Falk's Market, Julie and Jeff Kinney have created a cornerstone in downtown Plainville with an indie bookstore, a café and an event space.” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 20, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 23 | 19 contacts → | ||||
Strong evidence “Bookshop Santa Cruz is a large, general independent bookstore based in the heart of downtown Santa Cruz, California since 1966.” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 20, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 24 | 19 contacts → | ||||
Strong evidence “Serving the Orlando area since 2014, Writer’s Block Bookstore is Central Florida’s full-service independent bookstore with locations in Winter Park and Winter Garden.” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 20, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 25 | 18 contacts → | ||||
Strong evidence “Women-owned and operated, The Novel Neighbor is an independent bookstore and community space in the Webster Groves neighborhood of St.” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 20, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
RevenueBase Smart Search
RevenueBase Smart Search assesses information from a company’s LinkedIn profile, information supplied directly by the company, its website, and other publicly available sources. It uses that information to rate how closely the company relates to this list’s category: independent bookstores. Every row carries its rating and the description the rating was read from, so each one can be checked rather than taken on trust.
- Strong evidence
- The company's own public description of its business names independent bookstores.
- Partial evidence
- Its own public description names part of independent bookstores, so it works in or next to the category without describing itself that way.
- Indirect evidence
- The description shown does not name independent bookstores. The match rests on the rest of the company's public profile rather than the one sentence quoted here, so this is the rating to check first.
RevenueBase Smart Search is how these lists are built: RevenueBase's data engine and AI assemble the companies that match a category defined in a user's own words, so a list can be about what companies actually do rather than about whichever industry code they were filed under.
Showing 25 of 531 independent bookstores based in the United States
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Independent bookstores based in the United States at a glance
As of Sep 20, 2026Companies by employee count
Email recency for this list is measured worldwide rather than for United States, so it is reported there. Company counts and contact totals on this page are exact for United States, over 531 companies.
How this list was built
Company categories are rarely black and white. RevenueBase reads each company's own description of its business to decide whether it belongs among independent bookstores, so some rows will be adjacent to the category rather than pure plays. The description and RevenueBase Smart Search rating on every row are there so you can check each match yourself.
- Source
- The RevenueBase company graph: 60 million companies and 398.9 million professional contacts resolved from primary sources, queried with RevenueBase Smart Search, the natural-language company search available to every RevenueBase user.
- What qualifies
- Companies headquartered in the United States whose own description of what they do matches “independent bookstores”. Matching reads each company's description, not its industry code or its name.
- RevenueBase Smart Search
- RevenueBase Smart Search is how this list is assembled and how each row is rated. RevenueBase's data engine and AI assess a company's LinkedIn profile, information supplied directly by the company, its website and other publicly available information, then relate it to a category defined in a user's own words. Each row is rated strong evidence (its own description names independent bookstores), partial evidence (it names part of the category) or indirect evidence (the description shown names none of it and the match rests on the rest of the company's profile). The description supporting each rating is quoted on the row.
- What we exclude
- Companies whose own description does not clearly place them among independent bookstores, and records with no verified work email. Companies headquartered outside United States are excluded even when they keep an office there.
- Match quality
- In blind human judging of this matching method, 86% of matched companies were on target. Expect roughly 1 in 7 rows to be adjacent to the category rather than a pure play. Every row shows the company's own description and its RevenueBase Smart Search rating so you can judge each match yourself. Read the full methodology: how the lists are built, how the judging worked, and what the figure means.
- Ranking
- Team size, largest first: companies are ordered by the number of professionals RevenueBase tracks at each one. Employee ranges shown are reported bands, for context.
- Verification
- Every listed company carries at least one verified work email, 1,077 across the full list. Contacts re-verify on a rolling cadence, and each contact's own verification date is shown inside RevenueBase.
- Refresh
- This page's figures were pulled from the company graph on September 20, 2026. Lists refresh periodically as the graph is re-checked.
- Corrections
- Wrong category, wrong headquarters, or a company that has closed? Use “Report an issue” on any row. Reports go to the RevenueBase Data Team and feed back into the company graph.
Frequently asked
What is RevenueBase Smart Search?
RevenueBase Smart Search is how RevenueBase decides which companies belong on this list and how strongly each one fits. Its data engine and AI assess a company's LinkedIn profile, information supplied directly by the company, its website and other publicly available information, then relate it to the category the list is about. Each row is rated strong evidence when the company's own description names independent bookstores, partial evidence when it names part of the category, and indirect evidence when the description shown names none of it and the match rests on the rest of the company's profile.
How many independent bookstores are there based in the United States?
RevenueBase identified 531 independent bookstores headquartered in the United States as of September 2026, matched on each company's own description of what it does rather than its industry code.
What is the largest company on this list?
Books A Million, headquartered in Birmingham, tops this list with the largest team on record.
Which city has the most independent bookstores?
New York leads with 18 headquartered companies, followed by San Francisco (7) and Seattle (7).
How do I get contact information for these companies?
A free RevenueBase account lets you run this exact search and work the top results, verified emails and direct dials included. Upgrading unlocks all 1,077 verified decision-maker contacts tracked across these 531 companies.
How current is this list?
The list refreshes periodically as the company graph is re-checked. This page's figures were pulled on September 20, 2026.
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About this data
RevenueBase is a B2B data infrastructure company. Its company graph covers 60 million companies and 398.9 million professional contacts, with emails verified on a rolling cadence rather than scraped once and left to decay. These company lists are generated directly from that graph with RevenueBase Smart Search, the same natural-language company search every RevenueBase user has: describe a market in plain words, get the companies that match, and add verified emails and direct dials for the people at them. It is the same data that powers RevenueBase's B2B data products, and a free account includes 500 credits to start. How these lists are built and judged.
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