This sponsored story is brought to you by Fiction and friction.
It is one of the Murraylands’ best kept secrets, yet hidden in plain sight on Murray Bridge’s main street.
Independent bookstore Fiction and Friction has quickly developed a cult following since its launch in 2020.
The owner, Brittany Schulz, is the prime example of a generation of women who grew up reading dusk: They may recoil from that title today, but it opened their eyes to a kaleidoscope of romance novels, to soulmates bonding at conventions and on social media, and to a hashtag that is turning the publishing industry on its head: #booktok.
Long before COVID-19, fiction lovers had been finding each other online and discovering new books, but video-sharing apps like TikTok have helped the trend become a phenomenon.
Fiction and Friction has more than 60,000 followers on the platform.
“You meet people in the comments section, say, ‘I like this author too,’ then you’re friends on Facebook, and six months later you show up at an event and you’re instantly friends with ten people,” Britt says.
“It’s so stunning.”
For the BookTok community, compelling stories are essential, no niche is too specific and the mood – the aesthetic – has to be just right.
It’s something you notice immediately when you open the front door of Fiction and Friction at 49A Bridge Street, Murray Bridge: the neon-signed nameplate, the artificial vines, the bookmarks and pins and literary knick-knacks and the books themselves, everywhere.
While others watch a TV series or scroll through Instagram reels, Britt prefers to spend her hours leisurely leafing through a romance novel.
One thing is clear, however: these are not your grandparents’ romance novels, nor are they all mindless erotic fiction.
“Before COVID … there was definitely a stigma: ‘Oh, you read romance novels – you mean, like Mills and Boons?'” Britt says.
“It’s similar, but not the same.”
These days, if you want a book about a single mom reliving the one-night stand who is unknowingly the father of her baby, or a handsome guy turning into a dragon, or any other oddly concrete desire, this is it.
Fiction and Friction is designed for just that – its appeal lies in the fact that Britt has designed it with completely separate spaces for different subgenres of romance novels.
In a bright, airy space are your contemporary romances: athletes, cowboys and billionaires.
The shadowy room next door, with its black and white mural and its many shelves full of black-bound, gold-lettered books, is dedicated to dark romanticism: the violent and vengeful.
Upstairs is the fantasy and paranormal room, cozy and colorful, full of vampires, werewolves and all kinds of seductive fairy-tale characters.
Instead of pandering to multinational publishers, Fiction and Friction only includes the works of independent and self-published authors in its range.
And instead of urging people to buy something or go out, Britt takes the opposite approach: Each room has cozy seating that encourages you to read a few pages or a chapter, so you know you’ll enjoy the book you’re taking home.
“People don’t want to come here, get their books and leave; they want to spend the whole day here,” she says.
“If you just want to come in and sit down, or if you want to buy a book and sit here and read it, that’s fine.
“I’m not going to run after you and ask, ‘Do you need anything?'”
Those who cannot afford to buy anything can help themselves to the free items shelf in the foyer or simply linger and enjoy the atmosphere.
It smells like a bookstore.
Fiction and Friction even hosts occasional events.
The store will host a book signing and question-and-answer session with author TL Swan on September 6th at the Bridgeport Hotel starting at 6 p.m. Tickets cost just over $40 and include a welcome drink and a copy of her new novel. The bonus.
On October 12, more than 100 authors and retailers and hundreds of readers are expected to attend an indie book convention at the Adelaide Convention Centre. Tickets start at $80 and include a canvas tote bag, map and bookmark.
Britt’s love affair with reading began with the Rainbow Magic series in elementary school, when she was able to secure every new book that arrived at the library.
It continued when her grandmother gave her a copy of duskand as a friend her Fifty shades of grey shortly after the birth of her daughter.
So she had always been a bookworm and a little creative.
She started selling bookmarks and the like on Etsy and had the idea of adding some books to her range too—obscure books, the kind that you’d have to wait weeks for Amazon to deliver from the US or UK and then arrive bent or damaged.
She began contacting authors and asking them if they would be interested in supplying an online store that sold exclusively indie books, with perhaps five copies of each title.
Since there was nothing similar in Australia, she concluded it was either a fantastic idea or a terrible idea.
It didn’t take her long to figure out which one it was.
“I will never forget it,” she says.
“As soon as the website went live, orders started pouring in – my Shopify notifications never stopped ringing.”
“I sold almost all of my stocks within half an hour.”
Business flourished so much that in 2021 she had to rent a storage unit to accommodate the supplies that were overflowing from her apartment.
In 2022, she rented premises in Seventh Street, Murray Bridge, thinking her warehouse could also be open to the public.
When she returned from a show in Sydney six months later with 255 boxes full of books, she realized that she was no longer big enough for that either.
This point was made even clearer when nearly 300 people attended their first event late last year, a gathering of about 40 authors and dealers at the Adelaide Convention Centre.
Fiction and Friction opened its store on Bridge Street on April 13, 2024.
It was a slightly surreal feeling for Britt – in an earlier chapter of her life, she had worked in the same building as a photographer’s assistant.
“It feels like a circle has come full circle,” she says.
“I never thought I would own my own business.
“But I walked up the ramp and I could see the genre rooms, I could see people sitting there drinking coffee and reading books.”
Can you imagine taking part in Fiction and Friction?
Just go to 49A Bridge Street, Murray Bridge and find out.
Want to advertise on Murray Bridge News? We can help you reach over 20,000 engaged locals. Call Jane Intini on 0418 835 768 or email [email protected].
