Featured's Find Bookstores Tool Targets Texas Authors as Independent Bookshops Multiply

Featured, the AI co-pilot for PR, has launched Find Bookstores, a search covering 1,093 independent U.S. bookstores built for authors and book publicists planning signings and book tours. Users name a place or a genre in Featured's chat and receive the stores that host author events, with a link to each store's website or events page and, where the store publishes one, an email address.

The tool matters to Texas authors and publishers because it shortens the path from finished manuscript to booked event. A request as simple as Bookstores in Texas that host author signings returns matching stores, each result showing the store's name and location, a short description of its programming, a link to its website or events page, and an email when the store publishes one. Users can then ask Featured to draft the pitch in the same chat.

The launch arrives as independent bookselling is expanding nationally. The American Booksellers Association's 2025 annual report counted 605 new bookstore businesses opened in 2025, including 399 storefronts, against 65 closures, with openings up 87% from 2024. ABA membership reached 3,417 members operating 3,783 locations, nearly double the 1,775 members the association counted in 2016 and, according to the Associated Press, the highest since the late 1990s.

For an author, each of those stores is a room and a crowd that chose to come. The database's composition suggests how much room exists for outreach: 59.9% of the 1,093 stores link to a public events or calendar page and 37.6% publish an email address for the store. The stores span all 50 states and the District of Columbia across 796 cities, and 36.6% describe author events, readings or signings in their own words.

Founder and CEO Brett Farmiloe framed the tool around his own experience. "When my book came out, I pitched Changing Hands in Tempe for a talk and signing," Farmiloe said. "What made it tough is that as a first-time author, I had no idea what I was doing when it came down to promoting my book. Featured simplifies that path, and connects authors with the stores that host events and can move product."

The economic implication for Texas is direct. Book tours are small-business spending: travel, printing, venue coordination and local retail sales that stay in the communities hosting events. When a first-time author can identify which of hundreds of stores actually run author programming, the cost of a tour falls and the number of viable stops rises. Publicists can plan the rest of a tour in the same place, since Featured answers requests for bookstores and speaking opportunities in the same chat, and Find Podcasts covers the interviews around each stop.

Find Bookstores is available on every Featured plan, including Free, and runs inside the same chat users already use to find Substack publications and TV stations. The company also owns and operates HARO and Connectively as standalone products within its portfolio.