# Episode 15 | Why a bookfluencer with 200k followers is opening a bookshop: Tilly Fitzgerald, Tilly’s Bookshop (Worthing, West Sussex)

An episode of [Bookshop Stories](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/6789231785), 23 Oct 2026, 52 min.

Audio: https://anchor.fm/s/113977da4/podcast/play/127851873/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2026-9-21%2F434681182-44100-2-379a5afc6924e.m4a

What happens when you've built an audience of 200,000 book lovers online, but what you really want is a little bookshop of your own? For six years, Tilly Fitzgerald has been recommending books on social media, helping thousands of people discover new authors and rediscover their love of reading. Now she's swapping Instagram for the high street, opening Tilly’s Bookshop in Worthing, West Sussex, on Saturday 24 October – the day after this episode is released. In this episode of Bookshop Stories, Tilly talks about her journey from bookfluencer to independent bookshop owner, what she learned working at Waterstones and Chapter 34, and why nothing quite compares to recommending a book to somebody face to face. We also get into the realities of opening a bookshop: choosing nearly 2,000 books for the shelves, renovating a beautiful but troublesome listed building, figuring out what local customers actually want to read, and the extraordinary contribution of her husband Dan, without whom the shop simply wouldn't exist. It’s a funny, honest and wonderfully timely conversation about taking a chance on something you love, and the difference between building an audience online and creating a community in the real world. Follow Bookshop Stories Bookshop Stories goes behind the shelves of independent bookshops to meet the people who run them and explore the realities of bookselling, running a small business and keeping independent bookshops alive. Follow Bookshop Stories on Instagram for photographs and stories from each shop, and subscribe to the Bookshop Stories Substack for the articles accompanying every episode. You can also browse books recommended by guests throughout the series at the Bookshop Stories Bookshop.org storefront. Buying through the storefront supports independent bookshops, while also providing a small commission that helps support Bookshop Stories. Oh, and if you can spare me 2 minutes, I'd love to get your feedback on the show – and what we can do to make it even better. The survey is here.

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