Bookshop.org

As a member of the Independent Book Publishers Association, I am privy to a lot of great industry support, information, and changes. One of the things that has come out of the COVID-19 support commitment is a Member Roundtable. Good information, great input from other members, and being a small publisher who now publishes one of her two series in addition to publishing other authors, that input is very valuable.

Two weeks ago, I learned a great deal about BookShop.org. We’re going to put up a bookstore of our own on the site to help our authors sell books and gain exposure, but maybe the more appealing aspect for me as a writer and a publisher is that by doing that I can help support Indie Bookstores. And if writers aren’t going to support independent bookstores, we’re very foolish. That’s like cowboys doing nothing about the extinction of cows.

They are a B Corporation – one committed to working for the public good. CEO Andy Hunter explained why he built BookShop.org, what it means to independent book stores, and how everyone and anyone that supports those stores from the authors to the reviewers will benefit from working with BookShop.org. He’s designed an amazing business model – and in less than 3 months has wrestled away just over 2% of Amazon’s book sales!

The profits on a book sale are divided in such a way that ALL indie bookstores will benefit from the general fund which receives 10% of each sale. There’s a complete list of indies stores that are members – and some of them carry my books so I can tell you I’ll be supporting them at BookShop.org.

Success in publishing requires many symbiotic relationships. As an author, you can establish an affiliate site and get paid 10% for your sales. Amazon pays 4.5% to affiliates. And, the professional reviewers signing up to support BookShop.org are an impressive lot, too. Companies like Buzzfeed and Literary Hub have led the way but Andy reported that that list doubles each week.

As of June 10, sales at BookShop.org have reached 300,000 per day, a number they’d hoped to reach by end of the year. The world is demanding all sorts of change – and the growth of this enterprise is evidence that readers are included in that. There are lots of future plans for BookShop.org to remain competitive with Amazon but the bottom line is this:  by paying a bit more for our books we are working together to save the industry of independent bookstores.

For me, that’s worth a whole lot!

Check them out at BOOKSHOP.ORG and download the brochure for authors – or publishers. I think you’ll see the value for your book sales.

Stay safe, stay well and I’ll see you next week!

Nancy Q.