How to Support Indie Bookstores

As so many have pointed out, Amazon has been a devastating force in the bookshop world, and many local and independent bookstores have gone out of business as a result. Some have managed to survive, however, and many of us try to buy books through our local bookshops as often as we can to keep our favorite haunts alive.

I have been a huge fan of the organization Bookshop.org ever since they first began operating. This website allows buyers to order books online, as easily as one can do through Amazon, but with an important difference: buyers are allowed to choose their local bookstore to share part of the proceeds with. Even if you don't choose a particular bookstore, the Bookshop folks will still share part of the proceeds with independent bookstores everywhere.

I have tried to encourage readers of my books to order them through the Bookshop website. The organization is now making it even easier to do that through its Affiliates program that brings Independent Authors into the fold. I've applied for and been approved as a Bookshop Affiliate, and am happy to announce that I have a small "online bookstore" through the Bookshop.org website. You can find my little shop here.

Each of my books have been published in different ways: one with a traditional publisher, one with an independent small press, another with a hybrid publisher, and even a couple that are self-published. Despite this variety of publishing models, Bookshop.org carries all my books. 

In addition to listing my own books, I also have a list of books I've read and recommend. Some of these are by my writing friends and colleagues, whereas others are just books I've read and really liked. You can think of this as the "recommended by staff" tags you might see at your local bricks-and-mortar shop. I fully expect this part of my little shop to grow, since I don't seem to be able to stop reading books.

Finally, I've updated all the links to my own books on my website so they default to the Bookshop.org website, rather than to Amazon. The Amazon links are still there, since I understand some people prefer to buy books that way...but the Amazon listing is now secondary.

If you are an author with books to sell, I encourage you to look at what Bookshop.org can do for authors. They've posted more info here. Happy reading!