Does anyone have a preferred retailer for ordering physical books online ATM?
1 Like
Yeah! One great one that launched recently and is taking off: https://bookshop.org/
Great way to support indie bookshops; they do a sort of revenue share thing where a certain % of all sales they reserve to split with independent shops, and also a great affiliate program (even better for legit bookshops) to sell online w/o needing their own infrastructure (I believe they use one of the big distributors for actual fulfillment)
I actually signed up for the affiliate program, though I think only works if I generate links for specific books: https://bookshop.org/shop/antilibraries
Indiebound is pretty cool too though I think more for connecting to local shops…kind of the predecessor of Bookshop and somehow working together b/c they link to bookshop.org now!
Another that seems pretty good, though I haven’t used much: https://www.biblio.com/
Powell’s is great too, I’ve ordered a fair number of used books from them, and looks like their online ordering is still open right now even though the physical store’s closed: https://www.powells.com/
1 Like
Powell’s is great too, I’ve ordered a fair number of used books from them, and looks like their online ordering is still open right now even though the physical store’s closed: https://www.powells.com/
Powell’s was able to re-hire some of its staff thanks to all the online orders!
1 Like
Oh wow good to hear! Yeah this has been rough on a lot of indie bookstores, but some seem to still be doing online orders, and I think always best to order direct when possible.
One thing to keep in mind, from what I hear, indie bookstores are usually able to order any book for you even if they don’t have it in stock, and they get a bigger cut that way. Worth checking around with some local faves to see how they’re doing.
For example I just checked the site for The Last Bookstore in LA and looks like they’re doing super limited appointment-only in store shopping, but also have an online shop (new books only).
Bookshop has a slick site, and seems to be growing quickly — they have a banner the top that says “$N raised for local bookstores”. Just a few weeks ago it was like single digit thousands; now up to nearly $400k and climbing rapidly, I think that # has doubled in like a week! Seems their major play is competing with Amazon for affiliate sales, and seems promising for that.
Biblio seems to be a good way to go for used books in particular (like an online marketplace for used bookshops / rare booksellers).
1 Like