Understanding Online Ordering and the Supply Chain that Supports Independent Book Stores

I learned something helpful I’d like to share about how to support independent book stores when you order your books online. I stumbled into this ah-ha moment while trying to understand how the Bookshop.org online preorder link works for my upcoming novel.

Did you know that by ordering your print book online through Bookshop.org (which is affiliated with IndieBound.org), you can designate a local independent book store to receive the profits on the book? Me neither. And it’s really cool. And get this. If you don’t designate a particular store, Bookshop.org puts aside money in a pool that they send to independent book stores. This means that if you want to order online, there is an independent book store option to do so.

How it Works

Whether you are an author or a reader or both, it’s helpful to know how one can support independent book stores because they are an integral part of our local communities. They offer comfortable spaces to browse and read and buy one’s next great book based on personal, trusted recommendations. They are small business people, not robots, which is why I always thought the only way to support them was to walk in, say hello, and buy on the spot.

I was surprised to learn that when an author’s book is listed in the Ingram catalog, the link to order the book shows up on Bookshop.org and when that link is used to place an order, it helps independent book stores.  Whether a reader preorders a book on Bookshop.org, or orders a published book there, they are putting money into the hands of small independent book stores whose margins are tight. The Bookshop.org website explains it this way:

If you want to find a specific local bookstore to support, find them on our map and they’ll   receive the full profit off your order. Otherwise, your order will contribute to an earnings pool that will be evenly distributed among independent bookstores (even those that don’t use Bookshop).

All orders are fulfilled through Ingram–direct to the customer–which should make authors and book stores happy, because Ingram is where independent book stores place their book orders.

Why should readers use Bookshop.org

There are times when it is difficult to make it to the store and when it is convenient to order online. And there are times when one sees a book advertised and just can’t wait to get it. Or maybe, they want an easy way to preorder the print book, with the knowledge it will support their local book store. These are all good reasons to use Bookshop.org.

Sidenote here. Charlotte Readers Podcast is not an affiliate of Bookshop.org, at least not yet.

Why should authors care about this?

If you are a traditionally published author, you probably haven’t given too much thought to how the supply chain works because your publisher takes care of everything. You wake up one day and find out that your book can be ordered on multiple platforms. However, it is helpful to know that when you share the Bookshop.org link with your network, you are helping local book stores.

Many Indie authors don’t publish their books through Ingram. They go straight to online retailers to sell their eBooks and print books. They’re not wrong, because traditional publishers do the same thing, but by not having their book in the Ingram catalog, they miss an opportunity to have their books ordered and sold by independent book stores and to have their books ordered online through Bookshop.org. If Indie authors want to publish their books widely and still support independent book stores, placing their books with Ingram and promoting their Bookshop.org links for their books, is one way to do it.

The relationship between Bookshop.org books and Libro.fm audiobooks

Libro.fm is to the audiobook world what Bookshop.org is in the print book world. When a listener buys an audiobook from Libro.fm, they support their local independent book store.

In addition, these two like-minded companies have teamed up to where the Bookshop.org page for a print book includes a tab to “Get the audiobook” that links to the audiobook page at Libro.fm. You can see what that looks like for the first book in my Christmas Courtroom Trilogy HERE. The Bookshop.org link shows how to order the print copy and has a “Get the audiobook” link that takes one to the Libro.fm page for the audiobook.

Disclaimer: Charlotte Readers Podcast is a Libro.fm affiliate. The podcast gets a small commission to support the podcast when someone uses the code Charlottereader to set up an account; they get a free audiobook for doing so.

Shamless plug for my upcoming novel

If you’d like to put this Bookshop.org knowledge into practice, my upcoming novel Deadly Declarations has a preorder link for the print book at Bookshop.org HERE.

I’d be honored if you would consider preordering the book and designating your favorite independent book store to receive the profits.

Until then, read on!