Do you miss wandering around your favorite independent bookstores? I know I do. I stumbled across a lot of amazing books that I wouldn’t have otherwise through carefully crafted displays and recommendations from local booksellers and my fellow patrons alike.
Big corporations and their algorithms can’t compete, no matter how hard they try. Unfortunately, with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, many of us have been stuck doing our book shopping online.
I, for one, am tired of it. While I don’t think anything will ever replace how much I enjoy shopping for books in person, bookshop.org has come close, with the added benefit that my purchases are still supporting independent bookstores around the country.
ALL is an affiliate now, so you can support our mission as well as independent bookstores when you go through this link.
How It Works
You can interact with Bookshop in one of three ways: through an affiliate link, through a bookstore’s page, or neither.
When you shop through an affiliate link, the affiliate receives 10% of the proceeds from the sale and another 10% goes into a pot to be distributed among independent bookstores.
If you have a specific bookstore you would like to support, you can find them using Bookshop’s shop locator. When you shop through a specific store’s page, they receive 30% of the cover price of the book. While it may not sound like much, that’s the entire profit margin.
If you don’t have an affiliate or specific bookstore in mind, you can still use Bookshop. When you make a regular purchase from Bookshop, 10 percent of the sale goes into the pot that gets distributed among independent bookstores.
You can tell you accessed Bookshop through an affiliate link or bookstore by glancing at the upper lefthand corner of your screen. The name and logo of an affiliate or store will be there if you have. If not, it will simply say “Bookshop.org.”
Our Current Shelves
Right now, our Bookshop page features one virtual “shelf” of works by our phenomenal Watershed readers and another of books by our talented members. We also have a list of writing craft books for anyone looking to hone their skills.
In the future, we hope to expand our page with shelves featuring trans* and BIPOC authors from our own little corner of the Midwest and beyond.
Do you have a recommendation for a book you want to see on our page? Contact us at literature@artlitlab.org and let us know!
How to Support Our Mission (And Local Indies!)
It’s not just ALL taking advantage of the wonderful service Bookshop provides. All of our favorite local independent bookstores participate, too. Here is the link to our affiliate page, as well as the pages for some of our favorite local independent bookstores.
* ALL's Bookshop (The FTC requires that we tell you we’ll receive 10% of the proceeds of any purchase you make through this link.)
We’re excited to have this opportunity to promote our members, Watershed readers, and more all while supporting local bookstores. Your next favorite book might be just a click away, so what are you waiting for?
