The Covid-19 pandemic has crippled businesses all over the world. In the United States, where cases are still surging, businesses will continue taking hits for many months to come. Small businesses are more vulnerable to the pandemic and many will go out of business before we enter the after times.
But luckily there are three websites that let you support independently owned bookstores from the comfort of your own home. Utilizing these websites might keep your favorite local bookstore from going out of business.
Indiebound
Indiebound has been around for years and is truly for the most fanatical about supporting locally-owned bookstores. As much as I like Indiebound’s mission to direct book shoppers to the websites of their local bookstores, their website leaves a lot to be desired.
The first time I used Indiebound, it took over 15 minutes to purchase a book. After finding the book I wanted, Indiebound told me to type in my zip code and find my bookstore. Three bookstore websites later, I finally found an independently owned bookstore that allowed me to order a book online. That was years ago and more bookstores are selling books online, but it is still tedious, especially compared to Bookshop and Libro.fm, both of which learned from Indiebound’s example.
Libro.FM
Libro.FM is perfect for audiobook lovers. You can purchase audiobooks directly through an independent bookstore of your choice with Libro.FM, but unlike Indiebound, you don’t have to bounce from website to website. You can either purchase a monthly subscription or purchase books “a la carte”.
Even better, not only are their prices the same as Audible but when you switch from Audible to Libro.FM, you can get two audiobooks for the price of one.
If you want to support a black-owned bookstore in your state, Libro.FM has a list of them. You can choose one of them to buy your audiobooks from.
Bookshop
Bookshop is the newest store on this list, but it’s already making waves. Opened for less than a year, it’s already raised over 5 million dollars for indie bookstores.
Instead of choosing a bookstore to support, Bookshop gives a portion of its profits to all of their indie bookstore partners. But it does have a bookstore locator for those who want to support their local bookstore from their personal websites, or just find the closest bookstore.
The pandemic is unfortunately far from over, but websites like these three lets you support your local businesses from the comfort of your home. And what better way to spend a pandemic than reading a good book?
Disclaimer: The Indiebound link is an affiliate link, meaning I’ll get a small commission if you purchase a book through this link, but at no additional cost to you. I donate half of my affiliate earnings to Trees for the Future.