At its core, AuthorPods is about books. But it’s also about supporting authors and readers and engaging them in dialogue about the subject matter of those books.
Last year, when we launched AuthorPods, we made a point to integrate bookshop.org. Bookshop is an online nonprofit that sells books independently and through bookstores. Buyers who go onto bookshop.org can identify their local bookstore and then purchase their book through it.
Bookshop’s timely, January 2020 launch occurred just as the COVID-19 took hold and many independent bookstores were compelled—at least temporarily—to close their doors to the public.
Arguably because of the pandemic, by September of this past year Bookshop had become “the go-to platform for independent local bookstores to build an online storefront and compete with Amazons juggernaut,” according to techcrunch.
That’s not to say that at its launch, Bookshop did not raise the wary eye of some independent booksellers.
While heartened by the arrival of an online competitor to the behemoth Amazon, some booksellers were nonetheless concerned that online sales at the new startup would erode their own sales. A New York Times article in June of 2020 highlighted that concern, pointing to what booksellers anticipated to be a substantial hit on their revenue.
But in September of his past year, Bookshop founder Andy Hunter suggested those fears had been misplaced and that the two could coexist, even support one another’s growth.
As buyers returned to bookstores and May 2021 bookstore sales increased 130% year-on-year, bookshop.org’s sales also showed continued and substantial growth, Hunter told techcrunch. His interest was in supporting bookstores, not undermining them. His site supports that claim. Currently, Bookshop.org claims in its header over $18.5m raised for bookshops.
When AuthorPods launched, we provided buyers the ability to purchase books by their favorite authors through Amazon or Bookshop. Many authors and publishers disparage Amazon for their ability to change a book’s sale price at will and for demanding a significant cut of each sale. But because of their depth of offerings, reach and convenience, Amazon remains the dominant bookseller. And even the likes of us—our affiliate status revoked because we have not met the affiliate threshold for books sold—still carry their links on our site not because we benefit but because that expectation of being able to buy through Amazon remains.
If you wish to support local and independent booksellers and want to support us too, we hope you consider purchasing your book through our bookshop.org link (which provides us 10% of each sale and bookstores a generous 30%). By no means, feel obliged. You also are welcome to purchase your book directly from your local bookstore. Our hope simply is that you somehow get hold of the book so you can discuss its subject matter, extending the singular experience of reading into a more dynamic one that continues beyond the last page.
And don’t worry if you choose not to buy through Amazon. Approaching two trillion dollars in value, it will fare just fine.
