Amazon’s Jeff Bezos got $24bn richer during the previous Covid lockdown. That’s 24 with 9 zeros. Meanwhile, by loss of footfall, our indie bookshops are dying on their feet. And once they are gone, Jeff is not going to hunt down that rare book for you, or advice you what to get for your teenage niece. There’s one very simple thing you can do to help out.
Open you Amazon wishlist for books you’d like to have or give to someone else, and order them through Bookshop.uk instead. I’m a ‘late adopter’ at the best of times, yet even I found it easy to do!
It is an online bookshop aggregate with a mission to financially support local, independent bookstores. Your order will contribute to an earnings pool, evenly divided between participating indie bookstores. If you want to support a particular bookshop, you can go through their storefront, so that they receive the full profit from your order. More info and an FAQ here.
Say, I want to support The Secret Bookshelf in Carrickfergus. Hit the “Find a Bookshop” button in the top of the page, and zoom in on the map until you can click the appropriate marker. A pop-up will appear with details of the shop and the link to bookshop.org storefront. This is also a great way to discover new indie stores in your area!
You’re now in the virtual bookstore that you have chosen, and you’ll see the logo of the shop in the left-hand corner. When you now use the Search function to find a book, you’ll stay in the shop. I’m interested in Bettany Hughes’ latest book. Popping that in the “Search” bar and look at the results. Yes, it’s giving me an “Available”, so I’m adding it to the basket. Remember, it may be that this is not actually coming from The Secret Bookshelf, but as I’m using their storefront, they will benefit from it anyway.
Adding this to the basket, and now I can go to the Checkout, or I can keep shopping. For now, I’ll check this book out. It’s costing me £9.29, and it tells me that £3 is going to local bookshops! Note, by the way, that the header of your chosen bookshop stays the same, so that the profits indeed go there!
Hit “Checkout” again here, and since it’s my first time, I’ll have to give my address and billing details on the following pages. The pages are clear in what they need, and easy to fill in (with your bank card in your hand), so don’t worry about getting confused. For the card details it asks your 16 digit code, the month/year of expiry, the last 3 digits of the security code on the back of your card, and your postcode.
If you’ve got a voucher, you can apply the code here too. For postage, you can choose between 1st and 2nd class. It’s £2.75 for the first book, 2nd class, but when I added another book this remained the same. So, postage is cheaper when buying in bulk!
If you’re all happy, click “Place your order” and take up your vigil at the letterbox!
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