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bookshop.org is basically a website for ingram distribution, the primary distribution company for indies. all the bookselling members get a commission for all s
by greenie_beans 2y ago
bookshop.org is basically a website for ingram distribution, the primary distribution company for indies. all the bookselling members get a commission for all sales on the platform, so it is very beneficial to the participating bookstores. bookshop.org exists separately from a lot of stores ecommerce website, though the bigger stores don't always participate in bookshop because they fear it will take away from their ecommerce sales. it's more aimed towards smaller stores who can't afford the time or money for a good ecommerce store, but also, i'm assuming trying to compete with amazon seo which would ultimately support indies since they split commissions from all the sales.
> While independent bookstores may benefit from an increased online presence in the short term, I'm left asking the question: what is preventing Bookshop.org from capturing their customers, decreasing commissions, and even blocking those links to the store's actual independent online presence in the medium to long term?
trust. it was started by somebody whose career demonstrated they are committed to supporting indies and literature. if you've been around booksellers, then you know how important this trust is. the booksellers are also very loud and opinionated so the company will know if they are making wrong decisions. the stores feel like they have somewhat of an ownership to bookshop (though not legally).
you might say, "well trust can be broken" and you're right but we're talking about a niche industry with a limited market size, and no potential for world domination/incentive to break the trust. i know it's crazy but some folks still do business like that. the platform's success depends on the relationship with the booksellers, so what happens when they break that trust?
before this, indies didn't have much helping them online except custom ecommerce stores that some stores can't afford and are generally not good software imo. bookshop.org is hardly competing with amazon here. there is no huge market capture they're after. they're just trying to help bookstores stay alive and compete.
source, i made ecommerce software for independent bookstores: https://bookhead.net https://bookhead.net
(edits for pre-coffee typos)
- Talanes 2y agoThat all makes sense for physical products, it's just less clear what the local bookstore is actually adding to the process for a digital e-book transaction.
- greenie_beans 2y agowhen you are a bookseller on the sales floor, sometimes a customer asks for an e-book, and the bookseller won't be able to sell them an e-book copy. indies have never been able to sell this to their customers. now they can, indirectly, by telling them to buy it on bookshop and they'll get a cut.
- bwb 2y agoAnd bookshop.org has already sent 36+ million to indie bookstores. It also removes the cost of trying to run an online bookstore of any kind. Hopefully, they are headed to audio books next.
- bsjiendn 2y agoThe CEO has answered this question. The local bookstore doesn’t add anything to this process. But if bookshop.org doesn’t support the local bookstore then bookshop.org doesn’t have any value to the reader either. They’d might as well go to Amazon at that point.
- insane_dreamer 2y agoThey don't add anything. But they all get a small slice of profits of the sale regardless, without having to set up their own ebook store.
- greenie_beans 2y agothey promote the site, so they help drive sells. you wouldn't even know what bookshop.org was if it weren't for the booksellers.