When Amazon fired me and all other California affiliates I wasn’t sure what to do. I’m also an affiliate with Barnes and Nobel, but their program doesn’t have the linking flexibility I want.
Then someone on Twitter , and I didn’t keep track of who, mentioned IndieBound books. How in the world have I missed this site!
What they do is link independent bookstores across the country into a central place where you and I can buy books easily on the web while shopping locally. For example, they list and sell books from Mysterious Galaxy Books, a truly wonderful independent bookstore featuring both mysteries and science fiction here in San Diego. But it’s in a part of town that’s way off my normal track. In fact, going to that bookstore is the only reason I get to that part of town and since it means a couple of freeways for me I’d rather order online.
IndieBound has an affiliate program that’s easy to join and easy to use. I can choose to link locally or let you decide where you want to buy the books you order from.
They’ve also got interesting author interviews, a social network and even IndieGear.
I backed Amazon from their earliest days and I love shopping on the ‘net, but it may have been a mistake. Online bookstores have severely damaged independent bookstores. Now we all have a way to support the indies.
Here’s a statistic from IndieBound I’d only sensed: “Spend $100 at a local and $68 of that stays in your community. Spend the same $100 at a national chain, and your community only sees $43.”
I’ll be converting the book links here to IndieBound as I can get to it. And any books I recommend in the future will be linked to IndieBooks. If you sell books on your blog or site you might consider making the switch too.
Let’s all shop local.
Write well and often,
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
I’m checking out IndieBound over breakfast Anne. Like you and thousands of other Californians, I got whacked from Amazon’s affiliate program.
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I’m impressed with them so far… and I feel good supporting independent book stores.Let me know what you think.
Glad you found a replacement, Anne! I’ve never even heard of IndieBound – hopefully they’ll be able to benefit nicely in light of Amazon’s bizarreness!
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