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Bookshop.org Launches E-Book Platform to Exclusively Support Indie Bookstores

"We survive by scraping ... to make a little extra income and this is really significant," said the owner of Green Apple Books.
Adriana Gallardo, NPR
The interior of a bookstore with packed shelves against the walls and display tables in between.
Inside Green Apple on Clement Street. The bookstore has two additional locations, Green Apple Books on the Park and Browser Books. (Courtesy of Green Apple Books)

E-books sell by the million on platforms like Amazon’s Kindle or Apple Books.

But independent bookstores have had a difficult time competing for those sales—something the site Bookshop.org wants to change with the launch of its new e-book platform.

The online retailer launched in 2020 with the explicit goal of connecting readers to their local bookstores. The addition of Bookshop’s e-book platform this week builds on this mission and promises that 100% of the profits from e-book sales will go back to the indie sellers.

Bookshop.org’s founder and CEO, Andy Hunter spoke with Morning Edition about the barriers to entry that have slowed e-book sales for most independent bookshops.

“E-books became big around 2009, and publishers were really afraid of e-book piracy so they decided that all e-books have to have digital rights management … which will keep people from pirating e-books,” Hunter said. “And because the publisher requirements are so strict, it requires a huge amount of technical effort to deliver an e-book securely and that is too much for any individual local bookstore to deal with.”

Bookshop.org’s new platform — available on its website or on Apple and Android — allows readers to purchase and download e-books from local bookstores or from Bookshop.

Once an e-book order has been placed those books are available to read from the user’s digital library, either in the app or from the browser.

An iPad propped up against a stack of five books, showing the home page of an app.
Bookshop.org’s new e-book platform, as seen on an iPad. (Courtesy of Bookshop.org)

Some indie bookstore owners are excited at the prospect of selling e-books

Bookshop.org’s new effort was welcomed news for bookstore owners like Pete Mulvihill of Green Apple Books in San Francisco.

“The biggest thing is that every time somebody makes a purchase, they’re shaping the future of their neighborhood or their town or their main street,” Mulvihill said. “We survive by scraping and clawing where we can to find efficiencies or make a little extra income and this is really another significant, if small, stream of income for us. So it’s truly helpful.”

In Franklin, Ind., Tiffany Phillips, owner of Wild Geese Bookshop, said she’s always wanted to sell e-books in order to make her store more accessible.

“There are a lot of readers who prefer the digital format because you can enlarge the fonts if you have any kind of visual impairment or impaired vision, ” Phillips told NPR. “My sister has rheumatoid arthritis so for her holding a big one like Outlander for a long period of time is difficult, so she prefers an e-reader.”

Hunter, like Phillips, said offering e-books does not replace foot traffic or in-person gatherings but having the option available through this platform helps local stores be a player in the existing symbiosis of digital and physical books in reader’s lives.

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