A quick note for everyone recommending / linking to IndieBound
A link to IndieBound is like a big “fuck you” to anyone who doesn’t live either in the United States or in Mission City, BC. On the other hand, your favorite web-savvy indie bookstore that’s on IndieBound probably has an order form that works anywhere.
I know this isn’t intentional, and I’m certain it’s not obvious; so, in case it matters, I thought I should let you know.
February 1st, 2010 at 12:11 pm
Yeah, I know. And it is one reason why I haven’t gone with IndieBound before. But at the same time the vast majority of my readers are in the US; smaller bookstores may not have good stock; and last time I looked at Powells their affiliate scheme was obnoxious. The main reason I haven’t switched from Amazon before is that the alternatives were worse.
Also, if people are going to stop reading my blog in a huff because they think I have insulted them by switching away from Amazon, I really don’t mind at all. I like encouraging people to buy books, but it is not my duty to do so.
February 1st, 2010 at 3:27 pm
Your investigations have turned up no international alternatives that aren’t huge congobblerates?
February 1st, 2010 at 3:32 pm
Not so far. Mind you I’ve been too busy with work and rhinovirus to try very hard the last few days.
There’s ABEBooks, but I assume authors would in general prefer to link to people selling new books.
February 1st, 2010 at 4:12 pm
Book Depository is pretty good, as far as I know:
http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/
They’ve got free worldwide shipping, so I tend to use them whenever I order stuff from overseas. I haven’t really checked into their corporate structure, but could they be as bad as Amazon? (Well, maybe if Rupert Murdoch owned them…) They have an affiliate program, but I haven’t used it — I’ve been with Amazon’s from the early days, and have stuck with it because of 1.) inertia, and 2.) I haven’t found anything as comprehensive to cause me to overcome my inertia. My ideal would be something like IndieBound, but there are lots of things I don’t like about their site just in terms of usefulness, so…
February 1st, 2010 at 4:13 pm
Generally I link to the publishers’ sites, since they link to all the regular suspects. But now those sites include links to evil.
February 2nd, 2010 at 11:51 am
Book Depository’s a good suggestion; thanks, Matt. Looks especially good after reading the discussion at Cheryl’s.
This WordPress plugin looks promising, too. And I guess I’ll have to put on my grungy old web administrator hat to deal with this, one way or another.