How to support Bound when you're shopping for books online

Our customers often ask us if there’s a way they can still support Bound when they shop for books online—for instance, when we don’t currently have a certain title on our shelves or when it’s a title we don’t typically carry. And the answer is—yes! But first, let’s explain a little about why it’s good to avoid Amazon when you’re shopping for books online—even if Amazon offers cheaper prices.

The first thing to remember when you’re buying books online is that Amazon is notoriously harmful to your local bookstores and, in turn, to your local economy. Long story short, Amazon can afford to sell books at severely low prices, undercutting its competitors’ prices and drawing sales away from independent bookstores, all because Amazon makes enough from its other departments that it doesn’t need to turn a profit from book sales the way your local indie does. And while independent bookstores put a lot of their income right back into the local economy (by creating local jobs and paying local taxes), Amazon does not.

To make things worse, Amazon actively shorts authors and audiobook producers of their rightful royalties via Audible, its audiobook service. For a detailed explanation of how it does this, check out this Twitter thread.

But the good news is that there are alternatives to Amazon and Audible. You can enjoy the convenience of audiobooks and of online book shopping while still supporting Bound and other local bookstores!

When you’re shopping for physical books, use our Bookshop.org affiliate account by following this link. We make a commission off of any purchases you make via our Bookshop account link. (Bookshop also offers certain titles in ebook format through MyMustReads.)

If you’re an audiobook listener, try Libro.fm. It works along the same lines as Bookshop: Any purchase made through our affiliate link gives Bound a small percentage of the sale price. The only downside is that, because of the monopoly Amazon has on some audiobook titles (i.e., certain titles are contractually obligated to be sold exclusively on Audible), you may not be able to find every title on Libro.fm that you would find on Audible.

We’re happy to answer any questions you may have about either of these services! Happy shopping (and reading)!

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