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  • Writer's picturemaisierosereads

Supporting Independent Bookshops Without Leaving Your House (UK)

Hi bookish friends!

Today (August 29th 2020) is Independent Bookstore Day!

Technically, here in the UK we celebrated our indie bookshops for a whole week in June with Independent Bookshop Week. But that was before I started this blog and I’ll take any opportunity to support independent bookshops, so I’m posting this now instead!

Growing up I associated independent bookshops with Hay-on-Wye. I spent my childhood summers camping in Wales with my family, and the most exciting destination for me was Trericket Mill. Not just because it was a quiet little vegetarian campsite with ducks and chickens, or because we would hire canoes for day trips down the Wye and see otters, but because we would spend at least a few hours in Hay-on-Wye itself. There’s a reason why Hay is the home of a book festival; despite being a small town in a rural area, it’s currently home to 20 independent bookshops. I would always end up with a stack of books in my tent, and my parents had to buy me a wind-up torch because I kept falling asleep reading and running the torch batteries down. Not much has changed about me, really.

Now more than ever it’s so important to support small businesses and creators however we can. Thankfully, so long as you have an internet connection it’s 100% possible to do that without leaving your house!

While I’m writing this from the perspective of someone living in England, I do want to quickly note before I start that all of these things are relevant to readers in other countries, too.

Follow your favourite independent bookshops online and buy directly from them!

A lot of independent bookshops have a fantastic social media presence, and some of them even have online stores! In my experience even the shops which don’t have stores are often happy for you to message them with book requests and, if they can, they’ll post it out to you.

Here are some of my favourite UK independent bookshops!

Gay’s the Word (London). You’ve all heard of Gay’s the Word, right? It’s been around since 1979 and was featured in the movie Pride! Check out their website for all the information you need about their history, events, and how to buy books from them at the moment. They’re also wonderful to follow on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Oh, and Queer Book Box source their books from them!

The Portal Bookshop (York). I am seriously considering a holiday to York just so I can visit The Portal in person. I’ve bought books from them online before through their website (they’re busy working on adding the rest of their stock to their online store!) – you will have seen them mentioned if you’ve read my review of Cinderella is Dead! I’ve also been following them for a while on Twitter, and they seem absolutely lovely.

Category is Books (Glasgow). This is another future destination of mine! Category is Books is a “fiercely independent queer bookshop” and that’s all I needed to know before following them on Twitter and Instagram. They also have a website, complete with a way to order books online and a pay it forward scheme!

I’d also like to recommend all of the shops listed in this article: Black-owned independent bookshops to order from online now!

Also, you can find any type of independent bookshop you can imagine through the Indie Bookshop Week website!

Hive.co.uk: Books, eBooks, Audiobooks, DVD, Blu-Ray, CD, Vinyl,

Hive has been my go-to website for buying books (digital or physical) since I first found out about it a few months ago. It’s a British company founded in 2011, and unlike certain other online retailers (I’m looking at you, Amazon) they pay all of their taxes. Even better – they give a cut of every sale to independent bookshops!

They’re connected to hundreds of independent bookshops across the UK, and you can choose which one you would like to support when you go through the checkout. You can choose to collect your order from your indie store of choice or have it posted to you for free.

There’s only one independent bookshop within 10 miles of my house (The Bookshop on the Green), and they haven’t been able to open in months due to Covid-19. However, because they’re part of the Hive network, it’s still possible for me to support them!

I’m very fortunate to be part of the Hive affiliate network, so if anybody makes a purchase through one of my affiliate links I will earn a small amount of commission. As I’ve mentioned on Twitter, any money that I do earn through this programme will go straight into my book budget, which means it’ll be going straight back to independent bookshops through Hive.co.uk!

Libro.fm: audiobooks

When I found out about Libro.fm – a platform which makes it possible to directly support independent bookshops when you purchase digital audiobooks – it was love at first sight.

If you ask anybody where to buy audiobooks from, they will probably mention Audible – but Audible (who are owned by Amazon) are preventing libraries, schools, and independent bookshops from being able to access audiobooks.

Libro.fm have over 150,000 audiobooks on offer, and since they’re DRM-free once you buy them you get to keep them forever across all of your devices. They have a few different options for buying them:

  1. Monthly memberships. Memberships cost $14.99 a month; you get two audiobooks in your first month, and one a month after that. If you want more books, as a member you will get 30% off any additional purchases (including gifts)! Credits are flexible, with no expiration date. At the moment you can only become a monthly member if your payment card is from the USA or Canada, but for international listeners like me…

  2. Gift memberships. You can buy and use these from anywhere in the world! This means that if you’re not in the USA/Canada, you can still get credits for the equivalent of $15 each to spend on any audiobook you like. There are options for 1, 3, 6, or 12 month gift memberships. Use them yourself, or gift them to a bookish friend!

  3. Buy individual books, no strings attached. All of Libro’s titles are available to buy individually without credits. Audiobooks can be expensive, but Libro.fm always has an excellent selection of sale audiobooks for as little as $4.99! Right now their sale books include Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo, Darius the Great is Not Okay by Adib Khorram, and The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers.

Here is my referral link to get one free audiobook from Libro.fm! (Disclaimer: if you do decide to continue your membership after that, I will get one free audiobook too)

Thank you so much for reading this post, and for doing your bit to support our indies!

Happy reading,

Maisie Rose x

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