> Bookshop offers another option. Say you’re a small bookstore owner. It takes only a few minutes to set up a digital storefront on Bookshop’s website, list what books you want to sell, and, if you want, curate collections of titles to reflect your store’s worldview. You don’t have to actually stock any of the books yourself; Bookshop partners with the wholesaler Ingram to fulfill orders, so you’re off the hook for inventory and shipping. You get a 30 percent cut of the cover price on any book sold through your storefront. (If you’re a blogger, writer, influencer, or other bookish type, you can join Bookshop as an individual, even if you don’t own a brick-and-mortar bookstore, and take home a 10 percent cut on whatever you sell.)
I'm confused. It sounds like the independent booksellers in this scenario are doing basically nothing of note, their web store fronts are just an ad for bookshop.org where the indie gets a large cut. Is that right?
Book curation, or for that matter, any trustworthy product curation, is highly valuable. You used to be able to ask a bookshop keeper for recommendations based on your preferences and reading history. However, most independent bookshops have now disappeared from the UK. If you only read one genre, such as romantic novels, recommendation engines will easily find your next good read. If your reading habits are more eclectic, this provides a way to look at curated content from your favourite storefronts.
> Book curation, or for that matter, any trustworthy product curation, is highly valuable
I can vouch for that. A small foreign-books bookshop in the city I live in has recently hired a new bookshop seller and, as such, the selection of books has slightly changed. For the better, from my pov, as I'm now in there every week or so and each time I get something I didn't know I had wanted (until seeing it in there, that is).
All this to say that the unknown unknowns are a real problem when it comes to purchasing books, and a curator who can solve that for the clients of a bookshop is a highly valuable asset.
This is an interesting point and a crux for many small businesses. I suppose curation is being monetized many ways, including subscription clothing boxes. In theory, I think this represents the problem that "influencers" should have fixed.
"influencers" might have fixed it apart from the constant prodding from algorithms and other market forces that pushes them all to cater to the broadest possible market segment themselves. Can't emphasise enough how much youtube shoves in your face when one of your videos is doing worse than your average - when your low effort easy to digest drivel gets the biggest numbers, (more than the passion project you put your heart into) your spirit is crushed and you make more of it.
Unfortunately, most influencers get paid to endorse products and are nothing more than human ad bots. There was a sting in the UK where unwitting influencers agreed to promote a poisonous cyanide drink.
It's also very expensive, for an indie bookstore, to get book metadata legally since Baker and Taylor was acquired by Follett and to drive online traffic in a cost effectively.
> It sounds like the independent booksellers in this scenario are doing basically nothing of note, their web store fronts are just an ad for bookshop.org where the indie gets a large cut. Is that right?
I mean, they're sending traffic. I don't think that's "nothing of note".
They are lending their brand to Bookshop.org, which profits also from selling books (that’s how they can afford to stay in business).
I’m a big fan of Bookshop. I just wish they could break into the DRM free epub business. Libro.fm managed to get into the DRM free audiobook business somehow.
Amazon is doing the same with amazon.com/shop/{username} if you sign up as an influencer — I think it's a little known feature though. Works internationally.
I'm confused. It sounds like the independent booksellers in this scenario are doing basically nothing of note, their web store fronts are just an ad for bookshop.org where the indie gets a large cut. Is that right?