So many independent bookshops are struggling terribly at the moment and are having to really think outside the box to find ways to help customers continue to use them.

Online sales have become far more important, and some businesses have been offering home deliveries, mystery book parcels, signed copies, and Zoom or Facebook events as a way of standing out of the crowd.

It is more important than ever to shop locally whenever we can, and so I was very pleased to see the exciting announcement made recently that the website bookshop.org has come to the UK!

Bookshop.org is an online bookshop which started in the US and aims to financially support local, independent bookshops. The company actually gives more than 75% of its profit margin away to independent shops, publications and authors.

When you buy from the site, there’s a handy little map to search for a particular bookstore you’d like to support, and they’ll receive the full profit from anything you order – how cool is that?! If you don’t choose an individual shop, the earnings go into a pool which is evenly distributed across bookshops.

If you’re not affiliated with a bookshop, you’ll find a list of ones close to you on your email receipt. I thought this was a great way to encourage people to support those shops which are actually local to them so they can help a business in their own community.

With delusions of being Kathleen Kelly sat behind her counter in the film ‘You’ve Got Mail’ racing through my head, I set up my own ‘bookshop’ on the site, where I can make lists of books I recommend. This can be done by booksellers, authors, bloggers… anyone book-related basically! My shop can be found at:

https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/emmabennet

I’ll be adding more lists and updating them in the coming weeks.

I get a small commission if anything is bought through my store or using a link that I put in a blog article or on social media, and, obviously, your local, independent bookstore will get a percentage too!