In this time of quarantine and crisis, many independent publishers and booksellers need our help. We’ve put together a list of ways we can support these fixtures of our community during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.
1. Order online directly from your favorite indie bookstore or publisher. (Browse our directory of hundreds of small presses and literary magazines, and discover the most recent new releases from indie publishers.)
2. Buy a gift certificate to your local brick-and-mortar bookstore, to redeem when its doors are open once again. (Read this piece on LitHub for additional ways to support indie bookstores.)
3. Shop on Bookshop.org, which currently gives 30% of books’ cover price to independent bookstores. (You can shop through our affiliate page here, and CLMP members can watch a webinar featuring Andy Hunter, the CEO of Bookshop.)
4. Many indie publishers and booksellers are crowd-sourcing funding in the short-term. If you can, donate the cost of a book to help them get through this crisis. (CLMP members can also watch a recent webinar about how to raise funding on Kickstarter.)
5. Purchase audiobooks from Libro.fm, an online platform that splits all profits with the independent bookstore of your choice.
6. Share your favorite books from small presses, or the ones you look forward to reading soon, on social media, and encourage your friends to pick up a copy—possibly even through a virtual book club.
7. Sign up for your favorite publishers’ and bookstores’ newsletters, so you can be aware of any virtual events, new releases, or fundraising strategies—and so they can tell you the specific ways in which they could use your help.
8. Send a gift or gift certificate—purchased from a local bookstore, small press, Libro.fm, or Bookshop—to a loved one you can’t currently see in person.
9. Attend some of the many virtual events being held by bookstores and publishers to promote newly launched books. (We’re keeping an updated list of virtual events and book clubs hosted by our members.)
10. Reach out (virtually) to a small press, literary magazine, or local bookstore that matters to you! Let them know that you’re grateful for their work and that you’re honored to be part of their community—during and after this time of social distancing.
