There are many challenges for readers when it comes to wanting to support their independent local book store and their favorite small press or independent author.
At Brick Cave, we've known this for a long time, and over the years we have worked hard to make it as easy as possible for readers that love our authors and have a favorite local seller take advantage of supporting both.
We are going to leverage a website dedicated to independent booksellers indiebound.org. Let's show you how. For starters, we'll cover paperback and hard bound editions (where applicable).
Checking the listing
For this example, we'll use Platinum Magic, by Bruce Davis. You can start by visiting the book's profile page at brickcave.media (clearly, you are on the site now).
From the "Authors" menu, you can select Bruce and see all of the Brick Cave titles he has published. By selecting Platinum Magic from his bibliography list below his bio, and you will be at the book's home page, shown below:
From the Platinum Magic profile page, you can pull all the data you need, if you would like to visit your local book store in person (or call) and ask that they order the book for you. The ISBN for each available format is listed at the top of the profile.
Pro Surfers: From here, feel free to just grab the ISBN in question and head over to your favorite bookstore home page, search by the ISBN, and you are off to the races! Read below if you would like some help zeroing in on your bookstore using a special online tool.
Need More Help? Read On . . .
At the bottom of the profile, you will see buy links, sorted by format and store. Now, mind you, these are not all inclusive, but there are some of the most popular purchase outlets we see as a publisher. You can always use the corresponding ISBN and perform a search at your preferred site if you do not see if here. But, back to our story...
If you see the link to IndieBound, then we have already provided you a link to easily connect to your favorite local book store.
What is IndieBound?
"IndieBound is an initiative of the American Booksellers Association (ABA) dedicated to making the world better one independent bookstore at a time." - IndieBound.org. This does mean that your favorite local bookseller would need to be a member of the American Booksellers Association to appear in the next part of our story.
Go Ahead, Click Through
Clicking the link will open up the IndieBound.org site to the listing of the Brick Cave Book in question, with an important pop up:
Clicking "Allow" will allow IndieBound to show you the list of Bookstores closest to your location:
If your store both appears on the list, and has the cool shopping cart icon next to it- whalaaah! You can click that link and you'll go right to your favorite store's website, and right to the page with the Brick Cave book. You need only check out via their process, and they handle the rest for you! You have now supported BOTH Brick Cave as a small publisher AND your favorite Independent book store.
eBook Options
ABA works closely with Kobo to provide a robust eBook option for the independent bookstore community. And Brick Cave supports that, as our titles released via eBook are released to the Kobo Platform as well, and thus, to your independent book store. Kobo eBooks are available via Kobo Readers, which we assume you can also buy from your local bookseller or direct from Kobo.
The process can be similar as a print book, with a couple tweaks. Because IndieBound does not list the eBook availability, here is how you can work around the barriers:
1) Check on the Brick Cave Book's Profile page at brickcave.media and see if 'Kobo' is an option on the eBook format. Don't click it, as that will take you to Kobo (and not support your bookstore).
2) Instead, follow the path like you would with a paperback or hard bound edition, until to land on your bookstore page for the book.
3) On that page, you should see "Related Editions" or something similar (if they are participating in the program). You should see an 'eBook' or 'Kobo eBook' edition and you can click and buy that and you are on your way!
Audio Book?
At the moment, our audio book releases are limited to the Amazon (Audible) and Apple iTunes platforms. This direct links are provided on the book's profile page at brickcave.media, and will take you directly to the home page for the book on the corresponding service.
Why It Matters
Independent booksellers has some very serious concerns when it comes to small presses and idependent authors. They, like us, need to successfully sell books to stay in business. Asking bookstore to purchase (especially in quantities) books they have no experience with is asking them to take a risk. Brick Cave (and others) mitigate this risk for them by allowing them to return books they do not sell. Our distributor (Ingram) is the largest book distributor in the world, so most every bookstore, and a great many other retail outlets, use distributors like Ingram to help manage that risk. With that in mind, the book store can order with confidence, you can support everyone, and the whole ecosystem of small business wins.
