Bookshop.org plans to add audiobooks and e-books to its offerings in the U.K. as well as develop a mobile app for customers, allowing U.K. indie booksellers to offer those products for the first time. The organization is planning to launch a private beta version of the service in late 2023, followed by a full launch in 2024. More than 550 independent booksellers in the U.K. use Bookshop.
Bookshop said also that it has completed a $1.8 million angel fundraising round that is aiding the effort. As with printed book sales, U.K. booksellers will be able to keep the full profit margin on any e-books or audiobooks they sell, while all other sales will generate 10% for the profit pool that is shared among all participating bookstores.
Nicole Vanderbilt, managing director of Bookshop.org UK, said: "Independent bookshops in the U.K. have never had access to this market before, so Bookshop.org is proud to offer a great alternative for anyone who wants to purchase (and enjoy) e-books and audiobooks and support independent bookshops at the same time. One of our goals is to ensure indie bookshops thrive in the age of e-commerce, and creating new revenue streams for bookshops, while providing a viable alternative to Amazon, is precisely how we want to achieve this."
Andy Rossiter, owner of Rossiter Books and past president of the Booksellers Association of the U.K. and Ireland, said: "This market has been completely dominated by Amazon for years so to have it opened up to independent bookshops by a completely trusted partner is fantastic news. Hundreds of independents have already built a strong relationship with Bookshop.org, so together I'm certain that the offering will be intelligently tailored towards what our customers are looking for and will be a tremendous benefit to independent booksellers."
In the U.S., Bookshop partners with Libro.fm to offer audiobooks and is building a platform to allow stores to sell e-books, which CEO Andy Hunter said, it hopes to launch in beta by the end of the year. He added that Bookshop plans to integrate with IndieCommerce and Bookmanager to let stores using those platforms sell e-books, too.