Why authors should affiliate with Bookshop.org

The Erudite Bookworm Bookshop

The Erudite Bookworm is the website of children’s and fiction author D.M. De Alwis. Naturally, she named her bookstore the same. D.M. De Alwis is the author of children’s books and fiction. She creates her children’s books as vignettes of life with three children, two dogs, and a cat. She lives with her family in Richmond Hill, Canada. After stepping away from a career in STEM, she is leaning into her lifelong yearning to be an author and to one day own brick and mortar bookstore. For more see https://dmdealwis.com.

Bookshop

While goodreads.com lowers the bar for authors (especially those publishing on KDP) to establish a presence and community with their readers, Bookshop.org helps independent authors establish a presence as booksellers.

Why do I say this? Most authors struggle to get their books to market. Authors who publish to different genres or who are prolific with multiple series, have a greater challenge of introducing readers to themselves and their work.

KDP Published Authors and goodreads.com

Please note, goodreads.com works seamlessly for Amazon sellers because of its integration with the book listing on Amazon.

Once you've established an author profile, the system will add your new books for you.

Unfortunately, authors published on KDP may not be able to find their books on bookshop.org. The remainder of this post is relevant if you've hybrid/indie published with a publisher or published through Draft2Digital or IngramSpark.

An Introduction to Bookshop.org

Their mission is to help local, independent bookstores thrive in the age of e-commerce.

There's a benefit to getting your ISBNs added to your local or independent bookstore's bookshop.org affiliate pages.

But you as the author can also add yourself as a bookseller affiliate on Bookshop.org,

• You can set up your affiliate author page.
• set up clear links to your website and social media.
• Have profits from your books sold through your affiliate link split between bookstore.org and you.

Marketing to your Audience

What do people who buy YOUR books need to know?

When listed in a directory like Amazon, goodreads.com, and bookshop.org there is very little to distinguish your work from anyone else's.

How can you solve the reader's dilemma of,

• Where do I start—which book do I read first?
• What books are comparable to yours—will your work resonate with me?

Making use of Book Lists

On Bookshop.org authors can list any book in their bookstore.

After some thought, I decided to create four distinct booklists for my page.

1. Children's books by me | a list of my books.
2. Children's book recommendations | Books that inspire my work and books by children's authors I have met (limited to one book per author).
3. Fantasy & historical fiction inspirations for my WIP | Books that inspire my ongoing work. Think of this as comparable titles.
4. Fiction recommendations | Books by authors I have met (limited to one per author).

Help readers to stumble upon our work.

My intention isn't just to promote my books. I want readers get to know me. An adult looking at my children's book may be interested in my historical fiction at a later date.

If you read this far and are in the process of creating your bookshop.org page, I would be thrilled if you list my work in your book store. My ISBNs are 978-1-0694018-1-6 for for Best Friends & 978-1-0694018-0-9 for Which Feeling.

-D.M. De Alwis

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