I’ve always been just a bit uneasy about linking to Amazon.com when mentioning a book on my blog. I often use the site when making my own purchases, but I also like to support independent booksellers and should make use of them more often. I mean, my own mother owns an independent bookstore, for Pete’s sake. Amazon is just so darned convenient, though!
Then I noticed that Beatrice linked to a site called Booksense, which describes itself as “a family of independent-bookseller websites.” It looks like once you become an affiliate of Booksense, you can provide links to their site that allow users to locate a local independent bookseller stocking the book you’ve mentioned. I’ll try to start using this site instead of Amazon.
By the way, if you’re ever in Newnan, Georgia and you need some metaphysical supplies, stop by my mom’s bookstore.
I have always found it painfully ironic that the Booksense program had the effect of molding indie bookstore sites into the Booksense web template, which is many cases is not as good as the original indie bookstore site.
Booksense is restricted to the U.S., it seems, so I won’t be using it. But a great idea.
bookfinder.com is another good one to link to. Many bookstores, some (most?) of them independents, list books with them. I don’t know what countries it covers, but I’ve seen both U.S. and Canadian stores listed there.
Thanks, Heidi, Miriam, and Vika.