quick note on book-buying in the UK

[kaberett]

I got linked the other day to Bookshop.org, as a way to shop for books online while supporting independent booksellers in the UK -- to which my immediate question was "wait, how is this different from, and is it better than, hive.co.uk?"

And then, with a little more prompting, I managed to do some digging through the website, and found:

If you want to choose a specific bookshop to support, choose them from our map and they’ll receive 30% of the cover price (or almost all of the profit) on your orders for a year. Otherwise, 10% of the cover price of your order will contribute to an earnings pool that will be evenly distributed among participating independent bookshops each month. (https://uk.bookshop.org/pages/about)

... versus...

Whether you order books, films, music, games, or anything else, your chosen bookshop will receive commission. They will receive a minimum of 10% on the net value of all book orders, rising to 25% when you select store collection. We pay 8% on eBooks and 3% on entertainment products. Bookshops receive their commission monthly. (https://www.hive.co.uk/WhatsHiveallabout)

The other really crucial point from my perspective is that Bookshop.org isn't currently doing ebooks, but I'd been completely unaware of them otherwise, so here is a note. :)