Why do you use
Booksense? Why not Amazon.com?
Booksense is a collective of independent booksellers formed to allow
independent booksellers to compete online with major corporations like
Amazon.com or Barnes & Noble.
As it stands right now, the
major corporate booksellers can command special competitive advantages
from the publishing industry that are not available to smaller,
independently-owned booksellers. (The right to return 300 unsold
copies of Anna Nicole-Smith's autobiography for instance.)
Why do you want to
support the independent booksellers?
As an author, I've learned that independent booksellers are much
more knowledgeable about the book industry, and the books they sell --
it's their business, as opposed to their job -- than the
employees at the local chain. Additionally, while working on my
graduate thesis, I came to see them as a very important part of the book
industry. A rich variety in booksellers is good for the book
industry in much the same way that a diversity of species makes for a
healthier habitat.
Support
your local independent bookseller
Text
below from Booksense.com
What is Book Sense?
Book Sense is a national
marketing campaign on behalf of the independent bookstores of America.
It is both a local and national effort to shine a light on the knowledge
and diversity of independent bookstores, via the Book
Sense Bestseller List -- now running in over a dozen newspapers as
well as monthly in US News and World Report and on CSPAN -- and the Book
Sense 76 -- a bi-monthly selection of eclectic new books chosen by
independent booksellers.
Book Sense also offers a
gift certificate welcome at over 1,100 independent bookstores
nationwide! And then there is, of course, BookSense.com.
What is BookSense.com?
BookSense.com is a family of
independent-bookseller websites. (And it's the e-commerce arm of the
American Booksellers Association's Book Sense program.)
When you visit a
BookSense.com virtual bookstore, you will experience the knowledge and
passion of independent booksellers who share their love of books with
their customers and their communities. You'll have access to information
and news about local authors, store events, and myriad staff
recommendations -- and you will also be presented with content that
reflects the collective wisdom of booksellers from all 50 states and
Puerto Rico.
