How to save bookstores from the pandemic?

While “non-essential” businesses are shutting down one after the other to protect themselves and others from the coronavirus pandemic, some more than others risk permanent closure, such as independent bookstores. To save them from the crisis, several bibliophile Internet users and other literary platforms then had innovative ideas.

The Save Your Bookstore app

Launched by internet user Aakanksha Gaur, the Save Your Bookstore app is the perfect solution for both merchants and enthusiasts. Through the ShelfJoy Instagram page, Aakanksha Gaur was already sharing photos from independent bookstores. Today, the platform aims to list all independent bookstores around the world and provide information that can help his favorite store. By downloading the application, you can then inform your local bookstore, as well as the means to financially help it. This includes the web address, social media, delivery rates, and ways to help. Through the purchase of gift cards or ebooks, it is possible to support the store and allow it to survive this complicated period.

Still, other bookstores are taking advantage of this initiative to offer their customers other ways of reading. A reader will then be able to pre-order certain books whose release has been postponed. They can also subscribe to a literary subscription, with a monthly delivery of books. To find out what your local bookstore has planned to compensate for the pandemic, just browse the application.

Buy and share

The difficulties faced by neighborhood bookstores are not new. Sites were created several years ago to help them. They have recently strengthened their collaborative arrangements to compensate for the losses due to this difficult period. Platforms such as Bookshop (in the United States) and Hive (United Kingdom) offered to donate their funds to independent bookstores. It is also possible to choose which store to help in particular, and most of these platforms offer to lighten the work of booksellers by preparing orders.

To find out if your bookstore is collaborating with this kind of platform, just go to its various social networks. Also, following bookstores on social networks remains essential to help them. By sharing the different Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram pages, bookshops gain visibility.

Also, by continuing to share opinions on social networks on his latest purchases, this signals that the bookstore is still active and that it is still possible to buy books there. Lastly,  many bookstores have expanded their business to more than just books. Today, it is possible to buy accessories such as tote bags or other candles to support your favorite bookstore without increasing your reading stack.

Sources : Fastcompany, @shelfjoy, Save Your Bookstores, Bookshop, Hive, Melrine Atzeni 

Photo Credits : Daniel von Appen Radek Homola

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