On this episode of the Self-Publishing with ALLi podcast, Dan Holloway focuses on a wave of developments around Bookshop.org, including its new partnership with Draft2Digital that makes it far easier for indie authors to sell e-books through the platform. He also looks at expanded audiobook options via Libro.fm’s new annual subscription model and a major new partnership with Spotify that connects audiobooks, physical books, and indie bookstores through seamless format switching.
Listen to the Podcast: Bookshop.org Expands Into E-Books, Audio, and Print
Sponsor
Self-Publishing News is proudly sponsored by PublishMe—helping indie authors succeed globally with expert translation, tailored marketing, and publishing support. From first draft to international launch, PublishMe ensures your book reaches readers everywhere. Visit publishme.me.
About the Host
Dan Holloway is a novelist, poet, and spoken word artist. He is the MC of the performance arts show The New Libertines, He competed at the National Poetry Slam final at the Royal Albert Hall. His latest collection, The Transparency of Sutures, is available on Kindle.
Thoughts or further questions on this post or any self-publishing issue?
If you’re an ALLi member, head over to the SelfPubConnect forum for support from our experienced community of indie authors, advisors, and our own ALLi team. Simply create an account (if you haven’t already) to request to join the forum and get going.
Non-members looking for more information can search our extensive archive of blog posts and podcast episodes packed with tips and advice at ALLi's Self-Publishing Advice Center.
Read the Transcript
Dan Holloway: Hello and welcome to another Self-Publishing News podcast. This week the news is all about Bookshop.org. We touched on some of this last week, but three stories have broken since then, so I thought I would dedicate this episode entirely to Bookshop.org.
A little background for those who haven't been following this story. Bookshop.org was founded at the very start of 2020 by Andy Hunter, who has a long history of online literary ventures, many of which have moved in the indie space. The start of 2020, of course, turned out to be a somewhat significant moment, because COVID hit very shortly thereafter and majorly disrupted a number of industries — including the book industry.
Bookshop.org started out somewhat unassumingly, as one platform among many. But it turned out to be one of the main beneficiaries of several significant historical events. COVID was one: it saw people desperately wanting to support their local bookshop while also needing something to do with their time at home. Bookshop.org was able to fulfil both of those needs.
It is a platform dedicated to supporting indie bookstores and the artisanal literary industry. It allows you to buy books from anywhere in the world, and a slice of the cover price goes to an indie bookstore of your choice — not necessarily your local one, but any participating store you want to support. More recently, there has been both a positive growth in supporting artisanal businesses and a more negatively driven interest in looking at alternatives to large corporations. Bookshop.org ticks both boxes for people who want to buy books online without going to Amazon.
One thing that initially made it work for indie bookstores but not necessarily for indie authors was that it was quite difficult to get your books on there. Because it dealt with print books, it initially worked only through Gardners, and it was quite difficult — even if you distributed to Gardners — to get your books available on the platform. But at the start of this year, Bookshop.org announced it was moving into ebooks. That was already massive. And then this week, three significant stories have all broken in the space of a few days.
Bookshop.org Partners with Draft2Digital for Ebooks
The first story is that Bookshop.org is now partnering with Draft2Digital. This makes it incredibly easy for indie authors to get their ebooks available through Bookshop.org. Many of us use Draft2Digital to distribute to a lot of platforms — if you do, you can now get your books through D2D onto Bookshop.org. Anyone who wants to support local bookstores by buying ebooks can buy your ebook through Bookshop.org and support their local bookstore at the same time.
It really is becoming something that supports not just local shops but indie culture as a whole. Andy Hunter has leaned into this, saying in the press release: ‘Partnering with Draft2Digital means self-published authors — an essential and rapidly growing part of the publishing landscape — can now work with indie bookstores and support each other.' That really does feel like an ecosystem supporting itself. A very positive move.
Audiobooks: Bookshop.org and Libro.fm
Connected to that is a second development on the audiobook side. Bookshop.org has partnered with Libro.fm — which is again something now open to us as indie authors. Libro.fm has also just launched an annual subscription, making it even easier for listeners who prefer annual subscriptions to access our audiobooks through Bookshop.org.
The Big One: Bookshop.org and Spotify Partner on Physical Books
So we've got ebooks becoming easier and audiobooks becoming easier — but the biggest story of all this week is that Bookshop.org has also partnered with Spotify for physical books. This is a huge move for both parties.
For Spotify, it marks a move into the physical space. Here's how it works: if you're listening to an audiobook on Spotify and you think, actually, I'd quite like to read this — tucked up on the sofa, bookmark in hand, feeling the pages — you can press a button in the Spotify app and, through Bookshop.org, the physical book will arrive on your doorstep. Your local indie bookstore will have been supported, because the purchase routes through Bookshop.org. And as an indie author, you benefit twice: once through the audiobook and once through the physical book.
To go with this, Spotify have also launched something called Page Match. This is a technology that lets you switch seamlessly between formats. If you're reading your physical book and need to go for a run, you can scan the last line of text you read on your phone, and Spotify will jump straight to that point in the audiobook so you can pick up seamlessly. And when you get back, Page Match will tell you which page to go back to in the paperback. Spotify are very much trying to make reading as friction-free a part of life as possible.
A Rare Week of Good News
So yes — it's really an encouraging set of stories this week, all centred on Bookshop.org, but also about making it easier for readers to read whatever you've written, in whatever format they prefer and whatever format you sell in. That feels like a good thing all round.
There were some other stories this week, but I think I'm going to leave it there, because this really does feel like it deserves dedicated coverage. Congratulations to Bookshop.org and all their partners. I hope many of us prosper as a result — and especially readers. With that, I look forward to speaking to you again at the same time next week.
