Bookshop.org: The anti-Amazon is going global

As an author and small publisher, I’m excited to see the rapid growth — and globalization — of the online bookstore Bookshop.org.

Bookshop.org positions itself as the anti-Amazon, by working with independent bookstores to share revenues more generously. There referral fees are, based on my experience, about twice what Amazon Affiliates offers.

I mention Bookshop here because it recently launched its localized website for Spain. The UK website was launched about a year ago.

Here is the Spain home page:

Note the generic globe icon in the header, which includes a toggle between Spanish and Catalan — yes, Catalan. Even Amazon lags in support for this language.

And I would guess that a year from now we’ll see 1-2 additional localized websites. In the FAQ section, Bookshop notes:

Bookshop.org only ships to the US, but we do have Bookshop UK and Bookshop Spain available for those regions. We do hope to help support bookstores all over the world in the future.

Sadly, the global gateway on the main Bookshop.org page relies on flags, which is less than ideal.

Should Bookshop keep going like this I anticipate adding them to the Web Globalization Report Card. Amazon could use a little competition in the online bookstore department.