Why I Added Bookshop Links to My Website in Canada

 “Bookstores are lonely forts, spilling light onto the sidewalk.
They civilize their neighborhoods.”

— John Updike

A promotional graphic for Little Goodbyes Press featuring a screenshot of the publisher’s Bookshop.org storefront. Large purple text on a pink background reads “Shop Our Books on Bookshop!” at the top and “Support Indie Bookstores!” at the bottom. The storefront screenshot displays several book covers, including Bye-Bye, Boobies, Marl and the Worm Bin, The Fox and the Crow, The Camel’s Nose, Shelved, and Canadian trivia books.


What Is Bookshop?

Bookshop.org is an online bookstore that partners with independent bookstores in the United States and the United Kingdom. You can even pick your favourite local bookstore to support through their site while you are shopping from home.

Instead of functioning like a typical online retailer, part of its model is designed to support indie bookshops through online sales. Over the past few years, it has become increasingly popular with readers who want another option for buying books online while still supporting independent bookstores and when I saw people talking about it in the forums, I decided to check it out.

Why I Started Using It as a Canadian Site

Even though we are in Canada, and Canadian bookstores are not included, our traffic and customers are all over the world. But it turns out since our books are distributed through IngramSpark, many of them are already available on Bookshop, making this a simple choice to add their links to our website.

See ISBNs in Canada and Why I'm Using IngramSpark

In today's world, indie authors are always looking for sites that gives readers another way to discover our catalogue and as Little Goodbyes Press continues to grow, I’ve been looking for more ways to help our books reach readers. Libraries, bookstores, review journals, school systems, online retailers, and word of mouth all play a role in helping books find their audience. Bookshop feels connected to that larger book ecosystem.

As part of our weekly posts, the classic Books We Love for children matter to us, and it turns out most of these are also on Bookshop so that was the final factor in deciding whether or not to apply to their program as an affiliate so I could create a shop there.

Why Independent Bookstores Still Matter

Even now with so many online options available for shopping, many readers still discover books by browsing shelves, talking with booksellers, or finding recommendations through indie bookshops. They continue to shape reading culture in ways that algorithms often cannot because they are living in their community, talking about what matters locally and getting to know their customers personally. 

Indie bookstores are a bit like local libraries as they also help surface smaller presses, niche books, regional stories, and titles that may not always appear in larger retail systems. As an author and publisher, I think that matters and am so grateful for all the indie bookstores that share our books with their community.

Looking Ahead

At the moment, Bookshop’s bookstore partnerships are focused on the US and UK markets, but I’ll be interested to see whether the platform expands further internationally over time, especially into Canada. For now, I’m happy to have another place where readers can discover Little Goodbyes Press books and other indie authors creations online.

Affiliate Links

By joining the Bookshop affiliate program, in addition to creating curated lists and our own storefront page, I do earn a small commission when readers purchase any books through my links. Like all the affiliate commissions I earn this helps fund the creation of new projects, so thanks for that support!

You can visit my Bookshop page here: https://bookshop.org/shop/LittleGoodbyesPress


You can explore all of our current titles on our Books Page.

If you'd like to help share our works, visit our Libraries Page for circulation details and ISBNs.

Our books are available through major retailers including Chapters, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop, and Waterstones.



Location: Canada

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