Photo by Govardhan on Unsplash

Restaurants, beauty salons, clothing stores … on and on … are all shut as we know. Have you given thought to your local bookstore? They are closed too and trying to survive. You might consider giving them some support. Now that you likely have a lot more time on your hands, it’s a good time to fill them with a book!

Here are some ideas on how to help from Simon & Schuster:

1. Become a Libro.fm member

Libro.fm offers audiobook downloads from your local independent bookstores, so when you shop Libro.fm, it’s a way to put money directly back into your community. Right now visit #shopbookstoresnow. It’s a great way to download audiobooks to listen to at home! For a limited time, 100% of your payment for select recordings goes to your local bookstore, and new members can get two audiobooks for the price of one.

2. Purchase books from your local bookseller online

Simon & Schuster supports independent booksellers and Bookshop.org. When you buy a book on Bookshop, your purchase helps support independent bookstores, including those nearest you! READ LOCAL and visit Bookshop.org.

3. Buy gift cards

Buying a gift card is incredibly important right now because it does not cost the bookstore anything to complete your purchase. You might have noticed that many stores are offering free shipping right now, and while that is really amazing, that means these stores are absorbing the cost of shipping themselves. So help your local bookstore by purchasing a gift card right now to use when your favorite local bookstore is open again.

4. Buy ebooks

Many stores have the option to buy ebooks on their sites. This eliminates any possibility of potentially spreading germs because this transaction is entirely digital! You can visit Kobo.com/Indie to support your local bookstore when buying ebooks.

5. Pre-order your anticipated reads

Is there a book you’re really excited to read that doesn’t come out for a while? Pre-order it now. This will give you something to look forward to reading in the future, perhaps on the beach this summer.

6. Don’t see it listed? Request it anyway

Many independent bookstores can still fulfill your order, even if it isn’t listed on their site. But remember, if they don’t have that particular book you want, there’s no better time than right now to get the next book on your TBR. Some bookstores are also posting book recommendations on social as well!

7. Unsure? CALL.

If you’re unsure what your local bookstore is doing during this time, email them or give them a call. Be mindful that many people might be trying to do this and stores are working with limited staff, so it might take a while to get through to someone.

8. Donate to BINC, the Book Industry Charitable Foundation

Your support will assist booksellers who are affected by COVID-19, with serious medical expenses, eviction prevention, disaster assistance, utility shut-off prevention, unexpected loss of household income, and more.