Every dollar spent on books does numerous things. It lets us as a consumers speak to what interests us. It supports the bookseller, publisher, author and everyone who depends on these industries for their livelihood.
By placing ourselves into the middle of this transaction, we're able to influence the books, authors and genres we love. We also have a choice to make as to where we point our users. There are MANY factors to consider, but an option many settle on is to link somewhere that provides a commission. I do this and it helps offset the costs associated with the services I'm developing.
Amazon is the elephant in the room and they have a great affiliate program, but there are plenty of others out there. This list is by NO means comprehensive. Of the options below I've had the most experience with amazon and mysterious galaxy.
- amazon
- Barnes and Nobel
- Borders
- Mysterious Galaxy
- Powells
- Abe Books
- Books Inc
- Better World books
- Alibris
- Biblio
- eBooks.com
- Buzzy Multimedia
- Overstock
- eBay - I'd use this to link to things like:
I continue to collect these links on delicious. If you run across any good suggestions I've missed, be sure to list them here. Also, as I implement various of these for TagShadow, I'll be sure to share my experiences.
The sites that don't specialize in books or collect multiple book sellers may actually provide a way for you to support a very specific bookseller that doesn't have an online presence outside of such aggregators.