More than $36 million raised for local bookstores!
Finally, you can get ebooks from local bookstores!
Browse and buy on Bookshop.org, and read right in your web browser, or download our iPhone or Android apps for the full reading experience. Every purchase financially supports local, independent bookstores!
SHOP EBOOKSYou can read ebooks purchased on Bookshop.org directly through your web browser (Chrome, Safari, etc.), but for the full reading experience, download the iPhone or Android apps.
In the app, you’ll be able to:
• Bookmark, highlight and annotate
• Adjust font and typeface
• Search text within the book
• Sync your reading position between devices
• Read in vertical scroll mode, or a standard paginated mode
• Share passages on social media
From the app / mobile device
• First add an ebook to your Wishlist. You can do this from a curated list on the app’s home page, explore page, or any of the category pages. Or by finding a book through the in-app search.
• Next visit My Ebook Wishlist in your browser here. Also available via the My Wishlists & Registries page, in your account menu.
• Click “Buy Now” on your desired ebook and complete checkout.
Online via desktop or mobile browser
• To find a book via your browser, visit our dedicated Ebooks page in the navigation bar to shop from one of our featured lists. Or use the search bar and search filters to display ebook results only.
• From a list, search results, or individual product page, press “Buy Now” on your desired ebook and complete checkout.
App
You can read ebooks from Bookshop.org on our dedicated mobile app by first logging in, then tapping the library icon in the menu bar at the bottom of the screen. From there you can tap on an ebook to start reading.
Using a web browser
You can read ebooks from Bookshop.org on a web browser by logging in to your Bookshop.org account and navigating to My Ebook Library via the main account menu. From there, click on an ebook to start reading.
• Ebooks from Bookshop.org must be read on either our Apple or Android app, or via a web browser, with the exception of DRM-free titles that can be downloaded and transferred to your reader app or device of choice.
• Users of Android based e ink devices, that have regular access to the Google Play app store (Boox, Meebook, etc), should be able to download and read from our Android app. Mileage may vary depending on the device.
• Due to Amazon's proprietary digital rights management software (DRM) and publishers' DRM requirements, it’s not currently possible to buy ebooks from Bookshop.org or local bookstores and read them on your Kindle. We are working with Kobo to support Kobo devices later this year.
• Ebooks purchases benefit your selected local bookstore the same way physical book purchases do.
• Make sure you first are affiliated to the bookstore you want to support by visiting Choose a Bookstore and finding your desired store. You’ll know you’ve successfully selected that store once you see their branding/logo in the top left-hand corner of your screen as you navigate the site.
• Once you’ve affiliated with a store, your purchase of any ebook from a list on the main ebooks page, your Ebook Wishlist, or from search results, will benefit the affiliated bookstore.
• Bookstore affiliation is set in your browser and doesn’t transfer between devices. If you normally shop on your PC and are checking out on your mobile device (or vice versa) for the first time, make sure to set your bookstore affiliation here first before checking out.
Both Apple and Google require app developers who use in-app purchasing to pay around 30% of their earnings from those purchases in fees. We want that money to be used to support local bookstores instead, so this extra step is required.
If you are unable to find the ebook you want, it’s possible we are still in the process of onboarding that ebook’s publisher. We are constantly adding new books and new publishers, so stay tuned!
We will sell self-published titles for authors publishing through Draft2Digital or IngramSpark.
Website
To find ebooks on our website, use our search filters to display ebooks only, or visit our dedicated ebooks page to shop from one of the featured book lists.
In the App
In our app, you can find books by browsing featured lists on the home page, explore page, or various genre category pages. You can also find ebooks by using our in-app search, and save them to a digital wishlist for later purchasing.
• Yes, purchasing ebooks requires an active account. Any purchased ebooks will appear in that account’s My Ebook Library, accessible via the website or in the Android or Apple apps.
• You can create an account on the website here: https://bookshop.org/signup.
• You can create an account via the app by following the sign-up steps on the home page of the app.
• A user account is not required to read ebook previews, which can be accessed via the app or on the website.
From the app / mobile device
• First add an ebook to your Wishlist. You can do this from a curated list on the app’s home page, explore page, or any of the category pages. Or by finding a book through the in-app search.
• Next visit My Ebook Wishlist in your browser here. Also available via the My Wishlists & Registries page, in your account menu. shown here:
• Click “Buy Now” on your desired ebook and complete checkout.
Online via desktop or mobile browser
• To find a book via your browser, visit our dedicated Ebooks page in the navigation bar to shop from one of our featured lists. Or use the search bar and search filters to display ebook results only.
• From a list, search results, or individual product page, press “Buy Now” on your desired ebook and complete checkout.
Both Apple and Google require app developers who use in-app purchasing to pay 30% of their earnings from those purchases in fees. We want that money to be used to support local bookstores instead, so this extra step is required.
• Apple has thought of that, and rejects apps with direct links to the developer's website and even rejects explicit language instructing folks how to make purchases outside of the app.
• Google is less strict about this, so folks using our Android app will be able to see specific purchasing instructions and even be linked directly to their Ebook Wishlist from their app.
• Ebooks purchases benefit your selected local bookstore the same way physical book purchases do.
• Make sure you first are affiliated to the bookstore you want to support by visiting Choose a Bookstore and finding your desired store. You’ll know you’ve successfully selected that store once you see their branding/logo in the top left-hand corner of your screen as you navigate the site.
• Once you’ve affiliated with a store, your purchase of any ebook from a list on the main ebooks page, your Ebook Wishlist, or from search results, will benefit the affiliated bookstore.
• Bookstore affiliation is set in your browser and doesn’t transfer between devices. If you normally shop on your desktop and are checking out on your mobile device (or vice versa) for the first time, make sure to set your bookstore affiliation here first before checking out.
App
• To add an ebook to your dedicated Ebook Wishlist from the app: Find your desired book by browsing the featured lists on the Home / Explore / Category pages, or through search.
• Once you’ve found your ebook, tap on the cover to open that ebook’s product page.
• Tap the “Add To Wishlist” button at the bottom of the product page screen to add that book to your Ebook Wishlist.
Browser
Go to the ebook’s product page and click the “Add to Ebook Wishlist” button next to the “Buy Now” button.
Troubleshooting
• Double-check you actually added the ebook to your wishlist.
• Contact our customer service team here.
First make sure you are signed in. Then visit your My Ebook Wishlist page here, or from the general wishlists page, accessible from your My Account menu.
Gifting ebooks is not currently supported.
If you are unable to find the ebook you want, it’s possible we are still in the process of onboarding that ebook’s publisher. We are constantly adding new books and new publishers, so stay tuned!
We will sell self-published titles for authors publishing through Draft2Digital or IngramSpark.
• Unless it’s a preordered title, ebooks from Bookshop.org should appear in your My Ebook Library immediately. In rare instances there may be a delay in delivery.
• If you’re not seeing the book in your app’s My Ebook Library, try refreshing the library using the refresh button at the top right.
• Check the sort and filter settings in your library to make sure unread titles are shown. Use the Sort By Purchase Date - Most Recent to bring your most recent purchases to the top of the Ebook Library.
• On rare occasions, certain ebooks may take some time to process on our end before we are able to deliver them to your Ebook Library. If your ebook is not in your Ebook Library within 4 hours, please reach out to our customer service team here.
To cancel an existing ebook preorder, reach out to our customer service team here before the publication date with your order number.
Bookshop.org accepts all major credit cards as methods of payment.
Store credit is currently unsupported as a payment method for ebooks.
Gift cards and store credit are currently not supported payment options for ebooks. We hope to support these payment options in the future.
Promo codes are not valid for ebook orders.
Currently we don’t support the purchasing of multiple ebooks at one time or adding ebooks to a shopping cart with physical items.
The publishers of our ebooks require that the ebooks you “purchase” from Bookshop.org are only licensed to you. Even DRM-free books are subject to some restrictions and may not be owned outright. However, even in the case of an ebook being removed from Bookshop.org by the publisher, users who purchased the ebook previously will continue to have access to the ebook file. Depending on the circumstances, in the unlikely event an ebook is removed from your library because of a rights issue or otherwise, Bookshop.org will refund the purchase price you paid.
As long as your payment method is US-based, you can purchase ebooks from Bookshop.org and read them anywhere.
Downloading ebooks onto the the app requires an internet connection. However, once downloaded onto the app, ebooks from Bookshop.org can be read offline.
• First make sure you have an internet connection on the mobile device on which you have the Bookshop.org app installed.
• Then, in the app, navigate to your Ebook Library and open the menu of the desired book by tapping the three dots (…) underneath the cover.
• From the menu select Download to download the title to your device.
• Once an ebook is downloaded to your device, it will be available to read offline.
• You can tell if a title is already downloaded to your device because the cover won’t be grayed out, and when you tap on it, it opens immediately.
• Ebooks purchases are final and nonrefundable.
• Please use ebook previews to sample the ebook before purchasing.
• If there’s an issue with your ebook that’s preventing you from reading it, please reach out to our customer service team here for assistance.
App
You can read ebooks from Bookshop.org on our dedicated mobile app by first logging in, then tapping the library icon in the menu bar at the bottom of the screen. From there you can tap on an ebook to start reading.
Using a web browser
You can read ebooks from Bookshop.org on a web browser by logging in to your Bookshop.org account and navigating to My Ebook Library via the main account menu. From there, click on an ebook to start reading.
If your ebook won’t open on your web browser, please try the following:
• Refresh the page.
• Click back to go to your My Ebook Library. Refresh the page, then try opening the ebook again.
• Sign out and then back into your account, and try again.
• If the issue persists, please reach out to our customer service team here.
• Ebooks from Bookshop.org must be read on either our Apple or Android app, or via a web browser, with the exception of DRM-free titles that can be downloaded and transferred to your reader app or device of choice.
• Users of Android based e ink devices, that have regular access to the Google Play app store (Boox, Meebook, etc), should be able to download and read from our Android app. Mileage may vary depending on the device.
• Due to Amazon's proprietary digital rights management software (DRM) and publishers' DRM requirements, it’s not currently possible to buy ebooks from Bookshop.org or local bookstores and read them on your Kindle. We are working with Kobo to support Kobo devices later this year.
• DRM stands for Digital Rights Management and is the term for the anti-piracy protections most publishers require to be applied to their ebooks.
• We currently don’t support a method of transferring DRM titles onto devices with proprietary operating systems and app stores like the Kindle or Nook.
• Certain publishers, like Tor, provide their ebook titles DRM free, making it possible for us to allow our users to download and transfer those ebook files to non-Android or Apple devices like the Kindle or Nook.
• DRM-free titles can be downloaded and manually side-loaded onto your preferred device. Please refer to your device manufacturer’s support documentation for side-loading instructions.
App
• DRM-free titles are available to download from your app’s Ebook Library by tapping the three dot menu under the ebook cover image, then selecting Download / Transfer.
• You can also download DRM-free titles from their product page by tapping the “Share” button at the top left of the screen, then selecting the Download / Transfer option.
Browser
• DRM-free titles are available to download from your Ebook Library on the website by clicking or tapping on the three dot menu under the ebook cover image, then selecting Download / Transfer.
• You will find the same button on the product pages of owned DRM-free titles as well.
• When reading an ebook, you can select up to 300 characters of text and then press the “Share” button in the popup menu to generate a sharable quote link.
• You can then post that link to any social media platform that accepts regular web URLs.
App
• Tap on the screen to bring up the menu.Tap the “A” button to bring up the reader’s Visual Settings menu.
• Under the Text Size section, drag the slider left or right to adjust the text larger or smaller.
Desktop Browser
• Click the “A” button in header to bring up the reader’s Visual Settings menu.
• Under the Text Size section, click left or right along the slider to adjust the text larger or smaller.
Mobile Browser
• Tap the three lines at the top right of the screen to open the reader’s main menu.
Tap the underlined “A” button to bring up the reader’s Visual Settings menu.
• Under the Text Size section, tap left or right along the slider to adjust the text larger or smaller.
If your ebook won’t download on your app, please try the following:
• Wait a little while longer. Sometimes a bad network connection or a large ebook may take longer to download than expected.
• Press the refresh button, then try again.
• Check your network connection to make sure it’s working. Close the app, then open it and try again.
• Sign out and then back into your account, and try again.
If the issue persists, please reach out to our customer service team here.
No. The mobile apps are exclusively for browsing and reading ebooks.
• Currently the existing list curation tool doesn’t support the inclusion of ebooks.
• Supporting ebooks in the list curation tool is a top priority and should be available early in 2025.
• Affiliate links for ebooks will be supported at launch.
Please refer them to our support documentation, and for any questions they still have, they may reach out to our customer service team here.
• Affiliated bookstores earn 30% of the list price of any affiliated ebooks sales. Note this is the full profit margin offered by the publisher.
• Non-bookstore affiliates earn 10% of the list price of any affiliated ebooks sales.
• An additional 10% of such ebook revenue is added to a profit pool that is shared with independent bookstores.
For the vast majority of our ebooks, you’ll find the same pricing on Bookshop.org that you see on other major ebook retailers.
• Ebooks will follow the same affiliation rules that physical products do. Users must be affiliated to your store before completing their order for the commission earned from ebook sales to be applied to your account.
• Users cannot be affiliated in the mobile app. All affiliation is determined in that user’s browser.
While it's an eventual goal to support ARCs, our app likely won't have ARC support natively or it may be offered through a third party.
We are working with those organizations to make it possible to add “buy the ebook” links to your book pages. We expect that functionality to be available by Spring 2025.