‘IndieBound for iPhone’: Helps you find what you want at independent bookstores
From IndieBound.org—promoting independent bookstores—comes a new iPhone app that lets you:
- “Browse indie bookseller recommendation lists (The Indie Next List, The Kids Indie Next List) and bestseller lists (The Indie Bestseller Lists)
- Search for books from a comprehensive database of in-print titles
- Review detailed book information
- Buy books online from indie bookstores
- Find local, indie bookstores nearby, or across the United States
- Find other independently-owned businesses, like coffee shops, movie theaters, and bicycle stores.”
Bravo to the IndieBound, a project of the American Booksellers Association, for releasing IndieBound for iPhone. It will smoothly link you to e-forms to buy books online from indies near you. The downsides are that you won’t get reader comments and some other useful community-style features that Amazon-type stores provide, and the prices may not be as competitive. Also, the book-finder simply refers you to indie stores in your area, and they may or may not carry the sought-out books. In a few sad cases, such as Vertigo Books in the D.C. area, the stores may even be out of business. A very strong upside is that you’ll be supporting merchants near you, and that some have created robust offline communities. And, of course, in the case of paper books, you can own ‘em for real—unlike the DRMed titles that you’re actually just leasing from Amazon and other e-stores.
Meanwhile I wonder if independent bookstores, especially in this era of print on demand, may want to create their own locally oriented books to supplement those from the usual publishers.
Related: Kat Meyer’s thoughts on the iPhone app, as expressed at Follow the Reader, NetGalley’s spiffy new blog. Also see IndieBound’s store-finder for the Web, no iPhone needed.
Leave a Reply