Earlier in March, COVID-19 began to impact local businesses—including independent bookstores—resulting in sudden layoffs and closures. On March 15th, 2020, we asked our community and beyond to #ShopBookstoresNow.
New members could sign up with the code SHOPBOOKSTORESNOW and get two audiobooks for the price of one, and 100% of their payment would go to their local bookstore. Additionally, anyone could gift a membership for $15, and all of the proceeds would go to their bookstore, too.
We set a goal for $50,000—ambitious, we thought, but not impossible. We were blown away to hit our goal in just 10 days, and then go on to exceed it by over $23,000. Because of you, we raised a final amount of $89,131 for local bookstores.
$89,131
Money raised for bookstores through #ShopBookstoresNow
678
Bookstores benefited from #ShopBookstoresNow in the USA and Canada
3,264
Members who made the choice to #ShopBookstoresNow
1,647
One-month membership gifts given during #ShopBookstoresNow
Thank you all for participating in #ShopBookstoresNow, from signing up and sending gift memberships to sharing this message on social media and beyond. We’re a small team here at Libro.fm (10 people!) and we work with over 7,000 booksellers in the USA and Canada. We’re so proud of how this community stepped up and made the choice to support local bookstores and booksellers.
The past few weeks have been steeped with uncertainty, and we continue to head into an unforeseeable future, but what’s important is that we’re doing this together.
Want to keep showing your support?
Keep listening to audiobooks through your local bookstore, and follow us on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook—we’ll be helping independent bookstores over the coming days, weeks, and months. Stay tuned.