The entire book selling industry has been disrupted by Amazon selling books cheaper than everyone else and monopolizing the e-book market. Things are simply easier to discover when shopping an Amazon, but a new app is hoping to make buying books from indie stores more appealing.
A new Google Chrome extension has just been released called Bookindy. It allows users to browse for titles, authors or interests on Amazon, and find indie stores with comparable or cheaper prices that are willing to deliver the titles to you. Right now, the service is only available in the United Kingdom, but the founders are “working on updating the extension for US and other countries.”
Bookkindy is partnering with Hive.co.uk who have a great relationship with each bookshop and will also be the people sending out books for delivery. The extension also shows what shops stock the title, but might not deliver, so you can get out and buy it in person.
Will people actually use this app? I remain dubious. The average customer is not going to install any 3rd party extension to buy indie books.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
