Online retailer Bookshop.org makes shared pool payments monthly

Bookshop.org is to introduce more regular shared pool payments for booksellers, in addition to paid advertising which will see bookshops sharing 50% of revenues.

The Bookshop Shared Pool is generated every time a book is sold through an affiliate or through a direct sale, with 10% of the book's r.r.p. going into the pool. Every indie bookshop on the platform receives an equal share of the Share Pool, irrespective of their level of activity on the site. The income from the pool is in addition to the individual commissions they generate through their sales.

This share of the pool will now be paid monthly, instead of twice per year as originally conceived. Bookshops received their first share pool payments in January for November and December sales, each receiving an equal share of the £310,000 pot on top of their individual commissions. Both bookshop commissions and shares of the pool can be withdrawn any time the balance is over £20.

Meanwhile Bookshop.org has also confirmed it will be introducing advertising on the UK site from March, with bookshops receiving 50% of advertising revenues.

Nicole Vanderbilt, m.d. at Bookshop.org UK, said: “We are continually looking at ways to improve our offering in order to best serve our community of booksellers. In line with feedback from users, we’re delighted to be rolling out monthly Bookshop Share Pool payments and look forward to working with selected advertising partners to create further incremental revenue sources for independent bookshops.”

There are now more than 400 independent bookshops using Bookshop.org, in addition to almost 6,000 affiliates - spanning authors, publishers, bloggers and influencers. Total profits generated for independent bookshops to date is over £800,000.