This is a question authors sometimes get, and it’s a lovely one. (Thank you!) There’s a short answer, and a longer answer, and ordinarily I don’t inflict the longer answer on people in casual conversation. But I’m going to elaborate here, because hey, what are blogs for? And it’s the time of year when people are buying books (right?) so maybe this will be useful.

Caveat that everything I’m about to say applies to traditionally published authors (some parts of the answer might be different for self-published authors or authors working with very small presses.)

THE SHORT ANSWER, with footnotes

Whatever works for you, and thank you, and it’s great to support independent bookstores if you can.

In traditional publishing, the differences when it comes to money in an author’s pocket are usually not significant. Retail prices tend to be the same across stores.* We get a given percentage of every purchase, and while the prices vary by format, so do the percentages.** We want readers to buy the format they are most likely to read or listen to.

*Sometimes we get less money per copy when a book is on sale, depending on the details of the contract, but we are happy for readers to buy books on sale because that drives interest and word of mouth, so do take advantage of sales.

**For example, ebooks cost less, but authors get a higher percentage on them. If you’re curious, the typical range that goes into an author’s pocket goes from 8% to 15% of hardcover retail price, to 25 to 50% of ebook net proceeds, with percentages for other formats in between, although there are always exceptions. Minus agent commission (usually 15%) and taxes of course.

THE LONGER ANSWER

But why do I throw in that bit about independent bookstores? Partly just because they are a social good, and partly because a healthy bookstore ecosystem is good for authors for all kinds of reasons, including hosting events and introducing our work to readers. So supporting them is good in general.

But buying an author’s book from an actual bricks and mortar store (even if you order it from them online) can also be directly helpful to the individual author.

When a customer buys a book from their local store, it can affect that store’s relationship with that book. Say three people buy my book from an internet conglomerate; the algorithm might hiccup briefly. This is good for me! If three people buy my book from a given indie store (or even a given branch of a chain), a human being might think “huh, the Heartfields are really moving.” This is even better for me! Three copies of a book is a lot for a bricks-and-mortar store, if it’s not a brand new bestseller. Even a single sale can be enough to trigger a new order, which keeps the book on the shelf, which matters in bricks and mortar more than it matters online.

EVEN BETTER: If a customer goes into a store or calls on the phone and says a few words to the staff about what they’re buying and why, then the staff now have a mental connection to that book if they didn’t before, and maybe they even have more information they can use to sell that book to the next customer. Even something as simple as “So glad you have the new Kevin Hearne, because I’m hooked on the series!” or “I really loved The Water Outlaws; have you got anything else by SL Huang?” I know that there are individual bookstores that sell more copies of my books than other stores, sometimes because they’re local to me but sometimes just because a staff member has read the book or knows enough about it to sell it to people who might like it.

If there is one thing I’ve learned, it’s that booksellers are so, so important to how a book sells. For authors who are not household names with big cardboard displays and midnight embargo release parties (the vast majority of us), the way we build a readership is one reader at a time — one library borrower or one bookstore customer at a time. Every conversation about a book matters. In a time of fractured social media, it matters all the more.

Most bookstores these days have curbside pickup and/or shipping (and some have audiobook and even ebook partnerships), and many have relationships with authors local to them, so if you call an indie store in the city where your favourite author lives, you might be able to get a signed copy. (Here in Ottawa, all the bookstores have been wonderful to me and they’re all great, but I can say that The Spaniel’s Tale, Perfect Books and the Barrhaven Indigo branch know me well and are likely to be able to tell you quickly what signed copies of my books they have in stock — and they’ll even email me to ask me to come in to sign.)

If an author’s publisher has a distribution arrangement in the country where you live, any bookstore should be able to order in any book you want, given a little lead time.

Ultimately, though, we authors want readers to buy or borrow books in whatever ways and from whatever stores work best for them. So the short answer still holds! And thank you!