ryanwold.net - Civic Tech, Bitcoin, and Open Government Innovation

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I think there's an opportunity to help small, brick and mortar booksellers, by helping them capture some amount of online sales revenue, for example, through Amazon's Affiliate Program.

If I walk into Browser Books, or Books Inc. and find an awesome book to buy because I found it while browsing books in their space, I'd like for them to get credit for the sale, because they were responsible for connecting me to the content, and essentially selling it to me.

But, if I leave the store, then go buy the book on Amazon directly, the store realizes zero benefit.  No revenue and bookstores will close, and that is a sad, sad situation.  Book stores remain unique in their experience and role in society as purveyor's of information. I want to maintain that and help them succeed.

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Books Inc advertises that it sells e-books within its store.  The ad has a link to the website. So I jumped on my phone and surfed to their website, where I was unable to find anything specific to ebooks, and after searching for the book I wished to purchase, still found no way to purchase an e-version of the book I found in the store.

So, I went home and purchased the book from Amazon.  I book that Books Inc essentially sold me, but I was unable to transact around it.

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