Last week, we set up an affiliate link with Bookshop.org, an organization that supports independent booksellers. Here in the Lehigh Valley, we have two great independent bookstores, Book & Puppet Company in downtown Easton and Let’s Play Books in Emmaus.
The concept is brilliant. Readers can order their books online and designate their favorite retailer in their account. That retailer receives a portion of the sale, and the shipping rates are very reasonable. I paid about $5 for two books. They arrived within a week.
Parisian Phoenix has set up a “shop” on Bookshop.org, featuring lists that contain our books and other books by authors that have contributed to our books. We also plan to expand those lists. We are specifically thinking of compiling some of our favorite books and another list of some great craft books. Honestly, I’d love to do that right now because I’m a book nerd. But instead, let me show you how it works.
When you click on one of our affiliate links, we can see your view. A sample of that screen is here.
If you order the book from our link, Parisian Phoenix and the designated bookshop make a profit and Bookshop.org ships out the book(s). This contributes to our book-building fund and also supports an indie book seller.
I used this service to order Tiffani Velez’s novella, A Berlin Story, and Jessica Dreistadt’s marketing workbook for non-profits. Both are listed in our affiliate shop. Both authors contributed to Parisian Phoenix’s non-fiction anthology, Not an Able-Bodied White Man with Money.
I received those books last night but have forbid myself from reading them until I get some work done. You know how it is. So since I can’t tell you about those books yet, let me tell you about Tiffani’s book I read over the holiday weekend, The Search.
The original review on GoodReads is here.
Tiffani Velez wove romance and historical fiction into a dual POV novel best described as the intelligent woman’s beach read. The first half (well, technically 63%) of the novel balances the heroine, Melinda, and the hero, Jake, as they experience a horrific dust storm in Oklahoma.
The novel uses the Great Depression, racism/prejudice, and other historical details to share with us the whirlwind romance of a Jew and an Okie.
At the end of part 1, the pair become separated due to a foreshadowed villain.
Part 2 of the book changes its pace as the author presents chapters that summarize nearly a year and a half (the main characters are recuperating from tuberculosis) and then return to their flip-flopping pattern of “real time.”
In this regard, part 2 seems a tad rushed, but I understand the author had to keep the reader engaged without boring them to tears with the mundanities of convalescence.
I thought the craft of the book was superb— solid grammar, pleasant sentences, and just the right weave of history just where we needed it— but I would love to know more about the chemistry and the relationship between Melinda and Jake.
Parisian Phoenix Publishing 