A few weeks ago, Kirkus introduced the first in what evolved into a series of giving initiatives. The company made access to digital issues of Kirkus Reviews free for all, and the response inspired Kirkus to find new ways to give to its community of book lovers. The second initiative was an effort to support small presses.

In this video, Kuehn introduces the third intitiative, this time focusing on independent bookstores.

The industry is showing up to support indie booksellers, but the need is deep. A couple of weeks ago, Fast Company reported that The Strand in New York had to lay off employees for the first time in its 93-year history; 188 employees lost their jobs. Eighty employees were furloughed at New York's McNally Jackson. Publishers Weekly has released a list of  bookstores across the country—from City Lights Bookstore in San Francisco to Literati Books in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and East End Books in Provincetown, Massachusetts—that started GoFundMe pages to weather this storm. 

Kirkus is joining its peers in the industry to draw attention to the hardship indie bookstores are facing, and it is also taking steps to translate its website traffic into revenue for independent booksellers. KirkusReviews.com features almost 400,000 books, and while the site is heavily trafficked by professionals, most people who visit are readers looking for the best new book to buy.

Consumers can now purchase the books they discover on KirkusReviews.com from Bookshop.org, which will donate to independent booksellers. Bookshop.org places 10% of the proceeds of all sales coming from Kirkus into an earnings pool that is evenly distributed every six months to participating bookstores, all members of American Booksellers Association.

Andy Hunter, the founder of Bookshop.org, released this statement: “The one good thing I've seen in the past month is how people will come together and support each other in a crisis. The rapid embrace of Bookshop.org among readers and the publishing industry has enabled us to earn $675,000 for local bookstores so far, a number that increases by over $25,000 every passing day. We are thrilled that Kirkus, an institution with so much credibility and weight in the publishing world, has chosen to use Bookshop links to encourage their readership to buy books online in a socially responsible manner that safeguards the essential place that independent bookstores have in our culture.”