It's sort of hard to run a product based business when you're actively trying to be an anti-consumerist, or at least a mindful consumer (here's a link to a really great book I read lately abut mindful consumerism, if you're interested), or at least it would be if I didn't think that the products we sell add huge value to people's lives.
Our Pre-Loved Subscription is one of my favourite things to organise. I love buying the books for it, choosing what to send to people each month and making sure they get a great mix of genres. If you're not familiar, this is a service where for just £5 a month (with free UK postage) we'll send you a fantastic independently published book from our bookshop along with a monthly update on everything that's going on at Ninja HQ. I love book subscriptions in general, but this one particularly is something a bit special and here are 5 reasons you might want to think about getting one!
1. No Effort Required
All you have to do is sign up and we'll do the rest. As mentioned above, we're trying our hardest to be mindful consumers, and we only buy books for Ninja Bookshop that we think look like great stories. We try very hard to only send you things you'll be interested in reading (based on what we know about you, which is often not a lot, see below) and to make the experience as simple and streamlined as possible.
2. It's a great place to start with independent publishers
The world of indie publishing is receiving ever increasing amounts of attention, as it well deserves. It's easier now to find out about all the great things indies are doing than it was when we first started Ninja Book Box back in 2016, but there are a huge range of indies to choose from and it can be slightly overwhelming figuring out where to find what you want to read. We are here to help! From the selection of books we send you you'll be able to get an idea of the sorts of things various indies are doing, and then you can go on to explore their catalogues on your own.
3. You'll discover a wide range of genres & maybe a new favourite?
Probably everyone has a favourite genre. We're not saying there's anything wrong with that, and we're definitely not trying to stop you from reading yours. What we are trying to do is to broaden horizons. Until a few years ago I thought I didn't like YA or non-fiction and if I'd carried on down that road I would have missed out on all sorts of stuff (Holly Bourne! Anna and the French Kiss! Fangirl! Wild! The Outrun! to name just a few). Even though you may never feel like a genre is your favourite or even read it very often, there's always the chance of making an amazing discovery, so our pre-loved subscription includes a wide range of genres, from non-fiction to literary fiction, children's fiction, science fiction and everything in between.
4. You can tell us your preferences!
If there are genres you really don't read (mine's horror. I've tried, I hate it, don't @ me) or publishers you already support or own lots of their books, you can let us know about it in the questionnaire we'll send after you subscribe. We'll do our very best to keep your preferences in mind when picking your books each month.
5. Second hand books need love too.
The thing is that we love supporting indies by buying directly from them and we absolutely, 100% advocate for you doing so whenever that's possible, but we know that not everyone's budget stretches to new books as often as they'd like, so our aim is to help curate a place where people can discover the brilliance of independent publishers at slightly lower prices, and then when you do have the money to support them directly you'll know where to start! From an environmental standpoint, we also love second hand books as they mean no more paper is being used (this is a big, ongoing thing we are thinking about and trying to work out in our quest to be sustainable/eco friendly etc) and reusing is the way to go!
If you have a subscription, I'd love to know what your favourite book we've sent has been. Let us know in the comments!
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