Where to buy your book as European based readers?

I know a lot of people recommend everywhere on social medias BookShop.org (US based) and its UK website. But as much as I find the concept offered by Bookshop.org, their ebooks are not DRM Free so it is another third party app to download and you cannot use it on your Kobo (or other E-reader). And if you prefer paperback or hard back option but you're not based neither in UK (since Brexit, custom fee applies on top of the shipping fees for the rest of Europe) nor US (Most of the shops don't ship outside of US except for Canada and Shipping fees are killer for goods coming from US to EU) ?

Well, welcome in my world of struggles !

As those who read me or follow me on Bluesky for a while know, I am french but I read essentially in English as I've been expat in several countries for the last 10 years now. on top of this, I'm living in a non English speaking country, that is actually pretty bad with English in general (sorry guys lol). It means that I essentially buy ebook via Kobo Store or other providers (not amazon) that provide DRM free or downloadable ebook so I can use them on my Kobo reader. And when I want a physical book, well, it is where the struggle begins.

Even if I'm living in the capital of Bulgaria and not in a remote town, local bookshops with English section means 3 bookshops in the whole capital and around. A "decent" English section with at least a bit of books in all the genres means 1 bookshop only. And most of the time it's more the trendy romance stuff and older books like classics and Fantasy classics (Tolkien, Pratchett,...). And to add to this struggle, most of them don't offer order on demand especially for non Bulgarian books.

Of course, I can buy online directly, but reading in English, means going for the English speaking countries. US is out of question. And UK, well, since the Brexit, ordering a book from a UK bookshop means shipping fees + Custom fees. Most of the time the price of both combined is more than the price of the book itself (way more sometimes double). I'm all for supporting indie bookshops but not for supporting largely custom fees and shipping companies.

After weeks of research and trials, I'm mostly still buying ebooks as it is the cheapest and easiest option. But here and there I order online physical copy for books I really loved. and Libristo is my savior!

What is libristo ?

Libristo is an Europe based reseller with a huge catalog. How they do that ? Mostly by working with worldwide booksellers and bookshops to be able to offer almost everything on the market.

22 million book titles in 150+ languages

+50 suppliers from all over the world

LIBROAMANTO Club full of benefits and gifts

17 years of experience with book sales in the EU

2 million customers served each year

And the big plus for me is that if you need a specific book not on the website already, you can make request. More difficult if it is something super rare but they can find almost everything.

They also offer indie books from ingram and others platforms. Usually, I see the indie books appear on Libristo two weeks or up to a month after they start to be available on bookshop.org, B&N and Waterstones ( can vary, depends of the book).

They have provider almost everywhere but work (and ship) essentially in Europe (Union European so UK not included)

They also centralized the delivery fees. What it means for you as a customer is, when you place an order with, let's say, 10 books, you pay only the basic shipping fees for your whole order depends of your country. They accept your order and then start collecting your books from where they are available and then when they have all the book, they send the whole order to you. It means a bit more delivery time than usual around 5 days in my case, after they gather everything (total 1,5 weeks for me but just because one was a pre-order. They confirmed the shipment going my way the day the pre-order was released). The book are mostly the same price as everywhere (even shipper sometimes) but if more difficult to find, the price can be a bit more (I never see more than 2 or 3 euros for a book).

I also give a bonus appreciation for the way they packed and their initiative for ecology.

For more info about Libristo --> https://www.libristo.eu/en/about-us

Disclaimer : I do not have any affiliate or paid program with Libristo. it is just a recommendation for other europe based reader who may meet the struggle I did with online bookshops in europe.