This is the first in our new series of guest blogs by booksellers. These blogs are designed to show life behind the scenes of a crucial but neglected relationship – the one between writers and booksellers. Here Meryl Halls shares news of some exciting initiatives and invites writers to participate in the events such as ‘Strictly Come Bookselling’ during the fifth Independent Booksellers Week, which this year takes place between 30th June and 7th July.
My main responsibilities lie in working with independent booksellers, and over the last five years we have established a thriving Independent Booksellers Forum, which organizes events and campaigns for the 1000+ indie bookshops still operating in the UK and Ireland.
I’ve always been a book-lover, and my earliest and most vivid childhood memories revolve around our annual trips from Scotland to visit family friends in Meldreth, near Cambridge. A trip to Heffers Children’s Bookshop was the highlight of every trip (for me, if not for my brother!). I can hardly put into words the excitement of walking through the door and smelling ‘that’ smell.
As a teenager and student, I worked in the local indie bookshop in my small Scottish home town, though it is now sadly long-closed. Whenever I am home visiting family, one of the biggest pleasures for me, my husband and my two teenage children is to visit the wonderful Main Street Trading Company in St Boswells. So, you could say I have the perfect job – and you’d not be far wrong!
At the BA, our umbrella brand for our indie activity is IndieBound, a marketing campaign begun in the USA, which focuses on the importance of shopping locally, shopping independently and creating a strong community. When we introduced the campaign into the UK, it immediately resonated with UK booksellers and it has provided both the BA and our members with opportunities to start a meaningful conversation with customers about how important their consumer behaviour is in keeping retail areas diverse, bookshops thriving and high streets healthy.
We have migrated our IndieBound messages about community engagement and shopping locally into our more recent ‘Keep Books on the High Street’ campaign, which is currently entering a new phase, and is reaching out to authors for support. You can see more
here.We will be back in touch with SAS members about the campaign, but in the meantime if you are interested in providing us with a quote in support of indie or high street bookselling, or – even better – if you are prepared to record a short spoken piece on the same subject, we would love to hear from you – email us
here. The American BA has just launched a very similar initiative called ‘Why Indies Matter’, and you can see some of your fellow authors talking about indie bookshops on this link to the
US IndieBound site.
The main reason, though, that I’m deligh
The Office of Fair Trading has said it now expects to announce its decision on the Amazon takeover of The Book Depository by late October.
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The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has pushed back its decision on whether to refer the Amazon takeover of The Book Depository to the Competition Commission.
The decision was expected to be tomorrow (2nd September) after being delayed from earlier this week. However, an OFT spokesman said a date for the decision was now "to be confirmed". He said the timetable for an announcement could change for "any number of reasons", but declined to go into specifics.
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The Booksellers Association has issued a last minute plea for independent booksellers to suggest titles for its 2011 Christmas catalogue.
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University lecturers posting course notes online are "harming" academic booksellers, and the posts can also deter students from reading around the subject, the chairman of the Booksellers Association's Academic, Professional & Specialist Bookselling Group (APSBG) group has said.
Iain Finlayson's remarks were made after it was revealed that The Bookshop at Queen's, which serves students at the Queen's University Belfast, will close after 53 years of trading, citing online sharing of notes as one of the reasons for its financial demise.
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Edmund de Waal, Maggie O’Farrell and Tony Parsons are among the authors
lined up to take part in Independent Booksellers Week. The week of events, in association with the Booksellers Association, will take place between 18-25th June and encourages independent retailers to publicise their businesses and form closer links with authors and publishers.
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Authors should be paid for hosting events, the Society of Authors new general secretary has said.
Nicola Solomon told delegates at the Book Industry Conference yesterday (16th May) that if authors give up a day of their free time to stage a reading, book signing or other event at a bookshop where that establishment is making money, then they should receive around 10% of it.
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Only 20% of American Booksellers Association members have signed up to the Google E-Books programme, the head of the ABA has said.
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A really interesting set of events and some really useful links for authors to follow. Thank you for dropping by!
Many years ago I used to work in the order's handling department of Heffer's Children's Bookshop. My job was desk based and I didn't really need to go into the shop. But did I let that stop me ... Happy days.
That's fascinating - and very useful! Unfortunately I'll be away the first week of July, but I'll certainly investigate some of these links. Thankyou!
Fascinating post with lots to follow up - as someone who has enjoyed working with schools and libraries, but not had so much chance to interact with bookshops, I am keen to get involved.
I, too, have very fond memories of Heffers' Children's Bookstore - even though they once turned me down for a job!
(I was very put out at the time - I didn't reckon there could be a greater children's book enthusiast than me.)
I've always been impressed by the US Indies and it is good to see UK booksellers doing it for themselves. We need independent bookshops to keep open and thrive. Thank you for this really useful blog for authors to find out more about how they can help/support/get involved.
Really interesting to hear all about these initiatives, Meryl. Independent bookshops - especially those with a deep interest in children's & YA books - are a very precious resource.
This all looks brilliant, and just what's needed - hooray! I will happily register for all those author/bookshop initiatives, and would especially enjoy having a go at serving behind the till because I used to do that years ago .... at Heffers Children's Bookshop. I wonder if I ever served you, Meryl? I worked there from 1981-1986. And did I meet goodgentlewoman at Heffers too, I wonder?
Very interesting, Meryl - thank you. I'll be away that week too, but good luck - it all sounds very exciting!
A very interesting post with lots of great links. I'll certainly follow them up and hope something is going on in an indie close to home. Thanks.
I'll not be back for most of that week but will try to follow up the links. Hooray for Indies! I just wish I had one nearer to me than the magnificent Jaffé and Neale in Chipping Norton.