The pandemic has thrown publishing and booksellers into crisis – and left customers struggling to obtain books when they most want them. But some in the industry sense an opportunity to drag it into the 21st centuryOn 18 March, Emma Corfield-Walters received the news that for the second year running, her shop, Book-ish, in Crickhowell in the Brecon Beacons, had landed the title for Wales in the regional round of the independent bookshop of the year award. Corfield-Walters has run Book-ish for 10 years. It has 16 staff and a cafe, is the base for a literary festival that she also organises, and is credited with having played a major part in the regeneration of Crickhowell’s award-winning high street. Above all, it is a highly successful business: 2019 was a record year. The fact that it would now again be a contender for the overall prize – to be announced in June at the British book awards – was for Corfield-Walters a hard-earned affirmation of a decade’s passion and work.But she was hardly celebrating. Britain was then five days from lockdown. “It was surreal,” she says. “We’d won best bookshop in Wales, yet I wasn’t sure for how much longer I’d have a shop that people could visit. It was like that scene in Star Wars when the walls are moving in, and the room’s getting smaller and smaller. The goalposts were shifting every day. At first, we thought: OK, we’ll buy hand sanitiser! But by the weekend, it was clear the shop would have to close.” Her first thought was for her... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2020-05-10 08:00:20 UTC ]
Entering its fourth decade, the Reykjavik festival uses its 'Absent Author' series to feature the jailed Sansal. The post In Iceland: A Focus on Boualem Sansal at Reykjavik International Literary Festival appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2025-05-29 05:04:00 UTC ]
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The Portland, Ore., metro area is home to more than 60 independent bookstores of all shapes and sizes. Eleven indies will welcome Children’s Institute’s full- and half-day bus tours on June 12, while a whopping 66 indies are listed on the website of Portland Book Week, a June 6–15 literary... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2025-05-23 04:00:00 UTC ]
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The trade honors announced at the 35th edition of the British Book Awards name Bloomsbury and Nosy Crow top publishers. The post 2025 British Book Awards: Margaret Atwood Wins the Freedom to Publish Award appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2025-05-13 04:39:29 UTC ]
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These elements of ‘Star Wars’ stories might seem like science fiction but are actually real. Just 48 short years ago, movie director George Lucas used the phrase “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away” as the opening to the first Star Wars movie, later labeled Episode IV: A New Hope. But at... Continue reading at Fast Company
[ Fast Company | 2025-05-04 08:30:00 UTC ]
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One of Iceland’s top literary agents is working to keep the Reykjavík International Literary Festival, which she helps produce, at the forefront of the international literary scene. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2025-05-02 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Down the belly of the whale, a submerged world of gods and myth, rival bookshop owners, and more of today's best book deals. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2025-04-29 13:00:00 UTC ]
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Ahead of the Black British book festival, literary figures say the number of books being published by Black writers has ‘plummeted’UK publishing is less accessible to Black authors now than it was five years ago, according to some of the biggest names in the industry.The Black Lives Matter... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2025-03-26 17:06:01 UTC ]
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Booksellers take stand against influence of conservative billionaire by limiting orders of his company’s books and placing them on lower shelvesA conservative Catholic billionaire and media owner is facing an independent bookshop rebellion in France over his influence in the publishing... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2025-03-22 06:00:42 UTC ]
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Matthew Teller, whose books include Nine Quarters of Jerusalem, said the society’s response to the event which saw two leading booksellers detained was ‘an abject failure’A writer has left the Society of Authors (SoA) in protest after the UK’s largest writers’ body made a statement on a recent... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2025-02-20 17:34:09 UTC ]
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Regular bookstores might be dying—but bookstores dedicated to romance novels are thriving thanks to TikTok and a desire for third places. Throughout Harvard Square, there are many bookshop brimming with the latest literary fiction and intellectual memoirs, patronized by scholarly types. But in... Continue reading at Fast Company
[ Fast Company | 2025-02-13 10:30:00 UTC ]
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Industry organizations and publishers are condemning the detention of two Palestinian booksellers by Israeli police, who raided the Educational Bookshop in East Jerusalem on February 9, seizing books that they alleged incited terrorism. The booksellers were confined to house arrest this morning. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2025-02-11 05:00:00 UTC ]
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As of this morning, you can now easily buy ebooks from your local indie bookstore. Thanks to Bookshop.org, the reigning David to Am*zon’s Goliath. As Wired reports, a new platform on the site will now sell ebooks directly to customers. Bookshop users can buy and read titles via a handy-dandy... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2025-01-28 14:35:29 UTC ]
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