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 ]
The best authors, publishers and retailers will be crowned at the British Book Awards in a virtual ceremony today. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-06-28 17:13:02 UTC ]
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The next awards program to move online is the 'Nibbies,' set for June 29 with access available to readers as well as to book business players. The post Nibbies on the Ether: The British Book Awards Online at 30 appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2020-06-22 09:40:01 UTC ]
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Publishing, including books, newspapers and magazines, could see a £7bn fall in revenue and 51,000 jobs axed due to Covid-19's effect on bookshop closures and print sales, a report claims. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-06-17 06:06:17 UTC ]
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The coronavirus pandemic pushes another literary festival into the digital realm, and Turkey's program expects to trump others as a tri-lingual event. The post Istanbul’s ‘Sunflower’ ITEF Goes Digital – With Translation Provided appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2020-06-15 04:10:08 UTC ]
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Will browsing be allowed, or will we have to judge a book by its cover? With Waterstones and some indie shops set to open on 15 June, Alison Flood finds out what the plan isMelissa Davies had planned to fulfil a lifelong dream and open her independent bookshop, Pigeon Books, in Southsea, at the... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2020-06-12 06:00:14 UTC ]
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Bernardine Evaristo and Reni Eddo-Lodge take No 1 slots in wake of anti-racist demonstrations, as Waterstones staff ask chain to support causeBernardine Evaristo and Reni Eddo-Lodge have become the first black British women to top the UK’s fiction and nonfiction paperback charts, in a week where... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2020-06-10 13:46:40 UTC ]
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Hamnet author Maggie O'Farrell, How I Live Now writer Meg Rosoff and Waterstones children's laureate Cressida Cowell will feature during Independent Bookshop Week, online for the first time this year. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-06-09 22:22:45 UTC ]
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Children's bookshop Button & Bear in Shrewsbury is to close blaming the "fickle" high street and customer expectations on price. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-06-08 23:59:54 UTC ]
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IN 1984, George Ramsden, a 30-year-old British bookseller who had never read anything by Edith Wharton, bought her personal library for $80,000. He kept the books in a room above his bookshop where he would invite select visitors to view them by asking if they wanted to come up and see “Edith.”... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books
[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2020-06-08 12:30:25 UTC ]
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Louise Kennedy has made the six-strong shortlist for this year's Sunday Times Audible Short Story Award for the second year running. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-06-07 17:27:57 UTC ]
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It’s never too early to learn that racism is wrong and we should be doing something about it. These books will help show our kids how, writes publisher and bookseller Aimée FeloneDo the work: Layla F Saad’s anti-racist reading list The weight of the world seems heavier than ever right now. The... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2020-06-04 07:00:00 UTC ]
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It kept happening. On Twitter, on Facebook, in your WhatsApp chats. The bookish people you know, the introverts, declaring that lockdown would give them more time to read. Or the people who know you, and know that you might be bookish, declaring that you’d got a head start on them in terms of... Continue reading at British Council global
[ British Council global | 2020-05-29 15:15:00 UTC ]
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At Home with 4 Indies—the Facebook Live series spearheaded by four independent bookshops—is back with a new programme for June featuring authors shortlisted for The British Book Awards 2020, including Adele Parks, Caroline Criado Perez and Katherine Rundell. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-05-29 05:14:09 UTC ]
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Little Tiger is to publish a picture book celebrating the work of key workers, to raise money for the NHS during Independent Bookshop week. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-05-26 01:38:15 UTC ]
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Nestled in the heart of Melbourne's city laneways, Leonardo Art Shop - also known as Nibbi's - provided inspiration and education to a generation of young artists. Continue reading at The Conversation
[ The Conversation | 2020-05-21 20:00:41 UTC ]
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The British Book Awards, the annual celebration of the best books, bookshops and publishers, will return on 29th June with a virtual ceremony open to all. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-05-20 20:57:55 UTC ]
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At the beginning of 2020, well before my debut novel was published, I was invited to an evening soiree in Glasgow’s Mitchell Library – a kind of preview event for authors performing at a well-known literary festival. I changed quickly in the toilet at the car salesroom I worked in and navigated... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-05-15 16:53:37 UTC ]
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THREE MUSLIM GIRLS — two sisters and their cousin — stood in the sunshine on the grounds of the Diggi Palace Hotel in Jaipur, where the world’s largest literary festival took place over five days in late January. All around them, young people streamed into the sprawling compound, before a... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books
[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2020-05-14 17:00:42 UTC ]
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Book events worldwide are on hold, but Afrolit Sans Frontieres uses social media to host frank discussions around writing, creativity, sex and violence. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2020-05-14 14:18:46 UTC ]
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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... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2020-05-10 08:00:20 UTC ]
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