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 shortlist for the 2019 International Prize for Arabic Fiction was announced today at the El-Hakawati Palestinian National Theatre in East Jerusalem. The IPAF - often referred to as the ‘Arabic Booker’ - is an annual literary prize for prose fiction, which encourages the readership of... Continue reading at British Council global
[ British Council global | 2019-02-05 16:33:45 UTC ]
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An independent bookshop, The Mainstreet Trading Company’s Bookshop & Café, has been named Britain’s Best Small Shop of 2018. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2018-11-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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HarperCollins has been named as one of 70 employers on Business in the Community’s Best Employers for Race listing, for a second year running. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2018-10-31 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Report finds half of negative comments aimed at Rian Johnson’s movie came from Twitter bots or trolls, indicating fan backlash was overstatedMore than half of the hostile responses to The Last Jedi, episode eight of the Star Wars saga, were politically motivated trolling or the result of... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2018-10-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Last year, nine months after Hurricane Irma tore through the Caribbean, I traveled from my home in North Carolina to Anguilla to teach writing workshops to children and adults as part of a literary festival. As a prompt, I asked them to describe what they could not forget about the storm. When... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2018-09-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A mother and son team is opening an independent bookshop in a 400-year-old property in North Yorkshire. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2018-08-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The U.K. publishing industry had a record-breaking year in 2017, with income up 5% to £5.7 billion, according to figures released by the Publishers Association in its annual Yearbook. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2018-07-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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An independent bookshop in Harrogate has experienced a "phenomenal" response to a desperate Twitter plea for sales after only taking £12.34 in a day. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2018-06-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Stockbridge branch to open under Waterstones name rather than appearing independent Waterstones has backtracked on plans to open one of its new unbranded stores in a district of Edinburgh that is already home to an independent bookshop – following an outcry that included criticism from figures... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2018-05-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Lee Child’s The Midnight Line (Bantam) has boomeranged back into the UK Official Top 50 number one spot, a week after it was displaced by Star Wars: The Last Jedi Junior Novel (Dean & Son). It sold 27,165 copies for £114,021, rocketing past the 100,000 copies sold milestone in just three... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2018-04-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Michael Kogge’s Star Wars: The Last Jedi (Dean & Son) has ascended into the UK Official Top 50 number one spot, selling 62,104 copies through Nielsen BookScan’s TCM. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2018-04-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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It’s easy to read Michael Moreci’s debut novel “Black Star Renegades” and compare it to “Star Wars.” After all, the story was inspired by that epic saga. But to characterize it as a retelling or a ripoff wouldn’t do justice to this complex, self-aware and fun romp through space. “Black Star... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2018-01-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A year that found four of the 10 companies on the PW Stock Index seeing double-digit stock price increases also saw Barnes & Noble and other big names struggle. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2018-01-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Children’s novel about a boy trying to break his father out of prison sells more than 60,000 copies in a week to secure top slot in festive book chartsDavid Walliams’s tale of a boy trying to break his father out of prison, Bad Dad, has beaten Jamie Oliver’s latest recipe collection to the top... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2017-12-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Waterstones is to open five new bookshops before Christmas – with three named after the area they are based in the spirit of an independent bookshop. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2017-11-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Ahead of the theatrical release of ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’ on Dec. 15, the founder of the U.K.-based Church of Jediism discusses the challenges and appeal of the Jedi-based faith in his book, ‘Becoming the Force.’ Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2017-11-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Independent bookshop The Book Hive has partnered with a local coffee shop and launched a new weekly "detox reading" event called Page Against the Machine designed to encourage more customers to pick up a book. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2017-10-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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An independent bookshop has opened in Halifax in a 240-year-old cloth trading hall, the city’s first dedicated bookstore for four years. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2017-10-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Star Wars and the Marvel comic book movies will join Disney's upcoming streaming service, potentially giving it broader appeal beyond families with young children. Continue reading at Stuff
[ Stuff | 2017-09-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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