Could a bespoke book subscription service break you out of your reading rut or encourage you to explore new genres?Heywood Hill bookshop has stood on the same spot since 1936. It inhabits a Georgian townhouse at 10 Curzon Street in Mayfair, London, a blue plaque outside commemorating its most famous employee, Nancy Mitford. Behind its heavy wooden door, a customer explains that she is visiting the UK from Australia, and would like to speak to someone about the shop’s subscription service. The word has clearly travelled far.From chocolate to coffee to beer to grooming products, subscription boxes are big business, and books are no exception. There are countless online companies that ship out a monthly read, some adding artisan teas, hot chocolate, or an adaptation on DVD of the book. But Heywood Hill’s subscription is as bespoke as possible: each package is individually tailored to the reader’s tastes following a conversation between the subscriber and a bookseller. Camille Van de Velde, one of Heywood Hill’s five booksellers, takes me down a rickety staircase into the basement from where the scheme is run. Staff are at work in a series of pokey interlocking rooms, stacking titles on shelves, ready to be wrapped, packed and shipped. They won’t be specific about numbers, but each has hundreds of people to choose for each month, and it has, by all accounts, transformed the business.Suddenly I realise just how intimate a simple question like ‘What is your favourite book?’ can... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2020-02-13 11:00:00 UTC ]
News tagged with:
#fighting back
#blue plaque
#nancy mitford
#heywood hill
#simple question
#bookshop
Printed book sales rebounded after a poor week, with Nielsen BookScan reporting spending surged... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-06-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#poor week
Barnes & Noble has said the Department of Justice's proposed settlement with... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-06-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#doj settlement
#barnes noble
#proposed settlement
Galaxy may discontinue its sponsorship of the National Book Awards, with the award’s... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-05-31 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |
A protest demonstration has disrupted Amazon.com's latest shareholder meeting in Seattle,... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-05-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |
The UK's biggest bookstore chain has announced that it will start selling Kindles alongside other digital services from Amazon. Waterstones stores will let Kindle owners digitally browse books in-store and link up with special offers, tying into the chain's plans for substantial renovations that... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2012-05-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#digital services
#waterstones stores
#special offers
#opposite direction
#kindle sales
Further pressure on publishers to fall in line over the use of open access models is set to come... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-05-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |
HarperCollins claimed this year’s prestigious Publisher of the Year accolade at the... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-05-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#year accolade
#bookseller awards
For Harvey Pekar's Cleveland, Top Shelf and Zip Comics recruited artist Joseph Remnant, whose work recalls longtime Pekar collaborator R. Crumb, but with a lighter touch and a charm all its own. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2012-05-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#art check
#harvey pekar
#top shelf
Hachette UK has topped the shortlist league table for the 2012 Bookseller Industry Awards, the... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-04-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#hachette uk
Apple responds to antitrust charges: "The launch of the iBookstore in 2010 fostered innovation and competition, breaking Amazon's monopolistic grip on the publishing industry." Continue reading at AllThingsD
[ AllThingsD | 2012-04-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#breaking amazon
#monopolistic grip
#publishing industry
At least two of the big six publishers in the US are refusing to renew contracts with Amazon.com... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-04-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#renew contracts
The lucrative James Bond novels return to Random House, their original publisher, through a new deal. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2012-03-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#random house
#original publisher
After a week of media speculation that independent Canadian bookseller Nicholas Hoare would be... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-03-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |
Digital Rights Management (DRM) on ebooks has been labelled as “expensive” and... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-03-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |
Luis J. Rodríguez ('Always Running') has a new memoir, 'It Calls You Back,' about his mistakes, and his father's.Luis J. Rodríguez has been called "a superhero in Chicano literature" for his steady output of poems, fiction and above all for "Always Running," his classic 1993 memoir about... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2012-03-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |
Little, Brown author Val McDermid has backed the role of publishers, as children's laureate... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-03-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |
French booksellers are cautiously optimistic that their margins will not be squeezed when VAT on... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-03-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#french booksellers
#cautiously optimistic
Reading a book on a tablet like the Kindle Fire is “like trying to cook when there are little children around,” David Myers said. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2012-03-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#kindle fire
Printed book sales slumped 11% last week as children returned to school and adults to work... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-02-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |
The word synergy, in the world of book publishing, feels like a term that died in the ’90s. Back then, almost every publisher housed within a media conglomerate was touting the ways it would use its TV-making or movie-making sister companies to sell books. Fox would boost HarperCollins.... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2012-02-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#book publishing
#media conglomerate
#sell books
#ellen archer