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 ]
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The Bookseller is calling on readers, authors, agents, publishers and the general public to sign a petition urging the government to give bookshops the same business rate discount as pubs. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2018-06-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Facing high demand and a pushed-up pub date, booksellers big and small are scrambling to get copies of Michael Wolff's political exposé. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2018-01-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Barnes & Noble chairman Len Riggio gave new company CEO Demos Parneros his firm support, calling Parneros "the perfect fit" to help the company grow its top line and improve profits. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2017-09-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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In partnership with the Book Industry Charitable Foundation, AdventureKEEN will give 100% of the profits from the sales of its books at independent bookstores, this June, to booksellers in need. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2017-03-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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News organizations operating in France will open up a new fact-checking service, CrossCheck, at the end of this month. Their initial focus will be on covering the forthcoming French elections, but with a number of international organizations participating, the project's reach could... Continue reading at PC World
[ PC World | 2017-02-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Simon & Schuster has given the Breitbart writer a $250,000 deal – so I decided the Chicago Review of Books would not cover any of its authors in 2017Last week, the literary world gasped when one of the largest publishers in the United States, Simon & Schuster, rewarded America’s most... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2017-01-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Shop-floor booksellers are being invited to join a new group called The Booksellers Network, which has been backed by significant players from across the industry. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-09-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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In a statement, America’s booksellers, publishers, and librarians expressed admiration for Lam Wing-kee and his defense of the right of the Chinese people to read the books they want. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2016-06-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Australian Booksellers Association has joined with other Australian book industry organisations to protest changes proposed by the government to turn the country into an “open market” and allow booksellers to import both UK and US titles without restrictions. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-06-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Australian Booksellers Association has joined with other members of the country's publishing industry to protest a government proposal to allow booksellers to import U.S. and U.K. books without restrictions. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2016-06-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A group of French publishers are starting a week long trial against ad blocking. The joint approach was announced in December by online publishing trade body Geste. However it has not set a standard, so all publishers are free to take their own approach. L’Equipe is blocking content unless users... Continue reading at Digiday
[ Digiday | 2016-03-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Competition for the Christmas number one spot is wide open this year, a consequence of “the strongest autumn [in publication terms] in years”. Yesterday marked Super Thursday (8th October), the day on which the greatest number of hardback titles—including many likely bestsellers—are released in... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-10-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Type in a book you’d like to read, and the app will compare the Amazon price with nearby independent book shops – in the hope you’ll go and buy thereIndependent booksellers have launched a new weapon in their two-pronged offensive against online retailers such as Amazon and the supermarket... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2015-06-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Today Turkey blocked access to a number of websites including YouTube and Twitter. The ban came after the sites published images of a prosecutor being taken hostage at a court in Istanbul earlier in the week. Google has vowed to getting things back up and running, but it's not the same story for... Continue reading at Betanews
[ Betanews | 2015-04-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The CEO of Germany's largest newspaper group is one of the few powerful figures speaking out about the web giantMatthias Döpfner is a man on a mission. The motives behind the mission need to be scrutinised, but when so many of old media's authority figures seem at sea in a changing environment,... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2014-07-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A new campaign asking publishers to stop labelling books for boys or girls has been backed by a number of leading authors, as well as bookseller Waterstones. Continue reading at BBC News
[ BBC News | 2014-03-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The ABA's CEO sent an open letter to independent booksellers encouraging them to publicize Amazon as a company "detrimental" to the book business and buyers. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2013-08-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A general meeting to discuss plans for CILIP, the Chartered Institute of Librarians and... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-06-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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For the past decade the American Booksellers Association has been warning about the need for succession plans and the graying of booksellers. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2012-12-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Tim Godfray, chief executive of the Booksellers Association, has backed the stance taken by House... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-11-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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