In 2009, two bookshops a week were closing in the UK and the days of physical books seemed numbered. Now, indie stores are booming. What explains the turnaround – and can it be sustained?When Sarah Mullen was asked to set up a children’s book festival in a leafy suburb of Birmingham in 2012, she couldn’t find an independent bookseller to run the bookstall. “So we all rolled up our sleeves and did it ourselves,” she says. Pregnant with her third child, she had recently given up her job as a solicitor to work for the Bournville Village Trust. Mullen’s task was to set up the Bournville BookFest, which ran for 10 years before being brought to a halt by the Covid pandemic. But far from accepting defeat, she rolled up her sleeves once again and “pivoted the whole thing into a bookshop”. Two years on, the Bookshop on the Green is thriving – a living rebuttal to the once widely held idea that the digital era meant certain death for the neighbourhood bookstore.When I visit early on a Friday morning, a turquoise vintage Smith Corona typewriter holds centre stage in the Bookshop on the Green. Beside it stands Bradley Taylor, a poet whose job is to write poems on demand for anyone who asks. He has composed a lot of Batman and football poems for the children who pile in on Saturdays, he says, before sitting down to tap one out for me about the joy of bookshops. In the multitasking tradition of small retailers, Taylor also works in the shop. He made his cosplay debut last month as the... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2023-07-27 09:00:32 UTC ]
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In 2009, two bookshops a week were closing in the UK and the days of physical books seemed numbered. Now, indie stores are booming. What explains the turnaround – and can it be sustained?When Sarah Mullen was asked to set up a children’s book festival in a leafy suburb of Birmingham in 2012, she... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2023-07-27 09:00:32 UTC ]
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#bookshop
The owners of the Big Green Bookshop are to open a second premises in Brookmans Park,... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-11-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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#open children
Every fall season, bookseller enthusiasm builds for certain subjects, and novels—notably high-stakes historical fiction and immersive work in translation—are extra hot for 2023. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-08-25 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Independent booksellers from across the country highlight eight independently published books they're excited to sell this fall. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-08-25 04:00:00 UTC ]
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We talk with Annie Carl, founder of the Neverending Bookshop in Edmonds, Wash., a community bookstore that focuses on genre titles and children’s and YA. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-04-14 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Executive directors at regional bookseller associations across the country believe that conditions are right for big turnouts at their in-person fall shows. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2022-06-17 04:00:00 UTC ]
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An Essex-based indie bookshop is doubling in size after "thriving" during the pandemic. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-08-25 20:03:30 UTC ]
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A quarter-century after Crosby, 55, left his native Utah for California, he quit his job as executive director of the California Independent Booksellers Alliance and returned to become co-owner, as of July 1, of the Salt Lake City literary icon. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2021-08-20 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Bookselling Ireland has today (1st April) written to the Taoiseach to ask that bookshops be classed as "essential" retail and allowed to open, or be granted special dispensation to offer click and collect services. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-03-31 15:26:01 UTC ]
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Some of our inaugural Bookshop Heroes — the best individual booksellers in the UK and Ireland — share the skills that are key to running a bookshop. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-11-05 16:20:56 UTC ]
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Booksellers have generally reacted enthusiastically to news that the US indie-focused retail site Bookshop.org is launching in the UK this November, although some remain cautious. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-09-13 19:17:12 UTC ]
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Hodder Faith, in partnership with mini-chain St Andrew’s Bookshop, will launch a national church book club this autumn, to be known as The Big Church Read. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-08-12 13:00:50 UTC ]
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Bookshop has helped many independents weather the pandemic, but some booksellers say the ABA is not being transparent about its financial relationship with the online retailer and worry that Bookshop poses new competition. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-08-12 04:00:00 UTC ]
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The Bookseller is to create a Rising Stars-style listing of individual booksellers to coincide with the Booksellers Association Conference in September 2020. The Bookshop Heroes special, supported by the BA and sponsored by HarperCollins, will be published to coincide with the annual conference. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-12-11 22:52:50 UTC ]
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Faced with growing numbers of customers migrating to the internet, German bookseller Hugendubel is pinning its hopes on a new store concept which it ambitiously calls the "bookshop of the future". Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-11-05 01:04:10 UTC ]
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Ann Patchett reveals the route to her bestseller and how she'll battle Amazon. (Shop dogs help.) Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2019-10-31 20:02:20 UTC ]
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Retailers are gearing up for a bumper Super Thursday ahead of this Saturday's Bookshop Day 2019 when events will be taking place up and down the country. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-10-03 08:58:18 UTC ]
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During Independent Bookshop Week, author Clare Mackintosh pens a letter in praise of bookshops and booksellers. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-06-19 07:08:54 UTC ]
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The Bookseller is teaming up with World Book Day to launch a competition for bookshops. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-02-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Big Green Bookshop is closing down its physical premises as owner Simon Key moves the business to online only, with "absolute monster" rates and rents forcing him to shut the bricks and mortar shop. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-01-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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#move online