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 ]
More than 60 bookshops launched in the UK and Ireland in the past 18 months – but who would open one in a pandemic? We asked five to share their stories, while bestselling author Val McDermid remembers the bookshops of her youthWhen I was growing up in a small Scottish town, we had a bookshop... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2021-08-15 11:00:06 UTC ]
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The fourth outing of the award produced by the Desperate Literature bookshop in Madrid features work centered on colonial oppression. The post Madrid’s ‘Desperate Literature’ Short Fiction Prize: Paige Cowan-Hall appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2021-08-13 21:40:40 UTC ]
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A steadfast member of the radical bookselling community is to retire after 45 years at Liverpool store News From Nowhere. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-08-10 05:23:08 UTC ]
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After 35 years, the Observer’s former correspondent is leaving as what was once a haven of liberty and peace is transformed into a police stateWhen I arrived in Hong Kong in 1987 as the Observer’s south-east Asia correspondent, the foreign editor said he saw it as being a base, not the kind of... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2021-08-08 07:00:15 UTC ]
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An independent bookshop spotlighting women’s writing is opening in Edinburgh today (6th August), inspired by a successful book club. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-08-06 19:47:21 UTC ]
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Before Covid, A Good Used Book was a pop-up bookshop thriving across L.A. It's back to physical business this month — at the end of a long, hard road. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2021-08-05 13:00:28 UTC ]
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A children’s book series delivers financial teachings drawn from scripture. (Sponsored) Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2021-08-02 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Matt Haig has become the first author to feature on Bookshop.org's Indie Champions list with two titles in the same month. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-08-01 01:03:15 UTC ]
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Personalised children’s book publisher Wonderbly has been acquired by private equity specialist Graphite Capital for an undisclosed amount. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-07-27 23:35:14 UTC ]
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Stacey Abrams will publish Stacey’s Extraordinary Words, a children’s picture book illustrated by Kitt Thomas, on December 28th with HarperCollins Children’s Books imprint Balzer + Bray. Though Abrams has published three bestselling books for adults under her own name, as well as eight romance... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2021-07-21 15:41:46 UTC ]
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The bestselling illustrator has published a new version of the landmark children’s book Little Pilgrim’s Progress. (Sponsored) Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2021-07-19 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Colin Kaepernick—the activist quarterback blackballed by the NFL for kneeling during the national anthem at the start of games in protest of police brutality and racial inequality—is releasing a children’s book inspired by a pivotal moment in his childhood. I Color Myself Different, the first... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2021-07-16 15:56:17 UTC ]
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Public sympathy for the defeated England striker has sent sales rocketing for his inspirational life guide for kidsMarcus Rashford’s children’s book You Are a Champion has shot to the top of the charts in the days after England lost the Euro 2020 final to Italy.A guide for young people in which... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2021-07-14 16:27:30 UTC ]
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Líra Könyv made to pay £600 for failing to clearly indicate the story featured ‘a family that is different than a normal family’A bookshop chain in Hungary has been fined for selling a children’s story depicting a day in the life of a child with same-sex parents, with officials condemning the... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2021-07-08 12:09:32 UTC ]
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Ms. Giff wrote more than 100 books, ranging from an exploration of the Irish potato famine to a humorous series about the antics of second graders. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2021-07-02 22:56:53 UTC ]
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Whether kids are learning about pronouns or escaping into South Indian mythology, these July children’s book releases are sure to be a hit. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2021-07-02 10:36:00 UTC ]
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The author was repeatedly told that no one wanted to read fun books with disabled heroes. Now she has won the £5,000 Waterstones children’s book prize for her debut, A Kind of SparkWhen Scottish author Elle McNicoll was first trying to enter the publishing world, she was repeatedly told that... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2021-07-01 05:01:05 UTC ]
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Elle McNicoll has been named overall winner of the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize 2021 for her debut novel A Kind of Spark (Knights Of). Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-06-30 15:03:18 UTC ]
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News and Events WLT is joining the BookTube world! The show is WLT Book Buzz, hosted by two former interns who now work in children’s book publishing. After watching Laura Hernandez and Bunmi Ishola read more books than anyone else we knew, we convinced... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2021-06-23 21:26:25 UTC ]
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Former Review Bookshop manager Katia Wengraf has raised more than £10,000 online to help fund her new independent store, Mount Florida Books, in a former tattoo parlour in Glasgow. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-06-20 21:34:09 UTC ]
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