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 ]
Digital Media Solutions, a Clearwater-based technology marketing firm and one of the largest marketing firms in Tampa Bay, is officially public. This marks the completion of its reverse merger valued at $757 million with Leo Holdings Corp. Leo changed its name Digital Media Solutions Inc.... Continue reading at Silicon Valley Business Journal
[ Silicon Valley Business Journal | 2020-07-17 16:47:40 UTC ]
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Around 35% of regular bookshop customers are unsure about returning to bricks and mortar premises now lockdown has eased, according to a survey by Nielsen. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-07-17 09:56:49 UTC ]
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In Michaela Coel’s excellent BBC TV series “I May Destroy You”, her character Arabella’s journey concludes in a bookshop with the launch of her self-published book. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-07-17 06:11:20 UTC ]
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Profile Books will publish Shaun Bythell's Seven Kinds of People You Find in Bookshops in November. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-07-08 23:31:01 UTC ]
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James Corden to produce film and TV series based on Australia’s Real Pigeons children’s booksThe humble pigeon may be an unlikely breed of star but an author-illustrator duo from Melbourne have been turning the birds into a crime-fighting troupe of superheroes – and they’re about to take flight... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2020-07-07 21:55:36 UTC ]
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Mo Willems, Kyo Maclear, and other children’s book authors on what Arnold Lobel’s series means to them. Continue reading at Slate
[ Slate | 2020-07-03 14:30:00 UTC ]
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David’s Bookshop in Hertfordshire has been bought by its staff and remodelled as a John Lewis-style employee ownership trust. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-07-01 19:30:47 UTC ]
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Being a book publisher comes with a set of tough moral responsibilities. You provide livelihoods for authors and booksellers, your hiring decisions can greatly influence how UK culture is shaped, and you’re also a company with a duty of care towards your staff. Sometimes these duties come into... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-06-23 03:23:48 UTC ]
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Multi-award winning author and illustrator Kadir Nelson's art featured on The New Yorker and Rolling Stone Magazine. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2020-06-18 14:37:17 UTC ]
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Publishing, including books, newspapers and magazines, could see a £7bn fall in revenue and 51,000 jobs axed due to Covid-19's effect on bookshop closures and print sales, a report claims. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-06-17 06:06:17 UTC ]
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The children’s book characters have become embroiled in a dispute about the redevelopment of a beloved Finnish landmark. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2020-06-12 12:30:06 UTC ]
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Will browsing be allowed, or will we have to judge a book by its cover? With Waterstones and some indie shops set to open on 15 June, Alison Flood finds out what the plan isMelissa Davies had planned to fulfil a lifelong dream and open her independent bookshop, Pigeon Books, in Southsea, at the... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2020-06-12 06:00:14 UTC ]
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Bernardine Evaristo and Reni Eddo-Lodge take No 1 slots in wake of anti-racist demonstrations, as Waterstones staff ask chain to support causeBernardine Evaristo and Reni Eddo-Lodge have become the first black British women to top the UK’s fiction and nonfiction paperback charts, in a week where... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2020-06-10 13:46:40 UTC ]
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Children's bookshop Button & Bear in Shrewsbury is to close blaming the "fickle" high street and customer expectations on price. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-06-08 23:59:54 UTC ]
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IN 1984, George Ramsden, a 30-year-old British bookseller who had never read anything by Edith Wharton, bought her personal library for $80,000. He kept the books in a room above his bookshop where he would invite select visitors to view them by asking if they wanted to come up and see “Edith.”... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books
[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2020-06-08 12:30:25 UTC ]
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It’s never too early to learn that racism is wrong and we should be doing something about it. These books will help show our kids how, writes publisher and bookseller Aimée FeloneDo the work: Layla F Saad’s anti-racist reading list The weight of the world seems heavier than ever right now. The... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2020-06-04 07:00:00 UTC ]
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We talked with five middle grade editors about upcoming titles they are looking forward to introducing to the children’s book world. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-05-28 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Mbalia will speak about mental health issues and his latest book, Tristan Strong Destroys the World, as a panelist at BookExpo Online's Children’s Book & Author Dinner. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-05-27 04:00:00 UTC ]
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At BookExpo Online's Children’s Book & Author Dinner, Portman looks to shift the perspective in children’s literature with a book of reimagined fables with female protagonists. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-05-27 04:00:00 UTC ]
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To help mark the 50th anniversary of Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret, Judy Blume will present tonight at BookExpo Online's Children’s Book & Author Dinner. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-05-27 04:00:00 UTC ]
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