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 ]
The future of the Bertrams wholesaling business is at risk following the sale of its online bookshop The Wordery and the temporary closure of its book supply business as a result of the coronavirus lockdown. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-05-02 22:55:42 UTC ]
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In her new audiobook, “On the Horizon,” the children’s book author remembers her childhood against the backdrop of the Pearl Harbor and Hiroshima. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2020-05-01 09:00:05 UTC ]
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The days in quarantine would all blend together if it weren’t for Tuesday, which is the day new books hit the (now metaphorical) shelves. Here are a few of the titles dropping today. You can get them from your local indie and/or Bookshop (which, by the way, has now raised over one million... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-04-28 13:57:38 UTC ]
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The independent bookstore e-commerce site Bookshop.org has seen a 2,000% increase in sales in the last month and has become a lifeline for many stores that have been temporarily closed by the Covid-19 pandemic. Yet despite its apparent success, the site has skeptics. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-04-24 04:00:00 UTC ]
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The Authors' Club has launched new digital initiative LitFest Online in response to the cancellation of festivals and bookshop events. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-04-22 02:33:41 UTC ]
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On “Mondays With Michelle Obama,” which begins today at 12pm EST, and will run from through May 11, the former first lady will livestream a reading of a classic children’s book as part of the PBS Kids Read-Along series. She joins an ever-expanding pool of celebrities reading books for kids... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-04-20 14:10:58 UTC ]
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As quarantine continues, we’re all noticing that we respond to lockdown differently. While many spend each day providing care, food and other necessities, those of us privileged enough to be 'stuck at home' are seeing our friends’ and family members’ behaviour change under the new... Continue reading at British Council global
[ British Council global | 2020-04-17 15:42:05 UTC ]
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I don’t know who needs to hear this, but today is Tuesday. The only way I know that today is Tuesday is because all these new books are coming out today! So get excited, stay inside, order any of these titles from Bookshop if you’re so inclined, and maybe #BuyGiftCards to support your local... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-04-07 14:00:24 UTC ]
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There are no shortage of celebrities who’ve been using social media to read to children and fundraise for some of the kids most affected by the impact of COVID-19. Another luminous star (and her daughter) are next in line: Mary Poppins herself, Dame Julie Andrews, plans to launch a... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-04-02 21:15:26 UTC ]
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The American Booksellers Association announced that it will postpone Children’s Institute, its annual conference of children’s book publishers, authors, and retailers, until 2021. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-04-02 04:00:00 UTC ]
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For what seems like since time immemorial, Penguin Random House Children's has been by far the biggest beast in British kids' publishing. That might have changed this morning with HarperCollins' announcement that it will acquire Egmont UK, plus Egmont’s Polish and German children’s book... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-04-02 02:11:04 UTC ]
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We’ve already brought your attention to the ways you can help bookstores (and bookstore workers) during the coronavirus pandemic, and here’s another one: a collective of recently laid-off booksellers has started an online storefront at Bookshop.org (in case you missed it, Bookshop is the new... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-03-25 15:14:23 UTC ]
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As schools close, parents are turning to children’s book writers and illustrators on social media to help with teaching kids stuck inside. Continue reading at Wired
[ Wired | 2020-03-23 13:30:37 UTC ]
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Parents keen to encourage children into good hygiene practices during the coronavirus outbreak turn to Tony Ross’s anarchic creation for helpParents desperate to persuade their children to keep washing their hands have been turning to Tony Ross’s anarchic creation the Little Princess for help,... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2020-03-23 12:31:25 UTC ]
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The impact of the coronavirus has seen the Booksellers Association issue a rallying cry to the trade, as many publishers enforce home working to safeguard staff. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-03-19 23:39:55 UTC ]
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Bookshop.org, an alternative to Amazon that shares proceeds from book sales with independent bookstores, will give more money to those stores in response to the coronavirus pandemic and its impact on small businesses. Bookshop announced today that it would increase bookstore partners’ affiliate... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-03-18 15:09:12 UTC ]
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Recently, at New York’s Antiquarian Book Fair, I discovered a very unusual children’s book. Kriebeltje de Boskabouter (in English: Tickle, the Forest-Gnome) is one of the current listings at the rare books dealership Type Punch Matrix; this Dutch children’s book from the 1940s tells the story of... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-03-11 18:16:56 UTC ]
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Simon & Schuster (S&S) Children’s UK has snapped up three more books from creative duo behind bestselling illustrated children’s book series Supertato. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-03-10 09:55:42 UTC ]
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Penguin Random House will not be sending its teams to the rescheduled Bologna Children’s Book Fair. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-03-10 07:09:51 UTC ]
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If you thought the Choose Your Own Adventure books were magical, one Sri Lankan children’s book author might be up your alley. Sybil Wettasinghe, the 90-year-old author of The Umbrella Thief, a classic children’s book in Sri Lanka, set a new Guinness World Record yesterday with the publication... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-03-06 19:45:46 UTC ]
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