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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The new Midwest Bookseller of the Year award will honor excellence in bookselling and be awarded, annually, to a bookseller affiliated with any indie in the MIBA region. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2018-04-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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With Google under pressure to clamp down on YouTube conspiracies and low-quality clickbait, the search giant is launching a major new effort aimed at strengthening its relationship with news publishers–and perhaps keeping them from going under. At an event in New York today, the company... Continue reading at Fast Company
[ Fast Company | 2018-03-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Booksellers are gearing up for a "very exciting and busy" Super Thursday today (5th October), although one has argued the multitudes of releases may mean some "great" titles get overlooked. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2017-10-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Chorleywood Bookshop has been named the Vintage Independent Bookshop of the Year 2016, making it the first shop to have won the prize twice. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-10-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Canadian publishing is dominated by some familiar names: Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, and HarperCollins. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2016-09-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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One thing the absence of a big book has meant is that a handful of titles—drawing strong advances from editors in the U.S. and abroad—are being clumped into an ever-growing list of buzzed-about books. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-10-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Here is a selection of some of the hundreds of authors who will be at this season’s regional shows. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-09-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A selection of some of the hundreds of children's book authors who will be at this season’s regional shows. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-09-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Publishers will be using profit-and-loss statements to educate booksellers about their financial realities at this year's regional trade shows. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-09-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Booksellers from across the country share standout books with strong regional ties. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-09-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Amazon's release of its third quarter financial results Thursday afternoon gave analysts and investors lots to think about as the giant e-tailer posted a large quarterly loss, forecast the possibility of a loss for the fourth quarter and had slowing growth in its media segment. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-10-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A wave of mainstream media attention shines a spotlight on David Christian, a leading proponent of "big history" and author published by academic press Berkshire Publishing. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-09-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Perusing the cookbook offerings at BEA revealed upcoming titles from big names and newcomers alike, and news that "Lucky Peach" is looking at getting into cookbooks. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-06-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A ad tech startup that promises to help Web publishers make sense of all the data their ad sales generate. Continue reading at AllThingsD
[ AllThingsD | 2011-05-31 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The second day of Sharjah Bookseller Conference featured commentary on family-owned retail companies and technology. The post Sharjah’s Third Booksellers Conference: ‘Acumen and Dynamism’ appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2024-05-01 18:16:19 UTC ]
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For this year's Independent Bookstore Day, held on April 27, hundreds of indies across the country extended their celebration across the entire weekend as crowds crawled from one shop to the next, snapping up books. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-04-29 04:00:00 UTC ]
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The Professional Booksellers School has educated nearly 1,000 booksellers since it was launched in 2021, and has recently rolled out new self-study courses as well as “Bookstore Year One,” a year-long program designed to provide mentorship for new bookstore owners. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-04-18 04:00:00 UTC ]
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The Red Balloon, founded in 1984 in St. Paul, Minn., specializes in books for children of all ages. It has been a community gathering space for decades. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-04-17 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Measurement companies are looking to measure up ahead of the upfront season, with Nielsen making "big data" announcements and the Joint Industry Committee (JIC) certifying Comscore and VideoAmp. To explain exactly what's going on in measurement, ADWEEK went to great... Continue reading at AdWeek
[ AdWeek | 2024-04-04 19:17:06 UTC ]
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