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 beginning of April. Those plans were put on hold by the coronavirus pandemic, but with a relaxation of lockdown rules from next week, bookshops will be able to open to customers – for the first time in over two months. Davies and her husband are now preparing for a very different sort of opening. “We had to quickly rethink our entire business plan and how we could operate, and now we’re gearing up to open our doors for the first time under really different circumstances,” she says. The tiny Pigeon Books will ask its browsing customers to use hand sanitiser, or wear gloves, before and after touching books, and will restrict the number of customers in the shop to two at a time.“We’re excited about opening but also worried about how we’re going to make it work and how we can keep ourselves and our customers safe,” Davies says. She continues to work full time in customer service, and to write (her first poetry collection, Pineapples in the Pool, was published by Unbound in 2018). “We’ll be opening with reduced hours for a few weeks to see how things go. We’re so nervous about it though. Who opens a bookshop in a pandemic?” Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2020-06-12 06:00:14 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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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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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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Far fewer politically sensitive titles are on display in the first such event since Beijing imposed sweeping new regulations Booksellers at Hong Kong’s annual book fair are offering a reduced selection of books deemed politically sensitive, as they try to avoid violating a sweeping national... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2021-07-15 10:57:25 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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Online retailer Bookshop.org is partnering with Modern Films on a new initative to support indie bookshops and film institutions across the UK, after a challenging 15 months owing to the coronavirus pandemic. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-06-29 08:56:46 UTC ]
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Julia Donaldson, Sara Ogilvie, Lemn Sissay, Ingrid Persaud and Jasbinder Bilan have won prizes at the Indie Book Awards, held as part of Independent Bookshop Week's celebrations. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-06-26 13:47:44 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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Hachette and its authors, incuding Juno Dawson, Brit Bennett and Libby Page, are championing indie booksellers in a social media campaign to support Independent Bookshop Week. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-06-19 08:06:16 UTC ]
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From reporting on the coronavirus pandemic to an investigation of China’s internment of Uyghurs, here’s the full list of winners and finalists. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2021-06-11 20:41:33 UTC ]
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Harry Potter publisher issues third profit upgrade of 2021 after sales increase to £185mCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageLockdown reading has helped the Harry Potter publisher Bloomsbury to its third profit upgrade of the year after a 22% surge in annual pre-tax... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2021-06-02 08:20:05 UTC ]
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Online indie retailer Bookshop.org is calling for publishers and authors to link to independent bookshops and its own site for the duration of Independent Bookshop Week (IBW). Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-05-10 23:36:00 UTC ]
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New figures from the Publishers Association show fiction and audiobooks did particularly well, with value of consumer sales up 7% on 2019 despite bookshop closuresFiction sales in 2020 soared by more than £100m for UK publishers, as readers locked down at home made their escape into books, with... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2021-04-26 23:01:49 UTC ]
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An indie bookshop in Brigg, north Lincolnshire, was forced to close on Tuesday (13th April) after only a day's post-lockdown trading, following a break-in that left the shop unsafe for customers. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-04-13 17:09:48 UTC ]
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Organizers of the show say they're assessing 'ongoing uncertainty around international travel' in the coronavirus pandemic. The post London Book Fair 2021: Final Decision in Mid-April appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2021-03-31 08:12:26 UTC ]
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As early as May 2020 a Nielsen Book survey reported that 41% of UK adults were reading more during the coronavirus pandemic, almost doubling the time they spent reading books from around three-and-a-half hours a week to an average of six. In July 2020, National Literacy Trust research revealed... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-03-30 19:17:18 UTC ]
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The UK arm of Bookshop.org, the online retailer that partners with indie bookstores, has a new initiative on the way: it’s launching a series of online events for its customers as well as customers of unaffiliated indies. For the first event on March 23rd, Bookshop is partnering with Faber to... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2021-03-11 19:42:27 UTC ]
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