Welcome to Independent Booksellers Week!
Independent Booksellers’ Week, a national celebration of independent bookshops, will take place from 30th June to 7th July 2012. A huge thanks to all the booksellers, publishers, authors and customers who came together to make IBW last year so special, and we look forward to working with you all again this year. There are a lot of 2011 photos on the News page, and a few more below.
A key new element for IBW 2012 is our programme of IBW Bookseller Collectibles. Inspired by Independent Record Store Day www.recordstoreday.co.uk we are creating a small range, in association with supporting publishers, of IBW product, available only through independents, for IBW 2012. We are working with as many publishers as possible to achieve this, and in doing so, creating reasons for consumers to visit indie bookshops during the Week. Increasing the consumer attractions for the Week will help to supplement the events programming already established, will deliver a real local and commercial message for booksellers to take to their communities – so crucial to a healthy bookselling sector – as well as attract more bookseller engagement, and the reach of the campaign across the UK, building commitment to bookshops and the books they sell.
White Rose Books Author Signing with Max Hardcastle
Caxton Books Kipper in the shop
Dulwich Bookshop - Grace Cheetham Sheila O'Reilly
Rossiter Books - Andy, Rob Penn and Rich
2012 Information
2012 information will appear on this site – and news and information from the 2011 campaign is already available here. If you are a publisher interested in getting involved in IBW for 2012, please click IBW 2012 – Full Information Pack for Publishers for an information flyer or email sharon.down@booksellers.org.uk. If you are a bookseller who would like to register to participate in IBW 2012, and receive the IBW POS Kit, again email Sharon and she will register you.
Independent Booksellers Week is part of the IndieBound campaign for independent bookshops, which promotes independent bookshops, great books, strong reading communities, and the idea of shopping locally and sustainably – www.indiebound.org.uk
An exciting new development for 2011 was the inclusion of National Reading Group Day, which will again take place, this
year on Saturday 30th June. National Reading Group Day is one of BA President Jane Streeter’s key objectives, and is about capitalising on the current huge grassroots affection for Reading Groups in the UK. Many booksellers run groups in or through their shops, but others simply supply local reading groups with copies, or help with recommendations. There are many ways in which you can engage with your local reading groups, which are an excellent route into the wider community. Once you have established a Reading Group Community, you can hold events, literary lunches or even walks and trips, based on the Group, or on what they are reading.
If you have ideas to share about Reading Groups and your own activity, please do email meryl.halls@booksellers.org.uk, or sharon.down@booksellers.org.uk
Take a look around this website to find out more, and visit the 2011 pages to see what we did last year too. You can also keep up to date with latest news via Twitter and Facebook. Please also sign up to our RSS feed for news updates, by clicking on the icon on the bottom left of this page.
All best wishes,
The IBW Team