The BA and the Reading Agency are planning activity around National Reading Group Day, and are calling on booksellers and libraries to collaborate to create great events around NRGD on 30th June.

Over 270 bookshops are signed up for IBW and NRGD and we will shortly be producing lists of libraries signed up for the campaign too.  We are inviting bookshops who already have vibrant links with their local libraries to let us know – and to help create case studies to inspire other partnerships.

Bookshops and libraries have so much in common, especially in local areas – often the audience at library reading groups are bookshop customers and vice versa – we want to make sure that National Reading Group Day is an occasion for everyone to benefit – sharing books, a love of reading and the pleasure of visiting bookshops and libraries.

We will be producing point of sale posters and resource packs for bookshops and libraries shortly, and in the meantime, booksellers can take a look at the Reading Groups for Everyone website, which has lots of information about reading groups around the country as well as resources – www.readingroups.org

We are delighted to bring you news of the first IBW Collectible – our small range of collectible items being made available to independents for IBW.  The idea behind the Collectibles Range is to provide indies with books which are only available from them during the Week.  We have three or four more to bring to you, plus some exclusive signed editions too.

The first Collectible is from Hodder, and is a limited edition deluxe edition of Gold by Chris Cleave, which will be signed and numbered by the author, feature a slipcase, head and tail bands, a ribbon marker, and different end papers from the main edition.

Booksellers who want to order copies of this beautiful limited edition title, please email ben.gutcher@hodder.co.uk by FRIDAY 30^th MARCH 2012.

Don’t delay in your order – once orders are placed, this will determine print run, and the title in this edition will no longer be available.

Further information on Collectibles is available from meryl.halls@booksellers.org.uk or sharon.down@booksellers.org.uk

Edmund de Waal, author of The Hare with Amber Eyes, was presented with his adult category IBW Book Award by BA President, Jane Streeter, at a small ceremony at John Sandoes Bookshop in Chelsea, London, recently.  He was genuinely delighted to win the prize, and was presented with the certificate and £150 National Book Token by Jane Streeter.

The winner of the children’s category, Eoin Colfer, is being presented with his Award at the Book Centre Wexford, on 25th November – photos of that to follow!

Congratulations to both authors, to John Sandoes Bookshop and the Book Centre, Wexford, for hosting the Awards presentations, and also thanks to the publishers who submitted the titles, booksellers who voted, and customers who chose the winners!

Vintage and Puffin get the vote of independents’ customers

The winners for the annual Independent Booksellers Book Prize 2011, as voted for, uniquely, by independent booksellers and their customers, are:

ADULT CATEGORY:

EDMUND DE WAAL – THE HARE WITH AMBER EYES (Vintage Books)

CHILDREN’S CATEGORY:

EOIN COLFER – ARTEMIS FOUL & THE ATLANTIS COMPLEX (Puffin)

This is the second time Eoin Colfer has been awarded the Independent Booksellers’ Book Prize, having also won the Children’s Category for Artemis Fowl and the Time Paradox in 2009.

Meryl Halls, Head of Membership Services, Booksellers Association, said: “We offer our congratulations to Edmund de Waal and Eoin Colfer, who both enjoy huge support from independents.  This is the fifth Independent Booksellers’ Book Prize, and the quality of this year’s shortlist is testament to the important part the Prize plays in IBW.”

Edmund de Waal, winner of the Adult category, said: “Books need champions. Writing a book about a great-uncle in Tokyo and an art-form that no one can pronounce is not a sensible thing to do. I owe a huge debt to the real, passionate, independent, local, engaged bookshops for stacking my book next to their tills, talking about it, and pressing it into customers’ hands.  It is these booksellers who have made my ‘niche’ book fly.  I am delighted to have won the Independent Booksellers’ Book Prize this year, especially as the votes come from independent booksellers and their customers.”

Eoin Colfer, winner of the Children’s category, said: “It means a huge amount to me to receive an award from independent booksellers, as these are the people who really foster a love of reading in our young people. Their expertise and passion keep books alive and thriving in a competitive time, so to be honoured by these guys is to be honoured by people who really know what they are talking about, which makes the award mean so much more. A huge thank you to everyone involved in IBW.”

The Independent Booksellers Book Prize is unique amongst book prizes as it is the only award chosen by independent booksellers in the UK and their customers, giving publishers a prime opportunity to promote key independent titles into the independent sector.

A shortlist of ten adult and twelve children’s books were selected by a judging panel of independent booksellers from nominations put forward by publishers. Participating bookshops showcased the short-listed titles in special promotions that ran throughout Independent Booksellers Week (18^th-25^th June), with voting taking place from May until the end of August.  Winners were selected by independent bookshop customers who cast postcard or email votes for their favourite books.

Here is a really fabulous article by Dulwich Bookshop, which ran in BookBrunch.  Says it all really!

For the first time, Dulwich Books took part in Independent Booksellers Week, and with pleasing results. Dave Faulds reports

Following our refurbishment back in February, Independent Booksellers Week came along as the perfect opportunity to launch our new image and events programme. Having never taken part in IBW before, we were about to find it quite a learning experience. As opposed to taking a back-seat approach, we decided truly to get into the spirit of IBW, and so organised 13 events across the eight days, the plan being to have something happening every day. We marketed the week’s events heavily in the local area, contacting people and societies we hadn’t dealt with in the past. We used the occasion to forge new links with local press and with online communities. It was fantastic to see the support we received from local press and other local businesses.

When organising our evening events we opted for a mixture of genres, partly to test the waters but mostly to offer a variation tailored to our local market. Our final line-up boasted names such as Edmund de Waal, Stella Duffy, Helen Babbs, Jennie Rooney and Sarah Gristwood. It was this mixture that in the end made our programme of events work, mixing fiction with history and biography. One thing that was important to us throughout was to keep the shop as the focal point. To that end, we kept all of the events in-store with the exception of Helen Babbs’ gardening talk, which we moved to neighbouring Alleyn Park Garden Centre. Although this reduced the capacity for each event, it resulted in some brilliant intimate events especially, with de Waal, who had the audience hanging on his every word as he handed around a prised Netsuke, and Stella Duffy, who kept everyone entertained with jokes and readings.

In addition to our evening events, we invited in two local cookery authors to come along to share samples and recipes – much to the delight of customers, who were taken by surprise at being offered truffles and chocolate cake as they browsed our shelves.

Our Saturday events were dedicated to children’s activities. For the first we set up an area for children to come along and create their own Father’s Day cards. The event ran all day, much to the delight of accompanying parents, who got the chance to browse in peace while their little ones made a mess with glitter and glue. On the second Saturday we invited children’s authors Sarwat Chadda and Sorrel Anderson for readings and signings in the morning. Come afternoon, we set up a doodle activity table courtesy of Michael O’ Mara publishing. We wanted to get the local schools involved in IBW as well, so we invited a class of pupils from local Dulwich College Prep School to come into the shop and hear Graham Marks talk about his writing and answer their questions.

A major part of independent bookselling is building relationships with your local authors. With this in mind, we dedicated our Sunday events to exactly that. Taking what would usually be several lunchtime events, we invited every local author on our database to appear in a run of back-to-back signings.

For us, IBW was a great opportunity and one we got a great deal out of, especially in the form of support from the Booksellers Association. It was wonderful to be part of a scheme that supported independents and had them all working collectively for the same purpose. The week offered independents exposure on a national level that is usually dominated by the major chains and supermarkets; it also gave shops such as ours the opportunity to try to reinforce themselves as important parts of their communities.

Thanks so much for all your pictures – it is glorious to see them all coming in, and the round up in the Bookseller.  Let’s build on all this awesome activity for 2012!

Photos are coming in – here are a selection of the range of bookshop events last week – congratulations to all the bookshops who worked so hard!  If you have photos you haven’t sent in yet, please do send them in – to meryl.halls@booksellers.org.uk

This looks like fun too…

Here’s a selection of some of the best Overheard in a Bookshop comments.  If you have any more, send them in to meryl.halls@booksellers.org.uk - winners will be announced shortly!

Simply Books, Bramhill, Greater Manchester

Elderly chap came in on Saturday and asked whether we had one of Delia Smith’s books called Cooking for Sluts… didn’t bat an eyelid when I said the book I thought he was looking for was  called How to Cheat at Cooking.

Grove Bookshop, Ilkley, West Yorkshire

Customer: I’m looking for a book, all I know is that it’s by a Scottish archaeologist who is on television

Bookshop Owner: Might it be this one, The History of Scotland, by Neil Oliver?

Customer: Oh, no, this was a much taller gentleman.

Forest Bookshop, Coleford, Gloucestershire

Customer: Do you have the latest book by Jackie Collins?

Ian (bookseller): Well there’s Lethal Seduction , her latest in paperback.

Customer: I’ve read that.

Ian: Or, ‘Goddess of Vengeance’ which is in hardback only.

Customer: No, I won’t bother with that one, the hardbacks are all dearer, for some reason…

The Mainstreet Trading Company, St Boswells

Customer: I’d like a Where’s Wally book please.

Bookshop owner: Our system says we have one in stock, but I, ah, can’t find it!

Falmouth Bookseller, Falmouth, Cornwall

Customer: Have you got Lionel Ritchie’s Wardrobe?  (Lion, Witch, Wardrobe, geddit?)

(Same customer): Also, do you have the AA book of Milne?

Ripping Yarns, London

Customer (to their friend): God, the Famous Five titles really were crap, weren’t they?  Five Go Camping…Five Go Off in a Caravan…If it were Five Go Down to a Crack House it might be more exciting.

****

Customer: Do you have a copy of Jane Eyre?

Bookseller: Actually, I just sold that this morning, sorry!

Customer : Oh. Have you read it?

Bookseller: Yep, it’s one of my favourite books.

Customer: Oh great (sits down), could you tell me all about it? I have an essay to write on it by tomorrow.

****

Customer: Do you have any books on star signs?

Bookseller: Yes, our esoteric section is over here.

Customer: Good. It’s just I really need to check mine – I have an overwhelming feeling that something

bad is going to happen.

****

Customer:  Do you have a book that lists aphrodisiacs?  I’ve got a date on Friday

Devizes Books, Devizes, Wiltshire

Bookseller: Do you need a bag for your books?

Customer: No, it’s OK, I have a cardigan.

Buy the Book, Oakham, Leicestershire

Bookseller: Good afternoon, Buy The Book in Oakham, how may I help?

Gentleman: Can I book a double room please.

Bookseller: (after brief, confused pause): I’m sorry sir, I think you have the wrong number – we are a

bookshop.

Gentleman: (undeterred):  OK, can I have a twin then?