Spanish booksellers are preparing for rising book prices. The European & International Booksellers Federation's Newsflash reported that Spain "is among the countries where book pricing is fixed by law, and it is up to the publisher to determine a selling price of a title. Until now, book prices in the country have remained largely unaffected by the rising costs of book production--however, that is about to change."
According to the data obtained by El Independiente, Spanish booksellers expect that the price of most titles will rise by €2 or €3 (about $2.15 or $3.26) as soon as next month, with some already noticing a slow but steady price growth recently.
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The second episode has been released of Let's Talk Bookselling, RISE Bookselling's new podcast series showcasing themed conversations with experts in the field. Host Julie Belgrado discusses bookshop events with Oana Dobosi and Raluca Selejan, co-owners of La Dua Bufnite bookshop in Timisoara, Romania. La Dua Bufnite (which translates to the two owls) is known for its creative and resourceful initiatives to encourage people to read.
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The Booksellers Association of the U.K. & Ireland has appointed Kate Gunning head of membership development. She will work alongside Pippa Halpin, who returns to her role as membership manager in February, and learning project manager Sheila O'Reilly.
In the newly created role, Gunning will take on overall strategic responsibility for BA Learning, while also overseeing all membership services, processes and communications; working on BA Group-wide initiatives with Batch and National Book Tokens; and running the Children's and Christian Bookselling Groups.
Before joining the BA last January as acting membership manager, Gunning worked for Waterstones for 13 years, including stints managing bookshops in Paris and London. She was subsequently the book buyer at Selfridges and then head of buying at Foyles. She moved into publishing in 2009, joining Random House (now Penguin Random House), where she was independent bookshops manager for 12 years.
"We are thrilled to be welcoming Kate to the BA team permanently, and to be creating this new role to foreground our essential work with BA Learning," said managing director Meryl Halls. "I'm also delighted that Kate will be furthering her excellent member relations work over the past year. Kate has a unique skill set, ranging from big corporate publisher, chain bookseller, freelancer and indie bookseller, and--as anyone who knows Kate will attest--has a gift for connections, a peerless work ethic, and knows the bookselling sector intimately."
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"France's largest and most internationally well-known independent book shop, Librairie Mollat [Bordeaux], has a very popular Instagram account on which it often shares the delightful results of lining people up with carefully placed book covers," the Poke reported, sharing 17 of its favorites. --Robert Gray