Bookshop.org U.K. has generated £3 million (about $3.8 million) in profit since its launch for the 570 independent bookshops using the platform. The goal is to increase online sales for indies by five times over the next five years. "To achieve this, we're encouraging customers to continue to support independent bookshops through online sales--whether that is the shop's own e-commerce platform or via Bookshop.org--to bolster the indies' portion of the online book market," the company noted.
Nicole Vanderbilt, managing director of Bookshop.org U.K., said the company believes that the online book market "has many more opportunities to offer to independent booksellers--in a way, we've only helped them scratch the surface so far.... Bookshops are primed and ready on our platform, we need the book world to change their ways. We believe that a world where independent bookshops are successful businesses, with a robust online presence, is a better world for everyone."
Meryl Halls, managing director of the Booksellers Association of the U.K. & Ireland, commented: "Bookshop.org has allowed many booksellers to operate online in ways they would not otherwise have been able to, and they have also become trusted, proactive and collegiate colleagues across the industry since Bookshop.org set up in 2020. We congratulate them heartily and wish them well on the onward push to get more and more book lovers moving their book shopping away from Amazon, and toward high street bookshops and their online stores."
Sheryl Shurville, co-owner of the Chorleywood and Gerrards Cross Bookshops, called online sales through Bookshop.org "a vital (and growing!) part of our business, contributing significantly to the services we offer to customers. One of our main aims is for our Bookshop.org shop fronts to be the first port-of-call for readers wishing to shop online, connecting us with customers beyond the physical reach of our bricks-and-mortar shops. With this in mind, we anticipate doubling our online sales in the next three years."
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Pre-order demand for the Waterstones exclusive edition of Jay Kristoff's upcoming novel Empire of the Damned (February 2024) temporarily disabled the company's website when going live on August 10, the Bookseller reported. The special edition features sprayed edges and is signed by the author. The first title in the series, The Empire of the Vampire, was shortlisted for the British Book Award for Fiction Book of the Year honors in 2022.
In an Instagram post, which was re-posted by Kristoff's U.K. publisher Harper Voyager, the author wrote: "I say it a lot, but not enough--I truly have the best readers in the world. Thank you for showing up for me time and time again, droogs. It means the world. I know these pre-order brawls can be frustrating for folks who got up early or stayed up late, but the @waterstones folks are working hard to restore service. Your enthusiasm is amazing and your patience is sincerely appreciated. So much love."
A Waterstones spokesperson commented: "It is always lovely to see true excitement for a book and we knew that the announcement of the Empire of the Damned Waterstones exclusive signed edition would be highly anticipated. Our website is very stable and regularly manages large amounts of traffic without any issues, but the concentrated enthusiasm among Jay Kristoff's fans... managed to temporarily affect operation.... Functionality was swiftly restored, and we are very pleased with the significant number of pre-orders placed and have increased our stock order to match the ongoing demand."
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BookPeople, the association for Australian bookshops, trained its Bookshop Spotlight on the Book Cellar, Campbell Town, Tasmania and co-owners Catherine Brunskill and Michael Roach. Among the highlights of the q&a:
What are some of your fondest experiences in the bookshop to date?
One of the delights of operating from a small regional town in the middle of the smallest State is the ability to surprise customers when they walk into The Book Cellar and, to put it politely, aren't expecting too much. "Wow, this is amazing!" and "I can't believe I stumbled across this in the middle of Tassie!" Yes, we are a genuine bookshop business offering selected new, used and antiquarian titles in a remarkable setting, the 190 year old cellars of a convict-built Georgian coaching inn. We love welcoming back our irregular regular customers from interstate who have made us a must-do when on return visits to Tasmania for either business or pleasure. Over time we have established ourselves as the pre-eminent stockist of out of print Tasmanian books. --Robert Gray