Bookshop.org U.K. has launched Bookloop, a buy-back initiative for used books that allows customers to trade books they own for credit on the website, the Guardian reported. Readers can register books through the online valuation system and then either take them to a parcel delivery drop-off or have them picked up from home.
The used books will not be sold on Bookshop.org, but traded on other online marketplaces by Zeercle, a company that also operates the WH Smith buy-back program launched late last year. Books traded via Bookshop.org will not be sold on Amazon-owned websites.
Accumulated royalties will be distributed to authors via a shared author fund through an arrangement with the Society of Authors and the Authors' Licensing and Collecting Society, the Guardian noted. The Drusilla Harvey Access Fund offers grants to authors to cover a variety of support needs, from travel costs to childcare.
Mark Thornton, senior partnerships manager for Bookshop.org U.K., said that he sees the program as sitting within the site's "overarching positive loop, positive cycle of economic activity. We're always saying the best way to support bookshops is in person. But on the other side of that, the inexorable rise of online book purchases means we have to find new ways of looping all of these things together, so that we're all in this shared endeavor of supporting a really positive reading culture, with independent bookshops at its heart."
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Kotsyubynsky, a bookstore/café located in the Carpathian village of Verkhnii Yaseniv in western Ukraine, opened earlier this month during the 2024 Writers' Bonfire on the Cheremosh literary festival. Chytomo reported that co-owners Anna Pavlichenko and her husband, Vasyl Tomyshynets, chose the name because the village offered so much inspiration for Ukrainian classical writer Mykhailo Kotsyubynsky.
"I wanted to create a space for recovery from the war for soldiers and their families," said Pavlichenko, an author who believes in the therapeutic power of writing, and has supported fellow soldiers in publishing books.
The initial idea was to create a recovery space, but finding the right location was challenging. Pavlichenko won a government grant for starting a business, and decided with her husband to build the bookstore on the plot of land they had purchased.
Featuring a reading room, terrace, and access to the Black Cheremosh river, the new shop offers books, coffee, drinks, and desserts. Future plans call for organizing cultural retreats for veterans, soldiers, and their families, introducing them to courses on creativity and presenting their works.
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Bookshop wedding proposal: Canadian bookstore the Book Wardrobe in Mississauga, Ont., shared pics from a happy moment: "She said YES! And the bookshop was the witness. Congratulations, Sandy and Aram! Thank you for allowing us to share your special moment. We were able to capture stolen shots while hiding at the balcony! Special thanks to Angela and Emilia for the prep." --Robert Gray