At the recent Booksellers Association of the U.K. & Ireland conference, Fleur Sinclair, owner of the Sevenoaks Bookshop in Kent, delivered her inaugural speech as the BA's new president. In her address, Sinclair "highlighted the importance of making diversity in the book trade a priority, emphasizing the need to encourage more people of color into bookselling. Sinclair referenced some of the findings of the BA's diversity survey, showing that only 8% of booksellers come from ethnic minorities, despite making up 18% of the population," the Bookseller reported.
|
|
| Fleur Sinclair | |
"I am one of a very few Black booksellers working in the U.K. today and I would love to help change that," Sinclair said. "I love spending time in other bookshops. I love following other bookshops on social media, seeing what everyone is doing, who and what everyone is showcasing. And I would dearly love to see, and meet, a more racially diverse cohort of booksellers; see more Black and brown authors promoted and appearing at events happening all over the country."
Another priority is to elevate how high street bookshops are perceived in the wider book trade. "Publishers, please use your reps as a conduit for all the crucially important consumer research we get every single day," Sinclair noted. "Sharing and collaborating together to ensure we get the right books, in the right format, at the right price, then we can all sell more, publishers and authors will sell more, and readers will be happy."
The theme of this year's conference was encouraging booksellers to understand the story behind their business and use that narrative to their advantage, the Bookseller wrote. Addressing this, Sinclair highlighted the importance of "letting customers and potential customers know exactly who we are and why they should choose to shop with us."
---
The International Publishers Association confirmed the elections of Gvantsa Jobava (Intelekti Publishing, Georgia) as president-elect and Giovanni Hoepli (Hoepli Publishing House, Italy) v.p.-elect during IPA's General Assembly.
Outgoing IPA president Karine Pansa said, "Publishing is so important for our societies, for our economies, and for our cultures. What an honor it has been to represent this wonderful industry. Gvantsa Jobava is going to be a great president for IPA and I can't wait to see how she will drive the IPA forward."
Jobava commented: "I would like to thank Karine Pansa, president of IPA, for her professionalism, collegiality, and friendship. As IPA's new president, I will be asking our members: What more can we do to safeguard our courageous colleagues and authors, whose freedom is limited in many parts of the world and whose lives are in danger? What more can we do to see that copyright is respected by the technology giants and enforced by our legislators? Our obligation to society is great. I look forward to working with all IPA's members to fulfil it."
In other election results, IPA will welcome one new full member, three new provisional members, and one new associate member effective January 1, 2025: They are:
Full membership
Guatemala: Asociación Gremial de Editores de Guatemala (AGEG)
Provisional membership
Croatia: Association of Publishers and Booksellers of the Croatian Chamber of the Economy
Dominican Republic: Asociación de Industrias Editoriales de la Republica Dominicana (ADIERD)
Poland: Polish Chamber of Books (PIK)
Associate membership
Latin America: Asociación de Editoriales Universitarias de América Latina y el Caribe (EULAC)
---
The European and International Booksellers Federation has published the 2023 edition of its International Bookselling Markets Report, summarizing current trends shaping the bookselling sector across the globe. You can view the report here. The findings are based on direct input from 24 national booksellers associations, EIBF associate members, and partners in 21 countries -–Robert Gray