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| Meryl Halls | |
The Booksellers Association of the U.K. & Ireland has warned of "harsher winds to come" for booksellers after recorded foot traffic in 2024 was down 2.2% year-on-year, the Bookseller reported, adding that the cautionary note "comes despite a positive year end for bookshops which saw trading on the up during the Christmas period."
BA managing director Meryl Halls said, "While anecdotally the Christmas gifting period started slowly but ended positively for many of our bookseller members, the continued footfall decline on our high streets is a potential harbinger of harsher winds to come for British bookshops--who already face a myriad of challenges in 2025 from increased costs of goods, services and labor and the reduction of retail rates discounts to the rise in national insurance contributions.
"Therefore, the Booksellers Association strongly supports the British Retail Consortiums' urging of the government to ensure that their proposed reforms are implemented in a way that eases the burden for all who need it on the high street, and with assurances that no vulnerable bookshops will be placed in jeopardy."
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The French book industry "has taken a step nearer to a long-awaited book tracker in France by creating a company to run it," the Bookseller reported. Filéas (Fils d'informations libraires, editeurs, auteurs) was set up by eight groups, including the National Publishers Association (Syndicat National de l'Edition, SNE), the French Booksellers Association (Syndicat de la Librairie Française, SLF) and the Permanent Writers Council (Conseil Permanent des Ecrivains, CPE).
The goal is to develop a portal offering sales figures free of charge to authors and by subscription to publishers and distributors, drawing on existing tools to create its bibliographic database. It will start with a weekly indicator using data from market research firm GfK, followed by a daily indicator put together from sales information provided initially by more than 700 booksellers, the Bookseller noted.
The system is scheduled to start operating this year and will be presented at the next Paris Book Festival in April. Filéas chair Alban Cerisier said it will provide "a better knowledge of the sales of their titles," and ultimately be a "tremendous decision-making tool for fine-tuning reprints in response to environmental and economic concerns." Harriet Seegmuller is the director of Filéas.
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Editis, the second-largest French book publisher, has acquired Delcourt, the third-largest graphic novel publisher, the Bookseller reported, adding that the deal "strengthens Editis' position in the buoyant sector of graphic novels and manga, and gives Delcourt the resources to continue its development." Guy Delcourt, who founded the publisher 40 years ago, will remain at the helm.
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Congratulations to Canadian bookseller Blue Heron Books, Uxbridge, Ont., which recently celebrated its 35th anniversary. Owner Shelley Macbeth told Quill & Quire that bookselling "has changed in and out, up and down, all over the place but what hasn't changed is the reader. What they want to read has changed, yes, but if you're a reader, you're a reader. And that's what's so delightful, is being in there at any given time and experiencing that joy of putting the book into the person's hands, and feeling good about it, knowing they're going to go away and have a great experience from reading that book." --Robert Gray