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Retailers finalise World Book Night plans
24.02.11 | Lisa Campbell
Final preparations are underway for a medley of events planned to celebrate World Book Night, with independent and national retailers planning to host author readings, quizzes and book swaps.
On 5th March, 20,000 participants will give away one million books, from 25 selected titles, to members of the public in order to encourage people to read more adult literature.
The BBC will be going live to various events around the country and broadcasting three “Culture Show” specials, with the first programme “A Million Books for Free”, being broadcast at 7.30 p.m.
Waterstone’s stores will hold late openings, with Piccadilly, London, hosting the World Book Night Big Quiz with author David Nicholls, in association with the Grazia Book Club. Waterstone’s in Loughborough will hold a Book Swap Shop and the Deansgate Manchester store will welcome guests to an open mic night with poetry, music and reading, in conjunction with Manchester libraries. In Aberdeen, author Stuart McBride will serve customers and talk to participants.
Waterstone’s spokesman Jon Howells said: “Stores have jumped on this chance to demonstrate their love of great books, and to make an offer to readers that cannot be refused—a brilliant bestseller for free. Shops will be joining in with author events, quizzes, reading groups, and partnering with libraries. It’s a unique, innovative and interactive idea that will get people reading everywhere.”
W H Smith has display units promoting the 25 WBN titles in store and Amazon.co.uk is also featuring the titles under a special heading on its site.
Foyles has plans in place along with other independent retailers, some of which are acting as collection points for book-givers to pick up their books. Boxes of books are currently being sent out, and some indies were originally concerned about the large number they were told to expect to receive.
Jonathan Main, owner of The Bookseller Crow on The Hill in Crystal Palace, south London, was sent a letter being told he would receive 28 boxes, which he would struggle to fit in his shop. Vanessa Robertson from the Edinburgh Bookshop was also “overwhelmed” when she was told to expect 38 boxes of books. However, after consultation with the Booksellers Association, both now hope to receive fewer boxes.
Main said shops received an email from the Booksellers Association on Christmas Eve, explaining his shop would be a collection point, but could opt out within a few days’ time. “It was our busiest time of year so I didn’t have time to read it,” he said.
Tim Godfray, chief executive of the BA, said timescales would be improved on in the future. “In this inaugural year World Book Night has come together on a very tight schedule. That it has come together and promises to be such a success is a credit to the co-operation and support it has received across the industry,” he said.
A new WBN website launched today, featuring an events calendar with details of happenings nationwide, including literary speed dating and mass reading groups at the Southbank Centre in central London, in association with Foyles, and a debate on which books to save from a burning library at Plymouth Central Library.
The website, created by Redbox Digital, will provide a platform to share opinions on each of the books through comments, reviews, events, images and video.
On 4th March, a party will take place in Trafalgar Square, London, with 2,500 pairs of tickets set aside for givers, to be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis. Margaret Atwood, Alan Bennett and John le Carré will be among the authors headlining the event.
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Just to clarify, we were told that 39 people had chosen to collect their books from us, which equated to 52 boxes of books. 1872 books in a small independent bookshop. A couple of 'givers' had already been in to see us and said that they realised it might be a problem space-wise and did try to select the local library a few hundred yards away but it didn't appear on the list of possible collection points.
Despite cutting our list down dramatically - for reasons of practicality and health and safety quite apart from our criticisms of the project - each morning this week we have had drivers trying to deliver boxes for people not on our lists and I hear from the drivers that the library are also refusing them.
Tim Godfray says that timescales need to be improved next year. Actually, I'd start with the basic organisation of the entire scheme because no-one seems to have a clue what's going on. If it couldn't be put together this quickly, it would have been better to leave it until later in the year. It wouldn't have coincided with World Book Day but that might not have been a bag thing; if awareness of WBN was as wide as was hoped then it would have over-shadowed what is an important and well-organised project to promote reading among children.
Oh No - Lots of people who love books are going to show up in my bookshop. Disaster!
And walk out with boxes of free books, to give out at random, therefore reducing the numbers of sales I will make next month.
We rather agree with Vanessa, we opted to be a collection point and now have boxes of books waiting to be collected by people that we have never heard of. I do rather wonder what is in it for small independent bookshops with potentially hundreds of books being given away. Not really good for book sales!
1. You didn't have to sign up to be a collection point.
2. "People we've never heard of" - I can't see this as anything other than a good thing. Surely you want to opportunity to interact with potential new customers?
Anonymous, whoever this is,
I can see your point and the "Pro Bono" aspect is why we signed up....but surely this is just another way of devaluing books, items that are already devalued by the heavy, suicidal discounting and the 1p books on Amazon. I have spent my life bookselling and it is depressing to see modern books almost unregarded in the market place. I do not see our local ironmonger giving away screws or the florist flowers etc. Why have modern books such low esteem I wonder? Fortunately antiquarian volumes have a better following!
'...a precious thing is all the more precious to us if it has been won by work or economy; and if public libraries were half so costly as public dinners, or books cost the tenth part of what bracelets do, even foolish men and women might sometimes suspect there was good in reading, as well as in munching and sparkling: whereas the very cheapness of literature is making even wise people forget that if a book is worth reading, it is worth buying.'
1. No one signed up to be a collection point. It was opt-OUT. Not to mention the emails telling you this were sent at 1pm on Christmas Eve, so were pretty easy to miss. Plenty of places were designated collection points that didn't want to be involved.
2. People who have come and told you they are collecting books are people who will actually collect the books. People who have signed up online and made no effort to contact you may well forget/not bother in the end. Leaving small shops with boxes they never wanted taking up limited storage space.
I'm wondering how many of our local givers elected to have their books sent to The Sainsbury's next door to me (listed on the bookshop search page courtesy of the BA as a bookshop collection point).
We had a guy in telling us that he would be collecting his books from us - I had never seen him before - he then told me that he read "loads of books" and the one he choose was his favourite, he went and got it from the shelf to show me which it is..... looked on the back and said "God is that what its priced at, glad i get all mine from amazon" Once i close down this summer he will not miss me one bit, as amazon will still supply him at half price. unfortunately there are many others that will miss a bookshop in our town.
Why are book people, publishers in particular, apparently determined to destroy the book business? Why does the love of books appear to mean that if you choose to run an independent bookshop you should pay for the priviledge by not making a living? How many little bookshops have to close down before people realise that soon you will only be able to buy your books from supermarkets, Amazon and the Book People.There will be nowhere to browse, no-one to chat to about books and no opportunity to discover something surprising, something you were not expecting. The people that broke the NBA - Dillons, remember them? - went bust & other chains have followed. They sold more units but made less money. In any other business this state would be recognised as totally unsustainable. We are loooking at an industry in meltdown, where people seize on any idea no matter how impractical and say it's worth it for publicity. That's not going to save us as we give away the only thing we have.
Why are book people, publishers in particular, apparently determined to destroy the book business? Why does the love of books appear to mean that if you choose to run an independent bookshop you should pay for the priviledge by not making a living? How many little bookshops have to close down before people realise that soon you will only be able to buy your books from supermarkets, Amazon and the Book People.There will be nowhere to browse, no-one to chat to about books and no opportunity to discover something surprising, something you were not expecting. The people that broke the NBA - Dillons, remember them? - went bust & other chains have followed. They sold more units but made less money. In any other business this state would be recognised as totally unsustainable. We are loooking at an industry in meltdown, where people seize on any idea no matter how impractical and say it's worth it for publicity. That's not going to save us as we give away the only thing we have.
The joy of interacting with a person who can recommend books and who has some experience in book ordering is dying and is rapidly becoming extinct. Bookshops are closing at an alarming pace and for those bookgivers to waltz in and out of your shops without purchasing anything is a kick in the teeth.
So you can get them on amazon cheaper but you will rarely have the surprise of discovering new authors and styles in this way. I have bought some books via amazon but that was only because the american version came out months in advance, I have been trying to purchase a book from my favourite author from a london sci fi book shop for over a month now but it keeps selling out by the time i get there! No point looking at other book shops as they all have central purchasing which limits the choice of stock which encourages more people to use amazon.
Reading posts on WBNs Facebook page, it is not only bookshops that have been messed around, but givers too. Dozens of them have posted saying that they have been told to collect books from places nowhere near them, for example one person in Northern Ireland is expected to collect their books from Catford. I get the feeling a lot of boxes will remain stranded at shops who were relunctant to receive them in the first place. This is more than just teething problems you would allow for a new event, it is chaos!
I fail to see the benefit to me as a small indie of the current set up.
12 givers have nominated me as their free storage and distribution point taking up space in a very small shop. Of these 4 have collected their books leaving me with 10 boxes still to be collected.
I would dearly like to contact these 8 givers to ask them to collect their goods but it seems that telephone numbers are protected data. I must have missed that piece of legislation!
Of the 4 that have collected,one was an existing customer,2 normally purchased from Amazon and intended to continue and one was in a hurry and could not stop!
If they intend to repeat this next year it will be without me.
Wednesday. Just received 2 more boxes to add to the 64, I agreed 10. Strangely the last 2 boxes have 2 name labels on them, how do I decide who gets them? Ip, dip, my blue ship?
I'm opting out too.
Best one so far is the collector who asked me how many I would like to " give away "........................
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