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Publishers and booksellers are joining the love-in created by Valentine's Day, with retail events and publisher promotions setting sales in the romance genre racing.
For four of the past five years, the romance and sagas category has seen significant sales boosts around the Valentine’s Day period. According to Nielsen Bookscan, the romance market saw uplifts of 18% in 2012, 5% in 2013, 50% in 2015 and 38% in 2016 for weeks five - eight when compared with the same period the previous month.
Vintage has been anticipating Valentine's Day as an opportunity to celebrate nine of its Vintage Classic love stories, including Lady Chatterley's Lover by D H Lawrence and Cheri by Colette. It has teamed up with London bookshop Lutyens & Rubenstein to showcase the books in a "Vintage Love"-themed window over the Valentine's weekend and has been sending "Vintage Love" packages to bloggers and Instagrammers. It is also featuring nine quotes about love from its books on its website to tempt customers to shop for the perfect Vintage Valentine's gift in the Penguin Shop and has partnered with Mast Brothers Chocolate to run a competition across its social channels.
The "Vintage Loves" package
Pan Macmillan has been reciting poetry across its social media channels to inspire customers. Today (14th February) it is running a Valentine's Day-inspired giveaway for A Poem For Every Night by Allie Esiri on its children's Twitter account, which has had 185 entries. Today's poem, for Valentine's Day itself, is "A Red, Red Rose" by Robert Burns. It is also sharing illustrations from 100 Hugs by Chris Riddell - “guaranteed to warm everyone's heart in these cold times”.
Its literary imprint Picador has been revealing short love poems via its social channels, inspired by Jessie Burton’s The Muse (Picador) and written by poets Hollie McNish, Greta Bellamacina, Dottie James and Miriam Nash. Amy Lines, senior marketing manager at Pan Macmillan said: “Thinking and writing about their muses proved revelatory for the women, who realised that a muse can take on any form.”
Independent Grub Street Publishing is wishing its customers a Happy Valentine's by running a 50%-off sale on books that "might just be perfect for your special someone".
Some organisations have also been using the day as a launch pad for literary campaigns. Europeana, an European Union digital platform for cultural heritage, has launched a "Love Transcribathon" campaign to crowdsource first world war love stories for Valentine’s Day, as part of its new pan-European campaign #AllezLiterature celebrating the written word and text across Europe throughout 2017. The campaign is encouraging people to transcribe handwritten love letters from that time, spreading the word on social media using the hashtag #WW1LoveLetters. The ongoing online challenge starts today, on Valentine’s Day.
Lutyens & Rubenstein's "Vintage Love"-themed window
The National Literacy Trust asked a group of primary school children to read love poems dedicated to their nearest and dearest this Valentine’s Day, as captured in a
Bookshops are also using the occasion to entice customers into stores with events. Waterstones last night (13th February) held a special Valentine's panel event at its Tottenham Court Road store on the subject of "What is romance?" with authors Sarah Morgan (From Manhattan with Love series, HQ), Nicola Cornick (The Phantom Tree, HQ Stories) and Jean Fullerton (East London Nursesseries series, Orion), as part of a discussion of the romance genre, moderated by author and journalist Fanny Blake, books editor for Woman & Home magazine.
Meanwhile the same Waterstones store is this evening (14th February) hosting the Bluestocking Film Club on Tottenham Court Road where it will be presenting a boozy Valentine's screening of "Pal Joey!". The chain will also be hosting "Book speed dating" at its Canterbury branch, an evening for those in search of their "literary soul-mate", and, at its store on Gower Street, Dead Good and Killer Women are planning a night of gothic fun, prosecco and cupcakes to allow customers to "hide from the Valentine's horror".