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The Bookseller – Comment – Publishers, we have your love; now give us your links
Dear Publishers,
This week (17th–24th June 2023) is Independent Bookshop Week; a week to celebrate independent bookshops in the UK, highlighting the role that they play in their communities.
Booksellers are passionate about reading, and nothing brings us greater joy than recommending books, talking about books, and spreading joy through books. We work with our local communities, and contribute to the local economy and community. We are real people, offering real recommendations and conversation, as well as a browsing experience. We are not a computer algorithm.
We know we can’t compete with Amazon and nor do we want to; we know we can offer experiences that a computer can’t. But the reality is that for every copy of a book sold in our shop, someone else will look at it in our shop before buying it online. This means that in an indirect way, quantities of books sold online through Amazon would not have been discovered without a physical bookshop.
Going forward, will you pledge to link only to bookshops and Bookshop.org during Independent Bookshop Week? Will you choose bookshops?
This Independent Bookshop Week, we are asking for fairness. This is the one week a year that we are asking you to celebrate independent bookshops. We are grateful for the support offered by publishers to help us promote and sell the books we love. Yet, some publishers continue to link to Amazon during Independent Bookshop Week. To the publishers who are making the effort to link to bookshops and platforms such as Bookshop.org—thank you. But some are not. Some are inconsistent across their divisions with some linking to Amazon, and others to Bookshop.org. So far this Independent Bookshop Week, two of the Big Five have linked to Amazon when promoting books. We value your support this week, but that support is weakened when you continue to link to corporations such as Amazon.
Bookshops bring readers and books together. We are uniquely placed to champion books. To then see publishers prioritise Amazon over us during Independent Bookshop Week feels like we are not seen as important or valued.
We will always champion books. We are asking you to champion us.
Going forward, will you pledge to link only to bookshops and Bookshop.org during Independent Bookshop Week? Will you choose bookshops?
Helen Tamblyn-Saville, Wonderland Bookshop, Retford
Jenny Eagles, Owl and Pyramid Bookshop
Kirsty Woods, Kibworth Books
Vanessa Lewis, The Book Nook, Hove
Sanchita Basu De Sarkar, The Children’s Bookshop
Gill Edwards The Little Ripon Bookshop
Lesley Price, Bridge Books
Annie Rhodes, Norfolk Children’s Book Centre
Tim Beeden, BÜK
Sarah Dennis, Mostly Books & Borzoi Bookshop
Polly Jaffé, Jaffé & Neale Bookshop & Café
Ross Bradshaw, Five Leaves Bookshop
Susan Caroline, Pengwern Books, Shrewsbury
Rhona and Chris, Quayside Bookshop, Teignmouth
Aileen Jeffrey, The Ginger Cat Children’s Bookshop, Bridge of Weir
Emma Corfield-Walters, Bookish, Crickhowell and Abergavenny
Lindsay Warren, The Book Warren, Mennock, Sanquhar, Dumfries & Galloway
Michelle Crosby, B for Butterfly Books, Sale
Emma and Adam Littler, The Berwyn Bookshop, North Wales
Julia Chesterman, The Book Nook, Ware
Deb Alma, The Poetry Pharmacy
Jane and Paul Angel, Gullivers Bookshop & Westbourne Bookshop
Andrea Don, Nickel Books, Sittingbourne
Katrina and William Thomson, Owners, Ullapool Bookshop
Katharine Douglas, Manager, Ullapool Bookshop
Bookends Carlisle
Bookends Keswick
Leanne Yeomans, Through the Wardrobe Books
Ian Rowley, The Haslemere Bookshop
Angela, Adam and Guy Makey, Niche Comics Bookshop
Emma and Alex Milne-White, Hungerford Bookshop
Tracy Kenny, Kett’s Books
John and Mary James, The Aldeburgh Bookshop
Kathryn Fairs, The Book Fayre
Gabrielle and Kevin McCallion, The Thoughtful Spot Children’s Bookshop
Alex Maxwell, La Biblioteka, Sheffield
Sasha Drennan, Lindum Books
Rebecca Price, The Reading Rooms, Melrose, Scottish Borders
Falmouth Bookseller
St Ives Bookseller
Padstow Bookseller
Jill Blanchard, Swanage Book Shop
Laura Iveson and Asher Woolford, Darling Reads
Sevenoaks Bookshop
Elizabeth Tye and Julie Anderson, Next Page Books
Karen Miller, Inspot & Silverleaf Booksellers, Bo’ness, Scotland
Chantal Farquhar, The Little Bookshop, Cookham
Angela and Harry Pickard, Bridge Bookshop, Port Erin, and Bridge Bookshop, Ramsey, Isle of Man
Sarah Halgarth, Bookmark Spalding
Stewart and Elizabeth Parsons, Gallovidia Books
Rebecca Wall, Night Owl Books
Will Williams, The Cleeve Bookshop
Jo and Lionel, Brendon Books
Cornerstone Bookshop
Helen Longworth, The Wallingford Bookshop
Cheryl Duffield, The Little Bookshop, Leeds
Little Acorns Bookstore, Derry, Northern Ireland
Kate Claughan, The Book Case Hebden Bridge, and The Book Case, Halifax
Bookworm of Retford
Louise Ashmore, Read Bookshop
Gudrun and Sara Bowers, Steyning Bookshop, Sussex
Georgia Eckert, Imagined Things Bookshop
Bookbugs and Dragon Tales
Hewson Books (The Kew Bookshop and The Sheen Bookshop)
Ebb & Flo Bookshop
Jo Coldwell, Red Lion Books
Reading Roots Bookshop
Betsy Tobin, Ink@84 Books
Cathy Slater, Dulwich Books
Books and Banter
The Snug Bookshop
BeeBee Taylor, Books and Banter
Blue Bear Bookshop
Jay Latarche, The Folkestone Bookshop
Francesca Wilkins, The Margate Bookshop
Jacqueline Johnson, Jacqson Diego Story Emporium
David Ziggy Greene, Jam Bookshop
Nancy, Press Books and Coffee
Helen Stanton FORUM Books, the bound & The Accidental Bookshop
Steve and the team at P&G Wells in Winchester, Britain’s longest-surviving independent booksellers (probably)
The English Bookshop, Sweden
