Publishers and book lovers urged to back Independent Bookshop Week 2015

By John Freeman on June 5, 2015

Book lovers and publishers are being encouraged show their support for their local independent bookshops by contributing to some of the dynamic digital initiatives being announced for this year’s Independent Bookshop Week, which is organised by the Booksellers Association – and there’s a tie-in competition for bloggers and vloggers to enter, to win £50 of book tokens.

Independent Bookshop Week (20th to 27th June 2015) is part of the Books Are My Bag campaign, and seeks to celebrate independent bookshops in the UK and Ireland. The organisation do this with events, celebrations, reading groups, storytelling, author signings, literary lunches – and face painting!

Your local bookshop will have their own way of celebrating, and we encourage you to visit to celebrate with them.

The initiative is part of IndieBound, an umbrella independent campaign, which started in the US, and is a key part of the activity of the American Booksellers Association, aiming to help promote healthy high streets, shopping local and the benefits that a diverse high street – with a bookshop at its heart of course! – can deliver to a community.

“Independent Book Week gets a huge amount of support on social media,” notes Meryl Halls, Head of the BA’s Membership Services, BA, “so we thought we would create a package of ideas to run across the week to encourage even more people to take part – be it the Bloggers Crawl, or asking customers to just do a quick #giveabook tweet from their local independent bookshop. All ideas tie in to a central theme of the enjoyment of buying books and the role that independent bookshops play in that process.”

New for 2015 is #giveabook, where visitors to independent bookshops – and bookshop crawlers – are encouraged to share their book gift ideas and recommendations for friends, loved ones and family members on social media.

With Father’s Day falling on the second day of IBW, there’s also the perfect opportunity to share appropriate gift ideas on the day, and inspire others looking to buy the perfect present for their dad.

#giveabook will take place throughout the week of IBW, with bookshops equipped with specially designed, IBW-branded postcards, ready for customers to fill out and share on Twitter and Instagram under the #giveabook hashtag.

Last year’s hugely popular IBW Bookshop Crawl returns for a second year, this year inviting publishers and book trade organisations as well as book lovers to take part for the first time. Participants are invited to take part in a competition to blog or vlog about their visit to an independent bookshop – either fitting in as many bookshops as possible in one day, or doing a larger feature on their particular favourite.

This year’s crawl will take place on Saturday 27th June (but your are allowed to do your ‘crawl’ on another day in the week if that date doesn’t suit). The winner will take away National Book Tokens worth £50, the entire IBW Book Award shortlist (which includes some smashing children’s pictures books as well as adult fiction) and an ‘IBW Bookshop Crawl Winner 2015’ digital banner designed specifically for their website or social media. The BA have also created digital banners for all those who get involved.

Blogs and vlogs need to be posted at the latest by 5.00pm on Wednesday 1st July, and sent as a link via email to kara.rennie@booksellers.org.uk. The competition will be judged by the Booksellers Association on the basis of the enthusiasm, quality and originality of the post submitted.

Those not participating in the competition by contributing a blog or vlog can still take part by tweeting bookshop selfies to the #bookshopcrawl hashtag on the day, and be eligible for one of the free IBW Book bundles being given out. Last year, the IBW Bookshop Crawl was solely aimed at bloggers and vloggers – with over 40 participants visiting over 70 bookshops across the country.

There will also be an IBW takeover of the popular #bookaday hashtag, with bookshop lovers invited to tweet IBW-themed books and bookshop choices to #indiebookaday. The daily themes are:

20 June: The book I’m giving during IBW #giveabook

21 June: Happy Father’s Day! Favourite literary Dad

22 June: Favourite independent bookshop

23 June: Last book I bought from a bookshop

24 June: Favourite bookseller recommendation

25 June: Best summer read

26 June: Best bookshop memory

27 June: Bought on the #bookshopcrawl

• The BA have launched new website for Independent Bookshop Week. For more information about participating bookshops and what’s on this year, visit www.indiebookshopweek.com.

• Check out the Independent Book Week Twitter account – @IndieBound_UK – for regular updates on IBW events and bookshop happenings

• On social media, the hashtag for the week itself will be #IBW2015, or join in with the hashtag #giveabook, the IBW Bookshop Crawl and the IBW takeover of the popular #bookaday hashtag

• Looking for an independent bookshop? The Booksellers Association has a search engine here: www.booksellers.org.uk/bookshopsearch

• More about the IndieBound campaign at www.indiebound.org

John Freeman

The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.

He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.