Bookshops from across Britain and Ireland compete to be Independent Bookshop of the Year
The British Book Awards, or Nibbies, have revealed the regional shortlists for the 2018 Independent Bookshop of the Year, with 39 bookshops from eight regions competing to win their local area first, before vying for the overall prize.
The shortlists are a showcase of the remarkable commercial success of independent bookshops - in an otherwise flat market for physical book sales. The overwhelming majority of the shortlisted shops reported year-on-year revenue rises in 2017, some of them in double-digits.
2018 REGIONAL SHORTLISTS
SOUTH-EAST ENGLAND
Chicken and Frog Bookshop
The Bookshop, East Grinstead
Mostly Books
The Book Nook
Red Lion Books
LONDON
Gosh! Comics
The Alligator’s Mouth
The Kew Bookshop
London Review Bookshop
Pages of Hackney
Al Saqi Books
IRELAND
The Blessington Book Store
Woodbine Books
WALES AND MIDLANDS
Five Leaves Bookshop
Octavo’s Book Cafe & Wine Bar
Kenilworth Books
Warwick Books
Griffin Books
Book-ish
SCOTLAND
The Edinburgh Bookshop
Far from the Madding Crowd
Golden Hare Books
The Orcadian Bookshop
The Highland Bookshop
NORTH
The Little Ripon Bookshop
The Grove Bookshop
Linghams Booksellers
Drake - The Bookshop
White Rose Book Cafe
EAST ENGLAND
Bookmark Spalding
The Book Hive
Rogan’s Books
Kett’s Books
SOUTH-WEST ENGLAND
Mrs Middleton’s Shop and The Rabbit Hole
Westbourne Bookshop
Owl and Pyramid
Children’s Bookshop
The White Horse Bookshop
Hunting Raven Books
The Edge of the World Bookshop
Philip Jones, Editor of The Bookseller, said:
“What marks out the shops on these shortlists is their energy: these are events-led shops that are hand-selling books, often boosted by author visits. They are platforms for the cultural conversations authors and their books can spark, and they play a hugely important role in their communities. Independent bookshops might not have the dominance, the pulling power, the footprint, or the branding of bigger bookshops, but these remarkable shops make it all up in hard graft, expertise and imagination.”
The judging panel will choose one winner per region, which will be revealed on 16th March. The overall winner will be announced at The British Book Awards ceremony at Grosvenor House in London on 14th May. The winner will receive a cheque for £5,000 from wholesaler Gardners Books. Last year, Dublin’s The Gutter Bookshop was crowned Independent Bookshop of the Year.
Among the bookshops enjoying double-digit sales rises in 2017 were Pages of Hackney in east London, with revenue up 30%; Linghams Booksellers in Heswall, Merseyside, with turnover up 10%; Warwick Books in the Midlands, with sales up 15%; and Drake - The Bookshop in Stockton-on-Tees, with revenue soaring 36% year on year.
The regional shortlists coincide with confirmation from the Booksellers Association (BA) that the number of indies in its membership has grown for the first time in 22 years.
Find out more, and join the conversation via: www.thebookseller.com/british-book-awards twitter.com/thebookseller
For all media enquires please contact Daniel Kramb and Annabel Robinson at FMcM Associates on 0207 405 7422 or, danielk@fmcm.co.uk, annabelr@fmcm.co.uk
