Independent Bookstore Day Adapts to Covid By Ed Nawotka and Claire Kirch | Apr 20, 2021
Independent Bookstore Day, administered by the American Booksellers Association, takes place this coming Saturday, April 24. More than 740 stores are participating, which is up from last year’s event, which was moved from April to August, and attracted 650 stores. As is customary, a catalog of exclusive items will be for sale, including signed editions of
Sharks in the Time of Saviors by Kawai Strong Washburn (Picador) and
Cook, Eat, Repeat by Nigella Lawson (HarperCollins); a stencil with the George Orwell quote, “In a time of deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act;” and a box of IBD branded Blackwing Pencils, among other items.
What Snoop Doggâs Success Says About the Book Industry
Will the shifts brought on by the pandemic, favoring online retailers over bookstores and established authors over new ones, change publishing forever?
Publishers are worried about physical bookstores, a critical part of the literary ecosystem that was battered during the shutdown.Credit.Jeenah Moon for The New York Times
April 18, 2021Updated 9:29 p.m. ET
When bookstores across the United States closed last spring, Tyrrell Mahoney, the president of Chronicle Books, braced for disaster as she watched revenue plummet. Then, months into the crisis, Chronicle found an unlikely savior: the rapper Snoop Dogg and his two-year-old cookbook.
Independent Bookstore Day Announces a Conversation With #1 Bestselling Author Glennon Doyle and Wellness Author Alexandra Elle prweb.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from prweb.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Print
When it comes to book sales, the COVID-19 pandemic has been both a blessing and a curse.
Authors and publishers rejoiced at the fact that book sales were up in 2020 by 6 percent, according to NPD Bookscan, but independent booksellers and neighborhood bookshops saw their sales dip according to the American Booksellers Association. Some stores even reported sales down 40 percent compared to 2019 numbers.
So while it seemed like the pandemic drove people to buy more books, most of those books were purchased online at sites such as Amazon and Walmart. Many independent bookstores did their best to stay competitive despite having to close their doors to in-store browsing. Some made it easier to purchase books online while others offered same-day, curbside pick-up or even hand-delivery options. But without customers allowed to browse and, to a lesser degree, having in-store appearances from authors promoting new books, independent bookstores have struggled to adjust to the pandemic
Independent Bookstore Day is April 24 tctimes.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from tctimes.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.