Upcoming Events
BA Bookshop Mentoring Scheme with Creative Access
Throughout 2025, the Booksellers Association (BA) collaborated with Creative Access to deliver a mentoring programme designed to support young people seeking to enter—or advance within—the bookselling profession.
The British Book Trade and the Book War of 1906
With Dr Maria Vassilopoulos (University of Wales Press) Details and bio coming soon.... Zoom link: https://ucl.zoom.us/j/98063967186?pwd=daa3MXuKqIxhi4bywijmmnuYYk0reN.1 Meeting ID: 980 6396 7186 Passcode: 294860
BRN Bookselling Conference 2026: Spaces of Bookselling
We welcome proposals that engage with all forms of the bookselling space—physical, virtual, historical, social, communal, commercial, and imagined—and encourage transcultural, transnational, and intersectional perspectives.
How Queer Bookshops Changed the World
With A. J. West, author of How Queer Bookshops Changed the World (Oneworld, 2026). A.J.West is a Sunday Times bestselling, multi-award-winning historical fiction novelist and historian. Prior to publication he […]
Posts
- BA research into the Cultural and Community Value of Bookshops
It has long been the contention of the Booksellers Association (UK and Ireland) that its members – chains and indies – play an outsize role in enriching the cultural lives of their communities. - StoryBrand, conversations with pioneering booksellersAs a form of qualitative research and learning, StoryBrand, conversations with pioneering booksellers is an hour-long conversation with people who have deep and diverse perspectives on the art and science of bookshop creation. Each vodcast focuses on a different aspect of bookshop innovation, a problem or idea with an attempt to capture perspectives from bookshop… Read more: StoryBrand, conversations with pioneering booksellers
- The Cultural and Community Role of Scotland’s BookshopsThe Booksellers Association launched a new research report on ‘The Cultural and Community Role of Scotland’s Bookshops’ on 19th November, to coincide with Scottish Book Trust’s annual Book Week Scotland. The report spotlights the vital and growing role Scottish bookshops play as engines of local communities and national culture, while considering the barriers and suggested solutions… Read more: The Cultural and Community Role of Scotland’s Bookshops
- Samantha Rayner’s Bookshop BulletinsBookshop Bulletins: Gatherings Substack This year, Samantha has been on sabbatical, visiting some of the UK’s indie bookshops, and gathering information about how they work within their communities, and how they manage their own staff wellbeing. These visits have been recorded via a Substack, which you can find here: https://profbookshops.substack.com/ These have also been reported… Read more: Samantha Rayner’s Bookshop Bulletins
- KVB Boekwerk: The importance of bookshops according to consumersIn 2019, KVB Boekwerk published the results of a survey into the current added value of bookshops for customers and local areas. This year, they are following up on that research. They have engaged with consumers and local organisations to research their experience of their local bookseller’s business activities and the importance of these activities… Read more: KVB Boekwerk: The importance of bookshops according to consumers
