Chloe O’Keeffe
Bookshop.org- an online bookstore with the aim to support independent bookstores financially- has joined forces with The Booksellers Association to launch their new initiative, ‘New Futures.’
The Booksellers Association (BA) is a membership organisation for all booksellers across the UK and Ireland, and represents over 95% of bookshops.
Similar to Bookshop.org, The Booksellers Association’s main aim is to support its members, as well as advise and work together to create the best products and services for booksellers.
“The end goal for the initiative is for those from underrepresented groups to launch their own stores.”
Many will have heard about some of the initiatives created by the BA such as Bookshop Day, Independent Bookshop Week, and Indie Book of the Month, as well as the National Book Tokens gift card scheme.
‘New Futures’ the latest initiative brought to book-lovers in a join effort by Bookshop.org, and The Booksellers Association is a scheme with a particular aim to help budding booksellers from underrepresented communities across the United Kingdom and Ireland. The end goal for the initiative is for those from underrepresented groups to launch their own stores.
“This initiative comes following calls for diversity in the publishing industry.”
‘New Futures’ are looking for applicants from underrepresented communities, including but not limited to those who identify as Black, and other marginalised ethnicities, LGBTQIA+, working class, physically disabled, neurodiverse, those with mental health issues, and those with learning disabilities who feel they may have the potential to build a successful bookselling business.
This initiative comes following calls for diversity in the publishing industry, and the scheme will encourage the opening of more bookshops in order to serve minority communities and sell books about more diverse topics.
The scheme will be carried out through a combination of shortlisting, mentoring and judging, and the winner(s) will receive “hands-on support” in retail, technology and the book trade through an educating programme.
Winner(s) will be given all the necessary tools and equipment required to launch a bookshop that creates a more sustainable route for diverse books to get into the hands of more readers.
Judges for the scheme include Nikesh Shukla, author; Sharmaine Lovegrace, founder of Dialogue Books; Nancy Adimora, HarperCollins’s development manager; Philip Jones, The Bookseller editor; Fleur Sinclair, owner and bookseller at Sevenoaks Bookshop; and Sharmadein Reid, founder and CEO of Beautystack and The Stack World.
Details on the application process, can be found here.
Deadline for entries is 23.59pm November 12, with a shortlist announced on January 21, 2022.
Featured image courtesy of Nick Fewings on Unsplash. Image license can be found here. No changes have been made to this image.
