EIBF at the 20th Winter Institute in Denver

Winter Institute 2025 Opening

One week ago, EIBF’s Director, Julie Belgrado, attended the Winter Institute, the largest bookselling conference organized by the American Booksellers Association (ABA), held this year in Denver, Colorado, from February 23-26.    

If you want to find out more about this year’s edition of the Winter Institute, we are happy to bring you some excerpts of the opening speech from the ABA's Director Allison Hill, where she thanked all the attendees, partners, booksellers and ABA employees, who made this conference such a great event, from its humble beginnings twenty years ago.  

She also reminded that ABA and the Winter Institute serve as a place for conversation, dialogue and diverse voice in these difficult times. That is why this year’s edition of the Winter Institute ensured ample opportunities for socializing, connecting and community between different sessions.

Good morning! Happy Winter Institute! Happy Black History Month! Happy Respite from Breaking News. I’m Allison Hill, CEO of the ABA, and I’m really happy to see all of you together.

We are so glad you joined us here in the Mile High City for ABA’s 20th Winter Institute. Remember—THIS—started as a twinkle in the eye of Mitchell Kaplan, owner of Books & Books and former ABA Board president and it is INCREDIBLE what the ABA staff and all of you have grown it into. We appreciate you being here and we truly hope this week is a break from the daily pressures of running your business and from the weight of the world.

I need to take a moment to acknowledge that weight. I know many people have been feeling it, and I specifically want to acknowledge the siege that many in this room have been under this past month of daily proclamations and orders that attempt to erase or undermine you and your voices or the work that you do as booksellers, authors, and publishers. ABA stands with you. We will continue to champion diversity and equity in this industry, and to fight for the right to read and the right to freedom of expression.

This week is about celebrating all books and authors— Black, Indigenous, AAPI, Latino, Latina, Latinx, Hispanic, LGBQ, 2S+, Trans, nonbinary—white, straight, and cis. All books. Because great books are by everyone and they should be for everyone.  

Our goal this week is to celebrate–because we need a little celebration right now–and to also offer you support for your work as booksellers with nuts and bolts, financial, and education sessions; energizing programming and networking; and opportunities to meet with business partners and publishers. We also want to support you as people–note the 30-minute breaks between sessions this year, the quiet room, the meditation and interfaith prayer room, affinity meet ups, and the many opportunities for connection and community.

Everyone in this room knows that authors and illustrators spin the world’s pain and joy and fear and love into gold. As booksellers, you are the keepers of this treasure, helping readers discover gold and enrich their lives. May this week remind all how tremendously valuable your work is—especially right now—and may it remind you how deeply grateful we are for all of you.

Now I’d like to express my gratitude to everyone who made this week possible.

I’d like to thank the authors and illustrators who are here to help us celebrate their books. You’re why we’re here, why we do what we do. You complete us.

I’d like to thank the booksellers who are sharing their time and experience for education this week.

I’d like to give a huge thanks to the ABA staff. You know, retail holiday season and how exhausted you are by the time Christmas Eve rolls around. Imagine getting through your holiday season and then Christmas Eve lasts 8 days. That’s what Winter Institute is like for ABA staff—thousands of hours, literally thousands of hours spent creating it, culminating with 8 long days here in Denver making it happen. They do this work because they love you and what you do—they love books and they love independent bookstores. So do me a favor, if you see ABA staff with their red ribbons on their badges, thank them, be patient with them, be kind. Believe it or not, this event is not as easy as it looks.

Lastly, I’d like to thank ALL of the publishers, everyone who supported this event with their money, authors, illustrators, representatives, editors—and their galleys—and for their ongoing support of the indie channel.

While I’m thanking publishers, I’d like to thank a group of publishers who are helping move this industry toward efficiency and innovation by participating in Batch for Books, a platform that provides indie bookstores with a free efficient way to manage publisher payments. You’ll recall that last year at Winter Institute ABA launched a campaign to lobby publishers and booksellers to sign up and I’m thrilled to update you. As of today, ABA would like to thank IPG, Microcosm Publishing, Arcadia Publishing, Blackstone Publishing, Gardner’s US, Penguin Random House, Macmillan, HarperCollins, Hachette, AND Simon & Schuster–ALL of whom are now participating in Batch.

So, booksellers, start your engines. Stop by the Batch table while you’re here and sign up. If you’re not sure it’s for you, stop by. If you have questions, stop by. I know you're independent—believe me, I know—but coming together on initiatives like this has the potential to transform this industry. And to the remaining publishers, we’re ready for you. Stop by the Batch table too.

[...]

The titles of Ocean Vuong’s books are poems unto themselves: Time is a Mother, Night Sky with Exit Wounds, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, to name a few. His new novel, The Emperor of Gladness is due out in May from Penguin Press and Colm Tóibín has said this about it: “a poetic, dramatic and vivid story. Epic in its sweep, the novel also handles intimacy and love with delicacy and deep originality.” It’s not surprising to hear praise for Ocean’s poetry and novels. His awards are many—the T.S. Eliot Prize, the Thom Gunn Award, longlisted for the National Book Award for Fiction, the Carnegie Medal in Fiction, the Academy of American Poets Prize, a Pushcart Prize, an American Book Award, and a MacArthur Genius Grant, to name a few. I could go on and on listing the numerous, well-deserved fellowships and awards bestowed upon Ocean and his work.

But as a poetry lover this is what I want to share with you:

Ocean illuminates themes of displacement, identity, and belonging. He gives voice to transformation, desire, and violent loss. His work is informed by his unique experiences but expresses the universal vulnerability of the human condition. He does all of this in language that sounds like music and a reading experience that feels like an intimate conversation with someone you love dearly. Foreign Policy Magazine named Ocean to their 2016 100 Leading Global Thinkers list—I’m guessing it’s not a common honor for a poet and novelist, but when you consider the deep thinking and global perspective reflected in Ocean’s work, it’s not surprising.  

We are honored to have him with us to open Winter Institute. Please join me in welcoming Ocean Vuong.

Thank you, Allison, for sharing your speech with us! 

EIBF publishes position paper on Public Procurement and answers European Commission Consultation

Library desk and bookshelves


The European and International Booksellers Federation (EIBF) is pleased to announce the publication of our position paper on public procurement, highlighting key concerns and recommendations to ensure a fair and competitive environment for small and independent bookshops across Europe. This paper has been developed in response to the European Commission’s evaluation of the 2014 EU Directive on Public Procurement, which EIBF will answer to as it is a crucial opportunity to address existing challenges and improve access to public contracts for SMEs in the bookselling sector. Your actual content will go here. Edit this to include your own information.

Public procurement plays a significant role in the bookselling industry, particularly in the relationships between bookshops, schools, and public libraries. Supplying books to these institutions not only supports the financial sustainability of bookshops but also strengthens local communities by fostering literacy, cultural engagement, and economic reinvestment in the local community. However, current procurement processes often create barriers that disproportionately impact small and independent booksellers, limiting their ability to compete with larger distributors and online retailers.

EIBF’s Key Recommendations:

  1. Simplify procurement procedures: Reduce bureaucratic obstacles and facilitate participation of SMEs.
  2. Encourage breaking down large orders: Dividing contracts into smaller lots makes it easier for bookshops to compete while maintaining efficiency.
  3. Promote holistic evaluation criteria: Encourage contracting authorities to prioritise qualitative factors like local relevance and cultural added value over price alone.
  4. Improve awareness among public authorities: Provide better training and guidelines to procurement bodies on the impact of their decisions on the book sector and local economies.
  5. Address specific needs of fixed-price markets: Where competition on the price of books is not allowed, introduce clearer criteria to prevent harmful practices such as random allocation of contracts.
  6. Increase procurement thresholds: Allow direct purchasing from local bookshops by raising financial thresholds for tenders.

EIBF strongly believes that these measures will enhance fair competition, sustain independent bookshops, and foster vibrant literary ecosystems across Europe.

In line with this, EIBF is also actively participating in the European Commission’s public consultation on the evaluation of the Public Procurement Directives. This initiative provides a crucial opportunity to advocate for meaningful reforms that will support the bookselling sector. We encourage members and stakeholders to engage in this consultation, which can be accessed here.

You can read EIBF’s full position paper by downloading it below.

EIBF condemns raids on Palestinian bookshops

Photo: CCTV shows Israeli police raiding the Educational Bookshop in East Jerusalem

Photo: CCTV shows Israeli police raiding the Educational Bookshop in East Jerusalem


On the 9th of February, Israeli police raided the Palestinian-owned bookshop Educational Bookshop in East Jerusalem, arresting and detaining two of its owners overnight, booksellers Mahmoud Muna and his nephew Ahmed Muna, according to media reports.

The Educational Bookshop has been an iconic venue and cultural hub for decades, providing access to a wide range of books both in English and Arabic, promoting diversity, the circulation of knowledge, and freedom of speech. The bookshop is also considered to be key in maintaining the vibrancy of Palestinian intellectual and cultural life amidst tense political circumstances. With its three store locations, it stands as an established value in the local Jerusalem community, with a customer base including readers of diverse religious, cultural, and ethnic backgrounds.

EIBF's Freedom of Expression Charter stands as a declaration of our unwavering commitment to safeguarding the rights of booksellers and the vital role they play in ensuring that knowledge remains free and accessible to all. Furthermore, our recent Industry Insights research paper highlights the critical role bookshops play in fostering an environment where diverse ideas can thrive, contributing to cultural and intellectual exchange across borders.

You can download the full statement from EIBF below.

EIBF adheres to the ‘Make Amazon Pay’ Campaign

MakeAmazonPay

The European and International Booksellers Federation (EIBF), who speaks on behalf of more than 25,000 individual booksellers of all kinds in Europe and beyond, is proud to join the ‘Make Amazon Pay’ campaign, together with a coalition of trade associations and unions from around the globe - including Progressive International and UNI Global Union.

Like every year, from Black Friday up until Cyber Monday, digital giants like Amazon see record-breaking profits soar as they engage in anti-competitive business practices to lure customers towards their online platforms. By engaging in systematic tax avoidance, compounding the climate crisis, and undermining labour, privacy and digital rights, Amazon’s business model has proved to be problematic for a wide range of industries, and the book sector is no exception.

Read the full statement below to gain further insight on how Amazon’s business model gravely harms bookshops – and remember that we can all play a part in contrasting this! This Black Friday, shop local and contribute to mending your community’s social fabric, one book at a time.

EIBF adheres to the ‘Make Amazon Pay’ Campaign

The European and International Booksellers Federation (EIBF), who speaks on behalf of more than 25,000 individual booksellers of all kinds in Europe and beyond, is proud to join the ‘Make Amazon Pay’ campaign, together with a coalition of trade associations and unions from around the globe - including Progressive International and UNI Global Union.

Like every year, from Black Friday up until Cyber Monday, digital giants like Amazon see record-breaking profits soar as they engage in anti-competitive business practices to lure customers towards their online platforms. By engaging in systematic tax avoidance, compounding the climate crisis, and undermining labour, privacy and digital rights, Amazon’s business model has proved to be problematic for a wide range of industries, and the book sector is no exception.

Read the full statement below to gain further insight on how Amazon’s business model gravely harms bookshops – and remember that we can all play a part in contrasting this! This Black Friday, shop local and contribute to mending your community’s social fabric, one book at a time.

Presentations made at the EIBF Conference in Frankfurt, 11/10/2018

Frankfurt

2018 marks the third edition of the EIBF conference “Creative and Innovative Solutions by Bookstores and Booksellers Associations”. This year again booksellers and Booksellers Associations executives gathered to exchange best practices and discuss the latest trends in the business.

You can find the slides of all these presentations in PDF format below.

Presentations made at the EIBF Conference in London, 11/04/2018

London18

EIBF conference, held on 11/04 in London, proved to be a real success, with a full room and almost all EIBF members being present.

Following the positive achievements of Frankfurt conference two years in a row, EIBF members highly demanded to have a second opportunity during the year to exchange best practices and ideas from which they can inspire and/or pass on to their own members.

From the UK to Germany and from Romania to Latvia, members were given the opportunity to share insight on their national lobbying practices and the way they increase footfall in their shop, while the presentations highlighted the diversity of the international book market.

You can find the slides of all these presentations in PDF format below:

Best practices for lobbying your governments for book-friendly policies

  1. Tim Godfray (UK), CEO of the Booksellers Association of the UK & Ireland
  2. Juancho Pons (Spain), Owner of Libreria Pons, President of the Spanish Booksellers Association, EIBF Treasurer
  3. Jessica Sänger  (Germany), Director for European and International Affairs at the German Booksellers & Publishers Association

How to increase customer footfall in bookshops and town centers

  1. Oana Doboşi-Potcoavă & Raluca Selejan (Romania), Owners of La Două Bufniţe
  2. Inara Belinkaja (Latvia), Owner of Jānis Roze bookshops, President of the Latvian Booksellers association
  3. Nic Bottomley (UK), Owner of Mr B’s Emporium of Books, Incoming President of the Booksellers Association of the UK & Ireland

Indies ‘delighted’ by Chancellor’s business rate cut, as BA calls for more reductions

bookshop

Indie booksellers have said they are “delighted” by the Budget cut to small retailer business rates, telling The Bookseller it will be “a great help”. The Booksellers Association has welcomed the move, but said that the burden on larger shops urgently needs reducing as well.

In the latest Budget, delivered on Monday (29th October), the Chancellor Philip Hammond confirmed a tax cut to business rates of one third for all retailers in England with a rateable value of £51,000 or less. The measure will last for the next two years, until the next re-evaluation of rateable values in 2021.

Hammond told the House of Commons that the measure would see the business rates of affected retailers down a one third, “up to £8,000 for up to 90% of all independent shops, pubs, restaurants and cafes.” He said our high street “lies at the heart of many communities and is under pressure as never before”, although it also faces “irreversible change.”

Meanwhile as expected the Chancellor put a timetable in place for the introduction of a UK digital services tax aimed at big technology companies with profitable businesses in the UK – April 2020. He said the tax would raise over £400m a year, saying : “It is only right that these global giants with profitable businesses in the UK pay their fair share of tax.”If a global agreement to tackle the issue is made ahead of 2020, the UK will join in that instead, he added.

But Hammond made no mention of removing VAT from digital publications, a step urged on him by the Publishers Association and the Professional Publishers Association in the run-up to the Budget.

Tim Godfray, executive chairman of the BA, commented: “We are very pleased that following the representations made by The Booksellers Association and others, many of our smaller booksellers could well see a reduction in their business rates. We wrote literally thousands of letters to those we thought could influence the outcome and met Ministers to put forward our views. We are grateful to all of our members who made their own representations to their MP/MSP/AM/MLA, and also to Baroness Rebuck and Lord Bird in particular, who lobbied extensively in the House of Lords to secure an improvement for booksellers”.

BA m.d. Meryl Halls added: “Mr Hammond did say in his Statement that he believed this development would benefit 90% of independent companies, cutting the rates’ bill potentially by as much as £8,000. Where these powers are devolved, in Scotland and Wales, we very much hope the devolved parliaments will follow suit.” However, she warned that the business rate cut did not include all high street retailers, saying: “Our larger shops are still hammered by this iniquitous Business Rates’ system, and the Government needs also as a matter of urgency to reduce their burden as well. Those bookshops over the £51,000 threshold will consider it arbitrary and unfair to be cut off from assistance. The Business Rates’ tax system has to change further: welcome though these interim measures are, it is currently not fit for purpose”.

On the new tax, Halls said: “It is good to see the Chancellor showing support for the High Street by imposing a new Digital Services Tax on the very big technology companies that have a competitive fiscal advantage over physical businesses when paying Business Rates. Amazon has massively distorted our market place, so we will need to read the small print carefully to ascertain how far the playing field might be made more level by this development”.

Giles Clifton, the BA’s head of corporate affairs, added: “As we understand the proposal, the new Digital Services Tax will apply to UK revenues of the big technology companies that have global sales of more than £500m. It is not an online sales tax. The Government hopes to raise some £400m from this measure. We will have to see how our main competitor, Amazon, is affected by this proposal. The devil will be in the detail. Mr Hammond said ideally he would have preferred to secure a global agreement with other tax authorities to create new measures for the tech companies, but he admitted progress is already painfully slow. What is frustrating to us is that this new Digital Services Tax will not kick in until April 2020, giving the tech companies a further period of competitive fiscal advantage”.

Stephen Lotinga, chief executive of the Publishers Association, commented: “The Digital Services Tax is an expected step and it is commendable that the Government is trying to lead the world in holding big tech to account. It will be interesting to see how the implementation plays out.” He added: “The announcement on business rates is also positive and will be a boost for bookshops and for the high street more generally. Of course we’re disappointed not to see an announcement on VAT zero-rating for digital publications in this budget, but we will continue with our Axe the Reading Tax campaign and in pushing the strong case for correcting this unfair and illogical tax.”

Indies responding to the Budget news included Tony West, co-owner of The Alligator’s Mouth bookshop in Richmond, who said of the business rate cut: “It will be a great help. I will be interested to see what happens when it comes through and if it feels noticeable at the end of the business year, but I was impressed with the amount the chancellor has docked.” Meanwhile Judy Brook, owner of Kenilworth Books in Warwickshire, told The Bookseller: “This has got to be a good thing in helping us compete with online sellers and compete with other retailers on the high street. Hopefully we will increase in number, too. I think the number of independent bookshops increased by one last year and hopefully that positive projectory will continue.”

Louise Chadwick, owner of Button and Bear bookshop in Shrewsbury, said: “We are delighted that the budget is recognising the value of the high street and giving some much needed support to businesses.  We are still trying to find out the actual details of when and how this funding will be made available to us but a cut of a third off our business rates bill is extremely welcome.”

Among other measures in the budget, the Chancellor also boosted schools budgets by £400m – an average of £10,000 per primary school and, £50,000 per secondary school, to help them buy “that extra bit of kit” that makes the difference. At Drake – The Bookshop in Stockton, owner Richard Drake said: “The ‘extra bit of kit’ for schools – I guess it’s up to us to make that kit books!”

The Chancellor described it as a budget for “strivers, grafters and the carers who are the backbone of our community”, saying: “The era of austerity is finally coming to an end.”

Source: The Bookseller, published October 29, 2018 by Bookseller news team


 

EIBF encourages shopping locally this Black Friday

EIBF encourages shopping locally this Black Friday

It’s that time of the year again. The weather is getting crispy and wherever you go, offline or online, you are bombarded with ads for price reductions, good deals and insane sales. It can be overwhelming and easy to lose track of what you really want or need. If there’s anything EIBF, as the voice of booksellers, would like to remind you of at this time, it’s that where you shop actually matters. For too long, because of their dominant position on the market, large online platforms like Amazon have been allowed to engage in anti-competitive and unfair practices in the online marketplace. This year, join the global movement to Make Amazon Pay and let us tell you why your choice to buy locally this Black Friday makes a difference.

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Any booklover will recognise that special, marvellous feeling of wonder as you walk into a bookshop filled with books from floor to ceiling; so many stories just waiting for you to discover them, so many beautiful book covers to lure you in – some made with such care they look like real works of art. Yes, all avid readers know the excitement of a good book purchase, and the impatience with which you rush home to start reading. In this sense, bookshops are magical places, keepers of a thousand stories just within your reach. But, in truth, they are much more than this.

As cultural spaces, bookshops play a key role in providing access to culture, knowledge and information, and are an integrant part in the life and soul of cities.


Bookshops contribute to the local community

Bookshops are real societal pillars, deeply invested in their communities in many different ways. By having a physical shop, they employ local people, pay living wages to a workforce you know and see every day; as your neighbours, friends, and sometimes (if you’re lucky) also family members.

By having their shop in a physical place, bookshops also pay local taxes, which contribute to the community welfare, supporting health care, public transport, education and more. Therefore, the money you spend in your local bookshop, will always be reinvested in your community.

Bookshops are community hubs, acting as safe and inclusive spaces

Bookshops provide cultural and recreational spaces for their communities and are sometimes referred to as “third spaces”. These are places which are not home and not work, but where you go to enjoy yourself, socialise and have fun. From readings to debate sessions, from theatre plays and book clubs to children’s games and much more; bookshops organise events that allows their community to meet each other, while discovering and discussing new ideas.


Through the books they offer and the events they host, many booksellers are committed to making their bookshops into welcoming places for diverse communities, like the LGBTQIA+ community. This is why they are often referred to as safe and inclusive spaces.


Bookshops offer an experience which cannot be replicated online

The book sector, and all its thousands of small, family-owned businesses, was the first sector to experience Amazon’s anticompetitive practices. By using its vantage point of market dominance – which is the result of a constant race to the bottom – Amazon has in many ways transformed the book market and driven many bookshops out of business. However, the above examples show you all the things that local brick-and-mortar bookshops do, and the added value of experiences that they bring to their community – all things which simply cannot be replicated by online marketplaces, like Amazon.

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If you are still not convinced that it is worth the extra effort to go out the door – remember you can always order from your local bookshop online!

Most brick-and-mortar bookshops nowadays have active webshops. Many of them are grouped under one e-commerce platform, which gives you as a customer the chance to browse millions of books in one single place, and choose your favourite bookshop to cater for the order. You can read more about these platforms in our RISE Bookselling Industry Insights paper on E-commerce platforms for independent bookshops here.

So, by shopping online with indie bookshops, you will save time, but your money will still have a positive impact on local commerce and be reinvested in your community.

Curious to know more about the impact of shopping locally?

Through our project RISE Bookselling, EIBF ran a month-long campaign called “Reviving the High Street” on the role bookshops play in ensuring a resilient and thriving high-street which brings real added value to its communities. Check out the entire campaign and all its resources on our dedicated webpage and engage on our social media with the hashtag #BookShopLocally.


What is the MakeAmazonPay campaign?

MakeAmazonPay is a global campaign to challenge Amazon’s anticompetitive and unfair practices. On Black Friday, 24 November 2023, the Make Amazon Pay campaign organises its 4th global day of action to protest Amazon's abuse of workers, tax avoidance and anti-competitive practices, as well as its growing climate impact in more than 30 countries across the world. The day of action was announced at the first Summit to Make Amazon Pay, which took place at the end of October in Manchester.

Booksellers who would like to participate in the campaign can make use of the campaign graphics to hang in their storefront windows on Black Friday, and take a picture, which they can post on social media and upload here for the global campaign. 

Everyone can engage on social media by using the hash tag #MakeAmazonPay.

#BookShopLocally #MakeAmazonPay


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