Launch of the SDG 11 reading list

SDG Goal 11

The SDG Book Club helps children learn about the Sustainable Development Goals 

SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities

Did you know that more than half of the world’s population lives in cities? Even though cities only make up 3% of the earth’s land, more than 3.5 billion people live in cities today, and that number is only growing.

Cities are also economic powerhouses, and contribute greatly to the world economy with large numbers of people working in offices, factories, construction and stores. Unfortunately, this also means that cities are largely responsible for alarmingly high levels of air pollution and carbon emissions from the production of goods and services and the consumption of energy for transportation, and electricity and heating of the many buildings and apartments. These levels put our environment in danger.

Find the SDG 11 reading list here

As more people make cities their homes, it is very important to focus on making cities safe, inclusive, and sustainable. Are there sidewalks in your city? Are there enough jobs and homes for everyone? Is it safe for your family to walk at night? Is the air in your city clean? Are the parks taken care of?

These are just some of the questions that SDG 11 tries to address. Since more than half of humanity is living in cities, it is essential to focus on improving conditions in cities in order to make them safe and welcoming for people around the world.

Our new reading list covers many of these topics and we hope the stories will inspire you to think about ways that you can help improve the community that you live in.

The SDG Book Club makes content available in the six official languages of the United Nations – please see our pages for recommendations in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish.

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The EIBF is one of the organisers of the SDG Book Club, working together with the UN, IPA, IFLA, IBBY and BCBF. Find out more. 

EIBF Webinar: Preparing for holiday sales

On Thursday, 5 November, we hosted a webinar to foster exchange of best practices between booksellers in the lead up to the end of the year sales 

 

Many countries around Europe, and the world, are experiencing a surge of Coronavirus infections, and many governments are again imposing various restrictions to try and contain the spread. Ireland has introduced one of the harshest measures, where all non-essential stores have been required to close. With Christmas season just around the corner, many booksellers are again facing uncertain future. 

To share experiences on how different booksellers are preparing for the holiday period, we hosted an EIBF webinar on this theme on Thursday, 5 November at 7 pm CET/6 pm GMT. We welcomed two speakers to the event, who discussed how they are gearing up to the end of the year sales, focusing on reviewing and ordering stock, planning promotional campaigns, and looking at Coronavirus restrictions in their countries and how to best implement them. 

 

Get to know our speakers 

     -     Julie Belgrado, Director at EIBF 

     -     Daniel Hagemann, head of the Bücherstube Fuhlsbüttel in Hamburg, Germany 

     -     Inara Belinkaja, owner and director of Janis Roze Bookstores in Riga, Latvia 

 

Missed the event? 

Listen to the recording below:

 

As Amazon.se launches in Sweden, EIBF reminds of the importance of a level playing field

EIBF calls for a level playing field for booksellers, as Amazon enters the Nordics

On Wednesday, 28 October 2020, Amazon.se has officially opened for business in Sweden, marking the retail giant’s first entry to the Nordic market. The site is offering customers more than 150 million products across 30 categories, including books, consumer electronics, sports and outdoor, tools and toys, among others. The products are coming from thousands of European and local Swedish businesses.

The Swedish bookselling industry, especially within the digital sphere, faces a tough new competitor. However, the book market in Sweden today is largely digitalised already, as opposed to other countries where Amazon established operations much earlier. With these different circumstances, Amazon could find it more challenging to disrupt the book market in Sweden.

Maria Hamrefors, Chair of the Swedish Booksellers Association (Svenska Bokhandlareföreningen) and EIBF board member remains calm, yet also prudent with Amazon’s arrival. “There have been speculations about Amazon's launch in Sweden for more than ten years now and today it finally happened. Online retails is already the major sales channel in our market, with two local players offering a broad assortment of books at very competitive prices with speedy deliveries, so Amazon does not really bring anything new to the market from that perspective. From what I have seen today, the site is full of poorly translated content, high prices and strange recommendations. Day one of business here, and they are laughed at on social media, but we do, of course, need to take them seriously long term.”
 
While a new entry to the Nordics, the bookselling sector elsewhere has been facing competition from Amazon for a while now. With operations in 18 countries and 89 warehouses in Europe only, Amazon enjoys a dominant position in the online book market. However, initiatives from independent booksellers and booksellers associations are gaining tractions. Highlighting the unique experience one can find in a bookshop and the importance of such shops within their local communities, they remind readers of the essential part they play in providing a service that Amazon will never be able to provide. Among others, we have recently seen shop local campaigns, buy in-store initiatives, and buy early calls, as the holiday season approaches. 

All these initiatives need to be supported by political and legislative frameworks, as only in that way we can ensure a fair market where all players play by the same rules: from small- and medium-sized companies to big corporations. 

“Bookselling is a busy market, where all actors do not operate on an equal footing. While local businesses rely more and more on Amazon marketplaces to reach a wider audience, the terms and conditions imposed by the platform are considered by many as an abuse of dominant position. As a result, we have seen various probes against Amazon both in Europe and the United States in recent months. It will take strong political drive to bend the curve and to ensure that all players have equal opportunities,” said Fabian Paagman, EIBF’s co-President.

With the launch of Amazon.se and Christmas celebrations around the corner, the time is right for EIBF and its members to call on decisions makers to regulate the behaviour of dominant tech giants and to support fair competition. 

Photo: Christian Wiediger/Unsplash

EIBF lends its voice to European cultural and creative sectors calling for help

EU Flags

EIBF co-signs three letters to the European institutions asking for sustainable recovery plan for culture 

 

EIBF has co-signed three different letters to the European Commission, the European Parliament and to the European Council, together with 110 European organisations from the cultural and creative sector in regards to the upcoming national Recovery and Resilience plans.

In our letter to the European Parliament, we ask MEPs to support a number of amendments tabled on the draft Report on a Recovery and Resilience Facility, which call for at least 2% of the Recovery and Resilience Facility to be earmarked for the cultural and creative sector.

On a similar note, we also call on EU leaders to place culture at the core of their national Recovery and Resilience plans, which aim at a sustainable, inclusive and future-looking revival of our social and economic life.

Finally, we are also asking the European Commission to encourage Member States to allocate at the very least 2% of their budget for the recovery and resilience plans to the cultural sector, as well as to assess and monitor the adequacy of said plans. 

You can find all three joint letters in this page.
 

EIBF submits contribution to Postal Services Directive public consultation

Post boxes

EIBF submits a contribution to the European Commission’s Postal Services Directive public consultation.

The postal sector has experienced major changes due to digitalisation and e-commerce in recent years. On this basis, the consultation seeks to determine whether there is a need for further revision.

EIBF supports a revision which introduces further harmonisation and a more coordinated approach across Member States on reduced or discounted rates for postal delivery of books, in order to level the playing field and increase opportunity for small and medium sized booksellers, especially given the current context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

See our full contribution attached.

In the lead up to December: buy early, buy local

Image

As the end of the year approaches, we are highlighting initiatives calling for gift shopping that supports local businesses and communities 

Since the start of the Coronavirus, COVID-19, pandemic, retail landscape has changed dramatically. Customers are widely encouraged, and in some cases obliged due to government restrictions, to move their shopping online and make use of click and collect options. This drastically impacts local businesses, many of them small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), who rely on in-store customer visits. Throughout this year, we have seen many businesses adjusting to rapidly changing circumstances, with many having to develop their digital presence from scratch.

The book industry has not been spared by the impacts of the pandemic, and sales indicators show that local lockdowns have been devastating. However, customer demand for books has only increased and booksellers are optimistic for the upcoming holiday season. End of the year celebrations and Christmas sales are a strategic game for booksellers around the world: from carefully selecting and preparing stock to increasing the number of staff available to help deal with the rush of last minute customers. However, this year is turning that game on its head – not only are there usual technical preparations to consider, there’s also an added element of strict health and safety regulations to manage.

In the past few weeks, we have seen numerous campaigns calling for customers to do their Christmas shopping early, and support local businesses while doing so. This is important, as it could help smooth out the concentration of trade in the last few days and hours in the lead up to Christmas, and help mitigate the risks of supply chain disruptions. Additionally, shopping locally is crucial for sustainable development of local communities, and while doing so, customers will enable small- and medium-sized businesses to enter the last quarter on a more positive note.

 

Why is shopping early and locally important?

     •    Ensure customers will receive the titles they want without having to wait (in case of supply chain  disruptions and/or high demand)
     •    Help local businesses maintain steady cash flow 
     •    Support sustainable development of local communities  
     •    Help local businesses to maintain their services and grow where possible, especially in these challenging times 

Many SMEs have found themselves in precarious positions during this pandemic, especially as they can’t easily compete with online retails giants. In the book industry, the sector saw Amazon’s profits soar this year; in many cases to the detriment of brick and mortar shops which were forced to close by national governments. 

In the lead up to the Black Friday sales at the end of November, we took a look at Amazon’s global and European operations to highlight the company’s outreach and market dominance. Through these graphics and by voicing our support for ‘buy early, buy local’ initiatives, we hope customers will feel encouraged in supporting local booksellers, and wider local businesses. 

 

Click on the image for a larger version

 

 

Click on the image for a larger version

 

Click on the image for a larger version


Sources are shared at the bottom of this page.

 

 

Initiatives from our members to support 

Australia: 
     •    Shop early, shop local campaign

Belgium:
     •    Shop early, shop local campaign by the association of French-speaking independent bookstores in Belgium (more here)

Denmark:
     •    Wider buy local campaign to be launched in early 2021 

France: 
     •    Wider campaign supporting buying online or through click and collect during the French lockdown
     •    A French Christmas campaign boycotting gift buying on Amazon #NoëlSansAmazon

Germany: 
     •    National campaign from the Börsenverein supporting bookshops during the holiday season    
     •    National campaign highlighting the importance of buying in-store, locally   
     •    Buy early postcard campaign from the book trade association Nordbuch Marketing GmbH
     •    Buy early, buy online campaign from Buchwert bookshop

The Netherlands:
     •    December is now! campaign from Paagman bookshop 

Portugal: 
     •    Shop in bookshops this Christmas  

United Kingdom: 
     •    Shop early, shop local campaign  
     •    Shop local this Christmas initiative supporting bookshops during lockdown 
     •    Wider choose bookshops campaign 

USA: 
     •    A set of marketing materials highlighting 'shop now, shop local', including ''Tis the season to shop local' poster
     •    With 20% of independent bookstores across the United States at risk of closing, the American Booksellers Association has launched the #BoxedOut campaign to draw attention to the challenges indie bookstores are facing ahead of the holiday season
     •    "October is the new December" campaign highlighting the buy early, buy local initiatives (campaign was later adapted to "November is the new December")
     •    Adaptable poster for bookstores outlining 'how you can support indies' 

 

Are you aware of any other ‘buy early, buy local’ initiative? Let us know!

 

 

Notes

Sources for the Amazon graphics:

Hamrick, D. (2020, March 10). How to Sell on Amazon International Marketplaces. Retrieved from https://www.junglescout.com/blog/amazon-marketplaces/ 

MWPVL International Inc. (unknown). Amazon Global Supply Chain and Fulfillment Center Network. Retrieved from https://www.mwpvl.com/html/amazon_com.html 

Ecommerce Europe. (2018, July 02). The European Ecommerce Report 2018: relevant
findings outlined. Retrieved from https://www.eurocommerce.eu/media/159952/2018.07.02 - Ecommerce report_annex.pdf

Statista. (2020, January). Annual net sales of Amazon in selected leading markets from 2014 to 2019. Retrieved from https://www.statista.com/statistics/672782/net-sales-of-amazon-leading-markets/

Statista. (2020, April). Amazon annual net sales in the United Kingdom (UK) from 2010 to 2019. Retrieved from https://www.statista.com/statistics/1035592/net-sales-amazon-united-kingdom-uk/ 

Evans, B. (2019, December 19). What's Amazon's market share?. Retrieved from https://www.ben-evans.com/benedictevans/2019/12/amazons-market-share19 

EIBF welcomes the European Commission’s Digital Services Act and Digital Markets Act

The legislative package is the Commission's newest and biggest effort yet to regulate US tech giants that operate in the EU, including Amazon.

Earlier this week, on 15th December, the European Commission presented two long-awaited and wide-ranging legislative files that will significantly enhance EU rules for digital services, including social media, online marketplaces, and other online platforms based in the European Union: the Digital Services Act (DSA) and the Digital Markets Act (DMA).

As representatives of thousands of booksellers of all kinds‒ from independent shops to family businesses, chains, brick and mortar retailers and online sellers ‒ we know first-hand the devastating effects that the dominance of some major US tech giants, such as Amazon, has had in the bookselling sector.

This is why, a week away from Christmas, EIBF warmly welcomes the European Commission’s announcement of the Digital Markets Act in particular, as a sign of willingness from European decision-makers to reinstate the balance between the digital and physical world.

The need for fairer competition has proven to be even greater during the COVID-19 pandemic, as giant e-retailers are still operating and making huge profit while European bookshops, despite their innovativeness and resilience over the last months, are fighting to be recognized as essential in order to stay open during the holiday season and remain nonetheless as one of the first hardly hit and affected by the rise of these giant e-retailers.

EIBF has always had fair competition at its very core. Small retailers suffer when single companies monopolise the market, whether in the US or in Europe, and readers see their freedom of choice diminish: the diversity of platforms they can buy from continues to dwindle. And consumers are the ultimate beneficiaries of a level playing field governing commercial conditions and healthy competition between retailers. Essentially, the more bookshops there are, the larger is the choice and offer for consumers and the bigger is the cultural diversity.

On its announcement, EIBF Co-President Jean-Luc Treutenaere says “we are very pleased with the European Commission’s announcement of the DSA, and particularly of the DMA. The DMA will prove to be a crucial regulation to level the playing field and increase accountability for the largest players who do not play by the rules. From banning of self-preferencing practices to prohibiting the collection of data from business users, we have high hopes for this file and we will monitor it closely”.

As the European Commission’s proposals will be discussed by the EU’s co-legislators – the European Parliament and the Council – at length over the next year, EIBF will continue to monitor the evolution of the file to ensure that booksellers’ interests are prioritised in the upcoming discussions.

Launch of the SDG 12 reading list

The SDG Book Club helps children learn about the Sustainable Development Goals 

SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Production

Do you know where your food and water come from? How about where the waste goes once you’re done eating? Do you know how much energy you use when you leave the lights on in your room for the whole day?

sdg-12

We rely on many natural resources in order to survive. As our economy and society progress, the natural resources that we depend on begin to run out. If the world population reaches 9.6 billion by 2050, we would need three planets worth of resources to keep the same lifestyle we have today.

 

Find the SDG 12 reading list here. 

 

Did you know that one-third of all the food in the world is wasted or lost? Or that households consume 29% of global energy and contribute to 21% of CO2 emissions? If we don’t change our production and consumption habits, we will cause irreversible damage to our environment.

Luckily, small steps can go a long way. SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Production explores the ways we can help our environment by making changes to our consumption and production patterns. Two main ways that every one of us can help is by reducing waste and being thoughtful about where we buy our food and clothes. Simple changes can have a big impact on our society.

Our new reading list covers many of these topics and we hope the stories will inspire you to think about ways that you can help improve the community that you live in.

The SDG Book Club makes content available in the six official languages of the United Nations – please see our other pages for more recommendations in Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian and Spanish.

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The EIBF is one of the organisers of the SDG Book Club, working together with the UN, IPA, IFLA, IBBY and IAF. Find out more. 

EIBF launches the International Booksellers Forum

A new platform for booksellers and those interested in the bookselling industry 

 

The European and International Booksellers Federation is launching the International Booksellers Forum, a exciting new initiative aiming to provide a space for booksellers from all over the world to connect and share ideas, experiences, opportunities and challenges within the sector. The Facebook based group will serve as base to provide insights into daily lives of booksellers, act as an open space for raising questions and finding practical answers to challenges faced by the booksellers around the world, and enable sharing of opinions between members.

The group is open to booksellers, aspiring booksellers, and everyone interested in the bookselling profession (not just EIBF members). We're inviting all our members, their members, and other interested parties, to get involved and spread the word. 

 

Visit the Forum page here.

Events and conferences 2021

Want to know about EIBF and the work we do? Discover the events you can join to find out more

 

This is a dedicated page featuring all events and conferences where you can hear from the wider EIBF team and our members on the opportunities and challenges within the bookselling sector.

This page will be continuously updated with additional event details as they become available. 

 

February: 
     •    24 February: Second European Book Conference (part of The Brussels Book Fair) 
          o    EIBF co-organising a panel together with the Belgian French-speaking Independent Bookshop Association 

March: 
     •    18 March: EIBF webinar on the rise of audiobooks
          o    Speaker: Maria Hamrefors, Chair of the Swedish Booksellers Association  

April: 
     •    23 April: World Book Day
     •    26 April: Books Across Borders digital panel event 
          o    Panel with EIBF director Julie Belgrado as one of guest speakers, together with other EIBF members and other representatives from the bookselling industry  
     •    29 April: EIBF webinar on the bookselling trends and statistics 
          o    Speakers: Carol Hughes-Hallett Ramos, Account Manager/Research Analyst, and Hazel Kenyon, Book Research Director UK & Ireland, Nielsen Book International 

May: 
     •    18 May: EUPL 2021 winner announcement
     •    27 May: EIBF webinar on Brexit and its implications for the book sector 
          o    Speaker: Elda Lamberti, Gardners  

June: 
     •    22 June: EIBF panel on Brexit and book trade implications at the 2021 London Book Fair
          o    Speakers: Jan Smedh, owner of The English Bookshop in Uppsala, Sweden
          o    Tomás Kenny, General Manager at Kennys Bookshop in Galway, Ireland
          o    Elda Lamberti, International Sales Manager at Gardners   
     •    23 June: EIBF webinar on social media planning for booksellers 
          o    Speaker: Roma Maria Mukherjee, social media manager at Lesesaal Buchhandlung 

July: 
     •    1 July: London Book Fair 
          o    One-day panels dedicated for booksellers 

September: 
     •    24 September: Moscow Book Conference 
     •    23 September: EIBF Webinar: Marketing campaigns in the lead up to the holiday season

October: 
     •    20 - 24 October: Frankfurt Book Fair
     •    21 October: Shaping the Future with Books Conference
     •    22 October: Sustainability across the book chain 
     •    27 October: EIBF Webinar: Exploring the future of author events in bookshops 

November: 
     •    1 - 12 November: COP26 
     •    9 November: EUPL 2021 Ceremony 
     •    17 November: EIBF Webinar: Sustainable initiatives across the book chain: SDG book club 

 

Registrations for EIBF Webinars

Registrations for webinars are already open - sign up by filling out this form. You will be asked to confirm your interest for specific webinar - or all, if you wish to attend all three. Further details will follow in due course.

Please note that the participation at EIBF webinars is open only to EIBF members and their members (through Booksellers Associations in respective countries). 

For further inquiries, get in touch with our communications team. 
 

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