On this World Book Day, we give the floor to booksellers 

Every year, 23 April marks the World Book and Copyright Day. Launched in 1995 by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), the event aims to promote the enjoyment of books and reading. As representatives of thousands of booksellers, we do know the important role books play in our lives, especially now that we are facing another year of pandemic.   

During the last year, when most countries have experienced periods of confinement and people have had to limit their time spent outside, books have proven to be powerful tools to combat isolation, reinforce ties between people, and expand our horizons, while stimulating our minds and creativity. 

As an integral part of the book chain, bookshops are ideally positioned to provide access to literature and culture for all, thus improving reading habits across societies. This is now more important than ever.

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic prompted many different policy responses, with many countries imposing movement restrictions, and even full lockdowns, leaving businesses that rely on physical presence of customers in a precarious position. Booksellers, as many of their retail counterparts, were forced to close their doors for many weeks – resulting in drastically reduced sale numbers. 

To ensure they can survive this drastic and unexpected change in their daily activities, booksellers had to shift their business model and encourage their customers to buy books online – with substantial impact. Many booksellers came up with innovative actions to support local communities during these difficult times, from launching curb-side pickup or starting city-wide deliveries to hosting digital author events, book clubs and children reading hours.

Once allowed to re-open shops, and despite the numerous strict government regulations they had to comply with, many booksellers were happy to be able to welcome customers again inside their stores. The rush that followed the re-openings highlighted once more the essential character of bookshops and how they best fulfil this role while staying open.

With a few countries recognising bookshops as essential through the adoption of new decrees, the situation marginally improved during the last months. However, if this newly gained status represented a victory for a few, it still remains the fight of many. 

On this special day celebrating books and reading, EIBF calls on national governments to consider and recognise the essential role bookshops play in their communities when discussing the matter of their opening/closure. 

"Bookshops are safe havens"

We asked our members to reflect on the importance of reading and books in our daily lives. 

Sheila O'Reilly, Bookselling Ireland Liaison at the Booksellers Association of the UK and Ireland

“Some people say every person has 24 hours every day. Readers know that is not entirely true. Have you not read a book that has left you with the impression of having been absent (in it) for years? Books create time and hand it over to you.” Philippe Hunziker, bookseller and owner of Sophos bookshop in Guatemala 

“The beautiful thing with stories and books is that once they are written, published and dispatched they attract people around them and some of them won’t let you out of their pages, maybe for days after you finished reading them. Some you will find by chance, some are recommended by your friends, some by your bookseller, but still, you will find them. These days, some of us will be reading their to-read piles from home, some of us will be re-reading books we loved, and others will not be able to read and to focus. In this uncertain time we’re living in, each one of us reacts in the way we can and know, the only important thing is to stay home, read if you can focus, listen to those in more informed positions and have patience with yourself and those around you. Your booksellers are missing you, and all we can do is wait for you to come back to as soon as this is over. Until then, stay safe and read at home.” Oana Dobosi and Raluca Selejan, booksellers and co-owners of the Two Owls bookshop in Romania

“Reading allows you to go through time and space, to connect with other people and your inner self, to comprehend the world around you, and to find ideas, beauty, amusement. All that is possible just staying at home, with a good book. Reading can save us, now more than ever.” Hoepli bookshop, Italy

“Bookshops are lanterns of civilisation and, for many, beacons of hope.” Meryl Halls, Managing Director of the Booksellers Association of the UK and Ireland

We call for swift European action that requires tech giants to pay their fair share of taxes where they generate profit and contribute to national economies for the benefit of all

Bookstores are among the many SMEs that contribute to the financial and social development of their communities by providing jobs, paying local taxes and spending money with local suppliers. Equally, when customers spend locally (whether in physical stores or online), that money is also reinvested within their community.

On the other hand, tech giants with a huge digital presence, across the world and several European markets, have for many years, either avoided paying taxes or have taken advantage of tax deals, making little to no tax contributions compared to their smaller competitors, which raises concerns with their profits. 

Out of these, Amazon is the tech giant that has the biggest (and most harmful) impact on the book sector. In 2017, the European Commission found that Amazon had been given illegal selective tax benefits by the Luxembourg government. The Commission concluded that such tax deals allowed Amazon to pay substantially less tax than other businesses given that almost three-quarters of the tech giant’s business from May 2006 to June 2014 went untaxed, a claim Amazon is rebutting. 

Since then, further reports and investigations have revealed that several large digital corporations do not pay enough taxes or are given preferential tax breaks.

Efforts to adequately tax large digital corporations have not been successful or have not been achieved fast enough. For years, the Council of the EU has blocked advances in the country-by-country reporting proposal, a rule that would oblige multinationals to reveal how much profit they make and how much tax they pay in each of the 27 member states. Only in March 2021, the Council broke the deadlock and reached an agreement to start negotiating with the European Parliament  on the file — four years after the European Commission’s proposal.

Meanwhile, at a global level, the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) has been negotiating for the past years to introduce a global digital tax for very large corporations, so that they are taxed where profits are earned, regardless of physical presence. However, these negotiations have also faced delays and blocks. Due to these delays at an international level and the lack of initiative from the EU, national governments in Europe have begun pushing for their own digital taxation rules. This is the case, for instance, in France with the GAFA tax and in the UK with the Digital Services Tax for large multinational enterprises.

In response to this, tech giants began increasing fees and passing on costs for developers and third-party sellers. In the UK, for instance, they increased fees for third-party sellers by 2%, while other countries were also being hit by similar price rises. Once again, this results in small businesses and consumers paying the price for either a lack of real tax accountability or diverging national policies on corporate digital taxation. This must stop.

For many years, we have called for a fiscal level playing field and fair taxation legislation. With the European Commission expected to present a proposal for a European digital tax in June, and following the Commission’s open public consultation from April this year, we reiterate the urgent need to swiftly implement a European digital tax that does not harm or jeopardise European SMEs and their online growth, and enables them to compete on a fair level playing field with online tech giants. 

On a final note, as many voices in the European Parliament are reminding, it is still crucial to reach a solution on digital taxation at international level. With the Biden administration in the US, and increasing transatlantic cooperation, an agreement on an international digital tax might be closer than ever.

Photo: Morning Brew on Unsplash 

EIBF launches a flagship report providing in-depth insights into the pandemic impacts on the  bookselling sector in 2020

Behind us is an unprecedented year that completely turned our lives around – from stopping our social gatherings and closing many businesses for weeks on end, to facilitating a big swing to digital services. The book industry as a whole faced a substantial impact: cancelled trade fairs, seized supply chains, and frozen rights sales. Booksellers, as many of their retail counterparts, were forced to shut their doors – resulting in drastically reduced sales numbers.

To analyse the global bookselling trends in 2020 and start understanding the wide-ranging impacts of the Coronavirus pandemic on the industry, the European and International Booksellers Federation (EIBF) carried out a survey among its members and partners in March 2021. The national booksellers associations from seventeen countries responded to our written questionnaire, shedding light on challenges booksellers had faced since the outbreak of the pandemic in early 2020. 

This report collates insights into the bookselling industry of 2020, analysing the impacts of national policy responses to the pandemic, exploring the total sales numbers for the past year, and highlighting public and private initiatives launched to help the sector sustainably develop going forward. 

Discover the report here. 
 

We're excited to reveal 13 new laureates of the EUPL 2021 edition 

The European Union Prize for Literature (EUPL) recognises emerging fiction writers from the European Union and beyond. Engaging the 41 countries participating in the Creative Europe programme of the European Union, the Prize celebrates 41 outstanding new literary talents across a cycle of three years. Spotlighting the creativity and the immense and diverse wealth of Europe’s contemporary literature in the field of fiction, EUPL aims to promote the circulation of literature within Europe and encourage greater interest in non-national literary works. The 2021 edition awarded thirteen laureates from the countries participating in this cycle. 

We are pleased to announce this year’s thirteen laureates:

•    Albania: Enkel Demi (pen name Tom Kuka), Flama (Calamity), Publisher: Botime Pegi.
•    Armenia: Արամ Պաչյան (Aram Pachyan), P/F (P/F), Publisher: Էջ հրատարակչություն (Edge publishing house).
•    Bulgaria: Георги Бърдаров (Georgi Bardarov), Absolvo te (Absolvo te), Publisher: Musagena.
•    Czech Republic: Lucie Faulerová, Smrtholka (Deathmaiden), Publisher: Nakladatelství TORST.
•    Iceland: Sigrún Pálsdóttir, Delluferðin (Runaround), Publisher: Forlagið útgáfa (JPV).
•    Latvia: Laura Vinogradova, Upe (The River), Publisher: Zvaizgne ABC.
•    Malta: Lara Calleja, Kissirtu kullimkien (You Have Destroyed Everything), Publisher: Merlin Publishers.
•    Netherlands: Gerda Blees, Wij zijn licht (We are light), Publisher: Uitgeverij Podium.
•    Portugal: Frederico Pedreira, A Lição do Sonâmbulo (The Sleepwalker Lesson), Publisher: Companhia das Ilhas.
•    Serbia: Dejan Tiago Stanković, Zamalek (Zamalek), Publisher: Laguna.
•    Slovenia: Anja Mugerli, Čebelja družina (Bee Family), Publisher: Cankarjeva založba.
•    Sweden: Maxim Grigoriev, Europa (Europe), Publisher: Albert Bonniers Förlag.
•    Tunisia: أمين الغزي (Amine Al Ghozzi), زندالي ليلة 14 جانفي 2011 (Zindali, the night of 14 january 2011), Publisher: زينب للنّشر و التوزيع (Editions Zayneb).

The 2021 laureate for each country was selected by a national jury of experts in the fields of literature, publishing and bookselling. The 13 winning books and authors were revealed during a video broadcast on 18 May at 2:00 PM CEST. Their names were individually announced by a representative of each national jury.

Find out more.

The EUPL is organised by a Consortium of associations comprising the European Writers' Council (EWC), the Federation of European Publishers (FEP), and the European and International Booksellers Federation (EIBF), with the support of the European Commission. 

Ahead of the European General Affairs Council meeting on 22 June, EIBF, FEP and IPA reaffirm their support for Hungarian publishers facing new censorship

Ahead of the European General Affairs Council meeting on 22 June, and following the adoption of a new amendment in Hungary threatening freedom of expression, the International Publishers Association (IPA), the Federation of European Publishers (FEP) and the European and International Booksellers Federation (EIBF) reaffirm their support for Hungarian publishers and readers, who will be affected by the change.
The joint expression of solidarity follows a statement by the Hungarian Publishers and Booksellers Association on 16 June 2021, which criticized Budapest’s adoption of the law, broadly described in media reports as a ‘propaganda bill’. The IPA, FEP and EIBF also call for the President of Hungary, János Áder, to send the law back to the Constitutional Court.

The new bill, originally intended to tackle paedophilia, was adopted with late amendments that ban dissemination in school of content deemed to promote homosexuality or transgenderism. The law effectively conflates LGBTQ issues with paedophilia, affecting books on the national school curriculum and representing further erosion of the freedom to publish in Hungary.

Kristenn Einarsson, Chair of the IPA’s Freedom to Publish Committee said: "The IPA fully supports the statement of the Hungarian publishers. The range of works that could be affected by these ill-considered and discriminatory amendments represent a who’s who of international and Hungarian literary greats. We urge the Hungarian government to reconsider."

Ricardo Levi, Vice President of the Federation of European Publishers added: "The Federation of European Publishers calls on the Commission and the Ministers of Foreign Affairs meeting on 22 June to uphold fundamental rights as key values in Europe. That day, holding a hearing on the “values of the Union in Hungary”, they need to ensure that freedom of expression remains at the centre of the European model."

Fabian Paagman, Co-President of EIBF added: "The European and International Booksellers Federation (EIBF) stands with the bookselling and publishing sector in Hungary and calls for a decisive European response on the attack of freedom of expression in the country. Censorship of books and the written word should have no place in any modern democracy."

Read the full statement here. 

We hosted a digital panel during this year's online London Book Fair 

The European and International Booksellers Federation (EIBF) convened a panel to discuss how the United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union has impacted the bookselling industry. While Brexit has been a topic high on the political agenda for a few years now, it’s only since 1 January 2021 that businesses importing goods to, and/or exporting goods from, the United Kingdom encountered tangible disruptions. Focusing on the book trade aspect of this wide-ranging topic, this panel explored any impacts booksellers have been experiencing and highlighted what (if anything) they are doing to mitigate them.

The event brought together booksellers and wholesalers, including Jan Smedh, owner of The English Bookshop in Uppsala, Sweden, Tomás Kenny, General Manager at Kennys Bookshop in Galway, Ireland, and Elda Lamberti, International Sales Manager at Gardners, to discuss the impacts of Brexit on the bookselling trade. 

How has Brexit impacted the bookselling trade so far? 

The panel was moderated by EIBF's Director Julie Belgrado, who set the scene for the event: "As most of our members have close ties to the English-speaking book market, we have been following the UK's exit from the EU closely in the past months. We warmly welcomed the trade deal that was announced in December 2020, but as many business and retailers, we weren't clear on how this will work in practice. After a few hectic weeks behind us, with the situation further exacerbated by the ongoing pandemic, we felt this was a good opportunity to engage the wider book sector and see what we can learn from each other on this topic."

During the event, Jan highlighted how reliant the English Bookshop in Uppsala is on importing books from the UK. The store sells only English language books, with 75% of stock supplied from the UK. It is therefore crucial that logistics supplying weekly deliveries to the store are working properly. Jan outlined they were concerned how Brexit will impact this process, however, having a long-term partnership with a shipping agent based in the UK proved to be a great way to mitigate risks: "That has been a big advantage for us in these changes, and helped us maintain deliveries on schedule. What Brexit meant so far for us, is that our shipments are 24 hours later than they used to be as they need to clear customs before."

"Pandemic caused a bigger disruption"

Both Jan and Tomás agree that the COVID-19 pandemic had a bigger effect on business than Brexit (for now), firstly due to how warehouses can be safely operated in these times, but also because planning in advance has been very difficult. "We're an online bookshop and a big amount of our business is export. In the last 12 to 14 months, pandemic took a much bigger focus for us, meaning is was hard to get ready for Brexit," said Tomás.

While Jan mentioned some positive outcomes in Sweden, the overall experience in Ireland has been quite different. "When Brexit happened, it was a disaster," Tomás described the first weeks in January. "We didn't get any shipments between 1st and 22nd of January. It started to improve in February, but the average time for shipments to arrive was still three to four days longer than it was in 2020 and earlier. The biggest problem so far has been a lack of certainty."

"Shipping is one the main issues following Brexit"

For Elda Lamberti, shipping and new customs regulation present the main difficulties for bookselling industry following the UK's exit from the EU: "This caused a lot of delays and troubles for our customers. In addition, there wasn't much clarity at customs, with customs' agents sometimes not knowing what to do with the new documentation that came from the UK - and vice versa."

Has the situation stabilised by now? 

During the live Q&A session following the panel, the speakers discussed if the situation has now stabilised. It appears that while improvements have been made, especially around VAT, both Jan and Tomás agree a lot more can and should be done to help smooth this process out. 

"We are nervous about what the future will hold," said Tomás. "The amount of material that is coming through the port in Dublin is still only a fraction of what it would've been from the UK a year ago. We are concerned that at some point when this starts to get bigger - and presumably now that the shops are open the traffic will increase, and it will increase again at Christmas - that there will be severe problems again. Even at the best of times, when things were fantastic, there were issues at Christmas."

Missed the event?

Re-watch the whole panel here. 

On Wednesday, 23 June, we hosted a webinar exploring the do's and don't's of social media engagement for booksellers

Over the past few decades, we have been experiencing an accelerated digitalisation boom, with many of our everyday objects and daily interactions now sustained through or via new technological solutions. The bookselling industry is no different.

Embracing digitisation into your businesses has become an integral part of bookselling, but it is especially important for keeping in touch with customers. The Coronavirus pandemic has exposed how crucial customers are in supporting their local businesses. Although physical shops offer services that online retailers can’t, having an established digital presence is a prerequisite for businesses in 2021. However, with a plethora of options and possibilities out there, it can be a daunting task to start creating or raising your digital presence. 

For booksellers at the Lesesaal Buchhandlung, a bookshop that celebrated 10 years this February, digital engagement is an important business consideration. From highlighting upcoming books to discussing important events, owner Stephanie Krawehl and her team have had a very intense year on digital channels.

We welcomed Roma Maria Mukherjee, Social Media Manager for the Lesesaal Bookshop, as our guest speaker for this EIBF Webinar, where we discussed the importance of social media for booksellers and shared a few tips for improving your social media presence. 

Missed the event?

Please note that the full recording of the event was accessible for the first 7 days following the event, after which only EIBF members can re-watch it. In case you are interested in the recording, please get in touch with Jasmina from our Communications team. 

EIBF and the Federation of European Publishers (FEP) have joined forces to highlight the main changes we are proposing to the Digital Markets Act (DMA) proposal for it to truly benefit the book sector

The book sector has long suffered the consequences of tech giants’ growing dominance and unfair practices. While we welcome this long-awaited regulation, we believe more is needed to ensure the DMA has a real impact on the sustainability of the book sector, particularly in regards to its scope, interoperability requirements and future proofness.

EIBF and FEP together call for:

• Clarification of the scope to cover retailing activities

For many years, some online marketplaces have become essential for booksellers and publishers to reach out to their customers. They can hardly be avoided.

In light of the ever-increasing market dominance of these marketplaces and the growing unfair and anticompetitive practices they implement, they have turned into real ‘online gatekeepers’ of unparalleled scope and scale.

A number of marketplaces acting as gatekeepers rely on a business model that combines two different activities running alongside each other, in a manner that is indistinguishable by the average consumer: an intermediation service (e.g. a bookseller selling books as a third party through the marketplace) and a retailing activity (i.e. the marketplace selling books directly).

While the online marketplace’s intermediation activity falls within the scope of the DMA, it is currently unclear if the parallel retailing activity of marketplaces acting as gatekeepers would be subject to the regulation’s obligations.

Call to action: the parallel retailing activity of gatekeepers should also be covered by the DMA to ensure that the regulation fulfils its ambitions.

• Broader interoperability requirements

The DMA proposal includes some provisions for interoperability. However, the scope for interoperability is severely limited, applying only to ancillary services, applications services (apps) and applications stores (app stores).

Furthermore, no definition for interoperability is provided in the proposal, which leads to potential ambiguity on the precise meaning of interoperability in this context.

The interoperability of digital services and digital content, along with the required software and hardware with which they operate, is essential to ensure that consumers can truly choose how to access the digital content and services that they wish to purchase. 

Call to action: an ambitious definition and scope for interoperability is needed, which should build on existing definition in the EU Directive on contracts for supply of digital content.

• Further clarifications to ensure future proofness

Business users should be allowed to freely conduct their trade on the online direct sales channels they own and at conditions that are not set by the gatekeeper. Therefore, it should be clearly specified that obligations for gatekeepers on MFN clauses also apply the business user’s own online direct sales channels.

Furthermore, if the DMA provides for third party business users to raise concerns about unfair behaviour by gatekeepers with any relevant administrative or other public authorities, it should also be clear for the business user and, from the start, which court jurisdiction applies. Therefore, information on court jurisdiction should be drafted in plain and intelligible language and communicated to the business users in a clear and straightforward way from the start of the business user’s contract with the gatekeeper’s core platform service.

On a final note, as the DMA will be subject to a review clause, we suggest to take stock of the lessons learned until the first review, and then take into consideration the possible benefit that its application to ‘smaller’ gatekeepers might bring to regional markets.

Call to action: Stricter obligations for gatekeepers on most-favoured-nation clauses and contractual obligations with third-party sellers; clear information on the jurisdiction of specific courts and future flexibility on the DMA’s review clause, keeping the rise of ‘smaller’ regional gatekeepers in mind.

Read the full exploratory statement here.

For more information on the EIBF's position, please get in touch with Daniel Martín Brennan, EU Affairs Officer.

Discover the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Book Club recommendations on SDG15, focusing on sustainably managing forests, combatting desertification, and reversing land degradation

SDG15: Life on Land

Did you know that humans are the reason for 75% of the earth’s surface changes? These changes result from chopping down our forests, lack of care for our farmland, and not respecting wildlife and their habitats. Land is our planet’s body, and we must do everything we can to ensure it stays healthy. Forests around the world provide us with air, water, and food. If we don’t stop cutting down trees, destroying our farmland, and hurting animals and their homes, these changes will affect animals and humans alike.

Deforestation is one of the biggest threats to our planet. Around 1.6 billion people depend on forests for their everyday lives as those who live in rural areas rely on them for everyday resources like food and water. If we keep losing trees at the same rate, it will affect us, as millions of people and animals will have to move to find places providing food and shelter. We must also protect the land on which we grow all our food as 74% of the poorest people in the world need this land to feed their families. Lastly, we must learn to respect plants, wildlife and their natural habitats because they are vital to the earth’s natural ecosystem and the human diet.

SDG 15: Life on Land strives to solve these problems. Browse through our new reading list to learn more about the consequences of damage to our land. Read the books together with a family member or friend and find ways to protect and care for the land in your local community.

Find the SDG15 reading list here. 

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. 

Discover the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Book Club recommendations on SDG14, focusing on reducing water pollution in order to protect our ecosystems and biodiversity within the oceans

SDG14: Life Below Water

Can you imagine a world without oceans to swim in and explore? Oceans are home to seahorses, dolphins, whales, corals, and many other living creatures. Oceans are our planet’s life support as they provide water, food and help regulate the weather. Oceans also provide jobs for more than 3 billion people who depend on marine biodiversity for their livelihood. If we do not stop polluting our oceans, there will be severe problems that affect every person and living creature on the planet.

Pollution poses the greatest threat to our planet and the lives of future generations! Do you ever ask yourself where all the plastic bottles and bags go after you use them? Every year an estimated 5 to 12 million metric tons of plastic enter the ocean. Carbon emissions produced by human activities, like driving cars, are causing the oceans to warm and increase the acid level in the water. This is extremely bad for animals and organisms that live in the sea, as the acid can break the organisms’ shells and damage coral reefs.

All of us need to help to protect our seas. You can suggest to your parents not to use plastic bottles at home, but use a filter instead, if your tap water allows. Next time you go to the beach, bring a reusable bag to collect garbage, so it does not enter the water.

Our new reading list for SDG14: Life Below Water explains the importance of the ocean and the resources it provides to all of us, teaching you what you can do to keep our seas clean. The books will take you on underwater journeys and introduce you to many unique sea creatures while helping to understand what problems affect ocean’s health.

Find the SDG14 reading list here. 

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.