NZ Book Month 2012 is on its way!

This is the first of several planned updates...

NZ Book Month is now only a few short weeks away and we are proud to announce the return of our fabulous award winning campaign ‘Books Change Lives,’ featuring celebrity ambassadors:

• Annabel Langbein
• Emily Perkins
• Tamati Coffey, and
• Sir Peter Jackson.

Whether it’s the journey of a hobbit or a beloved recipe book passed down through generations, each of our ambassadors demonstrates the power books have to change our lives. We’re proud to have them represent our campaign.  

Four million book vouchers will be distributed for New Zealand Book Month
Yes, that’s right. The $5 off vouchers are back!

We want all Kiwis to benefit from owning and enjoying books and that's why we're again distributing over four million book vouchers reaching out to readers new and old – and encouraging everyone to find their next life-changing book during New Zealand Book Month.

Each voucher entitles the bearer to $5 off the book of their choice – that’s ANY book they choose, providing it’s priced $10 or more – in any participating bookstore where you see this sign:

Download logos and posters now on the NZ Book Month website.

This campaign is a huge industry wide effort supported by publishers and booksellers alike. Thank you to all our wonderful sponsors for making this very real, tangible call to action happen including:  BJ Ball Papers, Caltex Energy for Learning, Creative New Zealand, The New Zealand Herald, Lasoo,  More FM, Rapport Advertising agency, Printlink and  TVNZ7.

Printlink and BJ Ball papers have supplied 4.3 million $5 vouchers – that is a $5 voucher for every single New Zealander. Whoop! Whoop!

Chevron and Caltex Energy for Learning, working in partnership with the National Library services to Schools, are supplying every school child with their own $5 voucher and also a range of literacy materials, including the return of the popular ‘Reading Super Hero’s competition.

Special mention to TVNZ7 who are a key sponsor of New Zealand Book Month – and don’t forget to keep your eyes open for The Good Word Junior during March 2012, featuring our very own ambassador, Emily Perkins.

Our community events programme is well underway too…
Thanks to Creative New Zealand we’ve been able to fund a wonderful team of book activists to make things happen in their communities nationwide. From Ashburton to Whangarei and Devonport to Dunedin, there’s a NZBM event shaping up in a town near you.

We're collecting events on the website at the moment - then we'll make sure they're sorted by region so you can easily find out what's happening near you.

Don’t be shy either! If you’re holding a book-related event during March 2012 you can post it on our website or email it to Emma at info@booksellers.co.nz

But wait, where do I get my book month voucher?
Good question!
The vouchers will be available through a variety of outlets including The  New Zealand Herald (exclusively from 1-3 March), a direct mailout from 6 March to over 1 million residential homes; you can pick vouchers up at Caltex Service Stations nationwide and this year you will be able to print out a voucher from the NZ Book Month website and other participating bookstores too.

Stay tuned. We’ll be keeping in touch with regular updates on New Zealand Book Month from now on in. Don’t forget to sign up for our newsletter.

Be our friend on Facebook, follow us on Twitter and be part of the story this March,

Article written by Megan Dunn, Project Manager for NZ Book Month.