Members

The Australian Booksellers Association (ABA) has created a great Mother's Day poster that can be reproduced in various sizes and formats and they have been kind enough to share it with New Zealand stores.

Download the poster in A4 size.

Use the poster in your window to remind customers that Mother's Day is around the corner (it's on Sunday, 12 May) and that a book would be the perfect gift.

Mother's Day is traditionally the second busiest day for retailers. Make sure you don't miss out on your fair share of the sales.

Event Ideas

It is with great sadness that we announce that Price's Bookshop in Taupo is to close. Tracey Lidington, owner of Price's writes,

"It is with great sadness that I have decided to close the shop. It’s a real bugger but Taupo just can’t seem to sustain three bookshops any longer. Customers who once bought 12 or more books a year are now only buying four or five.

Tongariro Street has also changed so that it resembles a bargain basement, we now have a bypass, and books are expensive for a community that is full of retirees and low income families. On top of that like everyone else, we have The Book Depository and Fishpond who are huge.

Last week the shortlist for the 2013 Science Book Prize was announced.

The Royal Society has bookmarks and posters available to bookshops wanting to promote the three shortlisted titles. 

For more information visit www.royalsociety.org.nz/sciencebookprize or phone Faith Atkins on 04 470 5781.

The winner of the 2013 Science Book Prize will be announced at the Auckland Writers and Readers Festival on 18 May. 

We've had a notice of a bookshop getting some pretty convincing email enquiries for some medical books for a customer in Dunedin.

After some slightly suspicious vocabulary was used in their emails, the bookshop did some sleuthing through the Police and have discovered they are based out of Ghana.

They wanted to pass this onto you as they are providing credit card details, so they seem slightly more legit.

The 'customers' name is Bernard Groot.

Macmillan has announced its decision to close its distribution centre (MDS) at the end of March 2014.

Macmillan Group Managing Director, Ross Gibb, said “In the past two years we have seen a significant rise in digital sales of books, products, platforms and subscriptions across Pan Macmillan, Macmillan Education, Palgrave Macmillan and Macquarie, against a backdrop of declining physical book sales. This trend, which we see accelerating in the future, has meant it is no longer viable, or critical, for us to own and manage our distribution facility.

Craig Potton Publishing are delighted to announce that with effect from the 1.4.13, Ross Blick will be their sales representative for the entire of the North Island.

Ross has been with Craig Potton Publishing for over 15 years, looking after our customers South of the Bombay Hills and we have always been extremely impressed by his levels of motivation, enthusiasm, product knowledge and professionalism.   The extension of his area to include Auckland and Northland will continue to build on all the hard work undertaken in the last year by his predecessor, Helen Benton.  After 41 years in the trade, predominantly in sales and marketing, Helen has decided to change her lifestyle and take a well-earned break.

David Cameron at Christchurch’s Scorpio Books says from his store’s point of view there’s been ‘quite a bit of action’ this NZ Book Month. “My feeling is that for this store we will be a bit up on voucher redemptions from the previous year. There’s a high level of awareness out there.”

Thanks to the earthquake, Scorpio Books, is currently a two store operation with the main shop in Riccarton and a satellite container store in the city.

“It has been a bit quiet in general,” David says. “But the city store is trading all right and the business is still growing.”

Out in Auckland’s bustling historic suburb of Howick, NZ Book Month is going really well for the local Paper Plus.

“Kids love it!” says Barbara Barnes, the store’s book buyer. “The $5 off a book is really fantastic for them. They don’t have to save as much pocket money before they can get a book, or they can get a book and something else they want.

The Business Meetings Day is an important part of the Booksellers Conference, as it provides an opportunity for booksellers to meet and talk to a range of publishers and service suppliers.

Publishers will have an ideal opportunity to present their books to bookshops large and small from all over New Zealand.