Independent Booksellers Week this year takes place from 29^th June to 6^th July, and we are aiming to build on the success of the last six years.
The bedrock of all IBW activity is authors in bookshops, and this year is no exception.  We are now inviting publishers to nominate authors for author activity in bookshops.  For each author nominated for IBW, publishers must supply:
·         Author Name
·         Author Location & maximum travel distance
·         Author availability
·         Publicist’s Contact details – phone and email
We list below some ideas which we are keen to progress.   Contact meryl.halls@booksellers.org.uk or sharon.benton@booksellers.org.uk   Please respond by March 15^th 2013 by  emailing Sharon.benton@booksellers.org.uk  
 
-       1. Author Availability for Bookshop Events: we want to collate as large a list as possible of authors who are available to bookshops during IBW – the BA then communicates the list to booksellers, who make direct contact with the publisher to organize the event logistics. 
-       Email sharon.benton@booksellers.org.uk with a list of your authors and their locations, as well as which dates during IBW they are available, and how far afield they are prepared to travel. 
-       2. Strictly Come Bookselling:  where authors try their hand at being a bookseller for a morning or afternoon (or shorter period!). This initiative proved very successful last year, and we would like to reinvigorate the idea for 2013 -  we had some strong regional and national media coverage, and the authors found the experience very enjoyable.   Ideally, we need a mix of big name authors and local authors for this to ensure national and regional coverage.
-       Email sharon.benton@booksellers.org.uk with suggestions for authors who are available and interested.
-       3. IBW Book Award  - see here for full information http://independentbooksellersweek.org.uk/award-page/
-       Email sharon.benton@booksellers.org.uk for further information or to submit a title.
-       4. IBW Champions: if you have an author who is a keen champion of independents, then please ask them to consider preparing a quote we could use on IBW materials, or putting themselves forward to talk to the media about independents on the High Street and the Week – this is particularly important
-       Email meryl.halls@booksellers.org.uk with details of likely champions
 
All publisher offers and author availability will be communicated to all participating IBW Booksellers in regular IBW EBulletins.  They will also be listed on the campaign website www.independentbooksellersweek.org.uk
We will be encouraging booksellers to make direct contact with publishers to organize events, so it is important that you give contact names as appropriate.  Midas PR are on hand to give advice to publishers keen to set up events with booksellers, but one of the aims of IBW is to create new links between publishers, booksellers and authors.