Summer Books is a consumer catalogue, produced by the Books Are My Bag team in partnership with Gardners.
 
The books featured in the catalogue showcase the best of summer reading and are newly published in either the spring or summer of the current year. The titles are selected by independent booksellers (from publisher submissions), for independent booksellers (who are members of the Booksellers Association) and their customers.
 
The catalogue has a proven track record for increasing sales for both publishers and booksellers. The print run is over 100,000 copies and more than 100 bookshops stock the catalogues each year.
 
The catalogues are beautifully designed, and the artwork often ties in with materials and resources produced for Independent Bookshop Week. The catalogues always feature an introduction by a prominent author.
 
Booksellers have the option to customize the catalogues with their bookshop details, logos and QR codes (either to their own e-commerce platform, or to a third party such as Bookshop.org or Litalist).
 
Subsidies for distribution and local advertising are available to booksellers to increase the reach of the catalogues. An e-mag edition and social media assets are available to booksellers in order to reach customers online. Printed point of sale materials, including dispensers, posters and bookmarks are also available.
 
Books Are My Bag is a year-round, consumer-facing campaign, run by the Booksellers Association of the UK and Ireland. It exists to make connections between bookshops and people who value them; to raise awareness of the work booksellers do within their communities; and to encourage people to do their book-shopping with their local bookshop.
 
We will be contacting publishers for submissions to the Summer Books 2024 catalogue in January and we'll be opening orders for members in February. 
 
If you would like to know more about Summer Books please contact sharon.benton@booksellers.org.uk or ruth.hunter@booksellers.org.uk