FAQs

You can apply for Full Membership online. Please click here to complete our online application form. When you have completed the form, please click submit to email your application to the Membership Department. Please read carefully the accompanying notes on the application form and also the FAQs.

If you are unable to apply online, or prefer to complete a paper application form, please call 020 7421 4695 or email Kate Gunning in the Membership Department to request an application pack.  

We have three corporate categories of Full Membership – Retail Gold, Retail Silver and Non Retail. 

Retail Gold Membership is suitable for businesses with 75% of their business - whether in-store or online - going to end consumers. Benefits of Gold Membership include National Book Tokens, Batch Payments and Returns, Bookshop.org Bookshop Affiliate status, all other products and services, marketing campaigns and affinity deals.

Retail Silver Membership is suitable for businesses with 75% of their business - whether in-store or online - going to end consumers and who wish to use Batch Returns only. 

Non Retail Membership is suitable for businesses with 75%+ of their turnover going to resellers. Benefits of Non-Retail Membership include Batch Payments and Returns, money-saving affinity deals and many other products and services. 

The BA welcomes applications from booksellers in the UK and Ireland selling books commercially, whether by retail, internet, library supply, school contracts, mail-order, wholesale or by any other means.

The subscription to the BA is based on turnover in books for your whole business and payment of the first subscription fee will be requested when the application has been approved. We categorise our members as either Retail or Non-Retail.

Subscriptions for Retail Gold members (those with 75%+ of their business going to the end consumer) are calculated by multiplying turnover by a fixed multiplier. The minimum annual subscription is £125 + VAT/€150 + VAT per annum i.e. no member will pay less than £125/€150

Subscription for Retail Silver members (those with 75% of their business going to the end consumer) are calculated by multiplying turnover by a fixed multiplier. The minimum annual subscription is £875 + VAT/€1,050 + VAT per annum i.e no member will pay less than £875 + VAT/€1,050 + VAT 

Non-Retail members (those with 75%+ of their business going to resellers or institutional customers) are charged a fixed fee subscription according to the reported turnover, starting at a minimum of £150 + VAT/€180 + VAT per annum.

Please click here for the UK and Irish subscription scales.

The annual subscription (charged pro rata for those joining during the course of the membership year which runs from January to December) is based on the most recent annual turnover in books (or projected sales for new businesses)

The turnover figures you supply should:

1. Be for the whole company/business (i.e. not the individual outlets, unless you have only one shop).
2. Be the most recent available figures (or estimated for new businesses)
3. Represent annual turnover in all books (including new books, remainders, promotional and bargain books, e-books, antiquarian and second hand books, as well as your online sales, BUT NOT National Book Tokens sales, stationery, maps and other non-book products)

 No, we will not require you to submit a subscription payment with your application.  The sub will be calculated and requested by the Membership Department once your application has been approved. At the same time we will also ask you to apply for a SAN, which the BA will apply for on your behalf to the SAN agency. The SAN fee for BA members is £45.00 + VAT. 

A SAN is a Standard Address Number consisting of seven (7) digits.  A GLN is a Global Location Number consisting of thirteen (13) digits.  These numbers are recognised throughout the bookselling and publishing industries as unique address location identifiers and help ensure efficient and accurate commercial transactions between trading partners. Whenever a SAN is allocated, the corresponding GLN is also always issued.

In order for you to conduct e-commerce, or to use Batch, or any other EDI service, you will require a Standard Address Number (SAN) | Global Location Number (GLN). 
A new SAN | GLN will be required if your business relocates or if there is a change of ownership to the business.

The SAN Agency issues SANs | GLNs on behalf of Book Industry Communication(BIC). Once your membership has been confirmed you will be able to obtain, via the BA, a SAN | GLN at the special BA members’ rate of £45 +VAT as part of the benefits of your membership.

For further information on the SAN and GLN schemes please visit www.san.nielsenbook.co.uk

Applications are submitted to the BA Board for consideration and approval.  Please note that applications can take at least a week to ten days to process. 
 
Once your membership has been approved the Membership Department will write to you to request your subscription. This will be based on your declared turnover figure, and relevant membership category, and charged pro-rata for the remainder of the membership year which runs from January to December. Please click here for details of our current UK and Irish subscription scales. 
 
Your business will be registered in membership when payment of the subscription has been received, whereupon we will send you a copy of our Members’ Welcome Pack, containing details of BA products and services, together with a copy of the latest Bookselling Essentials and a copy of the BA Annual Report.

Start-up businesses may submit an application, with forecasted figures, as soon as trading premises have been secured for the business.

Applications from businesses operating from a home or a private address may be considered if the applicant is able to provide a business reference (e.g. accountant, or solicitor) to confirm their trading status.

Membership is available on a corporate basis only. The BA does not offer individual membership. 

 E-book sellers are eligible to apply for membership.

 Overseas booksellers are not eligible to apply for Full Membership but can apply for Associate Membership. 

Applicants who are not successful will be notified. The BA Board reserves the right to refuse membership without giving any reasons.

Once we have received your membership subscription, you will be eligible to participate in the National Book Token scheme and open your account with Book Tokens Ltd, subject to satisfactory references. 

At the time of membership registration your company details will be passed on to Book Tokens Ltd (a subsidiary of the BA), who will contact you regarding credit references so that you can begin to sell and redeem book tokens.
We also make your details available to Batch (another subsidiary of the BA), so that they can contact you about the Batch electronic payments and returns system.
 
Once your membership has been approved and confirmed, details of your business will also be used by BA Group Companies to inform you of membership products and services. Your details will also be made available to third party suppliers who have been appointed to supply BA-negotiated services and products of particular use to members of the Association, and to other third parties with your permission. See our Privacy Notice for further details on data protection.
 

All members can sell National Book Tokens. Redemption of Book Tokens is however reserved for Retail Gold members and those non-retail members who additionally have a retail presence as part of their BA membership.

Once your application has been approved Batch will send you details of their service and contact you again when your membership has been confirmed and registered.

Membership applies to the business, not an individual, and if you are taking over a business which is already in BA membership you do not need to apply to join. Instead, either you or the current owner should contact Kate Gunning in the Membership Department on 020 7421 4695 to request a Transfer of Ownership form to complete and return to us. 
 
National Book Tokens and Batch will, at the same time, be advised of the transfer of ownership and will also send you their account application forms to complete.

In the event that the subscription for the business has not already been paid (if, for instance, the transfer of ownership takes place around the beginning of the membership year) we will need to raise a subscription invoice, which must be paid before the business can be re-registered in membership.  However, in most cases the subscription will already have been paid, or will be settled in full, by the existing owner prior to the transfer.  The existing owner may wish to reclaim a relevant proportion from the new owner.  The Membership Department will be able to advise you and the existing owner further at the appropriate time.

Membership is for the bookselling business as a whole, and if your application is for a Head Office with several branch outlets we will provide you with login details to access the online branch registration form once your application for membership has been approved. The business and related branches will be logged on our membership database on receipt of your subscription.  Please specify in the appropriate field on the application form the relevant number of bookselling outlets.

Kate Gunning, from the Membership Department, will contact you to provide guidance on our products and services and to answer any questions you may have. A representative from National Book Tokens and Batch will also contact you.

If you have any questions about the membership application process please contact membership@booksellers.org.uk

If you have any questions about the Book Tokens scheme please contact egiftcard@booktokens.co.uk 020 7421 4653.

If you have any questions about the Batch service please contact The Batch Team on 020 7421 4660.

Yes, subscriptions for booksellers in Ireland will automatically be raised in Euro. 

For EU (non UK) businesses for whom we hold a valid VAT number, this service is outside the scope of UK VAT under Article 44 of the EU Council VAT Directive and you will not be charged VAT on your subscription.  You are required to account for local VAT under the reverse charge procedure. 

The Channel Islands are outside the EU VAT area and you will therefore not have VAT applied to your subscription.

 The membership year runs from January to December and you will receive your annual renewal invoice at the beginning of January (our payment terms are 30 days).
 
During Oct/November of each year we ask all members to supply us with their latest annual turnover figures, in order to be able to raise accurate renewal invoices.

Businesses should sell books from more than one publisher to be eligible to apply for membership.