The Banned Books Week Coalition is a national alliance of diverse organizations joined by a commitment to increase awareness of the annual celebration of the freedom to read. The Coalition seeks to engage various communities and inspire participation in Banned Books Week through education, advocacy, and the creation of programming about the problem of book censorship. The 2016 celebration will be held September 25-October 1.
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By Melvin Kaabwe.
The year saw a further investment by Gauteng into e-learning solutions and an expanded tablet roll-out for public k-12 (basic education) schools. In the private sector, all the chain k-12 education providers continue to improve their own versions of e-learning with emphasis on additonal Learning Teacher Student Materials (LTSM) whilst upskilling teachers to develop more interactive content for their students.
By Olinka Nell.
The first half of 2016 proved most eventful in the general trade. The currency rollercoaster first wreaked havoc with unit sales (post-Nenegate) before blowing holes in budgets based on price increase projections (post- Brexit). Prices increased by up to 12% in the first months of the year, with unit sales dropping by more than 6% as a result. Bookshops were still able to show some growth based on higher price, but could potentially be hit hard when prices started to drop after the weakening of the pound in the wake of Britain’s decision to leave the European Union.
By Mohamed Kharwa.
Like last year 2015–2016 has proved to be another challenging year for academic bookselling in the regions and nationally.
Bookselling was impacted by protest and student strikes on campuses across the country following the #FeesMustFall protests. A struggling economy, the wide range in exchange rates, political uncertainty, global events like Brexit, and global economic downturns have provided a perfect storm that has made the South African business environment a difficult one to grow in.
A new category, sponsored by Exclusive Books was profiled at the Booksellers’ Choice Awards and this was presented to four legends in the bookselling trade, people who have dedicated their lives to selling books and to supporting everyone in the trade to do so successfully. Benjamin Trisk, the erudite MD of Exclusive Books regaled the audience with tales of yore before calling up Maureen Hargraves of Hargraves Library Suppliers, Henrietta Dax of Clarkes Bookshop, Fleur Mcfarlane of Exclusive Books and Peter Adams of Adams Booksellers. Read more
In the gorgeous building at 85 Commissioner Street, you will find a new special kind of bookshop, Bridge Books. Only four months old and already on Bookmark’s must-visit list. Read more
For the first time since its inception, National Book Week (NBW) was celebrated in all nine provinces, which is a great feat for the industry. This year, the proud host of the campaign the South African Book Development Council (SABDC), went all out to promote the importance of books. Read more
Wednesday 7 September marked the start of the 2016 Open Book Festival. This book festival, that ran from 7–11 September, is a huge event in Cape Town that welcomes all authors, academics, literalists, and book lovers to insightful and fun sessions on authors and their stories. Read more
Books and e-books are a key focus for takealot.com. Not just because of our heritage – following our 2015 merger with Kalahari we welcomed a huge number of passionate readers and loyal book buyers – but also because books offer something for everyone.
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There is an annual event pinned to the South African publishing and bookselling industry’s calendar. It is the kind of evening where colleagues that have worked, sometimes a lifetime together, gather and reminisce, and discuss current affairs. Discuss business and the business is books.
South African publishing and bookselling industry’s calendar. It is the kind of evening where colleagues that have worked, sometimes a lifetime together, gather and reminisce, and discuss current affairs. Discuss business and the business is books.
The celebrations are of course about books and the main winner of the evening is, a book. It is the book that all the gathered booksellers and all their compatriots countrywide have most enjoyed selling so far that year. Of course behind the book are all the people that created it. The author / authors that wrote it, the publisher that decided to take it on, the editor that worked on the copy, the designer that painstakingly laid out the copy, the illustrator that designed the jacket, the printer that turned it into a physical, tangible product, the marketing team that promoted it, and then there are the booksellers that placed the book in the hands of those that are looking for something diverting, enlightening, engaging to read.
The Booksellers’ Choice Award is organized by the South African Booksellers Association to honour the art of bookselling and thank the authors and publishers for producing such beautiful books for our country.
The nominees for this award come from a short list of 100 locally written and published titles. Currently the titles represent only two official languages, although with the increase in the production and sales of other language titles in South Africa, it is hoped that this will become more representative in the future.
The 2016 Booksellers Choice award was bestowed upon a new author on the South African book landscape: Sally Andrews for her book Recipes for Love and Murder: A Tannie Maria Mystery, published by Penguin Random House South Africa.
“I am so honoured to win the Nielson Booksellers’ Choice Award. Booksellers are heroes – up there with librarians in my estimation. Without booksellers, humans might do nothing more than work, eat, fight, mate and play rugby.
But because of you, the booksellers (and librarians and publishers and writers) people get to read. Reading can entertain, challenge and educate. It takes us to places and ideas we don’t normally visit. It can even open our hearts and uplift our souls,” said Sally Andrew of her win.
Sally has a Master’s in Adult Education from the University of Cape Town. She lives in a mud-brick house on a nature reserve in the Klein Karoo, which is where she drew her inspiration for the book from.
The lead protagonist in her book, Tannie Maria, is a fifty-something, short and soft (perhaps a bit too soft in the wrong places) with brown curls and untidy Afrikaans. She is also the agony aunt for the local paper, the Klein Karoo Gazette. One day, her life takes a sinister turn when a woman in the area is murdered and she becomes entangled in the investigation. This is a warm, poignant and entertaining read. Sally Andrew’s delightful heroine, blends together intrigue, romance and cooking in this irresistible new mystery, complete with a few mouth-watering recipes.
“Tannie Maria is a wonderful book to sell. It is very South African, and being South African it is quirky. It is a delightful read and it is fun to sell a book that you know will bring smiles to all who buy it,” said a few booksellers from Exclusive Books about the winning title.
“It is great to have another South African author that you buy in 50 of their books at a time and they just fly off the shelves. At first we really had to sell the book, but now everyone knows about it. The word has spread, as it does with some books, and all we need to do is make sure we have enough stock.”
The most wonderful thing about this prize is that it profiles South African authors, and South African published books. It highlights the wonderful stories that South African authors are writing and sharing the wonder of our country with the rest of the world.
The evening gala event, sponsored by Nielsen, Novus Holdings, Imperial Sasfin Logistics, Geodis Wilson and SAPnet is arranged to thank and celebrate both booksellers and publishers for the roles they play in promoting literacy and a culture of reading by producing and selling quality books in South Africa.
Best Bookseller Awards
Best Publisher Awards
Legends Awards
A new category, sponsored by Exclusive Books was profiled on this evening and this was presented to four legends in the bookselling trade, people who have dedicated their lives to selling books and to supporting everyone in the trade to do so successfully. Benjamin Trisk, the erudite MD of Exclusive Books regaled the audience with tales of yore before calling up Maureen Hargraves of Hargraves Library Suppliers, Henrietta Dax of Clarkes Bookshop, Fleur Mcfarlane of Exclusive Books and Peter Adams of Adams Booksellers.
