The Management Committee of BookPeople, the industry association of Australian bookshops, supports the Voice to Parliament.
BookPeople’s member bookshops can be found all around this country, and our offices are to be found on Wurundjeri Country in Naarm/Melbourne.
As booksellers, we play an important role in how people discover books and ideas, and consequently have a responsibility to amplify the oft-neglected voices of First Nations writers and illustrators. To have those voices better heard is essential to our democracy, and to support the Voice is a natural extension of this principle. We support First Nations’ Peoples being recognised in our Constitution and for their voice to be heard on matters relating to them.
We believe respectful and informed debate is an integral part of democracy. With more than 300 member bookshops, we do not claim to be speaking for the whole of our membership. We recognise there are many differing views on the Voice, and that there are many different reasons behind these views, and we respect the right to disagree – after all, bookshops are literally the marketplace for ideas. Nonetheless, we invite those bookshops that would like to lend their support to add their names below. If you are a BookPeople member and would like your bookshop added, you can do so by emailing This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Tim Jarvis, Fullers Bookshop (President)
Jaye Chin-Dusting, Mary Martin Bookshop (Vice-President)
Mark Laurie, South Seas Bookshop (Treasurer)
Jane Seaton, Beaufort Street Books (Immediate Past President)
Gavin Williams, Matilda Bookshop
Sarah Deasy, Avid Reader
Chloe Townson, Riverbend Books
Anna Low, Potts Point Bookshop
BookPeople Members
Devon Taylor and Joseph Zizys, Paradise Bookshop
Alison Rogers, Readers Retreat
Nina Sturgess, Verso Books
Lynne Main, Torquay Books
Charlotte Austin Lindsay, Ink Bookshop
Jo Hicks, The Yass Book Store
Heather Dyer, Fairfield Books
David Wilkins, Silvereye Learning Resources
Stacey Moore, Bookgrove
Lien Giang, Pictures and Pages
Jane Turner, Gertrude & Alice Café Bookstore
Bronwyn Druce, Red Kangaroo Books
Julia and Andrew Cahill, Three Sparrows Books
Readings
Lulu and Jazz Children's Bookshop
Michelle Wheatley, Reader's Companion
Caerwen Books
Kathryn Bancroft & Sam Grant, BooksPlus
Thursday 13th July
Q. In the opening pages of the book, Wifedom is called ‘a counterfiction’. Does this refer to the genre or the subject matter of the book? Or both?
It’s both. WIFEDOM has a fairly normal, narrative non-fiction strand about my life, and about what was really going on in Orwell and Eileen’s lives and marriage. The counterfiction is specifically the scenes which Eileen is writing the actual letters that she wrote to her best friend Norah (I was fortunate to get permission to use them.) I know where Eileen was when she wrote each letter, I know that he was off with another woman (and she knew it), or that she was very ill. I can make a scene in which the reader comes to understand what was going on for her, including what she is not telling Norah. So, this counterfiction, based on her own words, is designed to counter the ‘official’ version of Orwell you might get from reading the biographies.
Read more ...Thursday 6th July
Booksellers and industry figures gathered in Adelaide for the 2023 BookPeople Conference: the 99th of its kind but the first under the rebranded name. As well as an opportunity to discuss sales strategies and new developments, it was to prove a welcome reminder – in a tough season for retail business – of the urgent, tangible value of books. It was also a chance to address the necessity of achieving a collective, consistent voice in our efforts to advocate for changes in our industry and communities.
Read more ...BookPeople is delighted to announce the winners of the BookPeople 2023 Bookseller of the Year Awards announced at the BookPeople Conference Gala Dinner and Awards Night in Adelaide on Sunday 18 June.
The BookPeople Penguin Random House Australia Young Bookseller of the Year Award recognises and rewards the excellence of a bookseller 35 or under and promotes bookselling as a career choice for young people. This award gives booksellers the chance to be recognised by the book industry for their career achievements, innovation and outstanding performance in their stores as well as the local and wider community. The recipient of the award will receive $1,000.
We are very excited to announce the Penguin Random House Young Bookseller of the Year 2023 winner is: Emily Westmoreland, Avenue Bookstore
The BookPeople Hardie Grant Children's Publishing Bookseller of the Year Award recognises individual children's specialist booksellers for their outstanding achievements in the past twelve months. The winner will not only be identified for their exceptional performance within the bookshop that they work in but also for their achievements within the book industry as well as the local and wider community. This award gives booksellers the chance to be recognised by the book industry for innovation, excellence and career achievements. The recipient of the award will receive $1,000.
We are very excited to announce the Hardie Grant Children’s Publishing Children’s Bookseller of the Year 2023 winner is: Rachel Robson, Gleebooks
The BookPeopleText Publishing Bookseller of the Year Award recognises an individual bookseller for their outstanding achievement in the past twelve months. The winner will not only be identified for their exceptional performance within the bookshop that they work in but also for their achievements within the book industry as well as the local and wider community. This award gives booksellers the chance to be recognised by the book industry for innovation, excellence and career achievements. The recipient of the award will receive $1,000.
We are very excited to announce the Text Bookseller of the Year 2023 joint winners are: Bronwyn Druce, Red Kangaroo Books, and Mark Rubbo, Readings.
Read more ...BookPeople is delighted to announce the winners of the BookPeople 2023 Book of the Year Awards announced at the BookPeople Conference Gala Dinner and Awards Night in Adelaide on Sunday 18 June.
The BookPeople Book of the Year Awards recognise the Australian books published in 2022 that our booksellers have selected as their favourite books to personally recommend as part of their ongoing commitment to bring writers and readers together. These awards celebrate the unique role played by booksellers in sharing their knowledge and passion with communities across the country.
Robbie Egan, CEO of BookPeople says “Australian writing goes from strength to strength, with outstanding quality from a diverse array of publishers and writers. The BookPeople Book of the Year Awards go to practitioners at the top of their game, and it is our pleasure to celebrate the winners and Australian writing in general. One of the wonderful things about our book industry is the close relationship between writers and booksellers, as we nurture and bring Australian authors to readers every day. Telling our stories is vital to our growth as a society – as booksellers we proudly support this with our awards and the ongoing work we do every day”.
Previous winners include The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams, Boy Swallows Universe by Trent Dalton, Reckoning: A Memoir by Magda Szubanski, All That I Am by Anna Funder, and The 52-Storey Treehouse by Andy Griffiths & Terry Denton.
BookPeople BookData - Adult Fiction Book of the Year
BookPeople BookData - Adult Non-Fiction Book of the Year
BookPeople Kids' Reading Guide - Children's Book of the Year
We are super excited to announce the launch of the new BookPeople Gift Cards!
The new gift cards are the culmination of several years’ work and an important step for your Association in modernising a key activity. Driving people to your bookshops is the focus of the program, and the more liquidity we can inject into our market the more we all benefit. Through BookPeople’s ongoing promotional program we will continue to build the profile of our industry and the cultural importance of books and reading.
The Australian Booksellers Association recently undertook work around positioning ourselves to be a successful and future-facing organisation. After extensive workshopping and discussion, we determined that our direction was to be the place where Bookselling Business meets Bookselling Culture.
From this, we wanted to embrace Generosity – to be supportive and assured as sustainable and strategic retail partners for our members.
This was further articulated with sentiments like Nurturing a Prosperous Future, Better Bookselling, Trusted Industry Voice, and Strategic Bookselling, ultimately sitting with the statement that Bookshops are Transformational.
The process took us through to naming, and another extensive whittling process until we arrived at the trading name BookPeople.
Read more ...Recent action by the Retail and Fast Food Workers Union (a non-registered Union) in book retailing has prompted inquiries by a number of members and led the BookPeople Board to determine that a fact-sheet would help with any questions or anxiety members may have about this.
Workers and business owners have certain rights and obligations and these differ between registered and non-registered unions. Hopefully, this fact sheet helps with that differentiation. Log in below to access the pdf.
Members read more ...You can view the latest guide on the Reading Guide website.
See the latest newsletters here.
All ABA-produced marketing material seeks the involvement and contribution of BookPeople Buying Group booksellers in the curation of titles. Books promoted in the guides and newsletters are available to purchase at extra terms for Buying Group members and supported via the BookPeople and Kids’ Reading Guide social media channels.
More information and FAQs are available on the Buying Group page.
If you have any questions, contact Galina by email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., P: 0414 166 203.
