Barnsley hails World Book Day 'boost'

World Book Day has "given a great boost to the market", its chair Victoria Barnsley has said. Her view was backed by booksellers spoken to by The Bookseller with many saying there had been an uplift in customers thanks to the annual promotion.

A Waterstone’s spokeperson said: "We had an amazing event with scores of schoolchildren in Piccadilly as well as events and activities in stores around the country. Between the WBD titles, the Thomas the Tank engine and Kitten Chaos/Magic Ballerina have been battling it out for the number one slot, with only a few hundred copies separating the two."

Tim Walker, owner of the small chain of Walkers Bookshops in the East Midlands and East Anglia, said: "We’ve had a really successful World Book Day—its probably the best WBD we’re had for a number of years. Customer numbers were up, we sold a lot of WBD books and encouragingly a lot of vouchers were used to buy children’s books as well."

According to Nielsen BookScan's Total Consumer Market revenue totalled £29m in the week ending 6th March. Sales were up 10% on the previous week but down more than £1m on last year’s figure of £30.2m. The six WBD titles sold 20,000 copies less than in 2009, when the six flip-books sold 288,708 copies.

But Barnsley said: "The early signs are that WBD has given a great boost to the market yet again. The children’s market has had its usual lift with the £1 Quick Reads boosting retail value against the previous week by 29% [according to figures from HarperCollins analysts]." She added the 'Buy One, Give One Free' promotion appeared to help adult paperback sales value increase by 12% on the previous week and 8% year on year.

Matt Taylor owner of Chepstow Bookshop in Monmouthshire said that the day was, "much more celebrated in schools than it ever was". He added that the events meant that WBD was, "moving beyond the voucher". But Melanie Carroll, owner of Unicorn Tree Books in Lincoln, said WBD wasn’t as busy as in previous years. "I think a lot of it is down to the recessionary feel," she said.