Bookdonors is new Bloody Scotland sponsor

Social enterprise Bookdonors will be the headline sponsor of Scottish crime writing festival Bloody Scotland this year.

Bookdonors trades in used books with 100% of sales used to "fulfil a social mission". Bloody Scotland will benefit from a sponsorship package of cash and business support, enhanced by the The New Arts Sponsorship Grant scheme operated by Arts & Business Scotland.

In addition each attendee at Bloody Scotland will receive a free book from Bookdonors at the festival this September.

Last year Bloody Scotland, which is held annually in Stirling each September, opened its doors for free to the unemployed, in a bid to "reduce barriers to participating in the arts". The festival is a charity, an accredited Living Wage Employer and offers a fee to all participants taking part in the programme.

Bookdonors managing director Tom Murdoch-Kenny said: “Our online book business has grown substantially over the last three years, to the point where we now employ 32 people who process the 600,000 used books that we collect each month from Charity Shops across Scotland. As a Community Interest Company, with a strong ethical dimension, we are delighted to be able to support the excellent work of Bloody Scotland and endorse their initiatives to widen public access and to support emerging and established authors alike.”

Bloody Scotland director Dom Hastings said: “Bloody Scotland is already a very socially aware organisation and we’re delighted to partner with a sponsor that shares our ethos in many ways. I’m really pleased that a social-enterprise like Bookdonors sees the value in partnering with a book festival to support the work that we do with authors at all stages of their careers. With the support of Arts & Business Scotland, we’ve created a really fantastic partnership that will provide significant benefit for us all.”

Bloody Scotland in association with Bookdonors will announce the 2016 programme on Wednesday 1st June.