Good Book Guide closes, subscriber list moves to Lovereading

The subscriber list and review archive for mail-order book business the Good Book Guide has been acquired by book review and recommendation site Lovereading, following a “turbulent” decade for the Guide.

In an email sent out to the Guide’s subscribers, Fiona Lafferty, the Guide's ex-editorial director, told customers that its “substantial review archive” and subscriber list will be taken over by Lovereading – a website set up in 2006 “by book lovers for book lovers”.

Lafferty was made redundant from her role as editor of the Guide in 2010, when the company went into liquidation. She rejoined it five months later as editorial director when it was purchased by Blackpool businessman Graham Holmes. Following the decline of book sales and subscriptions, the company closed in July 2015.

Lafferty said: “As you are no doubt aware, the past decade has been a turbulent one for the Good Book. Despite our best efforts to continue publication of the Guide, subscriptions and book sales continued to decline, and, in July last year, we had to take the difficult decision to wind up the company.”

Lafferty is now an "expert reviewer" for Lovereading.

She said: “Although the Guide as you know it will be no more, its name and ethos will continue with Lovereading, which will be recommending the best new books to subscribers, as they are published.”

The new scheme by Lovereading promises free opening extracts of books and a “unique author like-for-like discovery tool" to help readers discover their next book. Registration for Lovereading is free.

Lafferty continued: “I have had a long and happy association with the Good Book Guide. Although deeply saddened at the demise of the Guide in its traditional guise, I feel confident that Lovereading will be able to provide the guidance that our subscribers have enjoyed over many years.”

Former Good Book Guide customers have been offered a 10% discount of all book orders placed by customers online between now and the 30th June 2016.

Peter Crawshaw, director and co-founder of Lovereading said: “Lovereading and The Good Book Guide share the same ethos - to keep readers regularly informed of the most outstanding new books across a range of genres through expert review recommendation.

“We are therefore thrilled to be able to continue the Good Book Guide’s legacy through Lovereading’s various email, web and social media channels and to continue to serve some of the passionate book readers who have been so loyal to the Good Book Guide over the years.”

The Good Book Guide was launched in 1997 by founders Peter Braithwaite and Bing Taylor. Lovereading was founded in 2005 by Crawshaw, Lousie Weir and Hugh Salmon.