HarperCollins to offer indie bookshops £2k grants

HarperCollins has launched an Independent Bookshop Initiative 2017 - a campaign to support new and existing independent bookshops in the UK and Ireland.

The initiative was announced by group sales director, Oliver Wright at a special "HarperCollins’ Indie Thinking" evening yesterday (13th October) at The News Building in London Bridge.

The campaign this year includes an Indie Start-Up Grant, which will provide incremental support at launch to new and growing independent bookshops in the UK and Ireland, offering an additional 10% discount on all store opening orders; and an Indie Development Fund, which offers independent bookshops the chance to receive funding for projects that grow community access to books and reading, with 10 individual awards of £2,000 on offer. HarperCollins authors Jon McGregor and Jo Cannon, alongside Oliver Wright and Michael Jones from the HarperCollins sales team, will judge the entries.

HarperCollins’ announcement of the Independent Bookshop Initiative 2017 comes after the launch in September of The Booksellers Network, a Booksellers Association-led initiative, co-founded by HarperCollins and The Bookseller, designed to bring together shop-floor booksellers for mutual support, social events, networking, mentoring and personal development.

Applications are now open for the Indie Start-Up Grant and Indie Development Fund, and independent bookshops can email independentthinking@harpercollins.co.uk to request more information. Applications for the Indie Development Fund will close in January 2017.

Wright said: “At HarperCollins we believe in the power of local independent bookshops and how they connect books with readers through outstanding curation and shop-floor selling, making tangible and lasting positive impacts on their local communities. I’m therefore delighted to be launching HarperCollins’ Independent Bookshop Initiative, which will help new and existing independent bookshops to grow and succeed in 2017.”