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Independent bookshop Backstory is launching a literary magazine of the same name, targeted at a younger, female audience. The inaugural edition will be published on 22nd April and features writers including Sophie Mackintosh and Julia Armfield.
The magazine will publish twice a year and will be stocked in most of the 600 branches of Barnes & Noble in the US, 50 Waterstones stores and Foyles in the UK. Independent bookshops in the UK and Europe can stock it via Gardners.
The first widely-distributed edition will be published on 22nd April 2024, including exclusive columns and features by poet Hollie McNish, authors Sophie Mackintosh and Julia Armfield and New Yorker staff writer Ed Caesar. Journalist Tom Rowley, who opened the London-based bookshop in 2022, ran a pilot edition of the magazine in October, which sold 1,000 copies directly out of the shop.
Rowley – an award-winning magazine writer who left the Economist to open Backstory – said the magazine would “burst with colour” and was “lively, informative and just a little bit cheeky”.
“I’m very excited to launch Backstory, a new kind of books magazine,” he said. “As a reader, I sometimes find literary magazines quite heavy and feel a bit intimidated by page after page of highbrow reviews. Our magazine is a light-hearted, playful alternative. It isn’t about our own bookshop, but is a celebration of books and bookshops of all kinds.
Rowley added that he hopes the magazine will offer bookshops something “a bit different” to amuse and delight their customers, too. “It was really important to me to agree with Gardners that bookshops can order from them at their regular discount and returns terms,” he said.
Krifka Steffey, director of newsstand at Barnes & Noble, said: “As the leading magazine retailer in the US, the Newsstand at Barnes & Noble is excited to add Backstory magazine to our broad assortment of magazines this coming summer. Backstory’s unique approach combines literary topics, current events, and social conversation that purposefully appeals to a younger audience; this is more than your typical magazine about books.
“The launch issue is especially appealing to our buying team because it discusses a topic that is on the minds of all book lovers – banned books. We look forward to seeing our customers find and enjoy this new addition to our stores.”
MMS is responsible for distributing Backstory to specialist shops. Seymour is handling newstrade distribution, initially in Canada and Australia as well as the US.