Bookshop Day proves a hit again as Super Thursday drives footfall to indies

Booksellers have hailed Philip Pullman and Bill Bryson as the highlights of this year’s Super Thursday, with Bookshop Day boosting footfall leading to a bumper weekend of trade. But debate continues over how useful the sheer volume of books published simultaneously is for smaller bookshops.

More than 420 hardbacks hit the shelves on Thursday 3rd October, kicking off the start of the make-or-break autumn season, with booksellers vying for a slice of the lucrative Christmas book market. Pullman’s eagerly-awaited Book of Dust title, The Secret Commonwealth (David Fickling Books/PRH UK) and Bryson’s The Body: A Guide for Occupants (Transworld) were the big winners, scooping numbers one and two of the TCM Top 10 last week. In total, 204 titles released on Super Thursday hit the TCM Top 5,000 last week, including five of the overall top 10, and 14 of the top 50.

A Waterstones spokesperson said the titles by Pullman and Bryson were "the undoubted highlights of a very exciting Super Thursday in our shops", and the chain expects "phenomenal sales" of Pullman and Bryson until Christmas. Waterstones said The Secret Commonwealth enjoyed a "fantastic" first
day of sales following a sold-out launch at London’s Alexandra Palace.

Elsewhere, signed copies and exclusive editions helped make Super Thursday a success. Blackwell’s head of marketing and publicity Zool Verjee said Super Thursday served as a "great springboard into Christmas trading". He added: "Unsurprisingly, Philip Pullman’s The Secret Commonwealth was one of our runaway successes, with a huge event at the Sheldonian Theatre in Oxford contributing to the title’s sales. The Body and Denise Riley’s Time Lived, Without Its Flow (Picador) have done particularly well for us too. Signed copies and exclusive editions are also continuing to thrive, both online and across the country."

Bournemouth’s Westbourne Books and Gullivers Bookshop in Wimbourne sold signed copies of The Secret Commonwealth during opening weekend, and Forum Books in Northumberland praised publishers for supporting indies with signed copies. Manager Helen Stanton said: "We were lucky to get signed Philip Pullman copies, which really flew on the day, and Bill Bryson as well. Publishers have been great to support independents with signed copies. To have signed copies for both those big authors is amazing."

Westbourne Books owner Paul Angel said Super Thursday’s impact was slightly softened thanks to the September release of Margaret Atwood’s The Testaments, but Pullman and Bryson reigned supreme on the day: "For us there are a couple of factors. In Westbourne we don’t have the deep discounters skimming all the trade on the big releases and that, combined with special indie editions and signed copies, really makes a difference. Super Thursday seems to be less of an issue than it was, with big titles coming in throughout September as well—The Testaments being the best example."

Author Tom Fletcher at Blackwell's Westgate in Oxford

Double delight
The double whammy of Super Thursday and Bookshop Day boosted children’s bookshop The Book Nook in Hove and Edinburgh’s Portobello Books, with the extra publicity helping to drive footfall. Portobello owner Jack Clark said: "Super Thursday combined with Bookshop Day is the reason we had a pretty good week, and have had pretty good sales. The things that sold the most were Philip Pullman, and Bill Bryson’s The Body—those were selling really well. Kirsty Logan’s Things We Say in the Dark (Harvill Secker) has also sold well. It’s fun, because you get masses of books on one day and so many of them you want to read."

The Book Nook owner Vanessa Lewis said author events across Super Thursday and Bookshop Day with Guy Parker Rees, Chris Riddell (who offered online customers an exclusive signed sketch) and Liz Pichon (who conducted a signing on publication day) also boosted trade. Lewis added: "We love this time of year. It’s a really exciting time, but the only issue we have is finding space for all these incredible books."

Blackwell’s Verjee added: "Much has been said about the volume of titles published, but this just increases the number of opportunities to increase footfall and sales, especially given the amount of media coverage that Super Thursday now attracts."

Poet Sophia Thakur at Waterstones Tottenham Court Road

Nic Bottomley, president of the Booksellers Association and owner of Mr B’s Emporium in Bath, said Super Thursday was a big success for his store, with an "incredible" offering, but cautioned that distribution systems are not currently set up to make sure that all bookshops receive Super Thursday titles in enough time to process pre-orders and postal orders and to get titles onto shelves for the day itself.

He said: "[The second] Book of Dust is going incredibly well. The range of books looks fantastic—so many incredible and very recommendable books. We’ve had lots of new kids’ titles flying as well, thanks to Bath Children’s Literature Festival—the city is swarming with eager families. But on balance, and in a measured way, I would add my voice to the ‘counterproductive’ cry. For most smaller or mid-size shops (and perhaps larger ones, too), it’s highly disruptive having so many books arrive. At a time when we’re busy with customer service it causes all kinds of issues around getting them up and on display in a timely manner."

Richard Drake, co-owner of Drake the Bookshop in Stockton-on-Tees, suggested "maybe there are a few too many releases" but added the volume of Super Thursday titles results in more choice for readers. "Pullman and Bryson have been fighting head to head this weekend with regard to sales, which is a great way to start the final quarter. The signed copies here certainly proved a bonus," said Drake. "There were a lot of boxes last week and maybe there are a few too many releases, but we want to give our customers as much choice as possible and with the exclusives that publishers have been supporting us with we have a reason for people to shop local."