Mother's Day promotions boost book sales

Mum’s the word for businesses in the trade in the run up to Mother’s Day this Sunday (6th March) with publishers, bookshops and libraries rolling out campaigns and promotions to mark the day.

Many publishers are using social media to showcase their promotions with children’s publisher Buster Books running a #MeAndMyMum campaign on Twitter, offering users the chance to win a book bundle of their choice. Orion imprint Weidenfeld & Nicolson is running a competition to win a bundle of eight books including Fear the Darkness by Becky Masterman and A Few of the Girls by Maeve Binchy, and a bunch of Bloom & Wild flowers. Little, Brown is also celebrating Mother’s Day on Twitter, offering users the chance to win two copies of The Quality Silence.

Book sales have been give a Mother's Day boost according to Nielsen BookScan, with The Bookseller reporting yesterday (1st March) that Mary Berry’s Foolproof Cooking has finally knocked eight week wonder Joe Wicks off the top spot, two years after her 2014 title Mary Berry Cooks rose to the top in the run-up to Mother’s Day that year. The Ladybird Books for Grown Ups title How it Works: The Mum (Michael Joseph) also saw its volume increase by 42.6% week on week, coming up on 50,000 copies sold total and Philippa Gregory’s The Taming of the Queen (Simon & Schuster) took the Mass Market Fiction number one, debuting in the Top 50 in fifth place. Katie Fforde’s A Vintage Wedding, Dilly Court’s Ragged Rose and Jenny Colgan’s The Little Shop of Happy-Ever-After continued to chart highly, while parenting blogger Sarah Turner’s debut The Unmumsy Mum jumped to 17th place in its third week in the Top 50. Additionally, Mothering Sunday by Graham Swift charted just outside the Top 50 in 85th place and in fifth on the independent bookshops chart, all ahead of Mother's Day on Sunday (6th March).

Publishers are also taking advantage of the celebration day as a tool to promote books, with Pushkin offering 20% off selected books with the code 'mums the world'. The independent press is also running a Twitter promotion offering readers the chance to win a Mother’s Day bundle by encouraging users to vote for the best mothers in literature from a selection which includes Miss Honey from Matilda, Ma from Room and Molly Wesley from Harry Potter.

Avon's Mother’s Day plans focus around Fiona Gibson, whose new book The Woman Who Upped and Left is for "every mum out there who’s ever dreamed about escaping and leaving their life behind – if only for one day". The publisher is driving awareness of the title via social media via the hashtag #FoodieFriday which will give the opportunity for readers to talk online to Gibson and get her culinary tips. Tomorrow (4th March) will then see Avon providing readers with a full French menu from Gibson for readers to cook for their mums on Mother’s Day itself (right), with Avon judging the best and most inventive results on the following Monday (7th March).

Pan Macmillian will be promoting the following titles for Mother's Day, The Way We Wore by Daphen Selfe, with Selfe giving a talk at the V&A Museum on Monday 7th March, The Angel and the Cad by Geraldine Roberts and Poldark: The Complete Scripts, Series 1, for those "pining for the return of Poldark". Pan Macmillan is also releasing a Mother's Day gift guide, which will be promoted via its newsletter and website.

Waterstones Piccadilly has created “beautiful” Mother’s Day displays and tables to mark the occasion. The offer consists of books, non-book gifts and Mother’s Day cards and is supported by themed ‘My Mum Makes Me Smile’ posters (left). The artwork for the posters was created using the winning entries from its Mother’s Day drawing competition. Waterstones asked its young customers to draw a picture of their mother, grandmother, aunt or guardian doing something that makes them smile.

Wenlock Books is running a host of events to celebrate Mother's Day. On Friday morning (4th March) during the bookshop's regular StoryTime session, the shop will be giving mum's flowers and cupcakes along with their coffee while entertaining their children. On Saturday (5th March), the shop will host 'Champagne Saturdays' - which will see mums invited in for a cafetière of coffee and/or a glass of champagne while they enjoy a "relaxed and peaceful" browse among the shelves. Anna Dreda of Wenlock Books said: "We are of course selling oodles of How it Works: Mum the Ladybird spoof, and we have been promoting The Trouble with Goats and Sheep  (HarperCollins) by Joanna Cannon, for our next Random Reading Group on 23rd March - which is a very Mum-friendly title!"

Bob Johnston, owner of The Gutter Bookshop, has said he tries to avoid "the usual pink mushy books" and "try something different", so his Mother's Day display will feature The Long Gaze Back : An Anthology of Irish Women Writers (New Island) edited by Sinead Gleeson and the "beautiful" Poems That Make Grown Women Cry (S&S) edited by Anthony and Ben Holden. Mostly Books in Abingdon will be featuring Crooked Heart (Black Swan) by Lissa Evans, The Trouble with Women by Jacky Fleming (Square Peg) and Making It Up As I Go Along (Michael Joseph) by Marian Keyes, among others in its Mother's Day display.

Libraries are also offering a wealth of events in the run up to Mother's Day, with Kimberley Library in Nottingham running a free children’s craft event on Saturday (5th March) for children to create Mother's Day cards and Marshalswick library in Hertfordshire is hosting a special Saturday stories session celebrating mothers and families. Haverhill Library in Suffolk held a book folding session for its Mother's Day themed craft activity during the week, while Goldalming Library in Surrey organised a pop up Mother's Day flower card making session.