Patterson launches bookseller bursary

Author James Paterson is launching a Young Bookseller Special Achievement Award today (12th March) in association with the Booksellers Association.

The £500 awards will be given to booksellers aged 25 and under who have worked in a bookshop for at least 12 months. Candidates may be nominated by their managers or colleagues, and nominees from all high street bookshops across Britain and Ireland will be eligible.

In the past five years, Patterson has donated £500,000 to indie bookshops in the UK and Ireland, funding projects ranging from shop refurbishments to bedtime reading projects. The author, who has donated over $1m to US bookshops to use on similar schemes, said: "I’m overwhelmed by the passion and energy of so many young booksellers. I’m delighted to be launching James Patterson’s Young Bookseller Special Achievement Award to recognise the talent of these young people, who will help to shape the future of the bookselling industry."

Entries open today (12th March: further information is available from the BA website), with the winners to be announced in July, ahead of Patterson’s appearance at the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate.

BA president Nic Bottomley said: "We are thrilled by the creativity of young booksellers across UK and Ireland, and I am very proud to be BA president at a point when a bestselling author is making such an unequivocal statement of confidence in the bookselling industry—and proud of the young booksellers who are proving him right."
Books by Patterson, and his co-authors, have earned £146.2m through Nielsen BookScan UK, making him the biggest selling adult fiction author since Nielsen records began.