Zevin, Bilston and Backlisted win inaugural Indie Champions Awards

Bookshop.org has announced the winners of its inaugural Indie Champions Awards, which spotlights individuals and organisations who have supported the platform since its launch in 2020. 

Authors Gabrielle Zevin, Cal Flynn, Dara McAnulty and Brian Bilston won across the fiction, non-fiction, children’s and lifestyle and culture categories in recognition of the funds generated through their book sales and the efforts made to provide links and exclusive content to the platform. 

Bilston said he was thrilled to win an award. “The indies are the beating heart of the book industry: they bring together books with readers, authors, whole communities in ways that simply can’t be replicated elsewhere. I’m hugely grateful for all of your support and amazing efforts last year.”

Hodder and Stougton won in the overall publisher category, which focuses on efforts to include consistent linking to indies, tagging or linking Bookshop.org in digital marketing activities and regular collaboration to develop creative campaigns, including access to authors, exclusive content and competitions. Vickie Boff, marketing director, said: “Supporting all the brilliant work the indies do across the UK is such an important part of our work here at Hodder so to be recognised for that is a real honour.” Richard Green, independent bookshop and wholesaler manager at Pan Macmillan, took the award for publisher professional of the year. 

The winner in the podcast category—judged for consistency in creating Bookshop.org lists featuring the books mentioned in their episodes, using Bookshop.org links on their website and social media and mentioning Bookshop.org on-air—was "Backlisted". The Booker Prizes snapped up the award for innovative use of Bookshop.org. The category celebrates creative approaches to supporting the website’s mission. 

The final two categories, List of the Year and Titles of the Year, were chosen purely based on the amount of money generated for indie bookshops over the course of 2022, with data collected until 31st December 2022. In the former category, BBC Two’s "Between The Covers: Autumn 2022 Book Club Picks" took the prize. The latter featured 100 titles, with the top three spots going to Brian Bilston’s Days Like These (Picador), Maggie O’Farrell’s The Marriage Portrait (Tinder Press) and Katie Hesse’s The Story of Art Without Men (Hutchinson Heinemann).

Nicole Vanderbilt, managing director of Bookshop.org UK, said: “As we reveal the winners of the inaugural Indie Champion Awards, we’d like to congratulate them all on embracing our platform and using it to support independent bookshops. We hope the awards will inspire more people across the industry to engage with Bookshop.org in making a concrete difference to independent bookshops.

“Earlier this month, the Booksellers Association revealed that the number of indies in the UK and Ireland has hit a 10-year high. We’re incredibly excited about the steady growth of indies on our high streets but we are also aware of the acute challenges they are facing right now: recession, inflation, labour shortages and massive cost increases to name a few. As almost two in three books are bought online in the UK today, Bookshop.org exists to ensure indies not only survive but also thrive. By enabling them to get a greater share of online sales is a big part of that.”

Bookshop.org first launched in the US in January 2020 and has already raised over $22m for independent bookshops in the States. Bookshop.org launched in the UK in November 2020 and has more than 500 independent bookshops and over 7,000 affiliates using the platform. The UK site has generated in excess of £2.4m for independent bookshops since its launch and was named Retailer of the Year in the British Book Awards in 2022.