Booksellers Association’s annual conference 2025
Determination, joy and openness were the themes emanating from the Booksellers Association’s annual conference this year, as more than 450 delegates – most of them booksellers, 80 of them newbies – gathered at the delightfully functional Leonardo Hotel, just off the M1 at Hinckley Island, to be inspired, educated and generally celebrated in a world that is doing them few favours.
That number of 450 is important by the way. Here is an event in growth, with those new attendees reminding us that this is a profession always renewing itself. It is little wonder that all of the big publishers turn up to pitch and bring with them their starry autumn hopefuls; the disappointment – at least to me – is that none of the CEOS and/or MDs from the majors tag along with their sales teams. Publishers could learn much from the between-sessions chats from those hand-selling their titles to today’s demanding readers. A public show of support would not be amiss either. (Notable exceptions were Joanna Prior CEO of Pan Macmillan, which hosted the end of conference dinner, and Juliet Mabey, publisher at Oneworld, who stalked the aisles throughout).
Highlights this year were Nadia Wassef, founder of the Egyptian bookselling chain Diwan (and author of Shelf Life: Chronicles of a Cairo Bookseller), who has book-sold through a revolution in her own country, and Mary Portas, who combines wit and charm with shop-floor know-how. Hire happy people, Portas said, which resonated among those who are charged with creating welcoming spaces on the high street. I came away from their talks wanting to read both their books. Job done.
What I heard was a trade working it out, businesses figuring it out and individuals talking it out
The event makes astute use of the space provided by the hotel. Gardners – which hosts its trade day on the Sunday – underwrites attendance and the meals are sponsored by publishers. Keeping costs down clearly remains important, with these small business owners “reeling” – as BA MD Meryl Halls said from the stage – from last year’s budget increases that are just now “starting to crash to shore”.
As for that bookseller chat, what I heard was a trade working it out, businesses figuring it out and individuals talking it out. But challenges remain, and change daily, the collegiate nature of this event one of its pulls. As Fleur Sinclair, the BA’s president and owner of Sevenoaks Bookshop, told delegates: “I do know that by being here today, under the umbrella of the Booksellers Association, that none of us are alone. And the association’s work is to do all they can to protect us, encourage us, and allow us to all trade freely.”
There was a lot of discussion around openness, too, both in terms of being open to the public, but also about being open to different voices and perspectives. “Our shop doors are open for absolutely anyone to walk through,” said Sinclair, a nod not just to those different views, but also to staff safety.
There was also discussion around politics and about using what we have to make a statement at a moment of heightened tensions in our communities and increasing polarisation. One bookseller talked of using window displays to send a signal, with others cognisant of how events and stock decisions set a tone. In America, bookselling has often felt more political – and its annual conference of indie booksellers has reflected that in recent times – and we are now on the same journey over here.
Aren’t we all a little tired of being described as resilient, suggested Halls, to affirming and weary nods. She is right to wish for a year without a crisis, but bookshops and booksellers are resilient precisely because they know how to handle one. Their determinaton, openness and joy are the things we rely on and must support.