My Independent Bookshop, a reader recommendation platform unveiled last month by Penguin Random House U.K., has officially opened to consumers with more than 400 profiles, including over 70 bookshops. The publisher described the bookseller participation number as "really healthy" for the few weeks since the program launched in beta form to the trade at London Book Fair in early April, the Bookseller reported. Books in the virtual shops can be purchased through hive.co.uk, the e-commerce arm of Gardners wholesalers. Sheila O'Reilly, owner of Dulwich Books in South London, told the Bookseller "she hoped the online profile would help the shop to extend its reach and build a new community beyond London. The bookshop is helping to promote it through postcards and bookmarks in store."
Author Terry Pratchett is linking his bookshop profile, Narrativia, to the Hayling Island Bookshop in Havant. Marie Telford, the store's owner, said: "We were absolutely astonished, delighted and honoured to hear that Terry had chosen our tiny bookshop to be linked to his online bookshop Narrativia. We are so pleased that he is helping independent bookshops to extend their reach in this way. This new site is a great way for people to share their favorite books online and we also hope that many of them will come and visit us in person too."
Tim Walker, president of the Bookseller Association, observed: "Part of you thinks you shouldn't encourage your customers to buy books online because we are robbing sales from ourselves. But the counter argument would be that actually customers are shopping online anyway and they also buy from supermarkets, Waterstones, WH Smith, etc. If customers want to buy online and we are not online then they will buy from someone else, so we may as well be in the game and this is giving us an opportunity to have an online presence."
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