Bookshop Day
Celebrating Bookshops Big and Small

Launched in 2016, Bookshop Day 2021 takes place on Saturday 9 October. Booksellers, publishers, authors, illustrators and poets work collaboratively on the campaign to encourage consumers to shop in their local bookshop and ensure their high street is thriving. Participating retailers include Waterstones, Foyles, WHSmith, Blackwell’s and numerous independent bookshops. Bookshop Day is part of Books Are My Bag, the consumer-facing campaign run by the Booksellers Association to celebrate and promote bookshops in the UK and Ireland.
 
Bookshop Day is sponsored by Hachette UK, Penguin Random House UK, HarperCollins Publishers, Pan Macmillan, Simon & Schuster, DK, Bloomsbury, Canongate, Usborne, Scholastic, Faber & Faber, KoganPage, Bonnier Books UK, Chicken House, Icon Books, Profile Books, Walker Books and National Book Tokens. We’re grateful to Gardners for their help distributing the point of sale kits. Midas PR looks after media coverage for the campaign.

Books Are My Bag Readers Awards
The Books Are My Bag Readers Awards are the only book awards with a shortlist curated by booksellers and winners chosen by readers. To qualify for the Books Are My Bag Readers Awards, books must have been published in hardback or paperback between 1 January 2021 and 7 October 2021. Breakthrough Authors are those who have achieved significant breakthrough in 2021. They don’t have to be debut writers, and their books don’t have to have been published in 2021.
 
Booksellers Association members are invited to nominate their books of the year for each category. A panel of booksellers then whittles the nominations down to a shortlist. The 2021 shortlist panel was made up of the following booksellers:
 
Nessa Urquhart, Waterstones
Elaine Stabler, Blackwell
Jude Brosnan, Stanfords
Annie Rhodes, Norfolk Children’s Book Centre:
Amanda Truman, Truman Books
James Firth, The Stripey Badger
Tony West, Alligator’s Mouth
 
Voting for the winners will open to the general public on Thursday 7 October 2021.
 
The Books Are My Bag Readers Awards are sponsored by Hachette UK, Penguin Random House UK, HarperCollins Publishers, Pan Macmillan, Simon & Schuster, DK, Bloomsbury, Canongate, Usborne, Scholastic, Faber & Faber, KoganPage, Bonnier Books UK, Chicken House, Icon Books, Profile Books, Walker Books. National Book Tokens is the headline sponsor for the Readers Awards.
 
Booksellers Association members may opt in or out of participating in Bookshop Day and the Books Are My Bag Readers Awards at any point. Please email emma.bradshaw@booksellers.org.uk if you would like to check if you are registered to participate, or if you would like to change your participation.