UK Booksellers Association to tackle diversity with £50k worth of grants

25 May 2018 Books+Publishing

In the UK, the Booksellers Association (BA) has announced several measures to improve diversity in bookselling, including providing £50,000 (A$66,910) worth of grants to bookshops, reports the Bookseller.

The trade body has launched the new initiatives to ‘help retailers think more closely about diversity when employing new staff, reach out to under-represented communities and better source and sell books which create inclusion and empathy’.

The BA’s board is providing grants of between £250 (A$440) and £1500 (A$2650) to bookshops, offered across two years. A total of £50,000 will be provided, with £30,000 (A$53,000) offered in 2018 and £20,000 (A$35,340) made available in 2019.

Grants will be considered for ‘any inclusiveness project’, with money awarded to bookshops that can demonstrate how they will use it to deliver practical initiatives to increase inclusivity in their shop or community.

As well as the grants, the BA has said it will be running workshops for its staff members and ensuring it has a wider range of judges on all judging panels for its prizes. The trade body has also commissioned ‘A Guide to Creating an Inclusive Bookshop’, to be launched at this year’s BA conference.

Nic Bottomley, newly elected BA president, said: ‘We hope that the possibility of a grant for bookshops will encourage booksellers to engage yet further with the issue [of diversity] and bring their trademark creativity and hard work to make absolutely sure that our wonderful industry is welcoming and relevant for everyone.’

For more information, see the BA website.

Category: International news