Trade news
Welcome to the latest National Book Tokens news and updates for booksellers. Scroll down for news about our products, services and campaigns, or read our latest retailer newsletters.
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High Five for independent bookshops - it's back!
Our popular promotion returns in June, with independent bookshops across the UK and Ireland gearing up to reward their loyal customers with free £5/€5 National Book Tokens.
High Five for Bookshops is a national e-gift card giveaway that launched during Independent Bookshop Week in 2019, and aims to give indie bookshops a very tangible way of rewarding loyal bookshop customers, as well as driving footfall and repeat custom.
Independent bookshops who sell and redeem National Book Tokens will receive a book of 100 vouchers by late May (please note that these will arrive separately to Independent Bookshop Week POS kits), ready for the start of Independent Bookshop Week on 14th June. Each voucher includes a unique code which lets the recipient claim a free £5/€5 e-gift card – which they can then bring back to spend on more books! The kit also included a poster and some fun ‘I love my local bookshop’ stickers to give to younger booklovers.
Vouchers can't be claimed until June, so if you've received yours, please hold on to them for now to avoid disappointment. Customers who visit the claim page before it's live will see a message asking them to return in Independent Bookshop Week (14th-21st June).
The £5/€5 e-gift card is intended as a free gift for your customers. It’s entirely up to you how you decide to give them away, but here some ideas. You could give vouchers to…
… your most loyal customers
… attendees of your events or members of your book group
… customers signed up to your loyalty scheme
… a hand-selected group of your favourite customers as and when you see them
… customers at random by hiding vouchers inside books
… winners of prizes
… customers who place orders with you.
The promotion celebrates independent bookshops and the booklovers who shop in them, driving footfall and incremental sales over the summer and beyond.
For full information, view our Frequently Asked Questions. Plus, check back in early June for downloadable social assets and printable posters to tell your customers about your plans. This year, we'll also have assets available in Irish, Scottish Gaelic and Welsh.
If your free High Five POS kit and vouchers don't arrive by Friday 30th May, or if you have any questions, get in touch with us at marketing@booktokens.co.uk.
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The Jhalak Prize 2025 shortlists are here!
2025 is the fifth year of our partnership with the Jhalak Prize, which celebrates books by writers of colour in the UK and Ireland. Our support ensures that you can celebrate and promote the longlisted, shortlisted and winning titles to your local community and beyond. This year, we've distributed point-of-sale kits to more than 180 bookshops, with digital assets going out to many hundreds more.
This year's three Jhalak Prize shortlists - Prose, Poetry and Children's & YA - were announced on 22nd April. Discover all 18 captivating books below, and download free digital assets for your site and social channels. Tag us @book_tokens and @jhalakprize, using #JhalakPrize25, so we can share!
Didn't get a POS kit?
If you were expecting display materials and didn't receive them, or would like to request a kit for the first time, just get in touch and we'll send one out to your bookshop.
The winners will be announced on 4th June in a special ceremony at the London Library.
The Jhalak Prize shortlists 2025
The Jhalak Prose Prize
Everest, Ashani Lewis (Dialogue, 9780349703329)
Manny and the Baby, Varaidzo (Scribe, 9781915590282)
My Friends, Hisham Matar (Penguin Viking, 9780241409480)
Namesake: Reflections on a Warrior Woman, N.S. Nuseibeh (Canongate, 9781838852634)
The Rest of You, Maame Blue (Verve, 9780857308795)
Where We Come From: Rap, Home & Hope in Modern Britain, Aniefiok Ekpoudom (Faber, 9780571363261)
The Jhalak Children's & YA Prize
Bringing Back Kay-Kay, Dev Kothari (Walker, 9781529516043)
Flower Block, Lanisha Butterfield, ill. Hoang Giang (Puffin, 9780241611371)
King of Nothing, Nathanael Lessore (Hot Key, 9781471413247)
Mayowa and the Sea of Words, Chibundu Onuzo (Bloomsbury, 9781526660992)
The Boy to Beat the Gods, Ashley Thorpe (Usborne, 9781805075639)
The Thread That Connects Us, Ayaan Mohamud (Usborne, 9781803704517)
The Jhalak Poetry Prize
Adam, Gboyega Odubanjo (Faber, 9780571390403)
Boiled Owls, Azad Ashim Sharma (Out-Spoken Press, 9781738412594)
Collected Poems, Mimi Khalvati (Carcanet, 9781800173330)
Horse, Rushika Wick (Broken Sleep Books, 9781916938335)
Self-Portrait with Family, Amaan Hyder (Nine Arches Press, 9781916760080)
Top Doll, Karen McCarthy Woolf (Dialogue, 9780349703459)
The Brilliant Bookshop Experience
In early summer 2024, we worked with Read for Good and The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop to run a pilot scheme designed to introduce to children from less affluent families the power of choice, carefully curated books and the unique pleasure of browsing a bookshop. The pilot was called The Brilliant Bookshop Experience.
The project took into account that the life-changing benefits of reading for pleasure increase when children and young people both have access to a diverse range of books, and feel free to choose their own reading materials without adult judgement.
We created highly accessible pop-up bookshops in primary and secondary schools and provided guided trips to bookshops on the high street. Every Key Stage 2 and Key Stage 3 pupil in the seven participating schools was given a £10 National Book Token to spend on a book of their choosing, reaching over 1,400 children and young people.
We're now looking at ways this programme can grow, working with local bookshops, schools and publishers. Follow the link below to read the full report and register your interest in taking part.
Introducing our Presentation Card: offering new options and flexibility for local schools
We have introduced a new Presentation Card in response to schools and their requirements for prizegiving at the end of term, and throughout the year.
This new product incorporates a personalised or standard design National Book Tokens gift card into an A5 presentation card which can also include certificate-style information about the reward or award being presented. It offers greater flexibility and additional options to school customers looking to encourage reading for pleasure and give the gift of reading, in what is a very competitive market. What's more, there's no additional cost to personalise the Presentation Card.
As a bookseller, you can offer this new product to local schools. As with personalised gift cards, we will manage the production process for you, and the transaction will go through your bookshop account. Just let us know how many Presentation Cards the customer would like, and the values to load, and we will do the rest on your behalf.
The Presentation Card includes all the usual details that you would expect to see on a gift card, and is processed the same way at the till. To find out more, email Uzo Onuora or call 020 7421 4654.
Email Uzo
Congratulations to the National Book Tokens Newcomer of the Year: Daydreams Bookshop!
We're delighted to usher in the new year with our announcement that the National Book Tokens Newcomer of the Year 2025 is Daydreams Bookshop in Milngavie, just outside Glasgow.
The award – now its fifth year – is given to new bookshops based, among other things, on their first full year of National Book Tokens sales and redemptions, both of which are a measure of how well they are engaging with local booklovers.
With the Booksellers Association (BA) reporting 45 independent bookshop openings in 2024, competition for the award is strong, and a reminder of the continued resilience and innovation of independent booksellers in the face of ongoing economic challenges.
Elaine, the owner of Daydreams, said:
"We are absolutely over the moon that our wee shop has won this national award – what a dream! We would like to thank our customers for choosing the gift of books and National Book Tokens for Christmas and we look forward to matching them with lots of lovely new books throughout 2025."
Lisa Bywater, Head of Marketing at National Book Tokens, said:
"Since they opened, Daydreams Bookshop have hit the ground running with the perfect offering for their community [...] Their strong sales and redemptions of National Book Tokens in such a short space of time show their commitment to helping their customers find the perfect book gifts for every type of reader."
The team have won a trophy, a luxury champagne, wine and food hamper, and promotion to National Book Tokens' 400,000+ book-loving email subscribers and 90,000+ social media followers.
