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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Our latest news:
Introducing your new gift card range for 2025-26
Drumroll, please, for our sparkling new range of National Book Tokens gift card designs.
Say con-badger-lations to a young reader with our charming new gift card inspired by Irish illustrator Paddy Donnelly's Badger Books; celebrate the magic of manga with the epic Manga Heroes, created exclusively for us by British artist Sonia Leong; and, in response the major success of this year's World Book Day title, say wackadoo to our heart-warming new design featuring everyone's favourite blue heeler, Bluey!
Alongside these exciting new gift cards for children and teens, the luxurious, foiled Mint and Gold design presents a glamorous addition to our adult gift card range; perfect for the younger female market, Mother’s Day gifting and more.
Order all our new gift cards online along with the rest of our range and point of sale materials: there’s truly a gift for every reader and every occasion.
And with Christmas just three months away, now’s the time to make sure you’re ready for festive gifters – order your seasonal gift cards and point-of-sale online.
Plus: you can now download digital banners for your website and social channels to tell your customers that you sell and accept National Book Tokens. Banners are available in English, Irish, Scottish Gaelic and Welsh.
Your merchandising catalogue and Bookseller's Guide 2025-26
Discover our latest Bookseller's Guide, which includes all the details of our new gift card designs as well as everything else you need to sell and redeem National Book Tokens in your bookshop. Physical copies will be in the post in mid-September; if you don't receive one by the end of the month, please get in touch to let us know!
Don't forget, you can also browse our latest guides and order online straight away at our Bookseller Zone. Just scroll down to ‘Merchandising, resources and useful information’.
Visit the Bookseller Zone
Handy hints for Multi Factor Authentication
If you're using our online systems for National Book Tokens transactions, your account and password are kept secure with Multi Factor Authentication (MFA). This means that you will be asked (approx. every 60 days) for a 6-digit One-Time-PIN (OTP) when signing in to the gift card authorisations, admin and reports sites.
MFA was introduced in September 2023, and all account users are required to set it up in order to access our online systems. There are many authenticator options available, but if you followed our guidelines at the time, you are likely to have downloaded the FIS Desktop Authenticator App or the authenticator.cc browser extension.
Become a Jhalak Prize Bookshop Partner in 2026
The Jhalak Prize team are working on an exciting new initiative for their tenth anniversary year in 2026, and are inviting bookshops to become official partners of the Prize and all that it stands for.
A Jhalak Prize Bookshop Partner is a bookshop that shares the values of the Jhalak Prize: to connect writers and readers from all backgrounds, to be inclusive and expansive, to welcome those who may have previously felt un-welcome. To be a Bookshop Partner is to say that your bookshop is a welcoming space, and that you’re committed to making customers from all backgrounds feel like a part of your community.
As a Jhalak Prize Bookshop Partner:
- You'll receive a window sticker to signify that your bookshop is a welcoming space for all members of the local community.
- Your bookshop will be included on the list of official partners on the Jhalak Prize site, and benefit from the opportunity to work with the Jhalak Prize team on additional PR and content opportunities for your bookshop.
- You'll be invited to share the ways in which you make your space inclusive and welcoming, to inspire other bookshops and demonstrate to the wider book industry the real impact that bookshops make in their local communities.
- Jhalak Prize and National Book Tokens will amplify the work you're doing on our social media channels and websites, to a wide audience of book lovers, book buyers and people in the book industry.
As we have since 2021, we'll continue to distribute free display materials for longlisted, shortlisted and winning titles to all bookshops that wish to use them, regardless of whether or not you're a Jhalak Prize Bookshop Partner.
If you'd like to join the list to receive free point of sale, or would like to find out more about the new Jhalak Prize Bookshop Partners initiative, please get in touch!
Get in touch for more information
BBC 500 Words is back! Foster creativity for local children with the UK's biggest writing competition
We’re proud to be one of the official partners of the BBC’s 500 Words – the UK’s largest writing competition for children aged 5-11. This year's competition is officially open for entries, with National Book Tokens prizes for all the winners, and additional prizes for children from hundreds of schools in the most deprived areas. The deadline for submissions is 9pm, Friday the 7th of November 2025.
Here's how we're helping you to inspire creativity in children locally, and encourage any lucky winners to return to spend their prizes with you:
- You can download the poster and shareable assets for your sites and socials from our booksellers Dropbox folder.
- To inspire young writers and story lovers, we asked our favourite authors – from Maz Evans to Sam Sedgman – to share their writing tips and advice. Read their brilliant tips and share the article with your social followers! You'll find a shareable banner in our booksellers Dropbox folder.
Looking for other ways to engage your customers and local community? Here are some ideas:
- Put together a display of children's writing books and guides
- Curate a display of brilliant fiction to spark their imagination
- Put on storytelling sessions for children
- Share the books that most inspired you and your team when you were children
- Share news of the competition on social channels and let people know that winning children will be able to spend their National Book Tokens in your bookshop!
High Five for independent bookshops - it's back!
Our popular promotion has returned, with independent bookshops across the UK and Ireland ready to reward their loyal customers with free £5/€5 National Book Tokens.
What is High Five for Bookshops?
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 should have received a book of 100 vouchers by 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.
How should I give away my vouchers?
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.
How can I promote my giveaway?
Depending on how you're giving away your vouchers, you may want to share updates and information instore, on your social channels and/or on your website. We've created shareable banners and printable posters, in English, Welsh, Scottish Gaelic and Irish, which you can download from Dropbox.
You can also spread the word to local booklovers using National Book Tokens Local, our free and powerful email marketing tool. If you haven't already registered and would like to know more, just get in touch with us at marketing@booktokens.co.uk
For full information, view our Frequently Asked Questions. You can also find out more about making the most of your promotion instore at the BA Learning Skills Hub - just search for 'High Five'.
If your free High Five POS kit and vouchers haven't arrived, or if you have any questions, get in touch with us at marketing@booktokens.co.uk.
Download banners and postersFAQsBA Learning Skills HubContact us
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
