I signed up for World Book Night as soon as I heard about it. I thought I’d give my copies of Half of a Yellow Sun to teenagers that, in their well-off, West End Glasgow lives, probably had no idea about what it was like to live on the other side of the world under circumstances such as experienced during the Biafran conflict.
I am old enough for that event to have such resonance from my childhood. And thirteen-year-old Ugwu is a breathtakingly vivid character.
I was yet to work out just how I was going to get these books to the spoilt teens, but it turns out now I don’t have to. In the end I had to give up my allotted freebies due to circumstances but also frustration. My presence is needed that night for family business in deepest Cheshire. I tried to find out more about the practicalities of getting and distributing the books on the night – would I have to be present? But despite my years of experience in lateral thinking and trying to find things out (journalism), came up with zilch. So I gave the whole thing up.
Then I read various blogs from indendepent booksellers about what a bad idea the whole thing was. It would perpetuate the idea that content should be free. It’s bad enough that most people think all words written online are free that it should now be applied to words printed on paper. It’s not helped by revered commentators diminishing the role of professional writers, editors and publishers in their wholehearted embrace of the ‘here comes everybody’ culture. This is not good for the creative sector or creativity itself. Those that live by writing are already getting the lowest return on (brain) power out of all other professions (see my last blog).
It was also, said some, a weird idea to flood the market with a million free books. It would do nothing to help struggling booksellers and smaller publishers.
Another thing I’m afraid I must mention is, despite being in the thick of hearing things about library activity, I know nothing of any events by libraries either using World Book Night to promote themselves or to act as venues for the big book giveaway. I’d love to be wrong and I hope lots of things are in fact going on.
After all, as Ian Jack said in the Guardian on Saturday, urging people to read well-loved books isn’t new, “…hasn’t the same thing been done by public libraries for more than a century?”.
Hi Debby
Brent Libraries is running a series of events from 5-9:30pm at Willesden Green Library on the 5th March, we have Maggie Gee, Michael De Souza & Genevieve Webster (Rastamouse) and a whole range of other events for adults and young people as well as book gifting.
Take a look here: http://www.brent.gov.uk/libraries.nsf/Events%20in%20libraries/LBB-103
All the best
Matt
I did a quick search and the first page of results had the following library based events. Hope that helps.
http://www.createdinbirmingham.com/2011/02/22/world-boook-night/http://www.swindon.gov.uk/libraries-events-bookgiveawayhttp://www.richmond.gov.uk/home/leisure_and_culture/libraries/events_in_libraries.htmhttp://www.northumberlandlife.org/morpethcentrallibrary/Events.asp
http://www.uppernorwoodlibrary.org/events.html
There are many more also listed
@BookElfLeeds and I will be giving out our World Book Night books in a pub in Leeds. Seeing as we’re both passionate public library advocates, I imagine we’ll be doing a lot of stealth-promotion of library services.
It’s fairly well-known that small booksellers and publishers aren’t threatened by public libraries. And in fact, the huge amount of support that we’ve seen from small organisations up to ones like The Bookseller, in our work supporting libraries and fighting cuts, is a sign that libraries, and free access to books, aren’t a threat to businesses. Book-borrowers don’t suddenly stop buying books, it’s not how it works. Similarly, ebook owners don’t suddenly stop reading off paper. Someone who’s given a free book isn’t going to stop buying books – and in fact, I think perhaps giving someone a free book by a fantasic author they’ve not read or even heard of before might well encourage them either to read more of their stuff – and where are they going to get that? Libraries or bookshops. Or both!
Libraries have been encouraging people to read well-loved books for many many years. But not everyone uses their library and makes the most of the knowledgeable staff, themed displays etc. We all know about the difficulties libraries face at the moment – and I really do think that World Book Night could help, rather than hinder.
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I’m so glad libraries are getting involved. I’m sure they’re promoting the events locally which is why I won’t hear about them all.
I do think WBN is good, anything supporting reading and books is good. But the organisation doesn’t seem to be.
I understand why this would be making independent booksellers nervous, but I really think that’s the wrong attitude to take. Free books won’t kill the bookselling industry – if that was the case then libraries would have put bookshops out of business many years ago. Most people discover books and authors they like by getting them for free – either from the library, or borrowed from a friend. I know that’s how I’ve discovered most of my favourite writers – and have then gone on to buy all of their books. I buy every new Terry Pratchett novel that comes out, usually in hardback, and have done for the past ten years – ever since discovering them in my public library as a teenager. Neil Gaiman wrote about this extensively on his blog – rather than try to rephrase what he said, I’ll just post a link (relevant discussion starts about half way down the post): http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2011/02/death-and-free-revisited.html
I don’t know the motives of the people behind World Book Night – it may just be a cynical PR exercise, but if it encourages a few people who might not otherwise have picked up a book to get reading, then does the motivation behind it really matter?
Sorry to hear you’ve withdrawn from the giveaway due to frustration with the organisation – I’m interested to hear what the problems you’ve had are? I’ve also volunteered to give away some books (Margaret Atwood’s The Blind Assassin), and although I didn’t hear from them for a while after signing up, I’ve not had trouble finding the information I needed. Were they just non-responsive, or did you think there wasn’t enough information provided in the first place?
There was no information / advice on what to do about giving out your books. No way of gettin answers to questions such as mine mentioned in the blog
I think we need to cut them some slack – it’s their first time doing this!
What did confuse me, though, was that World Book Day and World Book Night are two totally separate things – I’d just assumed they were part of the same organisation, but WBD said they’re not.
That *is* weird – I’d have assumed they were the same organisation too!
This is a pretty massive project, and as Lauren says it’s the first time they’re doing it, so they’re probably still working out some of the communication issues as they go along. I have to say though, I didn’t have a problem getting information on how the night itself would work – I can’t remember exactly where I saw these details but I definitely knew when I signed up that I would be able to collect “my” books from a designated library or bookshop a week before the event, and that it was up to me how/when I distributed them. True that they didn’t really give any guidance on how to distribute the books, but I thought that was because they were leaving it up to the volunteers to decide.
I’ve had an email from them this week saying they’re about to launch a section of the website for the volunteers, so we can share ideas about how we’re going to give out our titles and download promotional materials. Would have been nice to have access to something like that a bit earlier in the process, but I’m looking forward to seeing it!
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