The Bookseller Advertisement Feature INTRO


WORDS BY TOM TIVNAN


H


ardly a news flash but the past two years have had a fair few challenges for the Scotish books trade. And yet, given all the stresses and strains—and that the country’s pandemic restrictions have probably been the toughest of the four home nations—the literature sector


has not only survived but thrived in the past 24 months. This has been a tremendous, oſten record-breaking couple of years for some of Scotland’s leading publishers such as Canongate and Sandstone while exciting new(ish) lists like Knight Errant Press, Monstrous Regiment and Quindrie Press have entered the scene. In 2021, The Edinburgh International Book Festival returned to a successful hybrid outing in its new home at the Edinburgh College of Art while other festivals like Bloody Scotland and Cymera also pushed the envelope in finding ways of reaching new audiences. Native son Douglas Stuart won the Booker Prize (and if his follow-up Young Mungo isn’t at the very least shortlisted this year I will eat my hat), adopted daughter Maggie O’Farrell took home the Women’s Prize for Fiction. Meanwhile a plethora of emerging authors have come to the fore across all genres but there has been a particularly noticeable strong wave of new work from children’s (Elle McNicoll, Dean Atta) and in speculative fiction (Joma West, Laura Lam and Elizabeth May). Almost counterintuitively, a raſt of new indie bookshops have opened their doors in the past two years. Glasgow now has Outwith Books and Mount Florida Books, while at the other end of the M8 Rare Birds Books and children’s specialist Ginger and Pickles have been added to the capital’s rich bookselling scene. And Edinburgh is to gain another entry in March as Leith Walk pop-up Argonaut Books is to become a permanent fixture.


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And this is at a time when established Scottish indies— Edinburgh’s Golden Hare, St Boswell’s Mainstreet Trading Company, The Bookmark in Grantown-on-Spey to take just three examples—have continued to shine. At the start of the pandemic the received wisdom was that if any part of the book trade was in real peril it was indie shops. Intriguingly, that has proved to be completely wrong as, apart from Amazon and some massive corporate publishers, indies have come out of the Covid era the strongest through hard work, innovation and, perhaps crucially, being at the heart of communities.


ACCESS ALL AREAS Another unexpected benefit from the pandemic is that it allowed many to reappraise long-held ways of working. A positive of online events and festivals was that—perhaps for the first time ever—they had been made truly accessible for disabled people. So Scotish disabled writers Julie Farrell and Ever Dundas wanted to ensure this keeps going and conceived the Inklusion Guide to give organisers easy-to-use, best-practice advice for running in person, online and hybrid events that can be accessible for all. It was an idea the industry has obviously been crying out for as Inklusion was able to secure support from the likes of the Edinburgh International Book Festival, Penguin Random House, Hachete and Edinburgh Cit of Literature to hit its fundraising goal just two months aſter launch.


All the above is not to gloss over the significant difficulties and real pain of the pandemic. But Scotland’s books industry and literature sector has made it through the (hopefully) other side in rude health, which should be roundly applauded.


 SCENE HAS GONE FROM


STRENGTH TO STRENGTH OVER THE PAST TWO YEARS


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