Independent booksellers could join forces to compete with chains

London’s Big Green Bookshop has received interest from more than 100 other indie retailers after floating the idea of union to negotiate better prices and exclusives with publishers

More than 100 independent bookshops around the UK are attempting to join forces, in order to compete with powerful chains such as Waterstones and WH Smith and negotiate better prices and exclusive editions of bestselling titles.

Last Christmas, there was unease among many independent shops when they missed out on an exclusive edition of Philip Pullman’s La Belle Sauvage, with all 5,000 copies of the hardback book going to Waterstones. Indie booksellers felt they had missed out on offering their customers the signed, special edition of the long-awaited novel; writing anonymously at the Secret Bookseller blog, one retailer laid out their belief that the deal showed “how the publishing industry tends to operate in 2017, with everything fixed in favour of Waterstones”.

Publishers have been very positive, saying they want this to happen – they’re desperate to work with indie booksellers

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