Waterstones, formerly Waterstone's, is a British book retailer that operates 283 shops, mainly in the United Kingdom and also other nearby countries. As of February 2014, it employs around 3,500 staff in the UK and Europe. An average-sized Waterstones shop sells a range of approximately 30,000 individual books, as well as stationery and other related products.
A scrip is any substitute for legal tender. It is often a form of credit. Scrips have been created and used for a variety of reasons, including exploitative payment of employees under truck systems; or for use in local commerce at times when regular currency was unavailable, for example in remote coal towns, military bases, ships on long voyages, or occupied countries in wartime. Besides company scrip, other forms of scrip include land scrip, vouchers, token coins such as subway tokens, IOUs, arcade tokens and tickets, and points on some credit cards.
The William Hill Sports Book of the Year is an annual British sports literary award sponsored by bookmaker William Hill. The award is dedicated to rewarding excellence in sports writing. It was first awarded in 1989, and was devised by Graham Sharpe of William Hill, and John Gaustad, founder of the Sports Pages bookshop. As of 2020, the prize for winning the award is £30,000 and a leather-bound copy of their book. Each of the shortlisted authors receives £3,000.
A book token is a type of gift voucher redeemable in hundreds of participating bookshops as an alternative to cash.
Tesco Clubcard is the loyalty card of British supermarket chain Tesco.
Zavvi is an ecommerce entertainment retail store formed from the now defunct Zavvi entertainment retail chain in the United Kingdom and Ireland, originally Virgin Megastores. Zavvi was formed in September 2007 when a management buy-out team purchased the company from Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Group.
The Australian Booksellers Association (ABA) promotes the interests of booksellers in Australia. The association has its origins in state associations formed early in the 20th century, which later amalgamated into a federal association.
World Book Day is a charity event held annually in the United Kingdom and Ireland on the first Thursday in March. On World Book Day, every child in full-time education in the UK is given a voucher to be spent on books; the event was first celebrated in the United Kingdom in 1995.
Facebook Credits was a virtual currency that enabled people to purchase items in games and non-gaming applications on the Facebook Platform. One U.S. dollar was the equivalent of 10 Facebook Credits. Facebook Credits were available in 15 currencies including U.S. dollars, pound sterling, euros, and Danish kroner. Facebook was hoping eventually to expand Credits into a micropayment system open to any Facebook application, whether a game or a media company application. Facebook deprecated Credits in favour of users' local currencies.
Etan Ilfeld is a London-based entrepreneur and the founder of Tenderpixel gallery, Tenderbooks, Repeater Books, and the owner and managing director of Watkins Books, Watkins Media, and the Mind Sports Olympiad. Ilfeld is the inventor of Diving Chess and the author of Beyond Contemporary Art, an image-driven contemporary art book, which spans disciplines ranging from science, design and architecture to new media, film-making and performance art. He is also the co-author of Duchamp versus Einstein, a science-fiction novelette, and the creator of the Synchronicity Oracle.
The Booksellers Association of the UK and Ireland (BA) is a trade body founded to promote retail bookselling in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It operates the National Book Token scheme in the UK and sponsors the Whitbread Award The BA represents 95% of British retail booksellers. The BA operates the Batch payments system, an electronic purchasing interface for independent bookshops.
Unity Books is an independent bookseller, with one shop in Wellington and Auckland respectively. Unity Books was founded by Alan Preston in 1967.
Jerusalem Ablaze: Stories of Love and Other Obsessions is a debut collection of thirteen short stories written by Orlando Ortega-Medina. Ortega-Medina was born in California and his stories originate from his time spent living in the United States, Israel, Japan, and Quebec.
James Heneage is a British historical fiction writer, and the co-founder of the Ottakar’s bookshop chain and the Chalke Valley History Festival.
The Books Are My Bag Reader's Awards are annual literary awards presented by the Booksellers Association in the UK and Ireland since 2016. They are sponsored by National Book Tokens.
Holly Bourne is a British author of young adult fiction. She is the author of best-selling novel Am I Normal Yet? and several other critically acclaimed books. She also writes online on feminist issues and writes for The Mix, a charity-run advice website for under-25s.
Jo Baker is a British writer. She is the author of six novels, including the bestselling Longbourn, a New York Times Notable Book, in development as a feature film with Random House Films and StudioCanal. She has also written short stories for BBC Radio 4 and reviews for The Guardian and The New York Times Book Review. In 2018, she was awarded a Visiting Fellowship at the Queen’s University Belfast, and she is currently an Honorary Fellow at Lancaster University.
Stuart Turton is an English internationally bestselling author and journalist.
Dr Jessica Taylor PhD CPsychol is a registered Psychologist, feminist author, and campaigner. She was a Senior Lecturer in Forensic and Criminological Psychology at the University of Derby. Taylor is the author of the 2020 book Why Women Are Blamed For Everything. She has made appearances on British television, including BBC Two documentary Womanhood, and in the true crime documentary My Lover, My Killer, which aired on Channel Five.
Housmans is one of the longest-running radical bookshops in the UK. Housmans was founded by a collective of pacifists in 1945 and has been based in Kings Cross, London since 1959. Various grassroots organisations have operated from its address including the Gay Liberation Front, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, and London Greenpeace. Housmans shares its building with its sister organisation Peace News.
