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9 October 2014
Just found this on Sky News today. So what do you think? I would say anything to support book sales,. In reality, of course, it is the big High Street book chains who, if anyone, profits. And as they are called in the article ' hotly anticipated hardbacks' it's probably authors who don't need a lot of publicity and sell in any event? Still, anything which promotes books and reading I suppose.
High street book shops, facing competition from online retailers and supermarkets, will hope to receive a boost from Super Thursday.
The nationwide event sees the largest number of titles being published in a single day this year.
Some 315 of the most hotly anticipated hardbacks are coming out today.
Super Thursday is the book world's equivalent of Black Friday and Mega Monday - where there are promotional sales deals in the run up to Christmas.
And the event is aimed at getting more customers into high street book shops and increasing revenue.
There are now only just over 2,300 such shops in the UK with many closing due to customers opting for cheap prices at the supermarkets and on the internet.
Sheryl Shurville from Chorleywood Bookshop in Hertfordshire owns a very successful independent shop but has had to diversify to survive.
She puts on events and festivals to boost sales and is very enthusiastic about initiatives like Super Thursday as a means of increasing business.
She said: "Super Thursday is a great time of year for us. It creates a big buzz in publishing and in the book selling industry.
"So it creates a lot of interest which is really important at a time when we're up against a lot of competition from Amazon, ebooks and supermarkets.
"So anything that brings attention to the independent bookshop and the passion we have for reading and selling books is great for us".
Shane Filan's autobiography My Side of Life reveals all about his days in boyband Westlife.
It is just one of the many celebrity reads that publishers rely on over the festive period and Filan told Sky News it can only be a good thing to be included in the book push.
He said: "To be picked to come out on this day is a great thing to start off with.
"There's a lot of books out and it’s the one of the biggest ever for autobiographies so I'm chuffed to be chosen to be out this day."
Super Thursday is not new - it was first identified in 2008 - but it is only now the industry is pulling together and the latest tool in the fight against low price competition.
Katy Guest, literary editor of The Independent on Sunday, said it was about time the industry was unified in its approach.
She said: "Maybe the fact that publishers and booksellers are all coming together - instead of working against each other and pitting their books against each other for sales - will help."
