About New Futures?

Bookshop.org, the ethically conscious book-buying platform on a mission to support independent bookshops, and The Booksellers Association (BA) have launched New Futures, a programme to select, reach and foster new bookshops founded by entrepreneurs from underrepresented communities across the UK. The first round of applications closed on November 15th, 2021.

Over recent years, there has been an increased focus on diversity in publishing, with moves for more representation in publishing itself, as well as the acquisition of new titles from authors whose voices have been historically underrepresented.

Taking inspiration from these changes, The New Futures initiative has been launched to encourage and inspire the opening of new bookshops to serve underrepresented communities, creating new routes for diverse books to reach the hands of all readers.

The New Futures initiative encourages applicants from underrepresented communities, including individuals who identify as black and other marginalised ethnicities, LGBTQIA+, working class,

physically disabled, neurodiverse, sufferers of mental health issues and those with learning disabilities amongst others, who feel they have the potential to build viable bookselling businesses.

Watch a recording of the live event 'Could This Be You' to hear more from the New Futures judges. Enter passcode N3wfutuR3s%

Through a shortlisting, mentoring, and judging process, the selected finalist(s) will receive hands-on support from industry partners in retail, technology, and the book trade – including The Booksellers

Association, Gardners Books, The Bookseller and Midas PR – through a concentrated programme of education and support toward building their business plan for a multichannel bookshop.

Successful applicants will be given all the tools they need to launch a bookshop that creates new and sustainable routes for diverse books to get into the hands of more readers and contribute to increased vibrancy and resilience in British communities.

Judges will include novelist, screenwriter and contributing editor to the Observer Nikesh Shukla; founder and CEO of Beautystack and The Stack World Sharmadean Reid; HarperCollins’s Talent and Audience Development Manager Nancy Adimora; The Bookseller Editor Phillip Jones; and indie booksellers at Independent Bookshop of the Year Sevenoaks Bookshop Fleur Sinclair, and Mairi Oliver owner and bookseller at Lighthouse - Edinburgh's Radical Bookshop.