Community bookshop wins owners lifetime achievement award
Community bookshop wins owners lifetime achievement award
Forty years ago, then 25-year-old Rob Clarke had
a fateful phone call from his mother, asking him if he’d
like to run a bookshop in Paraparaumu. Tonight, he and his
wife Kaye have been jointly awarded the Lifetime Achievement
Award at the 2019 Book Trade Industry Awards, announced at
the Rydges Hotel in Auckland.
The store is now Paper
Plus Coastlands, and as well as having two other stores at
one time, they have moved six times within the mall in
Paraparaumu to bigger premises, saying the key to their
growth is ‘knowing your community…’. Rob Clarke was a
director for Paper Plus for 15 years and for Booksellers NZ
for four years, as well as being on the Book Month
Board.
Booksellers NZ Chair Juliet Blyth says, ‘Kaye
and Rob Clarke were in the business of ‘community
bookselling’ way before it became a slogan. The changes
and challenges in the bookselling landscape in the years
that Kaye and Rob have been in business would cause many to
falter. That Kaye and Rob have weathered these storms is
testament to their innate understanding of the needs of
their customers, their business nous and obvious passion for
what they do.’
Book Trade Awards judges NZ Arts Council Chair Michael Moynahan, librarian Simie Simpson, and Australian Booksellers Association CEO Robbie Egan, said of the bookshops and booksellers nominated: ‘It is heart-warming to see so many great bookshops in Aotearoa and we know that a good bookshop is not just a physical building, it is created by the heart and drive of fabulous staff.’
Nielsen New Zealand Bookseller of the Year
went to Unity Books Auckland, who had a baby last year in
the form of dedicated children’s bookshop, little unity.
Egan said, ‘Well-known and loved for their fabulous
curation and personal style… they do all the right things
in the digital space, but their commitment to the physical
world is their absolute strength, from their service to
their community engagement.’
The winner of Nielsen
New Zealand Publisher of the Year is also the biggest
publisher in the New Zealand industry, Penguin Random House
NZ.
Egan said ‘They impressed the judges with the
quantity and quality of their New Zealand publishing, their
commitment to te reo Māori publishing, their award-winning
authors and the launch of 17 debut authors. Their customers
noted their timely deliveries, great communication and even
their charm and personality!’
The Book Industry
Awards also celebrated some inspiring younger members of
both the Bookselling and Publishing industries. Surinam
Reddy from Time Out Bookstore received Young Bookseller of
the Year, for her initiative and drive and ‘exemplary
interpersonal skills.’ And Young Publisher of the Year
went to Kimberley Davis, from Allen & Unwin NZ, ‘an
impressive young publisher’ who instinctively creates
books that compete in a competitive marketplace.
‘If
booksellers and publishers were a cake,’ said judge Simie
Simpson, ‘sales reps would be the gooey filling in the
middle.’ The winner of Sales Rep of the Year 2019 is
Louise Crisp from Penguin Random House NZ. Simpson adds,
‘Her experience working in bookshops has given her a broad
perspective of the life-cycle of a book, and her positivity
stands out.’
The Marketing and Publicity Strategy of
the Year goes to Allen and Unwin New Zealand for their
campaign on Magnolia Kitchen, by Bernadette Gee. Moynahan
said, ‘The winner of this award showed how innovation and
strategic thinking can create incredible results. This was a
creative and targeted campaign that was well-planned and
executed.’
For the first year ever, a Book Festival
has won the Book Industry Innovation Award: WORD
Christchurch Festival. Simpson said, ‘What struck the
judges the most about the winner of this award was the
incredible diversity they have packed into the programme.’
WORD Festival takes on all forms of writing, all age groups,
all genders and genres. ‘It is a spectacular amalgam of
the world of words, writing and humanity.’
A full
list of the winners:
Nielsen Bookshop of the Year –
Unity Books Auckland
Nielsen Publisher of the Year –
Penguin Random House NZ
Sales Rep of the Year – Louise
Crisp, South Island Rep, Penguin Random House NZ
Marketing and Publicity Strategy of the Year – Allen &
Unwin NZ, for Magnolia Kitchen
Young Publisher of the
Year – Kimberley Davis, Allen & Unwin NZ
Young
Bookseller of the Year – Surinam Reddy
Book Industry
Innovation Award – WORD Christchurch
Lifetime
Achievement Award – Rob and Kaye Clarke, Paper Plus
Coastlands
ENDS