Along with the Auckland Writers Festival, the booksellers conference is like Christmas for those of us whose lives revolve around writers and authors, and most important readers! Taking place across two days it’s a chance for booksellers from across the motu to come together to connect and to learn from industry leaders. It’s also a weekend of important announcements and updates, and a chance to connect with publishers too! It was my first time attending along with our amazing Shirl and Dylan. This was the 103rd New Zealand booksellers conference and it was a privilege to be there.
Here are 5 things I took away from the day:
1. Romance is here to stay. After a fascinating panel on romance and whether it’s a book selling bubble or bedrock I have put myself firmly in the camp that romance is not just a fad but an important part of reading culture that has long been looked down at and shrouded in shame. Now we have embraced romance readers and realised that the romance genre is one of the most delightful and inclusive genres out there, I know it’s not going anywhere and I hope more bookshops make romance readers welcome in their beautiful bookshops.
2. The artwork reveal for Bookshop Day 2026 and a brand new tote. After we came back from lunch it was a JOY to find poptastic totes on our chairs with the reveal of the incredibly vibrant and eye catching illustration by Coco Solid (who also happens to be the author of amazing book How to Loiter in a Turf War). It’s made me even more excited for another year of celebrating bookshops and booksellers and the importance of our amazing reading community.
3. Booksellers are an amazing bunch of humans. Chatting with and hearing from booksellers from around the motu (and over the Tasman!) reminded me how wonderful book people are. Hearing about the little corners of our bookish community and the ways that booksellers persist in the face of challenges like the fuel and cost of living crisis, and the logistic issues of where we are in the world and the impact on being able to get books into our bookshops, filled me with hope. As a collective you could feel the spirit in the room, a spirit of coming together to continue to get books into the hands of more readers, continuing to adapt and innovate and get creative.
4. The need for transparency with AI and books. We had a fascinating session with Sam Irvine from Tawhia Copyright NZ and he shared some of the insights into the challenges faced by authors, publishers, and readers, in the age of AI - as well as some of the possible solutions. My main takeaway was that we need transparency - transparency from big tech about what they are using to train their programmes, as well as transparency from authors and publishers to make it easy for us to choose human authored work.
5. The need for us all to be reading activists! We collectively Sat and listened in a breathless way to Katie de Goldie (writer of incredible books like Eddy Eddy) who gave us the most incredibly articulated war cry for why now, more than ever, we need to consider ourselves as reading activists and we need to encourage others to become passionate pushers of reading too. She talked about the grim realities of children and adults not reading as much anymore, and how the key to a thriving and thoughtful and empathetic society is one which reads for pleasure. It sparked so many things for me and left me with pages of scrawled ideas, reflections, and questions - the sign of the perfect presentation.
I’m so grateful to Booksellers NZ for their mahi in bringing the bookselling community together to share and learn and connect.
It was my first time but I hope it’s not my last! ❤️
