News
World Book Night to launch in 2011
18 Oct 2010
World Book Night, a new nationwide event that will see a million books given away by 20,000 people, has been given the green light.
A group of 25 titles will be selected for a giveaway on World Book Night, and the project has secured BBC support. The event will also run in the Irish Republic, and has the backing of Irish broadcaster RTE.
The initiative is led by Canongate Managing Director, Jamie Byng. The idea came to him during a session at last summer's Book Industry Conference, when he was asked to think of ways to re-energise World Book Day.
It will be up to the givers to decide how they will distribute their 50 copies, and to whom. An initial list of 100 books will be selected by the entire book trade and the longlist will then be whittled down to 25 by an editorial committee chaired by Jim Naughtie of Radio 4's "Today Programme". The committee will include trade figures such as W H Smith's Rachel Russell, Cactus' Amanda Ross, Newcastle's head librarian plus others including Stephen Fry, Alan Yentob and geneticist Steve Jones.
Twenty of the final 25 books will be by living British and Irish writers, with five wild cards available for authors living or dead from anywhere. There will be a mix of accessible fiction and non-fiction.
Byng said:
"It will be not at all top-end literary, that would be a disaster. The books have to be of broad appeal, but of outstanding quality."
Publishers will fund their own titles if selected, although the St Ives Group and Clays have already agreed to cut prices on the print runs.
Each of the million books will have a unique reference number and a list of the other 24 titles. Recipients can upload the details of their edition to a central web-hosted database, and record further owners of the book.
A group of high-profile patrons, mainly writers, have been recruited to support World Book Night. These include Margaret Atwood, Nick Cave, Dave Eggers, Antony Gormley, Seamus Heaney, Lewis Hyde, Andrew Motion, Philip Pullman, Tom Stoppard and Tilda Swinton.
Atwood said:
"World Book Night is truly an astonishing vision! It mirrors the way books really do move in the world - from one passionate reader to another. But this one night will be white water rafting, with books!"
Byng approached various international publishers at Frankfurt about extending the project and he predicts that in 2012 perhaps 30 countries will see a World Book Night.
Read more at The Bookseller
