Bookshop.org reveals books, authors, organisations that championed UK independent bookshops the most in 2022

Online bookstore Bookshop.org has announced the winners of the inaugural Indie Champions Awards, recognising the individuals and organisations that have supported UK independent bookshops the most via its site in 2022.

Spanning ten categories in total, the winners are:

AUTHORS

• Fiction 

• Gabrielle Zevin, author of Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow

• Highly Commended: Alice Oseman, creator of the Heartstopper series

• Non-fiction

• Cal Flynn, author of Islands of Abandonment

• Children’s

• Dara McAnulty, author of Diary of A Young Naturalist

• Lifestyle and Culture

• Brian Bilston, author of Days Like These

PUBLISHERS

·       Overall Publisher

• Hodder & Stoughton

• Highly Commended: Thames & Hudson

• Publisher Professional of the Year

• Richard Green, Independent Bookshop and Wholesaler Manager at Pan Macmillan

• Highly Commended: Katrina Northern, Marketing Manager at Vintage

PODCASTS

• Backlisted

• Highly Commended: Literary Friction

INNOVATIVE USE OF BOOKSHOP.ORG

• The Booker Prizes

• Highly Commended: Hay Festival

INDIE CHAMPION LIST OF THE YEAR

·       BBC Two Between The Covers: Autumn 2022 Book Club Picks

INDIE CHAMPION TITLES OF THE YEAR

·       Days Like These by Brian Bilston

·       The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell

·       The Story of Art without Men by Katy Hessel

·       The Satsuma Complex by Bob Mortimer

·       Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

·       The Bullet That Missed by Richard Osman

·       Food for Life: The New Science of Eating Well  by Tim Spector

·       Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan

·       The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka

·       Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason

·       Regenesis: Feeding the World without Devouring the Planet by George Monbiot

·       Femina by Janina Ramirez

·       Young Mungo by Douglas Stuart

·       The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak

·       What Just Happened?!: Dispatches from Turbulent Times by Marina Hyde

·       Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

·       One: Pot, Pan, Planet by Anna James

·       To Paradise by Hanya Yanagihara

·       Where the Wildflowers Grow: My Botanical Journey Through Britain and Ireland by Leif Bersweden

·       Madly, Deeply: The Alan Rickman Diaries by Alan Rickman 

For the full list of 100 Indie Champion Titles of 2022, click this link.

Nicole Vanderbilt, Managing Director at Bookshop.org UK, says: “As we reveal the winners of the inaugural Indie Champion Awards, we’d like to congratulate them all on embracing our platform and using it to support independent bookshops.”

“We hope the awards will inspire more people across the industry to engage with Bookshop.org in making a concrete difference to independent bookshops.”

She adds: “Earlier this month, the Booksellers Association revealed that the number of indies in the UK and Ireland has hit a ten year high.”

“We’re incredibly excited about the steady growth of indies on our high streets, but we are also aware of the acute challenges they are facing right now: recession, inflation, labour shortages and massive cost increases to name a few.”

“As almost two in three books are bought online in the UK today, Booshop.org exists to ensure indies not only survive, but also thrive, by enabling them to get a greater share of online sales is a big part of that.”