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graph sales figures children's book week 2019-2023 (source: KVB Boekwerk)

Children's Book Week figures drop, but KVB Boekwerk likes to tell it otherwise.

"Sales of children's books during Children's Book Week edition 2023 are higher than in 2019, 2020 and 2021. This applies to both sales through physical shops and e-commerce." KVB-Boekwerk, the research institute of Dutch Booksellers, has been publishing trend reports on the book market for a few years now. This year, for the first time, these include figures on sales of children's books,... 

The BBC's bank in Manchester (photo by author)

After the #Zomergasten with Bibi Dumon Tak, the main question remains: how to proceed with books on TV?

Adriaan van Dis with an intensely coquettish Renate Dorrestein, who (rightly) got him on the ropes with a few well-aimed pussy remarks. This excerpt from 1991 opened Zomergasten 2023 #4, and it chopped. Nostalgia all around, and during those first minutes of Theo Maassen with animal and children's book author Bibi Dumon Tak, the bar was set high. Would Theo Maassen with this... 

logo ilfu

Brand new award for translated children's and youth books

Together with the CPNB and the ILFU, the translation magazine Filter will introduce a brand new prize in 2023: the Filter Translation Prize for children's and youth books. With this, all parties underline the great importance of good translations and good children's book translators. The prize money is the same as for the existing Filter Translation Prize: 10,000 euros. The nominations will be announced in June 2023. The... 

New results of in-depth marketing research by Boekwerk KVB

CPNB annual figures: in search of the S10 of Dutch-language literature

'Dutch-language music has been unabatedly popular for years in a variety of genres; from pop to hip-hop, competing with English-language music. That's where you see what you can achieve with attention. The same can happen with books.' This quote by author Gustaaf Peek, recorded in a press release from the Authors' Union, is quite inspiring. The press release, in which the advocate of 1,750 Dutch writers... 

logo authors' union

'Dutch-language books need attention' - Authors' Association responds to CPNB figures

Stop the declining sales of Dutch-language books, ensure more attention to literature. That is the only way to reverse the trend of the CPNB figures presented on Thursday, thinks the Authors' Union, the interest group for writers and translators with 1,750 members. By 2022, 10% less Dutch-language fiction has been sold. One in five books will now be published in a language other than... 

New stage for Dutch thriller at Utrecht Library

Under the title 'The Dutch thriller awards 2021', the four most important thriller awards (Gouden Strop, Hebban Thrillerprijs, Schaduwprijs and Zilveren Strop) will be presented from the Utrecht Library on Saturday 5 June. The ceremony will mark the start of 'The Week of the Exciting Book', which begins on Monday 7 June. With 'The Dutch thriller awards 2021', the Utrecht Library, readers' platform Hebban.nl and the... 

Coronapodcast (15): Buy local, buy more and get on your bike. Bookseller Lot Douze and writer Jeroen Thijssen on reading in Corana time

Lot Douze delivers to your home. By bicycle. With her bookshop Over Het Water, she focuses very specifically on her neighbourhood, Amsterdam Noord. Now that everyone has to stay at home as much as possible because of the corona situation, she experiences an increase in demand. Online, customers in Amsterdam Noord now also know how to find her well. Because of her customer focus, she has a... 

Into the bookstore with a shopping basket. Booksellers are grasping at the straw called behavioural change.

Last December, we had no internet and no TV/netflix for a week. The Customer Disconnection Department of KPN, formerly XS4All, had not understood that a broken cable in our neighbourhood could have had anything to do with it. One of the funny effects of these fibre-less days was that I finished reading four books. Something I normally do only on... 

'Don't be too quick to think you know someone.' Six life insights from writer Rosita Steenbeek

She survived a brain haemorrhage and a serious car accident. As a result, writer Rosita Steenbeek (62) no longer has a fear of death, but an enormous zest for life. It has enriched her. By looking death in the eye, I understood that love is the most important thing in life'. 1. You can also be happy without a relationship 'I've been alone for a number of years and... 

(With PODCAST) The Netherlands worth a quarter of a billion more because of books. (And only a few writers benefit from that)

A person working at a publishing house thus generates for himself an income of 42,379.79 euros. That is slightly more than the average income of people in the book trade, who only make do with an average of 31,000 euros per person. This income is largely generated by authors and translators. These earn - on average - 1540.55 euros. Per person. Per... 

The Book Ball. Everything you must have done once in your life

There I stood. Next to THE RED LOPER. In THE PRESS box. Everything you must have done once in your life and this was MY MOMENT. THE BOOKBALL at THE CITY BURY which was renamed ITA because of the boss' career. To my left TEAM VOLKSKRANT, to my right a cute KRULLENBOL from the LINDA and in between them a journalist.... 

PODCAST! Why the paper book will never disappear

The paper book will never disappear. Of that, both Robbert Hak (Storytel) and Maarten Richel (New Book Collective) are convinced. And both are working on new ways to market books. 'The publishing world will become much more hybrid. The book, in all its different forms, should be present in as many places as possible.' Robert Hak 'The... 

Culture Council: 'The roots of the literary sector are being gnawed at'

In the week when defenders of the Dutch language are flying into each other's hair over whether or not a schoolgirl should read Multatuli in the original language, the Council for Culture comes out with its advice for the literary sector. Already in the first chapter, it reads: 'those who start reading at a young age become more language literate, start liking reading more.... 

We spend less time reading, but the bookseller doesn't notice. Is the government doing enough to promote reading, or too much? (Why e-books are still far too expensive)

'Good literacy is a prerequisite for functioning - now and in the future - in our information society and knowledge economy.' This was stated in the press release sent out by KVB Boekwerk last week. The occasion was a SCP study which showed that we in the Netherlands are again spending less time reading than a decade ago. It listed impressive percentages. 'Over... 

Premiere Double Play: how do you incorporate class struggle into a sizzling game of dominoes?

In the 1980s, when I played teacher in Curaçao for a few years, a shiver of admiration and trepidation swept through the island's intellectual upper crust. Double Play appeared, the now classic Curaçao novel by Frank Martinus Arion. It was a hit. Gerrit Komrij loved the novel. [bol_product_links block_id="bol_5924039b33ad6_selected-products" products="9200000057138048,9200000005225011″ name="harri" sub_id="arion" link_color="003399″ subtitle_color="000000″ price... You can... 

Groningen finds ideal troubleshooter for Grand Theatre crisis

They couldn't have picked a better time, there in Groningen. Because who do you call, when an overambitious theatre director has just blown the coffers of the once illustrious Grand Theatre dry, a Supervisory Board has been napping and then 22 people have been sacked because the money has run out? Then you're looking for someone with experience of that. Preferably... 

Read everything everywhere with 1 login. Book industry works on central ebook platform

It's still kind of a secret, but the website is already online. Without reference to the people behind it, but then again, we know that. So we can break the news: the CPNB (that book week club) is working with booksellers and publishers on a revolutionary platform for ebooks. This project, entitled 'Leesid', should put an end to the chaos of DRM-shit, tig different readers and tablets and bizarre ownership rules that the Dutch electronic book reader now n...

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Bare-bones news: Give Act turned from monstrosity into monster, Brabant short 30% on performing arts, North Beveland no longer buys art.

House amends gift deduction in cultural sector (...) A majority of the House wants to limit the Cabinet plans for tax deductions in the cultural sector. At the same time, it should become more fiscally attractive to make donations to sports and music associations. VVD, CDA and PVV submitted amendment proposals to this effect to the Giving Act of state secretary Frans Weekers (Finance) on Tuesday. (...) The PVV felt that far too... 

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