an unexpected but wonderful surprise…

…2019 Regional Bookstore of the Year

At the annual independent booksellers conference in Adelaide last month, we were delighted to discover we had been voted by Australian publishers as the 2019 Regional Bookstore of the Year…in the whole of Australia!

The Leading Edge Group, who coordinates the conference, asks all publishers to nominate their top 3 metro and regional stores according to the following criteria:

Successful and committed book retailing;
Excellence in in-store and online environment;
Community engagement such as book clubs/author events;
Operational expertise in areas such as buying, returns, and range management;
Creative marketing campaigns;
Engagement in LEB and publisher marketing initiatives and group events; and
Contributing to the viability of the entire book trade.

Our friends at Matilda’s Bookshop in Adelaide took out the prize for the Metro category, with runners up Readings and The Avenue Bookstore, while the other finalists in the Regional category were BooksPlus in Bathurst and The Bookshop Bowral. We were humbled to be nominated with such high quality businesses and passionate booksellers.

We would like to extend our thanks to our amazing staff and our gratitude to our wonderful community, who continue to support us by shopping local and making Farrells the Mornington institution it is.

Also announced at the annual dinner, at which we enjoyed an amazingly moving performance from Archie Roach, were the annual Indie Book Awards. The winners of these awards are chosen by independent booksellers around Austarlia, who are renowned for their love of books and reading, support new and emerging Australian authors and foster a love of quality writing. The winning books for 2019 were:

Fiction Book of the Year: Bridge of Clay by Markus Zusak
Non-fiction Book of the Year: The Arsonist by Chloe Hooper
Debut Fiction Book of the Year: Boy Swallows Universe by Trent Dalton
Illustrated Non-fiction Book of Year: Welcome to Country by Marcia Langton
Children’s Book of the Year: Lenny’s Book of Everything by Karen Foxlee
Young Adult Book of the Year: A Song Only I Can Hear by Barry Jonsberg
Overall Book of the Year (selected from the winners of all categories): Boy Swallows Universe by Trent Dalton.