New Sefika Award honours legends in bookselling industry, new author

1 Sep 2016

The South African Booksellers Association along with the Publishers Association of South Africa (PASA) celebrated the annual Sefika on 30 August 2016 to honour the booksellers and publishers around South Africa that promote reading.

After a long day of hard debate and discussions around the intricacies of the book trade, held during the co-located AGMs, members of both associations gathered to celebrate the successes generated by working together and most importantly the business of the book.

New Sefika Award honours legends in bookselling industry, new author

By bringing booksellers and publishers from around the country together annually to discuss matters of general interest, the two associations are able to identify many concerns in the industry and work together towards solutions.

The two associations strive to work together to encourage healthy trade relations, which recognise the respective roles within the book value chain, of the publishers as creators and wholesale distributors, and booksellers as the retailers of books.

The evening gala event, sponsored by Nielsen, Novus Holdings, Imperial Sasfin Logistics, Geodis Wilson and SAPnet, is arranged to thank and celebrate both booksellers and publishers for the roles they play in promoting literacy and a culture of reading by producing and selling quality books in South Africa.

Bookseller Awards

Best Academic: Van Schaik Bookstore
Best Education: Boeke 24/7
Best Trade (Chain Stores): Exclusive Books
Best Trade (Independent): The Book Lounge
Library Supplier: Caxton Books

Publisher Awards

Trade Publisher: Penguin Random House
Academic Publisher: Juta & Company
Education (Large): Pearson Education SA
Education (Small): Berlut Books

Legends Awards

A new category, sponsored by Exclusive Books was profiled on this evening and this was presented to four legends in the bookselling trade, people who have dedicated their lives to selling books and to supporting everyone in the trade to do so successfully.

Benjamin Trisk, the MD of Exclusive Books regaled the audience with tales of yore before calling up Maureen Hargraves of Hargraves Library Suppliers, Henrietta Dax of Clarkes Bookshop, Fleur Mcfarlane of Exclusive Books and Peter Adams of Adams Booksellers.

Nielsen Booksellers Choice Awards

The final award for the evening, the Nielsen Booksellers Choice Award is bestowed upon a local author for a South African published book that booksellers most enjoyed selling or that sold so well that it made a difference to the bottom line of booksellers across the country. This is a very special award and the industry as a whole celebrated a new novelist, Sally Andrew, for her book Recipes for Love and Murder: A Tannie Maria Mystery. A diverting read, published by the best Trade Publisher of the year 2016: Random House South Africa.

The short-listed books were:

Death By Carbs by Paige Nick (published by Bookstorm)
Ikarus by Deon Meyer (published by Human & Rousseau)
Immer Wes by Irma Joubert (published by LAPA Publishers)
Little Suns by Zakes Mda (published by Random House South Africa)
Recipes for Love and Murder: A Tannie Maria Mystery by Sally Andrew (published by Random House South Africa)
Sweet Medicine by Panashe Chigumadzi (published by Jacana Media)