The Editor’s Blog

Will Bookshops Ever Die Out?

Will Bookshops Ever Die Out?

by Shakira Morar No one in the industry can certainly say whether bookshops will die out—and if they do, when […]

5 Ways the Publishing Industry Can Have a Better Impact on the Environment

5 Ways the Publishing Industry Can Have a Better Impact on the Environment

by Alicja Sowinska In the past few decades, many of us have become aware of environmental issues such as pollution […]

What Makes a Good Self-Help Book?

What Makes a Good Self-Help Book?

by Phoebe Geary Whether you want to restructure your lifestyle, maximise your true potential, or simply boost productivity, self-help books […]

The Best Independent Bookshops in the West Midlands

The Best Independent Bookshops in the West Midlands

For readers, there are few things lovelier in life than visiting a beautiful indie bookshop, browsing their selection, and leaving […]

A Book Lover’s Guide to a British Staycation

A Book Lover's Guide to a British Staycation

We think bookworks deserve to get the getaway plans of their dreams, and luckily, the UK has some of the […]

6 Nonfiction Books to Celebrate LGBTQIA+ Authors

Six Nonfiction Books to Celebrate LGBTQ+ Authors

The Shifting Tides of Queer Stories in Publishing There is still a way to go in securing equal rights for […]

How to Break into the Publishing Industry without Any Experience

How to Break into the Publishing Industry without Any Experience

In the current climate, it can seem like jobs are scarce and opportunities are few and far between, even for […]

What 2020 Made Me Realise about Life and Business

What 2020 Made Me Realise about Life and Business

While most people will be happy to see the back of 2020, there’s no denying that it forced many people […]

Eight “Lessons in Stoicism”: How to be a better human

Lately, the Ancient Greek and Roman philosophy of Stoicism has become surprisingly popular. In our world of excess, of always […]

Physical Books vs. e-books: which are more popular?

The first Kindle appeared on our shelves in 2007—and since then, the debate has raged: which format is more popular, […]

13 Business Lessons I Learned from Sun Tsu’s “The Art of War”

13 Business Lessons I Learned from Sun Tsu's The Art of War

In the world of nonfiction, there are a handful of classic books that it’s assumed one should read. One of […]

7 Brain Hacks to Better Remember What You’ve Read

Ever read an interesting, inspiring, or informative nonfiction book, then just a few weeks later find that you’ve forgotten most […]

Richard Templar’s “The Rules of Life”: Self-help at its best

Self-help is the Marmite of the book world. It seems that readers either ravenously consume self-help books or find them utterly unhelpful. […]

Let’s Talk about Race: My thoughts on “Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People about Race” as a mixed-race female book editor

The news hit last week that Reni Eddo-Lodge had become the first black British author to ever top the UK paperback non-fiction […]

Stranger than Fiction: Did E.M. Forster’s “The Machine Stops” predict the future?

While nonfiction is our bag at The Book Shelf, E.M. Forster’s The Machine Stops is stranger than fiction. It has an uncanny resemblance […]

The E-Myth: The book every business owner needs to read

When it comes to business books, there’s no shortage of options available to entrepreneurs, wantrepreneurs, and small business owners hoping […]

Nihilism, the New Cool? 4 nihilistic lessons for our COVID-19 world

In our world of #fakenews and #posttruth, the 19th Century philosophical bad boy of nihilism has reared its head. Nihilism stems from the Latin […]

7 Lessons from the Stoics on How to Cope with COVID-19

Over recent years, the Ancient Greek philosophy of Stoicism has gained a new lease of life. 3rd Century BC ideas are now motivational quotes on Pinterest and proposed in mainstream books […]