The Books Council of Wales is monitoring developments closely and implementing a series of special measures in response to the latest situation and guidelines.

The Books Council of Wales is monitoring developments closely and implementing a series of special measures in response to the latest situation and guidelines.

The aim is to take appropriate steps to ensure our core mission of supporting the publishing industry continues, while doing all that is practically possible to help reduce the potential spread of the virus and safeguard our staff and stakeholders.

• Our Distribution Centre for books and resources in Glanyrafon, Aberystwyth, is still operating but is closed to external visitors, with the exception of pre-arranged essential collections and deliveries to a designated area. If you need to make any such arrangement, please contact the Centre on 01970 624455 or distribution.centre@books.wales.

• From Wednesday 18 March 2020, the majority of staff based in our main offices at Castell Brychan in Aberystwyth are working from home. They continue to provide our usual services such as book editing, design and grant administration, and their work contact details remain the same (both telephone and email).

• Castell Brychan is closed to visitors during this period. Staff will not be travelling to face-to-face meetings with external contacts and will use video or phone systems for such meetings. Our contact details for general enquiries are 01970 624151 or castellbrychan@books.wales.

• We have cancelled or postponed all public events until the end of May, including book launches and school visits. We will re-assess the situation in the light of circumstances at the time but in the meantime, we are planning and discussing alternative arrangements for the promotion of books and reading.

• We are in regular contact with publishers, booksellers, distributors and others to ensure that we fully understand the challenges they face and work with them to offer advice and practical support. We encourage the industry in Wales to get in touch with us to discuss any business concerns they may have.

• For those who are self-isolating and looking for reading material, we have a series of reading lists on our gwales.com website. These curated lists include publications suitable for all ages and interests, as well as our latest best sellers, new titles, books of the month, reviews and more.

We know this is an extremely challenging period for everyone and that the situation is likely to continue for some time to come.

Our mission as the Books Council of Wales remains unchanged, and we will do all that we can to support the publishing industry and our community during these worrying, uncertain days.

 

HELGARD KRAUSE

Chief Executive, Books Council of Wales