Mike McRoberts puts himself in the story

Newsroom

4 days ago

Booksellers! They are the salts of the New Zealand earth, decent and literate citizens with an eccentric, slightly crazed demeanour, owners and managers of bookstores which operate as the vital end point of the whole strange enterprise of pale individuals isolating themselves in small rooms for months or years to write a book that may, with good fortune and good promotion, end up in the households of the nation—the real heroes of New Zealand literature are its booksellers, who gathered at a gala dinner on Saturday night in downtown Auckland at the annual Aotearoa New Zealand Book Industry Awards.
It was a fabulous occasion, marred only by being held in a cold atrium obscurely located in the AUT campus, pretty average buffet slop for dinner, and MC Mike McRoberts, who took the opportunity to talk at great length about the forthcoming book by Mike McRoberts, as well as taking the time to remark on the children ('my beautiful daughter') and partner ('my beautiful wife') of Mike McRoberts, never once deviating from speaking with noticeable warmth and high regard for Mike McRoberts. All around the oblivious autocue jockey were people of great distinction from the cities and provinces, the A-team of New Zealand book retail and book publishing; the night, fortunately, belonged to them.
There were 15 awards. They were announced on either side of chowing down on buffet slop. I loaded up my plate with ham and bread rolls, nothing else. I attended in my all-important hat as one of the judges. It was a great honour to help celebrate bookshops and publishers and book reps and book comms people—there were even a few of those pale individuals, ie authors, in attendance. I met Chelsea Winter. She wore a gold dress and glowed like a lantern. She acknowledged that I had correctly read between the recipes of her latest book Tasty when I wrote that it was her Blue Period, a melancholic, reflective cookbook; she said her next book, Nourish, was a return to happiness. That may be so but I thought I could sense pain in her eyes. No wonder she is our most loved cookbook author; Nadia Lim is all smooth surfaces, reflects the boringness of suburban life, but Chelsea has depth, sensitivity, wisdom.
The soulful Chelsea Winter, connected to a really nice vine that hung down from the ceiling
The function opened at 6pm. The cash bar ran out at 7pm. I arrived at 7:01pm, after wandering around nearby streets for about 30 minutes looking for the 35 Mayoral Drive address—I ran into the legendary Deborah Coddington, variously an author slash bookseller slash publisher, who said she had been wandering around for nearly an hour. Cursed venue! Google Maps was no help. AUT is a dead zone and its atrium was cold and barren, a no-vibe zone, with a sign on a wall reading BRIDGE TO NOWHERE. It was a pretty accurate mood board for the book trade in 2025. Eight bookstores have closed their doors this year. 'It's been a difficult year for everybody in this room,' said a book trade veteran from the stage. Everyone agreed.
Chelsea Winter won the first award, for Tasty, winner of the biggest selling book of the year. Best audiobook went to Return to Blood by Michael Bennett narrated by Miriama McDowell, with an honourable mention to Penguin's audio adaptation of the bone people by Keri Hulme. Middle-grade fantasy adventure novel The Grimmelings by Christchurch writer Rachael King won the children's book award. Rachael accepted the award, and said, 'Can we all agree children's books are the most important books?' I do not agree.
The loudest applause of the night went to book trade legend Ross Lorimer of Archetype Book Agents, who won the sales professional of the year award, with an equally loud ovation for Jo McColl of Unity Books, who won one of four lifetime achievement awards. Four! Good grief. Each recipient (the others were Karen Ferns, Bruce McKenzie, Tony Moores) was introduced at tedious length, their many years of service exactingly noted; the night sometimes felt like a funeral service.
Mandy Myles of Bookety Book Books, who thanked her Mum when she won the trailblazing award.
Two awards recognised fresh talent. Mandy Myles of online retailer Bookety Book Books was judged winner of the bookseller trailblazer of the year award, and Jasmine Sargent (Ngāti Porou), editor at Te Herenga Waka University Press, won the publishing trailblazer of the year award. I wrote in my judging remarks, 'It was an insanely strong field but I think Jasmine gets the edge for her intense and concentrated editing work, and her commitment towards Maori literature.' The books she has edited include Michelle Rahurahu's debut novel Poorhara, and Whaea Blue by Talia Marshall. My fellow judge Anna Burkey remarked, 'Jasmine has carved out an important cultural role, providing a safe harbour and caring for her (potentially vulnerable) authors – all so impressive, and exhibits such tenacity – very worthy of industry recognition.'
The marketing and publicity strategy of the year award went to Penguin for their campaign to launch The Bookshop Detectives: Dead Girl Gone by Gareth and Louise Ward. I wrote, 'The marketing was absolutely faultless, and achieved all its objectives, with great verve and originality. It didn't seem to be a natural bestseller but the marketing really got this across the line.' Becky Innes of Penguin accepted the award and said she disagreed with my view that it didn't seem like a natural bestseller. I think it would have sunk like a rock without the incredible chutzpah put into it by the Wards, the premier entrepreneurs of New Zealand literature; strange they weren't presented with the award as well.
Hawkes Bay booksellers, and co-authors of Bookshop Detective series, Gareth and Louise Ward.
That left the two big awards of the night. HarperCollins won publisher of the year, very narrowly over Allen & Unwin. Anna Burkey wrote, 'HarperCollins had real breadth – market growth that leveraged as opposed to depended on overseas titles, the cultural commitment with Hine Toa (and how carefully that marketing campaign was executed), the shift to a NZ-based managing editor for the NZ program.' Anna was right to single out Hine Toa, the memoir by Ngāhuia Te Awekōtuku. That book gave HarperCollins the edge. Much of the evening was about the books that sold well and made money and did the business, which is only right and proper, but books are not taps, books are not tinned food, books are not shampoo and conditioner; a book such as Hine Toa is profound.
Martinborough Books & Post won the best bookshop of the year award. Huzzah to the store's owner manager Brenda Channer. Huzzah to everyone in the room. Jenna Todd from Time Out in Auckland was there. Ashleigh Young from Te Herenga Waka University Press in Wellington was there. So was Renee Rowland from Timaru Booksellers, Jenny Ainge from Next Chapter in Wanaka, Birgitta Strattman and Nevena Nikolic from NielsenIQ BookScan, Michelle Hurley from Allen & Unwin, comms supremos Sandra Noakes and Penny Hartill—the book trade is packed with interesting characters, hard workers, crazy about books. Authors come first in the assembly line but it's others who turn their work into something real and put in the hands of the most important people in the entire fragile enterprise: readers.