I run two bookshops which face each other across a passageway in the market where I work. Next to the smaller one is a mobile phone accessories shop and next to the larger one a sweet shop. At least once a month I hear a conversation along the lines of a small child exclaiming to its parents that they can see a bookshop or library and then I hear them being told in no uncertain terms that if the child wants a case for their mobile phone they will not be going into the bookshop. Sometimes I see the child in question and cannot believe one so young should possess a mobile phone in the first place.

You can imagine for yourself a similar scenario where sweets triumph over books.

You have to hear for yourself the contempt some parents have for books and reading and I can be forgiven for thinking that some parents actively dissuade their children from having such an interest.

Sometimes teenagers walk past with  the first saying something about my books and the second saying something like they’ve never read a book in their life. By the sound of it they never intend to either. And see it as a badge of honour of sorts. When 50 Shades of Grey came out it became very clear that there are middle aged women who have never read a book or been in a bookshop before so I know it is not just a recent thing.

All is not doom and gloom – there are still millions of children’s books bought, borrowed and read every year by children and teenagers and last year there was some even better news. James Pattterson, arguably the most successful crime writer of the recent times, announced that he would be donating £250,000 to independent bookshops in the UK and Ireland. If your shop had a dedicated children’s section and a turnover of less than a million pounds you were eligible to apply. All you had to do was explain how you would use the £250 – £5000 if you were successful. He stated quite explicitly that he was particularly interested in funding schemes that would encourage children to read.

I had the idea of using whatever money I received to offer a 50% discount to anyone of school age buying a book. So if a book was bought for a fiver I would charge them £2.50 and take the balance from what I had been given and continue to do so until all the money had gone.

Wouldn’t it be great if such a scheme was expanded so that other authors put up money in a similar way. It needn’t be limited to independent shops or concentrate on children’s books. Whatever gets children reading to encourage their interests and hobbies or help them discover new ones can only be good for everyone in the long run.

The only trouble is that I know no rich authors or anyone working in the publishing world. But maybe you do or perhaps you belong to an author’s fan club or can think of some way I can’t to get others like James Patterson to participate in a similar sort of scheme.