Who are Ninja Book Box and what do we do?
Ninja Book Box is the UK's only subscription box focusing on amazing books from all genres published by independent publishers. It is a quarterly box containing an independently published book, 4 or more gifts made by UK based small businesses, and interviews, reviews and ninja extras. We exist to help you discover fantastic new things and explore outside your reading comfort zone, so books can be from any and all genres. We donate £1 for each box sold to our charitable partner, Give a Book.
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Ninja Bookshop is an online bookshop packed with independently published preloved books across all genres. We specialise in preloved Persephone and Folio Society books and also offer monthly preloved subscriptions for ages 8-12 (Ninja in Training), 13+ (Ninja Apprentice) and adults (Full Fledged Ninja). These are designed to give you more of the books you love while also bringing to your attention books you might not otherwise have discovered. ​
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We do our best to be as sustainable as possible and use recycled and recyclable packaging wherever we can, as well as supporting tree planting and sustainable energy projects with a monthly subscription to Ecologi. We also support UK based small business and independent publishers, to minimise the journeys that our products are taking and put money back into local economies!
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For more about our back story you can check out the Kickstarter which started it all.
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Meet the Ninjas
Rhys is Bex's partner in crime, and can often be found making suggestions. Bex has a tendency to get overly invested and attempt unrealistic schemes and Rhys keeps the book box rooted firmly in the real world. He can often be found wrapping, stencilling, and having boxes forced on him to 'just drop off at the post office' on the way to his real job.
Ninja Book Box is run by Bex and Rhys. Bex has been a reader ever since she can remember and her first memory of reading a book in one sitting is the time she read Little Women, sitting on her back doorstep when she was seven. She uses books to understand the world better and has always been an eclectic reader. She was originally a book blogger for six years before launching Ninja Book Box, a project founded entirely on her love of putting people together with good books and building a community. As well as reading Bex loves cooking, gardening, working on crazy projects (such as the London Bookshop Crawl), listening to podcasts, having adventures and walking by the sea.
Highlights
Why Independent Publishers?
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Although we love all publishers we feel a really strong affinity for small presses (if you're not sure what we mean see our blog post, What is an Independent Publisher Anyway?). More than any others, independent publishers are run for the love of books and often publish more diverse titles because of this, however because they're mostly pretty small businesses with pretty small budgets it isn't always easy to get hold of their titles. We wanted to help give them another outlet to promote their books and help you to discover fantastic books you may not otherwise pick up. We've also found that indies are very consistent in the level of what they publish, so you can very quickly build up trust with a publisher that you'll like a lot of what they put out. We'd like to think we help originate some of those relationships!
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Is it genre specific?
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No! The aim of the box is to be completely diverse in terms of genre. Books picked will be from many genres including (but not limited to) mystery, graphic novels, historical fiction, contemporary fiction, science fiction and fantasy. We will tell you in the theme reveal post what the genre of the book included in the next box will be, and you have the option to suspend your subscription for that box if it doesn't appeal, but we encourage you to be adventurous!
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Do you ship worldwide?
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At the moment, due to Brexit and pandemic related postage issues, we are only posting within the UK. We're doing our best to re-open international postage as soon as we can though, so please join our mailing list to find out when we do. ​
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I have a lot of books! I'm worried about getting duplicates...
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If you're thinking of subscribing or purchasing a box you can fill in this quick form and let us know the independent publishers you already support through subscriptions or regular purchases/reviewing ARCs etc. If we're including one of their books in a box or for book club we'll send you an email and let you know so that you can decide if you want to suspend your subscription for a month.
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I already have the book you put in my box. Can I exchange it?
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Unfortunately not. We do endeavour to include books that have received less attention and duplications are rare, but as the box is themed around the book we don't exchange books. We include lots of details in our theme reveal posts and you can always feel free to email us before th box ships with your guesses if you think you might already have the book.
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I make something awesome you should put in your box!
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Great! If you’re based in the UK and make something you think would be appropriate for a future Ninja Book Box then please get in touch via email.
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I'd like to suggest a book/publisher/genre for a future box
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Fantastic! We'd love your input, please use the contact form to get in touch. If we use a title suggestion you give us we will of course let you know so that you don't end up with unwanted duplicates of the book!
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I love Ninja Book Box and don't want to miss a single one
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We love you too! There are a couple of subscription options for you if you want to make sure you're not missing out. Firstly you can get a quarterly subscription. Currently these are available via Paypal, but if you don't have paypal and would like to get one please get in touch via the contact form as we can also invoice you quarterly. You will be billed every quarter in the month preceding the month the box ships in. Alternatively you can make sure you're signed up for our newsletters, as the month before every box ships we'll announce the theme and make single purchase boxes and mini boxes available there before anywhere else.
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I really like the concept of the box but I don't want to go too far out of my comfort zone. Is there a way to only get the boxes that appeal to me?
Absolutely! Each quarter we'll have a few boxes available for single purchase on a one-off, non subscription basis. Make sure you're signed up to our newsletter & you'll get an email when each quarter's box (and any special boxes) become available. They are always limited quantities and are first come, first served.
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I am a subscriber but this quarter's theme doesn't really appeal to me. Can I suspend my subscription for a box?
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Yes! Although we hope this won't be the case, if there is a theme that doesn't particularly grab your interest please get in touch and let us know you want to suspend your subscription for that box. Unless you let us know otherwise, it will automatically reactivate for the box after. You will still receive four boxes as part of your subscription. The same applies to recurring subscribers - just contact us to let us know you want to suspend your subscription, and when you want it reactivated and we'll make it happen.
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Why does your box have less stuff in it than other subscription boxes?
The short answer is because many independent publishers and small businesses have smaller budgets and smaller profit margins, meaning they're able to give us less discount than may be the case if we were working with bigger companies. We can promise you that everything in your box will be something we think is great quality, gorgeous, quirky and a fantastic addition to your life (of course everything won't appeal to everyone, but our gifts will definitely make excellent gifts for someone you love if that's the case!). There are no filler gifts in Ninja Book Box!
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If you have a question that hasn't been covered here, just email us and we'll do our best to answer!
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