Unity Books of Wellington won the 2009 Independent Bookseller of the Year Award at the annual Booksellers NZ Conference in Auckland. Sponsored by international book industry services group, Thorpe-Bowker, the award was one of a series that saw Dymocks Booksellers Newmarket winning the Group Bookshop of the Year. Bruce McKenzie Booksellers of Palmerston North won the North Island regional award and Page and Blackmore of Nelson, the South Island award. Other award winners were: Agent/Distributor Representing Overseas Publishers, Archetype/Allen & Unwin; Promotional and Sales Support, Penguin Group New Zealand ; Publisher of the Year, Random House New Zealand; Sales Rep of the Year (North Island), Rachel Cooper, Penguin; Sales Rep of the Year (South Island), Louise Crisp, Penguin.

Also at the conference, Jill Trevelyan's Rita Angus: An Artist's Life (published by Te Papa Press) won the Nielsen Book Data NZ Booksellers Choice award with other finalists being Kate De Goldi's The 10 pm Question (Longacre Press) and Monty Souter's Nga Tama Toa: the Price of Citizenship (David Bateman).