A gentle plea ....

Courier Countryside Column for 24.1.14

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I went to check on sales of my smuggling book in Cranbrook recently, only to find the shop stocking it had closed down.  I called the bookshop in Rye to see if they needed more copies.  The phone was dead.  Every week another independent bookseller closes its doors.  There are now fewer than a thousand across the country.

A fellow author was decrying the death of local bookshops.  “There’s nothing like browsing”, he said.  “It’s an experience you just can’t get on Amazon.  And bookshops provide a focal point in rural areas, especially for children”.

A friend from Wadhurst told me the bookshop there only survives because staff work for nothing.  It seemed like an interesting model.  After all it works for charity shops. But when I phoned Barnetts the proprietor told me it wasn’t quite true.  “We did have a couple of volunteers in the past who were terrific”, he said.  “They were incredibly motivated because they were there for the joy of the job.  However now all our staff are paid, albeit on minimum wage”.

The economics, though, are daunting.  A hardback he gets from the wholesaler for £14.00 he retails for £18.99.  But the same book can be bought off Amazon for £9.00!  Once he even ordered a book from the online seller for a customer who offered him a small mark-up.  But even with a lot of local goodwill it’s not a model that’s sustainable.

Which makes it particularly hard for authors who have published their works themselves.  They’ve always relied on neighbourhood bookshops which, in turn, found that books on local topics by people living nearby sold relatively well.

My writer friend came up with an idea to persuade half a dozen local scribes to get together to market their books at special open days in local pubs or hotels.  If each author put in a couple of hours on the till it wouldn’t be too onerous. 

But my fear is that, without considerable publicity, no one would come.  I well remember doing a book signing at the Oxfam bookshop in Tunbridge Wells a year or so back.  The manager bought a copy out of sympathy, but I think that was my only sale in four hours.  And I’d dressed up in full smuggler costume too!

So a gentle plea; support your local bookshop and be kind to your local authors. They’re endangered species.