Hello, it is I, your friendly neighbourhood spiderman bookshop girl and this is the next update live from the bookshop.
Surprise! It’s another blustery day on the Fylde Coast. Surprise, Surprise! There’s loads of rain due later on. But let’s think positive and hope that by the end of today’s bulletin, I’m announcing Surprise, Surprise, Surprise; we’ve sold loads of books.
These posts will remain free, with comments open so you can send me queries like ‘What’s a lovely children’s book for Halloween that isn’t scary?’1 and ‘er… actually, is your mum here?’
As we’ve had no customers yet this morning I’m checking the latest sales through our online service via Bookshop.org. People often ask if it’s better for the shop if they buy from us direct or through Bookshop.org and I’m happy to clarify;
The optimal way to shop with us would be in our shop, ideally buying all the ancient stock that hasn’t moved in years which now is worth zero money in our stock value, and therefore represents a cracking profit to us as a business if we ever shift it.
Next best is that you buy anything in the shop, because this is stock we’ve already paid for, and we need to sell it to recover that money. No worries if not.
If we haven’t got your book, ordering with us direct is great because we can order your title from the supplier and they’ll give us our usual okay terms and we can get it sent out directly to your address if you’re not a local customer. Score!
But the next best thing, and really it’s close to that in terms of benefit for us as a business, is your order through Bookshop.org, which is a third-party website that we link to (because we don’t have a snazzy website with a shop because I’m technologically inept) which sells stock from our wholesaler direct to customer, but still gives us a cut if it’s through our profile, and even a tiny cut if it isn’t.
So if you’re shopping on Bookshop.Org and you can see my shop’s logo in your top left-hand corner, my business is getting a slice of that sale that is almost as good as if you were ordering it from me directly. Not quite as good, but it’s certainly an important part of overall takings for the month and deeply important to our business on the days the footfall is non-existent, plus it’s a lot more convenient for you as a remote customer than ringing the shop and having to make a card payment over the phone, which is a headache because I have to ring you back on the other line. All the links I use on this Substack are to our Bookshop.Org profile, and we are so grateful for all the sales that we take there.After Bookshop.Org and the actual bookshop, the next best way to support us is to shop at your own local independent bookshop, because a healthy eco-system of real bookshops across the country really does helps us all. Honestly. It matters.
(man speaking to another adult)
“That’s that Gruffalo there, look. He’s in a book.”
11 am. No customers yet. One man walked into the shop, but he said “no, this isn’t it” and left again.
Nice lady from the hairdresser next door pops in with a parcel that the postman left before I was here. It’s an envelope full of proofs from my favourite children’s publisher, Walker Books. Ok, ok, so they’re also my (forthcoming) publisher, but I promise, I was in love with them way before they wanted to publish me.
Here’s what they’ve sent me today:
Goddess Crown by Shade Lapite, Stitch by Padraig Kenny, an abridged verison of Charlotte Bronte’s classic Jane Eyre by Patrice Lawrence, and Little Bang by Kelly McCaughrain, which I’m most tempted by - this author gets the thumbs up from Susin Nielsen who’s one of my absolute top writers for teenagers.
They’ve also sent me this Bear biscuit and a brew which is ideally timed for…er… now!
A lady comes in to look for books about soup. It should be gifty, and soup-specific. The one I immediately think of is temporarily out of stock (lol), but I find a few alternatives for her to stir through. While that purchase is simmering, she also needs a present for a baby. We decide that Oliver Jeffers’ Book of Animal is fabulous because the pages are sturdy, the fox on the F page looks pleasingly startled, and the X animal isn’t a cop-out. Can you guess what it is?
A lady rings the shop because a bookshop “up in Scotland” had told her she could order books from us, which she proceeds to do. Five novels! My best sale of the day by far. So, thank you, mystery bookshop in Scotland that pointed us out to her - she couldn’t remember the name of the shop, but see what I said about a healthy bookshop culture supporting other shops - I didn’t even mean it as literally as this!
Sold a copy of Patrick Stewart’s recent memoir, Making It So.2 I only mention this so I can tell you about the computer we used to have at home, where my dad had replaced the alert noises with clips from Star Trek TNG, which meant when something went wrong and an angry notification popped up, Lieutenant Worf said “Abort!”
Uh oh, what’s this? Penguin are re-releasing some already phenomenally successful books with tempting new jackets, ffs. Personally, I’m not really one for re-buying beloved books in swanky editions unless you need a new copy but as I never reread anything I never do. But, I can understand that when you want to press a beloved book onto someone else, a nicer way to do that is with a gorgeous gift edition. These Quarterbound Classics do include two of my personal favourites (this and this) so while I’d rather you spent your weekend pocket money on a debut author or an indie paperback original, I ho ho hope you buy these for all of your friends at Christmas.
A dad on finishing the transaction: “I might be back in a bit because we’re just off to return our library books but I think my son has shelved one of them in your shop.”
Because I am always here on my own, when I need to go for a wee, I lock the shop and stick a little post-it note on the sign saying ‘back in a minute’. This is not because I don’t want to confuse a customer who might enter a shopkeeperless shop, but because I worry that the moment that I’ve shut myself into the bathroom will be the same moment a gang of burglars will enter the shop to rob it and find that, rather conveniently, the proprietor is already stored away in an easily kept-shut-cupboard. Thinking this theory through a bit further, maybe I’d rather be safe in a lockable cupboard if burglars were to descend on the shop, but also I just want to wee in peace.
In disgusting lunch news I bit into a chunk of undissolved soup powder thinking it was a lovely mushroom. Abort!
As you can tell there isn’t much in the way of customers. It’s 1.30 pm. But I took a remote order from my friend Elizabeth of
which is always a pleasure.It’s 2.30 now. I sold a couple of greetings cards that weren’t interesting enough to warrant an entry on this report and yet here they are anyway forcryingoutloud.
Don’t know what’ll happen to little bookshops like that.
passerby. passing by.
Ooh, a flurry! Multiple prams in the shop. People saying ‘excuse me’ and ‘sorry’ and a nice gentleman in a hat who said “don’t worry - I remember it well” and looking kindly upon the small children who only seem chaotic because they are trying to get out of a door frame that is too narrow to fit their exuberance.
Few more books sold. A card. A Finger puppet. It’s getting darker by the minute but I don’t know if it’s a storm brewing or just Winter starting its slow smother of our evenings.
A big gang of old ladies (probably not burglars) is looking in the window and I’m desperate for them to come in because I bet they’d say brilliant things but they’re already walking off taking all their wisdom with them as I type this. I’m sad because one time I had a gang of five old ladies in the shop and one of them pointed to this book and said “that’s us” and it still makes me laugh to this day.
You can support my bricks and mortar bookshop by buying your books via this link, and you can support me as a writer by taking out a paid sub to this Substack.
Paid subscribers get access to my other writing and book recommendations and my online book club for less than the price of a latte.
Pick a Pumpkin by Patricia Toht and Jarvis - my seasonal favourite.
via our Bookshop.Org page, Mum if you’re wondering why there’s still a copy in the shop.
Late to this, sorry Katie, but lovely as always. Those classics sure look preeety.
First of all, thank you for ranking the options to support local bookstores because I’ve been wondering that for ages. Second of all, is the Patrick Stewart memoir any good?? It could check the box of Christmas gift for both my dad and my husband, who are notoriously difficult for me to buy for.