Monday, June 23, 2008

bunch of bloody amateurs

It's not rocket science but tell me I'm wrong. How few small bookshops are there present, both on the streets or with a presence on the web? How hard has it become these days to find a decent bookshop where you can walk in & talk about books or, alternatively find a decent selection without being talked to when you don't want to be harassed? How hard is it to find a decent all-round bookseller full stop?

Large chain bookstores, mass market publishers & wannabe booksellers (Tesco) are the worst bunch of amateurs I've ever seen. They are completely incapable of understanding that you can't replace a poor-selling title with larger numbers of a better selling title. Try selling someone who comes in to buy a copy of say Tarjei Vesaas' Ice Palace a copy of Butcher's Blood River. Or the new autobio of Cherie Blair. Won't work. In fact I read a great quote in one of the free London papers when Mrs. Blair's autobio was coming out. "Let's face it," the reviewer wrote, "We'd all rather read Jordan's latest book than Cherie's book." Which says plenty for choice of reading material as well as English politics. I'm not slagging off the state of English politics, as I'm terrifically glad to be part of the harmony in this dynamic society. Amazon are even worse. We've all seen the ephitet "People who bought this book also bought..." It all smacks  of desperation. Amazon know how untenable their situation is at the pole of international bookselling. Why else would there be ten million little buttons and extra little bits on any given page you visit on the Amazon site? In order for the structure of Amazon to work the consumer needs to be overawed by the vast domain incorporated into the site. If the consumer were not in awe of the massive co-ordination required of such a behemoth & damned certain of Amazon as being the easiest as well as the cheapest the whole premise of the virtual shop would all fall apart. In fact, I'm pretty certain that were such a realisation to take place, ten minutes of searching around on the web would find  an alternative that was either quicker, cheaper, local, more ethical or simply more convenient.

With such a heavy emphasis on supporting local businesses it is possible that small independent bookshops will gradually find it possible to entice local customers back through their physical & virtual doors. It is also entirely possible that Amazon will remain the Microsoft of virtual commerce & that small bookshops will become somewhat ephemeral installations before they close down. Bookshops will always be around somewhere in the background the question really is how long will they be around for & how reliable will the service be? Can owners of already large & established stores who let's face facts only need to manage profit  margins be persuaded that bookselling as a profession is a viable alternative to shifting numbers?

Or, and here's something that I would personally find fitting, let's have phd candidates in tweed jackets & bespectacled arty students behind the desks at Tesco's pushing Dickens and Hunter S. Thompson. Let's have Amazon sending free sample chapters of Ibsen along with the latest tome on the Bush dynasty. If you're going to do something might as well do it all the way.
Posted by littlesnapper at 23:22:06 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

Wednesday, June 04, 2008

Slapping Dawkins

"This book is too old! It can't be that much" Yes and the idiot brigade strikes me effortlessly out again. The above was immediately followed by, "I'm sorry but I'm just going to get it up the road at Borders".

First of all: If you're not buying the book stop fingering it. You'll scuff it & devalue it & it's just badmannered.

Second of all: Stop glaring at me as if I took your daughters virginity; I know I make up the prices but I make them up according to a specific set of rules and in any case she should be so lucky. In all likelihood I wouldn't touch her with someone elses.

Finally: Just get out. Use the two brain cells you have to rub together enough motion to just get out the door. After that you're someone else's problem. Not the bar around the corner because I go there andwould prefer never to see your face again.

"It is a bit steep sir, I agree," I gingerly take back the offending article, "Though may I suggest Foyles rather than Borders? The staff there are so much more knowledgeable about these things."

The thing about bookshops & I'm not sure if I've mentioned saying this before is that the perfect bookshop has no customers in it. I'm not saying I don't want to sell any books but I really wish there were a vetting process for really rare & beautiful books that you had to sell. Selling a new book is just so much of a different process. Selling something rare that you have cared for, restored, read, kept on your shelf, investigated the history of, feel close to... A new book is one among millions that you can ship to anyone of a discerning palate. You're not necessarily selling a book as you are selling your customer the time to read that particular book. Don't get me wrong, the contents are important, but in only so far as the text goes.

A rare book. Something of which maybe only 1,500 was printed. Of which most have rotted away due to awful paper standards and worse bindings. The dustjacket still entirely intact. With a rare book every square micometer of anything visible or not is important and noticed. Filed away in the booksellers memory for future reference. If it's a good book or even a very good book, not just a big title or name like Woolf or Salinger, its rarity becomes sharper. An object almost worthy of worship. Iconic. Think Jimi Hendrix 1968 Fender Stratocaster.

Perhaps for the rest of the world this is not so. But I don't walk into mosques & churches & monasteries proclaiming loudly the futility of their religion. Or slap Richard Dawkins in the face for being Richard Dawkins. Live & let live, I say. I once had an argument with God in a church at full volume but She was the only one around. It's not important that someone doesn't believe in what a book does, what's important is that I do. I want to slap Dawkins in the face because I believe he's well intentioned but I respectfully sell his books & get paid for doing so brimming with good vibrations. It's the only way to get a customer to come back so's I can set them on the right track.

Finally here's a bookseller story I heard somewhere:

Boy walks up to a bookseller & asks if he has a book in stock. Bookseller isn't entirely sure he heard right so asks the boy to repeat the title he's looking for.

Boy: Do you have the Lion the Witch & the Warzone?

Bookseller (sighing heavily): Young man the book I'm going to sell you is considerably less interesting than the one you have in mind.
Posted by littlesnapper at 01:55:46 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Listening to the people

Alright. So I've listened to the comments, deleted some of them. If I delete your comment it's only cos I want to be stringent about it. Also it's amazing how much readers are saying the same thing. What we need is an open forum and it will come soon on the website. I'm impressed anyone can decipher my unwriterly scrawl.

Yesterday another old Irish guy comes into my shop. He's from Bournemouth and apparently the name of his shop fell down and he's never bothered replacing it. During the day he sits in the Brazilian café next door while the sign in the window of his shop lets you know where to reach him. "I made my money long ago," says he to me, "If I didn't own the damn building I would have been out long ago." Pulling out another book from the shelf he literally shouts at me. "This was remaindered thirty years ago, WH Smith had a bin full of them for threepence each." He shoves the film tie-in Raymond Chandler back on the shelf. "Bought loads of them an still have them." We started talking about the state of bookselling &c &c. It's a conversation that always follows the same lines and doen't do much to deviate but it's always a fresh topic that all booksellers like to harp on. "It's sad when you can see in The Bookseller that you can buy a shop with all its stock," and this is the shocking bit, "for cost."

It's true. If you wanted to buy a bookshop and had enough cash to do it, there's no stopping you. In fact now is the time, my friends, to take advantage in a business-like manner of other people's misery. Buy the goddamned bookshop you've always wanted with your friends. Learn from the business model of such shops as Shakespeare&Co and the folksdown at the lovely, though for me still unseen, Atlantis Books and start trading. Trade online and trade hand to hand. Door to door if you need to. Convince people to read Ezra Pound just because you love the idea that life slips by like a field mouse/ not shaking the grass, and because you need to meet the rent this month. You will learn so much from yourself it'll be surprising. Give it a while and you'll have been elevated by your craft, humbled by the fact that you will never 'make money' from the trade and will have read such diffferent genres, books of all kinds, learned to tell a book by its cover, the year by the paper. All automatically becoming intrinsic. That's the great thing about bookselling. All you'll ever need to know about what you're doing is right there in the copy you're holding in your hands. Hardback, paperback, dustjacket and without, broadsheet, poster, artwork. Then you'll get around to the cynicism that lets face it, you have to deal with in any trade though none schools you quite as thoroughly as the book trade. You'll believe that the only bookshop is one without anyone in it (for various reasons). That the majority of the book-reading public are idiots led by the fresh-slaughter scent of mass-production-fed marketing. Can you believe that The Reluctant Fundamentalist been promoted on poster with the words"the Man Booker nominee that everyone is talking about." or that "no one can go without reading. And it's working!!! since the ad came out people are buying that book over others! Lambs, if you'll excuse my french. The only thing that stands between the vat of disinformation is you. The bookseller. 'Nuff said.

Hell, if you want help setting up an independent book venture just give me a shout and I can put you in touch with like-minded people.

In my last post I said the book trade was in recession. The Boss is in financial difficulties. He fired and rehired me in the same phone conversation yesterday. Today I hit the streets looking for another job. No one will be immune to my charm. Bookshop owners will fall at my feet and beg me to come work for them. My extensive list of contacts will cohesively gel into a beautiful greased up mechanism that will enable to choose my pick of whom-so-ever I please. Pray for me.

And finally the plug. I hope y'all get some good reading tips from the text of this blog but in case they've all been too subtle and/or you don't have time to be chasing these things up here's a quick tip:

Last in the Emitron series and produced by the outrageously talented boys at Borbonesa, indie publishers, indie booksellers, bibliofanatics. It's enough to make you sick with envy and jealousy. Did I mention they were beautiful too? Yep, all Swedish blondes who'll welcome you with open breasts should you ever make the pilgrimage down to Brighton to see them. Just mention you bought Emitron 4 and you'll be in like Flynn. It's 3.5 UK pounds so that means it's within grasp of everyone. It's a beautifully intricate little designed booklet that contains all the sum of knowledge in the universe which veers somewhere close to the direction of art. As much a collector's piece and artwork as much as a book buy two, one to read,& one to keep in the original packaging. You would be an idiot to have them sell all of the numbered first editions without you having one for yourself. I got mine in the post yesterday so I'm good. You heard it here first.

Posted by littlesnapper at 11:10:20 | Permanent Link | Comments (2) |