It was Love Reading 4 Kids who alerted me to Independent Booksellers Week. I usually manage to jump in on various US book celebrations, but it was one of my new year’s resolutions to become more involved with the UK book scene, and so far I’ve done very little.
Do you have an independent bookseller you know and trust? Do you drop in and browse, discuss new books by authors you’ve bought from there? Do you search out old books that are hard to find? I used to… one of them is even featured in the cover of the website for Independent Booksellers Week. Since I moved to Norfolk, though, I haven’t located one – mainly because I live nowhere near any shopping streets (we have a village newsagent with lots of other things in there). But then again, I haven’t looked.
It’s so easy to shop online for books, isn’t it? They arrive in a nice neat package a couple of days later, and it’s so nice to have the postman hand the package to you with a cheerful comment. Well, my postman does (and his name is Paul, on the off chance he reads this blog 🙂 ). Then of course, there’s your eReader. I currently have 225 books on mine!
When I go into Norwich I usually spend a good hour or two in Waterstones even if I’m not really wanting to buy books. Somehow I usually leave with a couple. Then of course you can also sit and have a nice coffee at the Costa franchise inside. It’s also extremely handy for getting the hourly bus back to my village.
But independent booksellers are a discussion point – especially for indie authors. Should we support them on principle? Should we make them out best friends? Isn’t the book world changing fast and can they keep up?
Well, if indie authors want to be part of that change, maybe we should support our indie bookshops too.
Whether you’re in the UK or not, support your indie bookshop. And if you’re in the UK, check out the book crawl events near you (or within a day trip) on July 5th. You know it makes sense.
Oh, in case you’re in Norfolk, my nearest (within 25 miles, so King’s Lynn isnt here) indie booksellers are:
Bookshop Name | Town | Postcode |
---|---|---|
Jarrold & Sons Ltd (10miles away) |
Norwich | NR2 1JF |
The Book Hive (10miles away) |
Norwich | NR2 1HL |
Norfolk Children’s Book Centre (11miles away) |
Alby | NR11 7HB |
Holt Bookshop Ltd (12miles away) |
Holt | NR25 6AR |
Bertram A Watts (16miles away) |
Sheringham | NR26 8QP |
Ceres Bookshop (19miles away) |
Swaffham | PE37 7DG |
Diss Publishing Bookshop Co Ltd (24miles away) |
Diss | IP22 4AH |
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I’ve been making the rounds of independent bookstores over the last six months, leaving a couple of copies of my book for sale – if they will take them (there’s one famous local one that won’t take anything from CreateSpace). I found the owners to be a wild mix of personalities from cranky to unusual to delightful, probably the biggest group of characters I’ve ever met. A lot of driving but also a lot of fun. One I met in Bath, Maine, was wearing a tall, striped hat the day I came in – celebrating Dr. Seuss’s birhday!
It’s something I ought to do, Noelle. I must get out and do it!
It’s actually rather fun – do it, but after camp, right?
I’m just starting to hawk my wears round book shops. One of the Waterstones in Bury St Edmunds stocks it (Arc – the other won’t), I owe an e-mail to the folks in Diss and Heffers are selling it. That’s about as far as I have managed to get. I know what you mean though it’s a long old schlepp to get to them as often as not. I’ll probably ‘do’ Norwich on the train one of these days and phone the others.
There’s a very good one in Ely, too (Toppings) but I haven’t tried them yet.
Cheers
MTM
I had a chat with Waterstones at Norwich – I need to get my books published by someone other than Createspace – and I have that in hand. If you come up to Norwich, let me know and we’ll have coffee!