Love your local bookshop

Are you lucky enough to live near an independent bookseller?  By which I mean a bookshop run by its owner rather than someone managing the branch of a large chain.

For years, I’ve driven past City Books in Brighton.  A small outlet, nestling unpromisingly between a Premier convenience store and Khalil estate agents, City Books is properly old-fashioned and quirky.  A couple of weeks ago, I stopped and went in for a look around.  Joyously, it’s crammed from floor to ceiling with a wonderful range of titles – from classics and bestsellers to the outright eccentric.  And I really do mean from floor to ceiling: I don’t know how anyone ever manages to reach the top shelves without risking life and limb.

While I was in there, I asked whether they might consider stocking a title by a local author, and I was shocked when they said yes — but then if it’s your bookshop, you get to make the decisions rather than having to refer everything to Head Office (hence my championing of independent booksellers).  As a result, BAGMAN is now in a little pile on one of the tables.  I wasn’t sure I’d ever see the day that it was stocked in a proper bookshop but there it is.  The arrangement is sale or return but as you will know from my previous post about giving your book away, the whole money side of this is almost irrelevant.  For me, pathetic as it might sound, it’s just the pleasure of sitting beside ‘real’ authors at last!  If it goes well, I might even manage to squeeze in some copies of BAGMAN HITS THE ROAD and WOKE UP THIS MORNING.  We shall see.

So, my top tip this week — especially if you’re self-published — is to develop and nurture a relationship with your local bookshop.  If they’ll take some of your titles, you never know where it may lead.

Happy writing!