As a bookseller for my previous employer, whenever I saw Richard Barker, my friendly neighbourhood Little, Brown rep for an appointment, the conversation would go something like this. Richard gets out his folder and opens it to the first page… Richard. ‘This is a scale-out, you’re getting 15 of these. (turns page) this is a scale-out, you’re getting 8, (turns page) this is promotion, you’re getting 24……’ …. The appointment would continue like this, as we went through the list, until we occasionally found a book that I was allowed to decide if the shop should stock or not. Richard, I have to say, was one of the more proactive reps and would highlight backlist, do stock checks, offer us signed copies and more than once, when I came in to open the shop at 8.30 am , I would find him skulking outside with a few copies of a title that I’d asked for the day before. This kind of service is a rarity, as the decisions about stock and new titles are made by Head Office, and the big bucks are made there. However, me and my colleague Tim West are about to open our own Independent Bookshop in Wood Green (you can follow our story on our blog) having left the big chain, and what is apparent is that the relationship between publisher and bookshop is now more important than ever. When the reps now visit us now, and open their folders, we’ll be able to take whatever we want! Not only that, but we can discuss author signings, negotiate extra discounts on certain titles, request POS, and ultimately build a solid relationship with them, which seems to becoming more and more taboo in the larger chains. Tim and I are still a bit institutionalized by our time in the big store so this may take a bit of getting used to, but, you know what, I think it might just work. http://woodgreenbookshop.blogspot.com/
Posted 10/01/2008 11:04:04 by Simon Key, Big Green Bookshop with 0 comments.