Page 24 - November-December Together

TOGETHER NOVEMBER – DECEMBER 2021

FEATURE Bookshops and Authors Working
Together in Partnership

Bookseller, Andrew Lacey and author, Wendy Jones in conversation.

Wendy and by phone. But that doesn’t make up for the amount of business we
Andrew, thank you for agreeing to be interviewed. It is a pleasure to be would have had if we were open. Government support has helped to
chatting to a bookseller about how booksellers and authors can work keep us afloat, and we are grateful for that, however the thing we do
closely together. I know you are always receptive to working with authors best is meeting the public and helping them to choose books they enjoy.
to put on events and to bring new books to readers.
Wendy
The past eighteen months of lockdown and restrictions have had a Not everyone who reads Together magazine is a bookseller. There
major effect on all shops and bookshops in particular. Can you tell us are also authors and others in publishing who perhaps think being a
a bit about this? bookseller is a marvellous job and you just sit around reading and selling
books all day. Can you tell us a bit more about what your job entails?
Andrew
Thank you for asking! The reality is that we have been working very hard Andrew
to try and maintain some kind of service to our customers. We’re very The reality is that our job is generally flat out. To be honest I was a
much a local independent bookshop and the main focus of our business wee bit naive before I started. I also had those rose-tinted spectacles.
is people coming in through the door to browse the books, cards and Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant, Notting Hill, that’s the kind of the vision I
gifts. We have continued selling through the pandemic via online channels had in mind. It’s actually extremely busy. You’ve obviously got to serve
the customers and answer the phone. There is always some kind of
software or hardware problem as well as all the endless small business
admin jobs. Tidying up, stock-taking, ordering, taking in deliveries,
pricing and sending stock. Staffing rota to work out, tax returns, ordering
supplies. Don’t forget to do the hoovering and dusting!

‘ We’re very much a local independent
bookshop and the main focus of our
business is people coming in through the

door to browse the books, cards and gifts.’

Wendy
My, that sounds exhausting.
Andrew
It is all good and I enjoy being busy. But yes, you can be weary by the
end of the day. There is one other important aspect, social media, which
is now such a significant part of any small business but can be very
time-consuming. Wendy, how much time in the day do you spend on
social media?
Wendy
A lot! Moving swiftly on from social media, I can imagine that a lot of
what a bookseller does is to help customers find what they are looking
for, whether it is a Bible, gift or book.
Andrew
Let’s not kid ourselves here. These days, if someone knows the
exact book they want, they just tend to go online and order it. We
see increasingly less of these ‘easy’ sales. What we get in bookshops
now is the customer who is needing help locating a particular book, or
who isn’t sure what they are looking for. They rely on our help. We do
an awful lot of investigation for people. Do we have a book on this
subject? Can we recommend a book about that person? They are
often the kind of things that are not particularly easy to locate. Maybe
they’re looking for a book for their child, but their child isn’t a
particularly good reader. What kinds of titles can you recommend? We
also help people find the right book for a gift and that’s such a special
ISBN 9780995645745/Scott Lawson/Wendy H Jones/PB/276 pp/£9.99 part of our job.
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