2007 and all that
December 28th, 2007 by Vanessa
We’re back in that hiatus between the Christmas and New Year holidays and as we clear our desks and in-trays (yeah, right!) ready for being ‘properly’ back on January 3rd, I’ve been thinking about the last year.
In January I said that during 2007 I hoped to increase the effectiveness of our marketing and PR (check), plan further ahead and be more proactive instead of reactive (kind of), give our lovely designer longer lead-times instead of leaving things to the last minute (ish), fill in tax forms etc well in advance (like that was ever going to happen!) and to worry less (I’m worrying about new things which makes a change at least).
At no point did I say that I wanted us to buy a shop and open a bookshop or start developing a trade list but those are by far the biggest developments in our business.
The bookshop was a daydream, a vague hankering, something that Malcolm and I would discuss from time to time. We talked about locations, how we’d stock it, how we’d incorporate our office but we never really thought it would happen until we came to look at what used to be a camera shop in our preferred location of Bruntsfield – just to see, you understand, just in case – and stood there realising that it was as near to perfect as we could want. But we weren’t brave enough to take on a ten year lease and we thought the rent was too high, and then the agent said that the landlady was willing to sell… and we practically shouted ‘we’ll take it!’
So four-ish weeks later we got the keys and three weeks after that we were welcoming people at our launch party having transformed the place and six weeks after that, as takings exceed our back of a fag packet calculations, we’re feeling cautiously optimistic about the future of our bookshop and making lots of plans for the future. Of which more to come.
The other thing that had a huge effect on Fidra was an email from Scott Pack asking why our books weren’t in more bookshops and Susan Hill pointing out that we should be pursuing a wider range of readers than the collectors who made up the main body of our customers.
Thanks to their well timed prodding our books are now available via Gardners to any bookshop that has an account and we’ve seen sales rise through outlets who wouldn’t have otherwise stocked our titles. Scott agreed with me that the ‘retro’ look of our books wouldn’t endear them to mainstream booksellers and we hatched a plan which will come to fruition later this year to repackage some of our bestselling titles in a contemporary format and launch them as a trade list to be sold into more bookshops. It’s all very exciting and when I saw the drafts for the cover designs that the lovely people at Snowbooks are creating for us I was really excited – I’m looking forward to being able to unveil them here soon.
Things have really started to come together during 2007 and I’m looking forward to seeing our plans come to fruition during 2008. Setting up Fidra in the first place was a leap of faith and it’s been an wonderful adventure so far - I can’t wait to see where we are this time next year. I’ll be back with more details after Hogmanay but in the meantime we’d all like to wish our readers a happy, peaceful and prosperous 2008.
Vanessa, I’m so pleased to hear that your bookshop has enjoyed a successful seasonal trade.
Speaking personally I would not be in a hurry to format, re-jacket etc in a probably vain attempt to get Fidra titles (in economically viable quantities) into the “mainstream bookshops”. By accessing Waterstone’s on line it is possible to see just how little interest or desire that company has to make any attempt to stock and promote many established titles : try these 3 sample ISBN’s and check in store availability – ISBN 1903252016 1903015464 1903015146. Three good titles which the mainstream merchandising stockhouses choose to virtually shun.
Who wants to sell their soul for corporate dole : that surely is the raison d’etre behind opening your own bookshop. Most of the mainstream sellers are total spoilers, determined to be the last man standing in their field ; they have no regard about a titles worth, it is just a product item to be casually shelved (if to be sold at full rrp) and of course periodically returned to the publishers to be “refreshed” (ab)using “sale-or-return” stocking terms.
Hi
Sounds like you had a really successful year. It’s always been a dream of mine opening a small bookshop, I used to work in a lovely small independent bookshop pre the end of the Net Book Agreement, now the thought of trying to compete against Waterstones and Borders, shudder.
I was just wondering, you didn’t mention your competition that you ran last autumn, how did you do with that?
Hi Clive,
Thanks for your comments. The thing is that I would love to see our books in more shops and although Borders are stocking some of the Victoria Walkers and some independent bookshops like them, it would be nice to see them in more retailers. We’re not prepared to take a huge risk financially and apart from a new cover and a bit of reformatting there’s very little actual work involved in the production.
Our main push would be to encourage more indies to stock them and it also means that I can bring out books such as Ruby Ferguson’s Jill series in a format and at a price where I will sell more than if they’re solely in our main format.
We’ll give it a go and see what happens but it will be another strand to what we do rather than a change of direction.
As for the books you mention, I’m pleased to be able to tell you that we stock and hand-sell a good deal or Jane Nissen and Barn Owl books!
Hi Lacer,
Re. competing against Waterstones and Borders – I think the thing is not to compete. I went into Waterstones a couple of days ago and although they had more books in the children’s section (it being bigger and all) when I looked more closely the shelves were full of multiple copies, everything Jacqueline Wilson has ever written and spin-offs of tv series. As we don’t have lots of multiples we have space for a wider range of titles and because we don’t have publishers paying us to promote titles we can stock books that we really like. We also sell a lot of backlist titles – Alan Garner, Joan Aiken and newcomer Andrea Beaty’s Iggy Peck Architect have sold really well for us, partly due to the fact that we love them and recommend them.
As for the competition, we were overwhelmed with entries and we’re still slogging through them (thanks to everyone for being so patient) but if we’re going to read them properly instead of just skimming the synopses then it takes time. We will get there though!
There is often a great deal of sense in Clive’s comments, albeit hidden beneath a large slice of cynicism, but I do think he is largely wrong here. Sure, you don’t need to court the big chains, and they may not pay attention if you do anyway, but if you are a publisher that wants your books to be read by the widest possible audience then it is worth giving it a go.
The independent spirit is not diminished by a bit of mainstream success.
Thank you so much for the namecheck, I am delighted that my comments were of use.
Hey Vanessa, Happy New Year!
All best to you and yours, glad the shop is doing a storm.
(You aren’t going to read this until tomorrow at the earliest: does that make me a *first footer?*)
Yes Jonathan, you are indeed the blog’s first-footer. Did you bring your lump of coal?
Good luck to you for 2008.
I’m looking for a change of direction myself in 2008, something outside of the teaching profession for a while I think, just to see…
Happy New Year to you all at Fidra and I am looking through my 2008 diary to sort out a time to visit Edinburgh and pop in and see you all! Please bear in mind that should you need a hand with unpacking or anything the day i am around, i am ready, able and willing!!
A Happy Book-Filled New Year Vanessa. I believe Fishpond stocks, or is going to stock, Fidra books. (That’s a sort of Australian/New Zealand version of Amazon.)
Did you get any reading done over Christmas and New Year or did you fall asleep over the pudding?