End of Week Round-up #26
29th April 2022
Reading this week has been very limited but I did finish my reread of Ben Aaronovitch’s ‘Moon Over Soho’ as part of a complete reread of his Rivers of London series that should finish just as his latest is released in paperback this September (have all the others on paperback edition, so…)
What I’ve been up to this week and other news.
Been doing a lot of work on my other projects, especially my food and film review sites, so had very little time for working on this.
Though I have got several Author Q&A posts in draft form on the blog and am in the process of cleaning them up, adding links and images and then formatting them for consistency.
The new Author Q&A this week is Dr Gabriel Constans talking about his writing, why not read about his books and writing process? If you want to be included please contact me at contact@bigbeardedbookseller.com.
Other news.
Just want to point out that this year sees the 21st Aldeburgh Literary Festival running between the 5th and 8th of May, and as always it is run without sponsorship and grants, the only income being from ticket sales.
This year there are some great events; including Steven Walker talking about Yuri Gagarin, Charles Spencer recounting the tale of The White Ship, and many more. You can explore these in the programme.
This starts on Thursday the 5th of May.
Recently added bookshops and publishers.
bath magg (publisher)
Big Black Books (publisher)
Corn Cob Press (publisher)
Liverpool University Press (publisher)
The Tangerine (publisher)
Submissions and applications.
BlackInk New Writing Competition, Serendipity and Writing East Midlands are looking for creative writers from the African and African Caribbean Diaspora to submit short stories for the 2022 edition of BlackInk’s Writing Competition, closes 06/06/22
Knight Errant Press, looking for various genres and themes, closes 01/09/222
Lindisfarne Prize for Crime Fiction, closes 30/06/22
A Pocket Anthology of Addiction and Recovery, Acid Bath Publishing are looking for submissions for. this publication, closes 05/08/22
Spectrum Poetry Competition, Renard Press is looking for poems up to 100 lines or 750 words, closes 21/05/22
Upcoming events.
Aldeburgh Literary Festival, various venues, between 05/05/22 and 08/05/22
Aye Write Book Festival, hybrid festival in Glasgow, between 06/05/22 and 22/05/22
Barnes Children’s literature Festival, various venues in and around Barnes, between 21/06/22 and 26/06/22
Bloody Scotland, scheduled between 15/09/22 and 18/09/22
Books by the Beach, various venues in Scarborough, 11/06/22 to 12/06/22
New and upcoming book releases.
The Anthill – Julianna Pachico – Faber & Faber (05/05/22)
Black Water Sister – Zen Cho – Pan – (12/05/22)
The End of Men – Christina Sweeney-Baird – The Borough Press (12/05/22)
The Landing – Mary Gentle – Gollancz (12/05/22)
The Perfect Golden Circle – Benjamin Myers – Bloomsbury Circus (12/05/22)
Questions for Bookshops
As part of the development of the individual posts for each bookshop on the list I will be sending out the questions that I asked on the ‘Browse A Bookshop’ feature to all bookshops on the list.
I’m going to rehash the pages of the bookshops who’ve already responded to fit into the new format and get a good start on the new phase of the blog.
I’ll also be prioritising developing posts for bookshops who send some answers back as this really makes my job easier.
So if you want to go to the top of the pile please email (contact@bigbeardedbookseller.com) me at least six answers to these following questions:
Question selection
How did you come up with the name of your bookshop?
Who are you? Owns the bookshop? Bit of a bio and pics, please 🙂
Why a bookshop? What made you want to get into bookselling?
General background/history of the shop please
Do you stock a variety of genres or do you specialise?
Do you mainly sell new or second-hand books?
What makes your bookshop special?
What’s the hardest thing about being a bookseller?
What’s the best thing about being a bookseller?
What’s the most surprising thing about being a bookseller?
What are the goals for your bookshop?
Do you think owning a bookshop has changed your life? How?
What book do you wish would sell better?
What little-known book do you think is underrated?
What well-known book do you think is overrated?
What is your preferred reading genre?
Describe your store in three words.
What book is your greatest treasure? Why?
What was your favourite childhood book? Why?
If you could invite any author for a book signing at your shop, who would you choose?
Where do you think the biggest change in book publishing will come from?
How do you reach potential readers/customers?
How do you choose the books you stock?
Do you have a favourite publisher? Why?
Name three books on your TBR.
What are you reading at the moment?
What’s the greatest lesson you’ve learned from selling books?
What music, if any, do you play in your shop? Why?
What is the best book-related gift you’ve ever received?
What is the weirdest thing a customer has ever asked for?
What do you get up to in a normal bookselling day?
What is the nicest thing a customer has ever said to you?
and could you send stores details; social media links, website, address, and lots of photos!
What’s happening next week?
"OK campers, rise and shine, and don't forget your booties cause it’s cold out there...it’s cold out there every day."
One of the main tasks for next week is to install and actual event plugin and start adding events to this, I think it will look slightly more integrated, and it will give more options for details.
Still got to find the time to add more job links, and to add links to the upcoming book authors, book, and publishers.
I’ve got one bookshop to add to the #BrowseABookshop feature and will add at least one publisher stub.
And, as always, if you have any news or offers you would like included in the newsletter please email me at contact@bigbeardedbookseller.com and I’ll get it on ASAP.
A reminder that a paid subscription to this newsletter is only the cost of a large coffee once a month. This helps with lots of things but right now it would help with domain and hosting costs for the various projects.
Thanks to the current number of paid subscribers I’ve been able to get a monthly subscription to The Bookseller. Cheers!
All information is going to continue to be free so this is just a thank you to me for collating and developing it all.
The links to the various projects can be found at:
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