WOW! That's the first word that springs to mind. Anthony Horowitz arrived at Mr. Books pretty much dead on the arranged time of 3pm. Even then there was quite a long queue forming up the High Street towards the Bank Street corner. (Almost to the old Mr. Books shop in fact.) After a quick cutting of the ribbon ceremony and a few pics for the local newspaper Anthony sat down just inside the back room of the bookshop. I'd arranged it so that everyone would have a brief one-on-one moment with the famous author, they deserved that after, in some cases, a two hour wait. Just about everyone posed for photos alongside him and many people brought their old favourites with them, as well as the books and graphic novels they bought on the day, to be signed. There were as many people in my shop yesterday than there would be in about two normal weeks. It was probably a shot in the arm for Tonbridge and certainly it was for Mr. Books Bookshop. Of that there can be no doubt. Of the nine or ten large boxes I ordered from my book wholesaler for the event only one small box, and that only half full, is being sent back as returns. In short it was amazingly successful. I think it demonstrates very much that real, tangible books with covers printed on real paper are far from dead. There wasn't a Kindle in sight. After all what would have been the point in Mr. Horowitz signing the Kindle down load edition! The reason I wanted Anthony Horowitz in particular to do my 'Grand Opening' was because yes he is popular; but also he's an inspirational writer particularly to young people (and especially boys) between the ages of around 7 to 14 years. Precisely the age that they should be discovering books, reading new stories, working out complex plots and expanding their minds. Yesterday's event just goes to show how a great writer can still capture he imaginations of literally millions of readers. Long live the real book....
WOW! That's the first word that springs to mind. Anthony Horowitz arrived at Mr. Books pretty much dead on the arranged time of 3pm. Even then there was quite a long queue forming up the High Street towards the Bank Street corner. (Almost to the old Mr. Books shop in fact.) After a quick cutting of the ribbon ceremony and a few pics for the local newspaper Anthony sat down just inside the back room of the bookshop. I'd arranged it so that everyone would have a brief one-on-one moment with the famous author, they deserved that after, in some cases, a two hour wait. Just about everyone posed for photos alongside him and many people brought their old favourites with them, as well as the books and graphic novels they bought on the day, to be signed. There were as many people in my shop yesterday than there would be in about two normal weeks. It was probably a shot in the arm for Tonbridge and certainly it was for Mr. Books Bookshop. Of that there can be no doubt. Of the nine or ten large boxes I ordered from my book wholesaler for the event only one small box, and that only half full, is being sent back as returns. In short it was amazingly successful. I think it demonstrates very much that real, tangible books with covers printed on real paper are far from dead. There wasn't a Kindle in sight. After all what would have been the point in Mr. Horowitz signing the Kindle down load edition! The reason I wanted Anthony Horowitz in particular to do my 'Grand Opening' was because yes he is popular; but also he's an inspirational writer particularly to young people (and especially boys) between the ages of around 7 to 14 years. Precisely the age that they should be discovering books, reading new stories, working out complex plots and expanding their minds. Yesterday's event just goes to show how a great writer can still capture he imaginations of literally millions of readers. Long live the real book....
1 comment:
Pleased to learn the event was so sucessful. I agree 100% with your comment about real books, printed on real paper, but then I suppose I'm from a generation that prefers something tangible, rather than an ethereal, electronic download; a point I made sometime ago about CD's and vinyl, as opposed to i-tunes!
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