The Charles Moore book signing event at Mr. Books Bookshop went okay I guess. To be perfectly honest I expected a much better turn out though as let's face it, there must be millions of Maggie Thatcher fans around these parts. Was it that they didn't know about the event or was it the rainy morning that put them off. Certainly the lack of column inches given to the eminent ex-editor of The Spectator, Sunday and Daily Telegraph's visit to Tonbridge to sign his already famous Margaret Thatcher The Authorized Biography by the Kent and Sussex Courier wouldn't have helped. I never expect them to print anything and am always grateful for any kind of publicity for events I'm involved with so I suppose I should thank the reporters for the little paragraph they gave it. I couldn't help but notice though that Tunbridge Wells Football Club's trip to Wembley for some spurious play off trophy match against that great football team on everyone's lips, Spennymoor Town, managed to get an eight page colour special centre page souvenir pull out in the same issue of the paper complete with photos of a mostly empty stadium in the background! No doubt the sponsors forked out for that one! Anyway I still managed to sell about 40 copies of the Thatcher biography and have sold several since. There are still some signed copies left should anyone want one at the discounted price of £25. Actually I'm reading the book at the moment and it does look like being an important historical account of Lady Thatcher's life and not at all the gushing praise you'd be forgiven for expecting. Don't all rush at once....
6 comments:
Forty copies at £25 a throw doesn't sound too bad to me. Lady Thatcher may well have had lots of admirers, but those admirers don't necessarily translate into people willing to fork out twenty-five quid for a book about her. I think you did alright.
Btw, the number of people willing, or indeed able, to sit down and read a serious book is diminishing all the time. With the information overload that is the internet, people's attention span is becoming less and less. Hence everything condensed into convenient, easily assimilated "sound bites". "Me read a half decent book - you must be joking mate, there aren't any pictures!"
Hate to say it, but I've seen the Lady Thatcher Autobiography on sale at the "discounted price" of £11.99. I won't say where, because I know from personal experience how hard it can be for small independent traders to compete against the "big boys".
This "half price offer" suggests one of three things: the store concerned has enormous buying power; it is selling the book at a loss OR the mark-up on books is much more than one would think.
Any ideas as to which answer is correct?
Tonbridge bloggerMay 19, 2013 at 11:16 AM
It's no secret that Amazon, WH Smith and many others sell as loss leaders but were any of those copies signed? That is pretty much why Mr. Books wouldn't have stocked the book were it not for the author coming in to sign the book. The price you mention is well below small inde shops wholesale price I can assure you
Typical discounts for small bookshops from book wholesaler is 35 to 40 per cent. At the book signing I was selling the book at £25 plus giving a £5 voucher which isn't at all bad for a signed copy. It's now back £30 which is the cover price and it still sells. I put this down purely to the novelty of the signature
Agreed, a signed copy is definitely worth paying more for.
My wife and I decided some time ago to stop buying from Amazon until they pay the same tax on British profits as other retailers in this country. So we duly ordered a book from another online company, only to discover later that it too was owned by Amazon!
Perhaps there is a list of connected companies available somewhere so we can all be more effective boycotters. (similar to the Nestle product list that many people use for other reasons)
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