Big Bearded Update #116
Apologies for the delay.
It's been three weeks since the last update, will have to try harder.
At the start of that period I had the pleasure of working in the Durham Waterstones for the day and it was so different from my usual day in Middlesbrough.
What I've been up to these past two weeks
After consolidating all the blogs together I've basically not got up to much apart from reading and getting back into the book blogging swing with seven books read and reviewed since I last put out an update.
This has been great fun and a bit of a relief getting through quite a bit of my reading back log over the last five weeks.
The Art Manifesto page has also returned to the blog and I'm just waiting for the house to get back to some semblance of normality after the work that's been done to find my notes and books to make sure this is as accurate as possible.
As a big Fallout fan it was with much trepidation that I started watching the series on Prime, but I do have to say apart from some shonky CGI in episode 2 I've been more than pleased with it. Lots of nods to the fandom, just enough dark humour, and a great hook for season 2.
I've also reopened the Review Requests page on the blog once more as I feel more confident of being able to read what I accept for review, though I've no space except for books that are released from September this year.
Indie Bookshops website additions
none at this time
Indie Publishers website additions
none at this time
Book Reviews
Abroad in Japan (31/03/24)
Scotland's Forgotten Past (01/04/24)
Sisters of Sword and Shadow (09/04/24)
The Honey Witch (14/04/24)
Griz Grobus (15/04/24)
Is It A Seed? (16/04/24)
A Haunted Girl (17/04/24)
Other blog posts
Creative Writing with the Open University (30/03/24)
Art Manifesto (31/03/24)
forbidden / forgotten (untitled) (06/04/24)
Barriers (08/04/24)
It's a Gazebo! (11/04/24)
Realist Manifesto (18/04/24)
Questions for Independent 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 (bigbeardedbookseller@gmail.com) me at least six answers to these following questions, or you could use the Google form:
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 in the next two weeks
The main plan is to get at least one directory post a day onto the Indie Bookshops and/or Indie Publishers websites and grow these sites but I’m not going to punish myself if I can’t get it done.
The other main goal is to update the formatting of older author and illustrator interviews and add them to this Ko-Fi, then start adding newer interviews.
But mainly I'll be prioritising my reading and book blogging as I'm really enjoying the simplicity of it considering I'm out the house for 14 hours a day five days a week.
Supporting this project
One of the main way of supporting me in these projects is to follow me on one of my social media accounts and like/boost as this means people are seeing what I'm putting out there.
If you want you can always subscribe to my Ko-Fi to help me earn time to work on these projects with more consistency and eventually make this my go to work.
The membership will see you have exclusive access to the various documents that I'll be producing over the next year.
These will include booklets of the bookshops around the world broken into geographic area, specialisms, and checklists of the same.
There will also be a publisher document with all the information on the site compiled into a booklet, then there will be smaller booklets for children's publishers, etc.
To see what I'm up to and for links to other blogs and social media pop across to www.bigbeardedbookseller.com