Spring is here! Hooray! The days are getting longer and warmer. Best of all, we’re into April, the magic month when bookshops are set, fingers crossed, to reopen for face-to-face shopping. Think of it, actually buying a book from a real human being!
As an indie-published author (published by Unbound), I’m a big enthusiast for indie bookshops. Their individual quirkiness and friendly knowledgeability beat shopping online hands down. Of course, Note to Boy is available from the big bookshop chains and the usual mega online channels but I’d love it if every indie bookseller in the land were to stock copies too. That’s impossible, I know. But that hasn’t stopped me doing my best!
During lockdown, I’ve been on a mission. In good time for the reopening of so-called ‘non-essential’ shops (who decides these things?), I set myself the task of approaching as many indie booksellers as I could to tell them a little about me and my novel, and ask if they’d care to order it. I figured their customers could do with a light-hearted book that offered plenty of laughs and a few tears.
The response has been amazing! It is a time-consuming but joyful job, and I’m not done yet. The encouraging and entertaining replies I’ve had from so many booksellers more than compensate for any effort involved. Below is a list of the many lovely bookshops who’ve responded positively so far. I salute you all! And I salute, of course, all the other bookshops I don’t know about who have Note to Boy on order or already on their shelves. Thank you.
When restrictions allow, I do hope you’ll go along to your local indie bookshop and have a good old chat and a browse. They’ve somehow kept going during lockdown so it’s only fair that we visit them to say thanks and buy a novel or three. I don’t even mind if it’s not Note to Boy, although that would be nice. And if you can’t get to an independent, remember Bookshop.org. You can shop online and benefit the indies too.
Happy Easter, happy indie shopping and, most of all, happy reading!
Sue
LIST OF NOTE TO BOY INDEPENDENT STOCKISTS: (to be continued!)
Adventure into Books, Blairgowrie, Perthshire.
Barnett’s of Wadhurst, East Sussex.
Book Buster, Hastings, East Sussex.
Book, Paper, Scissors, Belfast,
Bookingham Palace, Chester.
The Bookshop, Bridport.
The Bookshop, Kirkby Stephen, Cumbria.
The Bookstore, Abingdon.
The Book Vault, Barnsley.
The Book Corner, Saltburn.
Brendon Books, Taunton.
Brick Lane Bookshop, London.
Blue Bear Bookshop, Farnham.
Castle Bookshop, Ludlow.
The Clifden Bookshop, County Galway.
Cover to Cover, Swansea.
Dartmouth Bookseller, Devon.
Daunt Books, Summertown, Oxford and Hampstead, London.
Devizes Books, Wiltshire.
The Dornoch Bookshop, Sutherland.
Fitzgerald’s Bookshop, Macroom, Ireland.
Griffin Books, Penarth.
The Halesworth Bookshop, Suffolk.
The Holt Bookshop, Norfolk.
Joe’s Bookshop, Chingford.
Kenilworth Books, Warwickshire.
The Little Bookshop, Cookham.
The Little Ripon Bookshop, North Yorkshire.
Max Minerva’s Marvellous Books, Bristol.
Midland Books, Tullamore & Mullingar, Ireland.
Mostly Books, Abingdon.
The Old Hall Bookshop, Brackley.
Our Bookshop, Tring.
Pages of Hackney and Shoreditch, London.
Parade’s End Books, Kingston Upon Thames.
Pigeon Books, Southsea.
The Portobello Bookshop, Edinburgh.
Stillwater Bookshop, Felixstowe.
Store 104, Rochester.
Stroud Bookshop, Gloucestershire.
Typewronger Books, Edinburgh.
Ullapool Bookshop, Ross and Cromarty.
The Wallingford Bookshop, Oxfordshire.
Wyre Forest Books, Bewdley.