New Winchester Book 10 Nov 2018

[Alan24]

I understand that there will be an event at WEST HILL CEMETERY in WINCHESTER this Saturday 10.30 to launch a new book by Tom James & Jen Best from the University of Winchester.

 

I hope I'm not breaking any rules by posting this flyer.

 

Regards

 

Alan.

 

 

[Steven Broomfield]

Excellent. Will it be avaliable at the local Waterestones'?

[Alan24]

3 minutes ago, Steven Broomfield said:

Excellent. Will it be avaliable at the local Waterestones'?

 

No, their cut was too high I understand.

 

Regards

 

Alan.

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Steven Broomfield said:

Excellent. Will it be avaliable at the local Waterestones'?

 

    Please, Steven-  the "W word" is considered by many to be obscene.  Perhaps  the volume should be stocked at the various military museums in the area?  

[Steven Broomfield]

 

    Please, Steven-  the "W word" is considered by many to be obscene.    

Why?

[IPT]

Please, Steven-  the "W word" is considered by many to be obscene. 

 

Yes, I called a fellow motorist that yesterday.

 

He wasn't happy.

[Guest]

On 08/11/2018 at 16:05, Steven Broomfield said:

 

Why?

 

    Waterstones are essentially middlemen-  Their trade terms for commercial publishers  are at a very high discount indeed. Melded with several multiples of  30 days to pay and,of course, usually "sale or return"   This colours dramatically what is stocked and from which publishers. Mostly "trade" books-  large print-run paperbacks and made for market large print-run hardbacks. Yes, plenty of choice but it's much of a sameness. The larger academic publishers just will not go along with the discount and payment terms that Waterstones routinely want. So the selection of Oxford and Cambridge books will be limited, as an example, to the more popular end of the market.

 

    For smaller publishers that I know, Waterstones -even with very long credit terms - are slow payers and the small guys end up having to wait even longer.

 Waterstones makes an effort to have some local interest titles-and will take a smaller margin on them. It's the equivalent of bananas in Tesco- a loss leader.Waterstones did try ordering shorted discount books through another subsidiary but-as above-what the "better" terms are is more than small presses or self-publishers can bear.

    

    One particular  aspect does annoy me as a bookseller of OP and antiquarian books-  when customers used to come to me saying they wanted a fairly recently published book and had been told by Waterstones (and W.H.Smith as well) that the book was not available. Most customers then thought that the book was out of print-which, when checking further, was very often not the case. When quizzed customers, customers would remember that they were told "not available" rather than "out-of-print". The books in question were always small publishers and often low- priced items - What Waterstones was saying in a backhand way was that they couldn't be bothered to get them.

Always worth checking if told "Not available"

 

Most academic publishers now go for the online markets and more and more have serious sales and discounts when the expected library and academic purchasers of new titles are running out- Oxford quite often- Manchester gives a healthy discount just for buying from them direct. And of course our much-loved Naval and Military, who seem to have more sales than  furniture stores at a bank holiday.