Day: December 29, 2006

For a writer to get a book published is only half the battle. The other half is getting it into the bookshops. My books Dear Air 2000 and Football Crazy are now available from all the main book wholesalers so now I have to make book retailers aware of this. With this in mind I called in at my nearest branch of Waterstones in Stockport this morning with a view to getting the name and address of the person at their head office who is in charge of buying books. I shouldn’t have bothered.
I asked the girl behind the counter for the required information but as luck would have it the manager was nearby and overheard me.
“What do you want to know for?” he asked.
“I’m an author.”
“We don’t do local books.” This said with a snotty expression and a disdainful tone of voice. I could have hit him but we authors know that the pen is mightier than the sword so I exercised restraint.
“So if Stephen King or John Grisham lived in Stockport you wouldn’t stock their books,” I said.
“I meant books of local interest.”
“My books aren’t local interest books. It’s me that’s local, not the books.”
He went on: “Anyway if you wanted to get them into Waterstones you’d have to approach the manager of each branch.”
“Are you telling me that Peter Kay dragged his carcass round every branch of Waterstones that you are now selling his book in?”
“It’s different for big names.”
I produced my books from my pocket. “Well would you be interested in stocking these two books from a little name. Who may one day be a big name should you deign to take pity on him and stock his books.” I offered him the books but he didn’t take them.
“It depends. On the deal. Whether we can sell them sale or return, what our discount is, if we get a bigger discount for quantity, all sorts of things. But I’m far too busy to go into that right now, try me in the new year.”
“Fuck off,” I said. Some times the mouth too is mightier than the sword.

Ignore this if you have already read it. My books are priced at £8.99 each and are available from Amazon, but readers of my blog can buy them direct from me for £7.50 including p & p. Just send me a cheque and I will send the book/books by return.

My address is –

Terry Ravenscroft, 19 Ventura Court, Ollersett Avenue, New Mills, High Peak, SK22 4LL

Dear Air 2000