State of Independents

opinions free from chains

Classy, really classy, Waterstone’s

This morning, savouring our Christmas break but still committed workaholics, Andrew and I met at Brown’s on George Street to spend a very pleasant hour or two over tea and toast making plans for bookshop events and choosing titles for our Book of the Week and Book of the Month promotions (the only titles we [...]

Merry Christmas

It’s been a frantic run up to Christmas in both shops and we’re delighted with how things are going – especially at The Edinburgh Bookshop which is hitting targets we didn’t expect to reach until next Christmas.
So have a lovely festive period and we’ll see you next with our predictions for the book trade in [...]

Me Me Myerson

Since Borders went into administration there has been a flurry of newspaper articles considering the future of bookselling.  These have ranged from talking heads romanticising the Tim Waterstone days at the eponymous chain, to features about boutique-style shops in posh areas of London to trying-to-be-controversial pieces telling us that bookshops and the dead-tree media that [...]

Entitlement

Most of our customers are a pleasure to chat to; I would even go out for a glass of wine with quite a few of them. However, Vanessa and I have both commented recently that there are a few customers you want to take aside and point out that they have just been quite rude [...]

Bookselling after Borders

Borders was a great chain of American bookshops when they first opened in the UK just over a decade ago. It was comfy sofas to slump in while you browsed and made your selection; it was hipper than Waterstone’s with their dated black ash bookshelves; it was Friends, lattes and Amazon hadn’t begun to flex [...]

About Us

Welcome to State of Independents. We're booksellers and publishers based in Edinburgh and this is where we'll be writing about the book trade as we see it. We write about what's going on in our businesses over at The Fidra Blog but over here we'll be expressing opinions from the independent of mind.

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