State of Independents

opinions free from chains

Bookworm in The Scotsman, 12.2.11

This was in The Scotsman’s book supplement at the weekend.  I’d post a link but can’t find it on their website…

Rights and Copyright

This is a post for the lovely Jane Smith’s Copyright Day (she writes How Publishing Really Works, but I’m sure you know that already).
As both publishers and booksellers we get a lot of books (or to be frank, “books”) that people would like us either to publish or sell. The quality varies (understatement), but what [...]

Are you IndieBound? We’re Going to Be.

In 2008, the American Booksellers Association (with a membership comprising several hundred independent bookshops) launched their IndieBound programme with the intention of promoting the idea of shopping locally and with independent retailers, starting with bookstores.  It’s a brilliant scheme and one which we’ve been watching for a while – we love the material they’ve produced [...]

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 [...]

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. I'm Vanessa Robertson. I live in Edinburgh and my husband and I own a bookshop and tiny publishing house. This is where I write about the book trade as I see it and I'm not always as diplomatic as I should be... We write about what's going on in our businesses over at The Fidra Blog

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