Good morning, especially if you’re a new visitor to this blog. Do have a mooch around and do leave a comment as it’s lovely to hear from new people
I haven’t written here for a while as you can see, but this post, seems to have a attracted a fair bit of attention recently. Most of it positive fortunately. I’ve also had a few emails asking why I have been so quiet, after all, it’s not as though I don’t have plenty to say on things book-related. The answer to that isn’t altogether straightforward.
Partly I’ve been really busy tying up loose ends from the sale of the bookshop and getting our publishing company back on track. Partly because I’ve been taking a back seat from social media activities – Tweeting and Facebook etc when we owned the bookshop was important and the 5k plus followers we had on Twitter were very helpful, albeit often in a nebulous, undefined way. And partly because I have felt a bit distanced from the booktrade. Independent bookselling is having a tough time, although I think beginning a resurgence and by selling the bookshop I’ve felt a little disloyal to my fellow booksellers, as though I’ve bailed out instead of standing shoulder-to-shoulder with them.
However, I enjoy blogging and want to get back to doing more, although I think it’s only to be expected that I’m going to be a little less focussed on book-retailing than I have been.
So, here, State of Independents, is where I’m going to try to write more about bookselling, publishing and the business of writing. When I do get out and about I make a point of visiting independent bookshops, so I’m going to make a point of writing about those shops on here. I have another blog, where I’ve been writing infrequently about what I’ve been up to, most recently resurrecting our garden after The Great Flood of last summer. I’ve also reviewed a few books there and I’m planning to do more of that. After the bookshop sale, I went through a period of reading very little, it was as though the freedom of not having to read for work freed me and I re-read favourite titles and some of the books I’d been putting off because they weren’t one of the vast number of proof copies that overflowed from our bookshelves. But now I’m reading more and I’m going to write about that over one my personal blog. And of course, there’s a news page at our company website. Fidra Books rescues neglected children’s classics and although the site desperately needs rebuilding you can keep up with our latest news by popping over there.
I’m not sure how I’m going to manage going from very infrequent blogging to maintaining three, but I’ll give it a go and see how it goes… You can also follow me on Twitter at @Ness_Robertson
In the meantime, whether you’re a new or old reader, hello!
