Monthly Archives: November 2009

(Updated) Former-SPCK/SSG Bookshops Interim Manager advertises for Creditor Claims

Posted on November 27, 2009 by | Leave a comment
Matt Wardman writes:

This advert appeared in this week’s Bookseller.
Note that you only have about a fortnight to write in.
ST STEPHEN THE GREAT CHARITABLE TRUST

This charity has been in the press over recent years as a result of concerns expressed over its operations. In April 2009 the Charity Commission appointed Peter Gotham of Begbies Traynor as Interim Manager to take over its running - other than with respect to its religious mission in the churches it controls. This objective was made more complicated by virtue of the fact that since July 2007 the shops previously operated by the charity were managed instead by other companies appointed by the Trustees. The Interim Manager has now completed his initial work, has retaken possession of most shops, and is moving towards meeting valid claims on the charity’s assets. In order to do this he has instructed agents to put various of the Trust’s properties on sale. He is now advertising for creditors’ claims incurred before 1 July 2007 in order to ensure that no valid claims go unmet. (Any claims incurred after 1 July 2007 will be the responsibility of the various companies engaged by the Trustees.)
Creditors who believe that they have a valid claim against the Trustees of St Stephen the Great Charitable Trust incurred before 1 July 2007, should write to the Interim Manager at Begbies Traynor (Central) LLP, 32 Cornhill, London EC3V 3BT under ref S8703 before the close of business on 16 December 2009.
Presented by: Begbies Traynor (Central) LLP
Presenter’s Reference: S8703/PJG/NGA/BRS

———————————————————————————-
Editorial Note: At this point I am not at all convinced by the cut-off date, though, without seeing rock-solid evidence. For example, Mark Brewer was reported by the Bookseller as acting for SSG in November 2007 when the chain dropped the SPCK name.

And which external companies were responsible for running the shops after 1 July 2007? The company which seems to have been responsible for running most of them – ENC Shop Management Ltd – was not registered at Companies House until 11 March 2008

Groups such as the Church of England Pensions’ Board and various government agencies, and other creditors, need to take a close look at this.

And you only have 2 weeks to do so.
[Update: 27/9/1009.

We have been in touch with the interim Manager's team during the afternoon.
The reason why responsibility is accepted for debts incurred before 1 July 2007 is that the Interim Manager was appointed to manage the "St Stephen the Great Trust" (no 1119839) charity, while a separate  charity - a Company Limited by Guarantee - had been created to manage the bookshops. The Interim Manager was not appointed to manage this Company Limited by Guarantee, and so they are not accepting reponsibility for debts incurred by this Company.
Editorial note: This is all horribly complicated, and we will try and submit a list of detailed questions to the Interim Manager and the Charity Commission over the weekend.  The Company Limited by Guarantee was merged with the parent charity (no 1119839) by direction of the Charity Commission on 27 July 2007 - see the "subsidiary charities" page on the link above, so it is not clear to us how the Interim Manager is entirely not responsible for actions of this charity.
In the meantime, there is an email address for the Interim Manager on the Charity Commission website, where you can send your precise queries.]

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Bookshops, Christian Suppliers, Info, News

Tagged , , ,

Wesley Owen: Bids for Individual Stores Not Ruled Out

Posted on November 26, 2009 by | 1 Comment

In an interview posted by the Edinburgh Evening News (24/11/2009, cross posted at Scotsman.com), David Young, General Manager of IBS-STL, has acknowledged the possibility of the Wesley Owen chain being split if buyers can be found for individual branches or groups of shops:

He said he understood there had been “significant interest” from possible buyers but did not want to raise hopes.

However, the fact Edinburgh is one of the company’s biggest stores in terms of turnover and has a central location could make it a more attractive proposition than some other parts of the business.

Mr Young added: “We are really keen to sell as much as we can to secure the jobs.”

He said a potential buyer would not have to bid for the whole chain, but might be interested in individual shops or a cluster of shops. “We are taking the next few weeks to gauge the level of interest, then we hope to make some kind of announcement.”

→ 1 Comment

Posted in Christian Bookshops, News

Tagged , , , , , , ,

Saving STL UK: Towards a sustainable business model?

Posted on November 24, 2009 by | 5 Comments

Whether or not the possibility of a group buyout for IBS-STL UK will even be considered by Biblica’s Board and Trustees remains to seen. As of this posting I am still awaiting detailed financial statements from the company, without which it is somewhat difficult to even begin to prepare anything remotely resembling a firm proposal for prospective investors to consider. My understanding, however, is that the level of interest from prospective buyers has exceeded Biblica’s expectations and that discussions with some are well underway: at this stage it appears that a consortium such as I have suggested may not be needed.

Nonetheless, in response to several queries, here is a rough guide to how I would envisage a new business taking shape under a trade/community shared ownership model. This is emphatically not a business plan: it is very much preliminary thinking and all input, for, against or otherwise, is very welcome.

  • Freedom of speech, including the use of blogs and social media, will be actively encouraged at all levels.
  • SAP will be subjected to intense scrutiny and, given the experience to date, most likely scrapped, to be replaced by a tried and tested system licensed from another wholesaler.

Looking at the three divisions…

1. Wesley Owen
The chain itself would cease to exist. The shops would be rebranded and refocused on their local communities, with consortia of local churches and/or other Christian groups each taking responsibility for their own local branch, with an emphasis upon developing the shop as a social/community hub. Branch managers and staff would be responsible for stock selection with each shop aiming to become self-sufficient within a pre-agreed period.

  • Please see Matt Wardman’s post New Ways of Being Bookshop and the appendix of related discussions for some ideas on how this might be taken forward.

2. STL Distribution
The distribution division would be owned and operated by its employees, retailers, publishers and other investors working together. My vision would be for it to be run by a democratic board drawn from amongst the investors and answerable to their fellow investors: a genuine shared ownership company operated by the very people for whom it exists.

  • To help tackle the debts, I invite publishers to consider writing off some or all of the amounts owed to them in exchange for part ownership.
  • Retailers investing in the operation would be offered preferential trade terms.

3. Authentic Media and Paternoster Press
The publishing division would be offered for sale to other Christian publishing houses, possibly splitting into three segments: music, popular books and academic books. I do not expect, however, this to be an issue as I would be surprised if Biblica have not already found a buyer (or buyers) for this division.

Wrapping Up
Thank you to all those who have contributed to the discussions so far: please keep your comments and suggestions coming. As previously stated, this is not a business plan, although I hope that it might form the foundation for one. At present the ball remains in Biblica’s court…

→ 5 Comments

Posted in Christian Bookshops, Christian Publishers, Christian Suppliers, Info, Musings..., News

Tagged , , , , , ,

STL UK Crisis: Reports roundup and further reflections (updated)

Posted on November 22, 2009 by | 21 Comments

Figured a roundup of reports on / responses to the STL UK crisis might be useful. Reports marked * are largely nothing more than re-runs of the official press release with minimal or no additional comment. No doubt there are a few I’ve missed and more will emerge as the tragedy unfolds — but as I’ve said, I truly don’t think it needs to be a tragedy: despite the sceptics’ voices, I still believe that there are more than enough of us to save the day if only we will stand together.

I may be a tad crazy but I’m not crazy enough to think the entire edifice can be saved intact: it will have to be split up into smaller parts, with local Christian groups pooling resources to support specific branches of Wesley Owen, rebranded and refocused to serve their local communities. Kudos to the Bishop of Willesden, Pete Broadbent: he’s written to clergy in his area to see whether they can do something to keep the Harrow branch open. Do we have similar initiatives elsewhere in the country?

It’s also clear that some very hard questions need to be asked about the SAP implementation: why was it allowed to go so badly wrong? Why was it done as an all-or-nothing no-way-back project? We seem to be looking at some very serious high-level incompetence here and one of the first things whoever takes over the business will need to do is take a long, hard at this — then most likely scrap the system and start again.

An intriguing paragraph in the Civil Society report seems to offer a possible ray of hope for any parts of the business for which no buyer is found:

The corporate finance division of Baker Tilly is marketing the operations of the charity to a number of interested parties and hopes to complete negotiations for the sales or potential closures within the next few weeks. Young said that if buyers are not found for all parts of the business, Biblica may step in and buy the rest, but “ultimately IBS-STL UK will be wound up”.

Looking beyond Wesley Owen for a moment, all the shops that signed up to STL’s ‘Crown Books’ scheme now need to urgently rethink their ops.

Finally for now, for those who may have missed yesterday’s brief note: news has emerged of at least one publisher, Kingsway, pulling their stock out of STL’s Carlisle warehouse, returning it to their HQ in Eastbourne. I have requested further information from Kingsway: what happens, for instance, to retailers’ outstanding orders? No doubt an official announcement will be forthcoming.

Update, 24/11/2009: John Paculabo from Kingsway states:

As we approach certain timelines in our agreement, there are decisions that Kingsway will take irrespective of whether STL find a buyer or not, and currently these relate to foreign distribution.

STL remain our trade distributor, however in the today’s climate this poses a number of questions going forward, needless to say we are aware of thecomutations and possible implications.

I can assure you that Kingsway has not removed all of its stock from STL.

Update, 16/12/2009: Kingsway Books & Music back in stock at STL: STL Blog | Email Archive

Reports and Responses
Google News Search: Wesley Owen | IBS-STL UK | Biblica
Carlisle News & Star: STL News Stories

Reports marked * are largely nothing more than re-runs of the official press release. For a roundup of more recent reports, see Wesley Owen: 26 Branches Enter Administration, Others Sold (Updated) (19/12/2009)

Most recent first, list updated 12/12/2009:

→ 21 Comments

Posted in Book Trade Ramblings, Christian Bookshops, Musings..., News

Tagged , , , , , , , , , ,

A Message of Hope from Germany: Co-operation is Possible

Posted on November 21, 2009 by | 1 Comment

Late last night, Saina Veigel left the following comment on my post A Modest Proposal to Save STL. Please read it and reflect on the possibilities this model could open up for us here in the UK:

Hello fellow Christian merchants in the UK!

I am/was a Christian book merchant from Germany and I failed miserably with my online bookstore because only the big online stores find costumers AND make a profit online nowadays in Germany. The competition is VERY TOUGH – even online!

I offered secular and Christian books with a charity-scheme but still didn’t succeed. I just closed my shop down in September 2009 after 1,5 years. You have to be part of a chain or of a “book merchants buying co-operative” to survive.

But I may have some interesting information for you:

Our biggest German Christian wholesaler “Hänssler” faced severe difficulties a few years ago and they formed a co-operative – or more precisely: they started a TRUST/BENEFICENCE. In this case Christian publishing houses/media companies pitched in to save the wholesaler (I don’t know the details though).

Now – many Christian publishers stand as a team together but, everyone remains independent at the same time. Get some information and advice from Frieder Trommer in Germany, if you can. This trust helps the Christian book trade. I don’t know how it works but it seems to work REALLY WELL. The TRUST’s website is: http://www.stiftung-christliche-medien.de/

Churches and Selling Books …

I personally don’t believe that churches can function as “alternative bookshops”. They are not trained to do so. They will mess it up. Booktables in churches are successful here but the whole approach has its limits. You can only use volunteers up to a certain point. You can’t expect the church to run a business. Selling Christian books IS a business – even though it is also a ministry. Business has to remain business. If it were to be a pure ministry one would have to ask for book donations instead and then you don’t have a business anymore. It just doesn’t work.

I am half British and half German. I always felt that English Christians are better off because they have so many more Christian titles to choose from. So much variety in Christian literature!

I really hope that the British Christians will wake up to the fact that what they have is precious and rare (compared to the rest of the world).

Wish you all much wisdom, God’s grace and a wonderful miraculous “solution”.

Best wishes, Saina

By working together, I believe that we can save STL – Wesley Owen – Authentic Media. We do not need a white knight in shining armour to ride to the rescue: we need, rather, to learn to trust one another and work together.

→ 1 Comment

Posted in Book Trade Ramblings, Christian Bookshops, Christian Publishers, Christian Suppliers, Guest Posts

Tagged , , , , , , ,

New Ways of Being Bookshop

Posted on November 20, 2009 by | 4 Comments

Matt Wardman writes:

Following recent posts by Phil Groom about the crisis in the STL Distribution company on the SPCK News Site and here at the Christian Bookshops Blog, I thought I’d run a few reflections up the flagpole.

I have no involvement in bookselling, apart from loving and buying books, but, like the Mouse, I have tried to listen throughout the last 2 years of supporting the campaign to scrutinise the rundown of the former-SPCK bookshop chain.

Where are we?
Some parts of Christian Bookselling is now in chaos – obviously. SPCK will not be back as a bookshop chain, and that has taken away a good deal of infrastructure and resources (did I really write that 2 years ago? – it’s the original Radio 4 interview) upon which many other activities and smaller projects used to rely.

Now, events at STL are putting a question mark over the future, or at least the nature, of the trade’s distribution backbone as well. I won’t say more about STL because I’m not in the loop and I’ll get it wrong.

Further, I remember Phil’s comments on the Christian Booksellers’ Convention at this time last year:

Perhaps I am unduly pessimistic in regarding Bible Society’s acquisition of CBC, the Christian Booksellers Convention, as an effective obituary notice for CBC. Perhaps merging CBC with CRE, the Christian Resources Exhibition, is not so much the end of an era as the beginning of a new one. …

This, quite simply, makes it a non-starter for a retailer focused trade event. We are already faced with online competition from our suppliers: are we also expected to smile sweetly and welcome direct, face-to-face competition as those same suppliers offer our customers deals to walk away with that we will never be able to match because those suppliers will not offer us terms that will make such deals possible?

Putting these insights together leads me to think that an important need at this time is to place the retailer back at the heart of the dialogue, and look for ways to survive in a very difficult environment.

The SPCK Experience
The “former-SPCK” position is that we have lost 25 bookshops, but with a variety of successful (or at least “working”) models emerging to fill the gaps in a surprisingly large number of places.

  1. Independent bookshop in (and supported by) a Church in Cardiff.
  2. Bookshop in a former church combined with Cafe in Norwich.
  3. Market-stalls – Birmingham and, I think, Worcester.
  4. Combined Christian/Secular bookshop in an indoor market, including a wide range of other products in Lincoln.
  5. Completely new bookshop, filling a similar space in the market, but with a local focus

And these are simply a few examples off the top of my head.

In addition, there continue to be other places where there may be an opportunity for a new project and an existing customer base / supporting community which would support such projects.

I’m saying “look how well these people are doing”; I’m saying “it can be made to work, even now, in the middle of a recession”.

What is working?
Having watched, written and campaigned about the dismantling of the SPCK network over a 2 year period, I’d note the following factors:

  1. The foundation of a loyal customer base – which can come from local churches, being a unique supplier of “product x”, engaging people via a blog, or on the ground (what about a Craft Table), or from an existing community seeking a new bookshop after the local SPCK vanished.
  2. Wider range of products. This can be Christian non-book products; but it can also be by treating Christian books as a specialist category within a non-specialist shop.
  3. Form of incorporation. As a comparison, the OXFAM Bookshop chain receives an annual subsidy of well in excess of one million pounds simply from the reduction business rates for charity properties.
  4. Online trading. Some places do this successfully, but I don’t have case studies.
  5. Certain churches have even used this as a strategy to support themselves, for example the Bradford-based Harvestime organisation.
  6. Creative cost-sharing/reduction with other organisations.
  7. Putting something “upstairs”; OXFAM tend to do it with other specialist franchises, such as secondhand wedding dresses.
  8. Collaborating with other local independent businesses in the traditional way.

I’d acknowledge that there is nothing fundamentally new here, and that many bookshops already do some or all of these.

They all have these points in common: innovation, flexibility and different tactics in each place.

Reframing the Dialogue around Retailers
These are my key suggestions as to current needs and opportunities:

  1. A lack of focus on the retailer the traditional trade events.
  2. A need for innovation.
  3. Intense economic and other pressures.
  4. Recent accounts of what others are doing successfully (or equally importantly, not successfully), how, and in what context.

I wonder whether some type of event deliberately aimed at helping retailers learn from others’ experience and to share successes and failures would be beneficial at this point.

Wrapping Up
I’ll stop there for now, and may add some more thoughts later.

What do you think?

Appendix: Some Related Discussions (added by Phil Groom; most recent first, updated 08/12/2009)

→ 4 Comments

Posted in Christian Bookshops, Guest Posts, Musings...

Tagged , , , , ,

And so it ends: STL UK puts up ‘For Sale’ sign

Posted on November 16, 2009 by | 51 Comments
IBS-STL UK Announces Plans to Sell Operations

IBS-STL UK Announces Plans to Sell Operations

In a press release (full text below or pdf, 86kb) issued at lunchtime today, Biblica announced that they were finally pulling out of their UK operations and putting the division up for sale. In the press release, Keith Danby, Global CEO, is quoted saying,

Given the severe financial and operational strains we have experienced, the Board of Trustees and management team believe a sale or exit from all or parts of certain operations is a prudent and necessary step. Whilst a difficult decision, we are focused on finding a solution to continue the important work of IBS-STL UK, to secure the jobs of the 490 people employed in our ministry, and to fulfill our financial obligations to our suppliers and creditors. We are working diligently and praying vigilantly for a successful outcome.

Blame for the company’s difficulties is laid firmly at the door of last year’s unsuccessful IT systems upgrade which, combined with the current economic climate, resulted in unsustainable cash flow and stock movement difficulties:

The move has come after a succession of financial problems, in particular the failed implementation of a new SAP computer system in October 2008, the effects of which were exacerbated by the economic downturn. These have caused significant cash flow pressures, excess stock, and supply chain and service difficulties in its distribution and retail units. They have culminated in the decision to exit the business.

This decision comes in the wake of repeated reassurances from Danby that there was “no immediate crisis within the company” (August 2009) and that there was “a sustainable business ministry model going forward” (September 2009).

One possible way forward, proposed here on Saturday, would be a trade buy-out: if enough of us are willing to stand together then between us we could take the business on as a shared ownership company. But who will stand? Who will rise to the challenge?


Full Press Release
(or download pdf, 86kb – includes Notes to Editors and contact info for media and other enquiries)

LEADING CHRISTIAN CHARITY IBS-STL UK ANNOUNCES PLANS TO SELL OPERATIONS DUE TO FINANCIAL CHALLENGES

Leading Christian book and Bible charity IBS-STL UK today announced that it has appointed Baker Tilly Corporate Finance LLP to pursue the sale of its operations.

The move has come after a succession of financial problems, in particular the failed implementation of a new SAP computer system in October 2008, the effects of which were exacerbated by the economic downturn. These have caused significant cash flow pressures, excess stock, and supply chain and service difficulties in its distribution and retail units. They have culminated in the decision to exit the business.

IBS-STL UK convened an emergency task force led by Global President of Biblica and former CEO of STL, Keith Danby, which has been in constant dialogue with its suppliers and bankers. It had also engaged restructuring and business process consultants in an attempt to resolve the systems and financial challenges.

Danby said: “Given the severe financial and operational strains we have experienced, the Board of Trustees and management team believe a sale or exit from all or parts of certain operations is a prudent and necessary step. Whilst a difficult decision, we are focused on finding a solution to continue the important work of IBS-STL UK, to secure the jobs of the 490 people employed in our ministry, and to fulfill our financial obligations to our suppliers and creditors. We are working diligently and praying vigilantly for a successful outcome.”

The corporate finance division of Baker Tilly is actively marketing the operations of the charity to a number of interested parties and is hopeful it will complete negotiations for the sales or potential closures within the next few weeks. IBS-STL UK was founded in 1962 and has grown to become a major UK charity.

IBS-STL UK has three trading divisions; Authentic Media, a book and music publisher; STL Distribution, a distributor of Christian resources and Wesley Owen Books and Music, a retailer with 40 shops in the UK. IBS-STL UK is part of Biblica, a global Bible translation, publishing, distribution and outreach ministry serving more than 100 countries with books, Bibles and other Christian resources. Biblica said the planned sale of the UK operations will not impact its other global operations and donor funds supporting Biblica’s worldwide outreach ministries will not be affected.

Michael Fitch, Chairman of the IBS-STL UK Board of Trustees, concluded: “We continue to believe strongly in the power of God’s Word and Christian resources to change peoples’ lives. We are praying that we can pass the torch on to other likeminded organisations so that our UK staff, suppliers and ministry partners can carry our work forward.”

→ 51 Comments

Posted in News

Tagged , , , , , , ,

A Modest Proposal to Save STL UK

Posted on November 14, 2009 by | 164 Comments

We all know that STL UK (or Biblica or whatever they’re calling themselves these days) are in deep doodah. That’s not rumour, it’s fact as stated by the man himself, Keith Danby, in his miscellaneous missives to the trade with repeated references to financial difficulties and ongoing consultations with bankers and others.

There are some signs of hope, of an improved cash flow: one supplier I spoke to this week told me that their account, six months overdue, had at last been paid. Other sources, however, tell me about supplier accounts being put on hold due to non-payment; and I know, from my own experience of having to source goods elsewhere, that warehouse stocks are not what they ought to be, especially at this time of year.

What we don’t know, of course, because they’re not telling us, is how deep STL UK’s financial crisis runs: hundreds of thousands, or millions? If the former — perhaps even if the latter — then I suggest that, if we’re prepared to act together, between us we have the power to rescue them.

UKCBD alone lists more than 600 Christian retailers, most of them actively trading, most of them STL UK trade account holders. Then there are the many church and other account holders as well as all the suppliers: that’s thousands of us who stand — to put it mildly — to be massively inconvenienced if STL UK goes to the wall.

My proposal, modest though it is, is simply this: we buy them out. Between us, we pay off STL UK’s debts — or enough of those debts to make their bankers do a double-take — and take them over as a shared-ownership company. Careful plans, terms and conditions would need to be drawn up, of course; but amongst us, surely, we have the expertise for that.

If as few as 1,000 of us contributed as little as £100 each, that would be £100,000. I think that, however, is a very conservative estimate of the amount we could raise: there are far more than 1,000 of us whose own businesses and livelihoods stand to suffer immensely if STL UK cease trading; and whilst some of us would struggle to find £100, many of us could contribute significantly more than that to a trade buy-out.

We’ve prayed together. The time has come, I think, for us to act together: to put our money where our mouths are and recognise that we ourselves may be God’s answer to those prayers.

Too little too late, I hear you say. Maybe so: the winds of change are blowing in our industry as more and more business is being conducted online; but let’s not allow the Christian book and retail trade in the UK to go down in history as blown away by an errant trade wind when we could have saved it had we only been blown along by the Spirit of God…

Appendix: Biblica Financial Reports

→ 164 Comments

Posted in Book Trade Ramblings, Musings...

Tagged , , , , , ,

The Politics of Publishing

Posted on November 9, 2009 by | 35 Comments
The Politics of Discipleship, Baker Academic, $24.99
USA Edition: $24.99
The Politics of Discipleship, SCM-Canterbury Press, £25
UK Edition: £25.00

Today, I am annoyed. Annoyed from my own perspective as a retailer, but more annoyed on behalf of my customers who are being asked to pay £10 over the odds for a new book simply because of the perversity of an international rights deal between publishers.

On this occasion — and this is far from the first time my customers and I have had run-ins with publishers over rights restrictions — the book concerned is Graham Ward’s The Politics of Discipleship: USA edition, Baker Academic, $24.99; UK edition, SCM-Canterbury Press, £25. Using current exchange rates, $24.99 works out at £15.05; for the latest figures, allow Google to do the sums for you: 24.99 USD in GBP — unless there’s been a major shift in the markets, it won’t have changed much.

It’s not just about price, however: in this case, ironically, it’s the very topic of the book itself. Subtitled “Becoming Postmaterial Citizens”, the book addresses such issues as “the perversities of globalization” (Stanley Hauerwas, endorsing the book).

Yes indeed, globalization, or globalisation. Take your pick of spellings but the fact is that we now live in a global community, serving a global marketplace. Global. It means worldwide. It means — wakey, wakey, publishers! — international rights restrictions are dead. They’re history. They’re like the parrot in that old Monty Python sketch: kaput; deceased. That era is gone, over and done.

Your customers, who also happen to be my customers, aren’t interested in your wheeler dealer negotiations over who publishes what where, whatever vast or not-so-vast sums of money may have changed hands — especially not when the price in one corner of the market is marked up like this. Who in their right mind is going to pay £25 for a book that’s also published for $25 and available for even less at the click of a mouse?

On what basis am I as a retailer supposed to tell a customer who walks into my shop with a Baker catalogue offering them a book — part, incidentally, of a series that they’ve been collecting — at $25, “No, you can’t buy that edition here, you’ve got to buy the de-serialised edition from SCM-Canterbury for £25.”?

They will say to me, “Dearly beloved bookseller, you must be joking.”

And I say to you, “Dearly beloved publisher, you must be joking.”

I’ve said this before: I say it again: the geographical boundaries you’re fighting over are in meltdown: the internet — and now the digital — revolution has broken down the barriers. It’s time to recognise that when you publish a book you’re not simply publishing it for your own country: you’re publishing it for the world.

That’s globalization. That’s life. It’s part of what it means to work in today’s marketplace, and trying to restrict products according to the old ways simply doesn’t work anymore. To serve your customers you need to think like your customers — and if you attempt to build walls to stop them, those walls, like the Berlin Wall back in 1989, will be torn down. Trying to block sales through Amazon simply won’t work: you may be able to stop this one, but others will slip through and other channels will open.

Call it the “perversity of globalization” if you wish, but from where I’m standing selling books, it’s the perversity of publishers.

→ 35 Comments

Posted in Book Trade Ramblings, Bookshop Ramblings

Tagged , , , , , , , ,

Ready to leave the garret? Introducing the Association of Christian Writers

Posted on November 7, 2009 by | 1 Comment
I’ve known about the Association of Christian Writers (ACW) for some time, although I can’t remember where I first came across them. Was it through a flyer in magazine, or perhaps an encounter at CRE?
Whatever the case, we as booksellers and the authors who write the books we sell — as well as those who write about them — are all intimately connected. So I was delighted when Lin Ball, Chairman of the Association, dropped in on our Day of Prayer thread, assuring us of their support. I invited her to tell us what it’s all about…
Lin Ball

Lin Ball

Ready to leave the garret?

OK… the vision of the impoverished writer scribbling away in a rat-infested garret is an out-of-date stereotype. But what remains true when you’ve dismissed the caricature is that the calling to write can mean lots of lonely hours. Yes, you can play your favourite tracks or have John Humphrys burbling in the background. You can stroke the cat, install a cappuccino machine, make sure you’ve got an endless supply of Everton mints, flirt on Facebook or make frequent and not always necessary visits to the post office. But when push comes to shove, it’s just you, the keyboard, the deadline and your untamed thoughts. Writing can be a solitary business.

It’s nearly 40 years since I started work as a trainee reporter on the Bristol Evening Post group, fresh out of school. Since then, I’ve accumulated a CV rich in writing and publishing experiences. I’ve ghost written several books, had some of my titles translated into Chinese and one into Japanese. I’ve had a novel published and countless articles in magazines and newspapers. I’ve been the editor of a mission magazine and several charity newsletters. I’ve birthed a Bible reading magazine and wept when it folded after 14 issues. I spent over 11 years as a commissioning editor with a major Christian publisher and launched at least a dozen first-time writers into print.

And I know that being a writer can be lonely to the point of desolation. Which is why for over 35 years I’ve been a member of the Association of Christian Writers and why I said ‘yes’ when I was asked to become chairman just over a year ago.

The fellowship of like-minded people is a wonderful thing. When I walk into a hall packed with writers at the start of a writers’ day, the buzz is amazing. We are all ages, all shapes and sizes, and have all kinds of writing experience or maybe none except the burning desire to put pen to paper. We are budding or actual crime writers, romantic novelists, poets, children’s writers. Mingling with us are editors or real live publishers – those magical people who can sometimes make dreams come true for some of the writers.

The Association of Christian Writers exists to offer fellowship, encouragement, training and inspiration to all kinds of writers or wannabe writers. You may write material that is gloriously Christian in content. Or you may write geography textbooks or science fiction or cookery books in which you’d be hard pushed to include anything about the gospel of Jesus Christ. But if you write and you are a Christian, then you are welcome in ACW. We know that even if your writing is not explicitly Christian, then it will implicitly bear the marks of the Master who is the Living Word, for you will want to do it to a standard of excellence that will honour him.

ACW runs two writers’ days in London every year in March and October and a weekend residential conference every other year in the summer as well as a growing number of regional events. ACW also coordinates about 35 area groups across the UK, groups of between half a dozen and 20 members who meet – some weekly, some monthly, some quarterly – to encourage one another, sharing their writing journeys. ACW sends members a quarterly magazine packed with fascinating and helpful articles and a monthly email newsletter of competition and publishing industry news, market opportunities and other ‘writerly’ snippets. Also on offer is prayer and manuscript criticism. But at the heart of all that ACW does is that buzz of sharing with others who love words. So get ready to leave the garret…

To find out more, go to www.christianwriters.org.uk

Lin Ball,
Chairman,
Association of Christian Writers

→ 1 Comment

Posted in Guest Posts

Tagged , , , ,