March 2010
Monthly Archive
March 31, 2010
Informix Switchover Timetable
TODAY, March 31st 2010, is your last chance to place orders (deadline 2.30pm) with STL UK to carry you over the Easter Bank Holiday weekend and into next week. Because at 4pm today, SAP dies. Synergi and stldistribution.co.uk will also be switched off, making way for the long-awaited reinstallation of Informix.
The Informix installation process commences on April 1st and is expected to take a full week, with completion scheduled for April 6th/7th. STL say:
We are confident that this change-over will go smoothly. Our goal is to be up and running by the 6th April with minimal disruption to your business. As we make progress throughout the transition we will keep you updated via our blog.
Please remember the team here in Carlisle in your prayers as they undertake this project.
A hearty amen to that, with fingers, toes and eyes all crossed for good measure…
Orders can still be placed by phone on April 1st but they will be held on backorder until Tuesday April 6th. All customer service functions close down over the Bank Holiday weekend, Good Friday to Easter Monday.
You’ll find more info and ongoing updates over on the STL Blog.
March 30, 2010
Today, a simple statement of the obvious: it’s not the books, it’s the experience.
I know I’m saying nothing new here, but sometimes obvious things need stating to wake us up, so I’ll spell it out: today, people can buy books anywhere; and in a world where books can be bought online or at the supermarket, bookshops are superfluous. Like coffee shops. I mean, who in their right mind is going to pay £1.95 — or whatever the price is at your favourite café — for a coffee when they could make one at home for 10p?
But they do.
Because what they’re buying isn’t the coffee, which is gone in a moment, their money quite literally flushed away just a few minutes later: they’re buying the experience.
It’s an experience that Amazon, Eden and their ilk will never be able to match; yet they thrive whilst we go into decline. We have a product that — for the price of three or four coffees — people can keep for ever. But whilst they’ll spend their money on coffee and cakes that are gone in a moment — products that they know don’t represent value for money compared to the price they’d pay if they ate and drank the same things at home — they’re reluctant to spend their money in our shops. When it comes to books, apparently, the home experience is better.
The shops that survive will be the shops that see this and change — not into coffee shops (though I’m sure having a coffee shop helps), but into shops that offer the same sort of buzz. Shops that deliver more than a product that can be bought anywhere but an experience that makes the product price irrelevant.
No: bookshops are — or should be — no more superfluous than coffee shops. But it’s our call to communicate that to our customers. Has your shop got what it takes? Have you? And if you have — what’s your formula?
March 26, 2010
TODAY, Friday 26th March 2010, is our second national Day of Prayer for the Christian book trade.
Meetings and prayer times — detailed on the Day of Prayer page — are taking place in Christian bookshops and other venues all around the country, with facebook event pages set up by some of the shops involved:
Please pray for:
- STL’s IT team as they complete preparations to switch back from SAP to Informix
- Ray George, Andy Twilley and everyone involved in the Living Oasis project
- Steve Briars and the Christian Resources Together team as they finalise plans for the High Leigh Retreat and the Retailers Day at CRE, Sandown Park
- Independent booksellers, especially those just starting up after the collapse of Wesley Owen: The Hub, Walsall, and Falkirk Christian Bookshop
- Staff with CLC and Koorong adjusting to being under new management and ownership
- People who have lost their jobs in the recent chaos
- Clem Jackson and the team at Christian Marketplace
- Publishers seeking wisdom as they decide what to publish
- Authors and other writers seeking inspiration
- Agents as they work with authors and publishers
- Book reviewers seeking to give fair and honest appraisals
Those are just a few points off the top of my head: comments are open as always for you to post your own specific prayer requests along with points for praise and thanksgiving.
On a personal note, I’d be grateful for your prayers, please, as I continue spring cleaning the Directory and working my way through a veritable avalanche of update requests. By the time it’s over more than 300 entries will have been updated. If you haven’t checked your shop’s entry yet, please do so and let me know if any changes are needed. If there’s no date against your entry, it hasn’t been updated since 2008, possibly earlier…
As with last year, if you’re tweeting the Day of Prayer, please use the hashtag #dayofprayer
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March 25, 2010
ChristianResourcesTogether
A message from Steve Briars, event organiser and Exhibition Director:
Are you planning to attend the Retailers & Suppliers Retreat at High Leigh (Tues 4th – Weds 5th May) and haven’t already posted your booking form? (Download it here: Word doc, 70kb | pdf, 86kb). If the answer is yes can I encourage you to get your booking in as soon as possible? There are only a few remaining en-suite rooms available and these will be allocated on a first come first served basis. The all inclusive price is £104.00 + VAT per person.
To accommodate the demand we are now making standard rooms available at an all inclusive price of £84.00 + VAT. These rooms are comfortably furnished with a hand-wash basin, plus soap and towels. Nearby are toilets, bathrooms and refreshment points where you can make a drink at any time.
On behalf of Christian Resources Together we look forward to welcoming you.
Stephen
Stephen Briars, Exhibition Director
CRT, Trinity Business Centre,
Stonehill Green, Westlea, Swindon SN5 7DG
T: 01793 418234 F: 01793 418208
www.creonline.co.uk
March 24, 2010
After the successful publication and substantial sales of his book, A12 to Heaven (June 2008), Phil Stoddart has now set up his own publishing company, Last Word Publications. Following an exchange of emails, I invited Phil to tell us his story:
Looking back, it still seems inconceivable that anything positive could come out of such tragedy. My wife and I were woken in the middle of the night in June 2006 by a phone call that ushered in a nightmare. I will never forget driving to the hospital and stopping on the way at the place where my two teenage daughters lost their lives. Three other people were also dead and a young man with far too much alcohol in his system was responsible for it all.
I didn’t understand at the time why God should speak to me so intently about the days ahead. It started in the hospital when my body was wracked with nausea and anguish. “There are three things you have to do if you want to get through this”, he said, “not to blame me, nor the driver and certainly not yourself.”
I didn’t even try to digest these things. I was so desperate for his comfort that I could only reply “Yes Lord.” We both knew I meant it. The result was an unbroken fellowship with him that in the year to follow became a soothing medicine for the pain in my heart. Time after time, he revealed things about himself and the life to come that my body could barely contain. The more I saw of him the more I wept at his beauty and sheer intensity of love. More tears flowed from these glimpses into his glory than the loss itself.
A12 to Heaven
Out of these encounters I was compelled to write A12 to Heaven which came out in June 2008. My initial intention was to find a publisher but during the lead up to completion I received encouragement through prayer from others to publish it myself. More words came, even from people with no idea what I was doing, that extended the boundaries beyond the production of just one book and into the setting up of Last Word Publications.
It wouldn’t have been possible had it not been for the timely arrival in our church of a professional graphic designer from London. With a few others we have developed a vision to publish affordable, high quality materials new and existing authors that penetrate both Christian and secular outlets.
Life Issues
Thanks to national coverage of what happened on that horrible night and also our links into New Frontiers, we have now sold over 3000 copies of my book. In May 2009 we published Life Issues by Wendy Virgo. Wendy is the wife of Terry who pretty much began the New Frontiers church movement and her book is a series of practical discussions for women on building healthy marriages, homes and families.
He Loves Me Not?
In February of this year a third book was produced called He Loves Me Not? The author Joanne Robinson is a Christian counsellor and member of a Baptist church in Norfolk. It’s another title aimed at women but what makes it different to Wendy’s book is the focus on broken relationships. Jo has a wealth of experience in this area and uses biblical principles to show how God can heal the bruises and how to avoid getting them in the first place!
As for the future, we are currently working with another four authors, all of whom are leaders at the forefront of planting and building healthy churches. However, a major obstacle to our development is simply getting our books stocked in enough outlets for people to buy. This is where we need lots of support and goodwill to whoever is out there!!! To get more of a feel for us, please visit our website at www.lastwordpublications.com
March 23, 2010
Good News Centre, Newent
CONGRATULATIONS to everyone at the Good News Centre, Newent, which has just celebrated its 30th anniversary, reported yesterday evening by Eddie Olliffe:
After so much bad news dominating the Christian Book Trade recently, it is wonderful to be able to post a piece of Good News – all about the Good News!
In this case, the Good News Centre – a registered charity and a rural Christian bookshop and coffeehouse – located on the borders of Gloucestershire and Herefordshire. Along with a number of other Christian outlets in the UK, this shop opened 30 years ago – on Saturday 22nd March 1980.
It’s where, as he goes on to tell us, Eddie himself learnt the fine art of Christian bookselling. Head on over to Eddie’s place for the full story and some superb photographs.
It also gives me another opportunity to plug my UKCBD Spring Cleaning: Eddie left the Good News Centre back in 1985 and it was a relief to discover that I didn’t have his name as the point of contact in the shop’s UKCBD entry — but the entry is still one manager behind, now added to my ‘to do’ list. Anyone else out there who’s moved on or about to? Please remember to send in an update request or your name is liable to continue to haunt your shop’s online listings for years to come…
March 20, 2010
Living Oasis Weston: Opening Day Poster (pdf, 504kb)
Today should see another three of the former Wesley Owen bookshops spring into new life as branches of Living Oasis: congratulations and best wishes to all involved! If you live nearby, get your skates on and head on over:
Update on the Updates
Thank you to everyone who has responded to yesterday’s Spring Cleaning notice: updates are underway and I’ll be in touch to ask you to review your entries in due course.
My thanks especially to Jacques More of Jarom Books who has sent me details of dozens of changes he’s become aware of whilst using the Directory. Anyone else who notices any out of date info, please do let me know. Onwards and upwards!
March 19, 2010
Having at last managed to update all the former Wesley Owen bookshop entries with their new ownership details, I figured it’s time for some general spring cleaning — and for that, gentle reader, I need your help, please.
If you own, manage or work for a Christian bookshop, please check your UKCBD entry: you can track down your shop by name or by location. If it’s complete and up to date, fine; if not, read on…
March 17, 2010
Life's not fair but... my knickers are!
My thanks to Mike Norbury for the tip off on this rather wonderful company, lifesnotfairbutmyknickersare.com; and congratulations & kudos to Alison Charlesworth of The Well, Scunthorpe, on becoming their first known explicitly Christian stockist — unless there’s anyone else out there eager to declare themselves?
At LST Books & Resources our fastest selling product range is fairtrade confectionery and food — so come along now, all you booksellers and retailers with an entrepreneurial spirit: no need to get your knickers in a twist over this one, surely? We all need underwear: has the time come to diversify and get ethical with them too? Beyond books to coffee to knickers: is this the future shape of the Christian book trade?
Find out more:
March 15, 2010
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