A NOTE FROM ALBAN BOOKS:
From the 1st June 2012 Abingdon Press will no longer be distributed by Alban Books in the UK/Europe. Abingdon Press returns will be accepted at Marston Book Services until the 30th September 2012. A replacement European distributor has not yet been assigned.
Posted in Announcements, Christian Book Trade
Tagged Abingdon Press, Alban Books, Marston Book Services, Trade Notes
The Good Book Stall
IT’S ALL CHANGE at TheGoodBookstall for publishers and authors who want to submit review copies; please read, mark and inwardly digest:
Please note that as from 4/5/2012 all Review Copies for www.thegoodbookstall.org.uk now need to be sent to:
Melanie Carroll, (GoodBookstall)
c/o Unicorn Tree Books
35/40 Lincoln Central Market
Sincil Street
Lincoln. LN5 7ETand NOT to the Editor, Mary Bartholomew, due to a new system in place.
In future Melanie Carroll is first contact about books for review and will be the person contacting you about review copies etc; Mary Bartholomew remains the Editor and contact for books that have been reviewed and other aspects of TGBS.
Please can you pass this information on to your publicity/marketing department and to any connections you have with other publishers etc.
Thank you.
LOOKING FOR WORK? Or looking for workers? Whichever side of the fence you’re on, please feel free to make use of this site’s Jobs page to post your requirements, now reinstated in the navigation bar at the top of every post and page. As with all things UKCBD, it’s a free service, though donations are always appreciated to help keep the show on the road. Three new Christian book trade opportunities have been brought to my attention this month >> keep reading…
Posted in Announcements
Tagged Darton Longman & Todd, Jobs, Storehouse Watford, Vacancies
UK Christian Bookshops Directory
THANK YOU to everyone who has sent in bookshop updates over the last few weeks: this post is simply to confirm that those updates are in progress. As with any voluntary project, however, these things take time: depending upon other commitments (such as church, family and earning a crust to keep the wolves from the door), you’ll sometimes see updates appearing almost instantly whilst on other occasions it may take anything from a few days to several weeks.
Please remember that you can keep track of the latest updates either via the UKCBD homepage or here, via the Latest Updates page; and please also remember that you can leave comments or update requests directly on any standalone entry or on any other page of the Directory.
Bookshop closures are usually reported in the News posts (and tagged Bookshop Closure), on facebook or via twitter (either via my personal stream or the official UKCBD stream) as they are brought to my attention, but Directory updates will often lag behind somewhat, as much as anything because I find making those changes thoroughly disheartening.
Last but not least, please do keep those updates coming in: thank you.
FARM Africa Presents...
IN WHAT HAS BECOME something of a time-honoured tradition here, today I offer all of this site’s friends and supporters a goat, as a token of my very best wishes for Christmas and the coming year.
It’s been a tough and challenging year for the UK book trade — not just the Christian sector but across the board — but the challenges we’re up against in the UK are almost as nothing compared to those faced by families in Africa, many of whom can barely scrape a living from the land. Amou’s story is one example of the way in which goats from FARM Africa have helped to transform a family’s life:
Amou, from Southern Sudan, is a widow who cares for her three grandchildren. Because Amou lost all her livestock in a raid, her family had no access to milk or to the manure they needed to cultivate their land. They were struggling to grow enough crops to feed themselves and sell to raise money for essentials like clothing and medicines.
FARM-Africa provided five goats to Amou, and many of the other women in similar situations – giving them the start they needed to develop their businesses once again. Amou’s goats produced nine offspring, five of which she returned to FARM-Africa for redistribution to other vulnerable households. Thanks to her new livestock, Amou and her grandchildren have access to nutritious goats’ milk. The manure has helped the family grow a very good crop of sorghum. With the money she will earn from selling surplus crops, Amou intends to buy a heifer so that her family can have even more milk.
Just a few goats have transformed Amou’s life. She says, “Now people are respecting me in their meetings because I also have goats like them. They no longer call me a poor woman. My life has changed. I am a woman now.”
For me, a story like that beats any number of Christmas cards or other frippery hands down every time; and so to everyone who has helped to make running both UKCBD and this blog not only viable but worthwhile: thank you. May you, your families and friends experience the joy of many goats this Christmas and for many years to come.
In a comment under the post on the low discount to trade from CTS on the new Altar Missals a concerning trend has been found, highlighted and raised – one that crosses denominational boundaries and publishing houses and is perhaps of even more concern than the very low discount being given from CTS.
Andrew Lacey of Glo Bookshop posted:
A further addition to the Church Hymnary pot….
It seems that the new ‘Singing the Faith’ Methodist Hymn book, shortly to be distributed by Hymns Ancient & Modern for the Methodist Publishing House, will also not be available with any trade discount either! Apparently there is an introductory discount of approx 15% being offered direct to churches & online, but there will be no further discount AT ALL provided to Bookshops.
https://secure2.cyberware.co.uk/~cb537/acatalog/Singing_the_Faith.html
(just as an aside, note that customers cards will be charged NOW, rather than when the goods are despatched in SEPTEMBER- anyone tried that with a retail customer recently? What response did you get?!
A very helpful lady at MPH apologetically explained to me that no decision had yet been taken on any trade discount after the introductory offer expired in December 2011. This, of course, follows the pretty meagre discounts that were offered by HA&M on the Church of Scotland Hymnary 4th edition- although, in fairness to HA&M, they did help us once so we could match advertised prices.
It is hugely frustrating that these captive markets are effectively being creamed off by publishers, and bookshops are being very efficiently sidelined. Especially when we are the people who often do the work for the customer in making phone calls and trawling the web- and the only people who will benefit is the publisher.
It will also be interesting to see whether the Methodist Hymn Book turns up on the Book Depository lists at even larger disounts in due course……..
This is, as Andrew has said, deeply concerning as it effectively shows that bookshops are not only being sidelined but actively excluded from being in a position to serve their local communities and supply them – communities that in many cases want to support their local bookshops and that the local bookshops have spent years working alongside them through changes of all types and in every day times as well – to see the publishing houses of these institutions and those chosen to represent them now seemingly actively sidelining these shops is more than a deeply concerning issue and brings so many questions to bear – not least what has happened to the trade at large and how can we actively and corporately resolve this troubling trend and crisis.
This at a time when US based Christian Retailing Magazine have on their Facebook Page put out a call for Suppliers to sign up to the Supplier Pledge alongside Christian Retailers signing up to the Retailers Pledge posted of earlier.
The pledge reads:
I have been called to be part of extending God’s kingdom through the creation of Christian products that can change lives. While this calling means that I want to see these resources distributed as widely as possible, I believe that I enjoy a unique partnership in this endeavor with Christian retailers. Independent, church and other Christian retail stores are community lighthouses that share my ministry goal. I believe in the ministry of Christian retailers and want to work with and support them as much as possible. I will seek to honor my Lord in my business with the efforts of my hands, my heart, my staff and my commitment to His Word. I love Christian products and I thank God for my calling.
So far Caritas Music Publishing has signed up – maybe it’s time we actively call on all our UK Suppliers and Publishing Houses to also make a public commitment of support for the Christian Retailers trying to so hard to support them and the local Christian communities they actively work alongside of.
Posted in Announcements, Book Trade Ramblings, Christian Book Trade, Christian Bookshops, Christian Publishers, Christian Suppliers, Church Resources, News
Tagged Altar Missals, Bookselling, Catholic Truth Society, Christian Book Trade, Christian Bookshops, Christian retail, CTS, Hymns Ancient & Modern, Methodist Publishing House, MPH, Roman Missal, Stronger Together - Weaker Apart, Unfair Pricing
FURTHER UPSET over the very low discount being offered to Christian Bookshops by the Catholic Truth Society on the New Altar Missals that all Catholic Churches will soon require was again raised when Internet Bookseller, The Book Depository, was seen to be offering the Missals at 25% off – an offer no other bookshop could seemingly match.
Stephen Moseling, Operations Co-ordinator for St Pauls Bookshops was quick to raise the issue with Mr Fergal Martin, the Society’s General Secretary, on behalf of all concerned booksellers.
Dear Fergal,
I am disappointed that you have not had the courtesy to reply to my email of 24th May, in which I expressed my dissatisfaction that you were not willing to meet with the signatories of the open letter sent to you to even discuss the discount policy of the CTS on the forthcoming Altar Missals. I understand that the other signatories to our original letter have received no further communication from you either.
What we have now seen on the website of The Book Depository http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/Altar-Missal/9781860827297 makes us even more aggrieved. The Book Depository are offering their online customers each of the three editions of the Altar Missal at a 25% discounted price, with free delivery.
As you well appreciate, an online retailer does not have the same level of overheads that a high street retailer does.
We understood the policy of the CTS was to offer a “non-negotiable” 10% discount to the trade. This unacceptable level of discount prohibits bookshops from stocking these books and thereby making them available to their customers.
In the light of what The Book Depository are offering, how can you now justify the discount policy of the CTS to bookshops?
Yours in Christ,
Stephen T Moseling
Operations Co-ordinator
ST PAULS by Westminster Cathedral
Morpeth Terrace
London
SW1P 1EP
The Book Depository has itself been in the news recently of course when it was announced last week that an agreement had been reached between themselves and Amazon that would see them come under the ownership of Amazon – thus giving market share indeed to Amazon here in the UK and also increasing Amazon’s reach into Australia and Europe.
Discover your local Christian bookshop!
IT’S THAT TIME OF YEAR AGAIN — out come the dusters and the cobweb brushes as I make my annual (and always ongoing) attempt to bring all the UK Christian Bookshops Directory records up to date!
Over the last year we’ve seen a lot of shops come and go, as well as change hands, and at this point I need your help, please: if you own or work in a Christian bookshop, please check your entry — either via the Shop Name Index or the Town and City Index (the two are mirrored so it doesn’t matter which way you go in) — and let me know, either via a comment on this post or directly, if it needs updating.
If you’re a Christian bookshop customer, please do likewise: check the entries for your local Christian bookshop(s) and do two things if they’re not listed or the entry is out of date:
Every entry that has been updated within the last three years has a date against it. Entries with no date have not been updated within that period and my plan is to flag these up with a query if no information is forthcoming from either the shop owners, customers or other sources.
Last but not least: a FREE entry upgrade for every retailer who responds to this call! In the past, inclusion of a shop photograph has only been available to paying subscribers. This time around, if you send me — or supply the URL (web address) for — a photograph of your shop, it will be added to your entry free of charge. All basic entries and access to the Directory remain, as ever, free of charge.
Please note that UKCBD is a 100% voluntary project: there are no paid staff beavering away behind the scenes. It may therefore take some time to amend or add entries: please be patient!
Thank you.
Posted in Announcements, Christian Bookshops
Tagged Bookselling, Christianity, Free Upgrade!, Shopping, Spring Cleaning, UKCBD
THIS BLOG would be nothing without you, its friends and supporters: thank you for all your encouragement over this past year.
In recognition of your support (and rather than add to humanity’s carbon footprint by sending out dozens of cards that will mostly end up in recycling bins anyway) I’ve done my usual and bought a goat from Farm Africa, and the good folk there have kindly attached a label to it for you:
Farm Africa Presents: A Goat
Click on through to farmafricapresents.org.uk and you’ll be able to watch a video that tells you all about Farm Africa’s work — and, I hope, you’ll be inspired, to buy a goat for someone else. Don’t worry if a goat’s not your thing: you can always send a beehive, a camel, a chicken or something more quirky such as a bottle of fermented cow’s urine.
Cross posted with SPCK/SSG: News, Notes & Info
IF YOU’RE OBSERVANT you may have noticed a couple of new/resurrected links in the menu bar across the top of each page:
To make room for these, I’ve archived the Swap Shop page: it hasn’t seen much use recently, but it’s still available if anyone does want to avail themselves of it; and likewise the Wesley Owen pages, archived but still available.
Suggestions for new sections and/or features are always very welcome; and if at any point you lose track of where things are, please visit the Q&A page.
WHY UKCBD, AND WHY SUBSCRIBE?
UKCBD is a free online resource which exists to promote the Christian faith by providing a two-way service to the Christian community: an easy way for visitors to find their nearest Christian Bookshop, and an easy way for Christian Bookshops to develop their online presence.
My aim with UKCBD is to provide as comprehensive and up-to-date a guide to the UK’s Christian Bookshops as is humanly possible, with this blog running alongside the Directory as a forum for discussion, news, reviews and trade information.
Every shop listed is indexed by name and by location, and every shop whose entry has been updated during the last couple of years has its own dedicated page. Some are bare-bones entries, others are fully descriptive with contact details, opening times, shop logo and links to their own websites, facebook pages and twitter. I’d like to bring every entry up to date and up to the same standard, and your subscription will help to make this possible.
As well as helping to support the site’s ongoing development, however, subscribing shops benefit directly as follows:
And the cost of that subscription? £10 per year.
UKCBD exists to support you in your ministry as a Christian bookshop: and UKCBD in turn needs your support: we are stronger together, weaker apart. If you are in a position to do so, please donate or subscribe now via PayPal.
Thank you.
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