January 11, 2010
Updated 11/01/2010, 3.30pm: STL Distribution and the Quartz Partnership have issued the following response to this post:
Christian Booksellers and Retailers need to take urgent action over credits and returns, according to Stuart Arnold of Cardiff Christian Bookshop, if they wish to avoid losing out in the wake of IBS-STL’s collapse here in the UK.
• Read the full post
June 10, 2009
Christian Authors, Booksellers and Publishers facebook group
Sitting at home this morning, cut off from LST by the tube strike, I realised how many of us there are from the Christian book trade on facebook: authors, booksellers, publishers and others. Figured it might be useful to have a space where we can meet online, discuss, exchange ideas and support one another:
I’ve created it as a closed group, which means that whilst anyone can find the group, only those invited or approved by the group’s admins can actually join, make use of the discussion boards or post to the wall. If you’re on facebook and involved in the Christian book trade but have not yet been invited to join, please shout; and if you’re involved in the Christian book trade but are not on facebook (that’s you, Clem Jackson!*), do come along now 
Unlike a blog, where only the blog’s owners or approved contributors can create new posts, the facebook group’s discussion boards and wall are open to all members.
How useful it proves to be is entirely up to the group’s members: your call!
* Update: Clem Jackson has now joined facebook – welcome aboard, Clem!
May 14, 2009
I’m still at the draft stage with my own thoughts on this year’s combined CBC/CRE, but in the meantime here’s an accolade for the Chelmsford Diocesan Resource Centre and some food for thought from Dave Faulkner. Commenting on his visit to CRE, Dave wrote:
There were a few personal interests I wanted to look up. I always like the bookstalls, but resisted this year. Partly that was because I have several books piled up from the sabbatical, partly it was because brutally in an Internet age the deals weren’t that good. I know that will sound awful to some Christian booksellers who will rightly point out that Amazon is not a ministry, but a minister whose wife is not in paid employment only has so many pennies and cost becomes a real factor for us. (And I do support the local Christian bookshops whenever possible: the Diocesan Resources Centre is a mine of information; the other bookshop is the local agent for IVP’s Leadership Book Club, so they get some orders from me, too, when the good books aren’t too Calvinist!)
I replied:
Amazon — us booksellers need to stop moaning and rise to the challenge.
Dave responded:
Thanks, Phil, I’m sure you’re right. The Chelmsford Diocesan Resources Centre rises to the challenge by the quality of advice, knowledge and service by the woman who runs it. They are in one small room, carry very little stock, but Jo the manager is priceless. She has put me onto titles I wouldn’t have found in an ‘ordinary’ Christian bookshop and wouldn’t have known to look for on Amazon. Particularly she has done this w.r.t. school assembly material. When I arrived in Chelmsford, all the local ministers I spoke to, of whatever theological hue, recommended this place.
Today’s questions: how are you rising to the challenge in your bookshop? Are there other ways that we, as bricks and mortar retailers, can do better than Amazon in serving our local communities? Join in the conversation — here or over at Dave’s place.
As for me, next on the agenda: add Chelmsford Diocesan Resource Centre to UKCBD: constantly amazed as I discover more and more shops that have somehow slipped through the net. Any more lurking out there?
April 28, 2009
Today sees the the BA Christian Booksellers Group gathering at STL HQ in Carlisle for its AGM tomorow. The timing, regrettably, is such that I can’t be there, but I take this opportunity to wish all who do attend a very worthwhile meeting: I look forward to hearing what transpires. Who will make up our new committee? What will STL have to say for themselves?
Yesterday I tweeted Steve Mitchell (@SCRMitchell) — head honcho at Wesley Owen and a member of the STL blog team — to find what’s happening with their blog, which hasn’t been updated since the Message from Keith Danby was posted a few weeks ago. Steve tells me that we can expect some updates after today’s and tomorrow’s meetings and assures me that the issues being raised in the comments will be addressed: watch that space.
I was also up until midnight beating my head against the brick wall of STL’s incompetence, attempting to reconcile my invoices with their latest statement and their postings at batch.co.uk: the phrase “dog’s breakfast” barely begins to cover it. It took me approximately 20 minutes to whizz through all my other suppliers invoices; then almost 3 hours to work through STL’s, and I was still left with over £500 of unreconciled invoices and credit notes.
The problem is exacerbated by STL’s failure to make use of the batch claims system. For those who don’t use batch, allow me to explain: batch has a very straightforward way of dealing with invoicing errors. You call up the invoice onscreen, identify the problem item, select a reason for your claim (wrong item supplied, incorrect carriage charge, wrong discount etc) and hey, presto: that item is magically removed from your invoice total, allowing you to pay the remaining balance whilst your supplier deals with the claim.
STL, on the other hand, insist on doing their own thing, raising a separate credit note whenever they screw up and then reinvoicing. Sometimes the credit notes cross reference the original invoice; sometimes they don’t. As I said: dog’s breakfast.
This is not a criticism of those wonderful folk in STL’s customer services department who are continually working their socks off, who remain unfailingly polite as they attempt to pick up the pieces in the midst of the ongoing chaos. Janette Ivison and Michael Swan in particular deserve recognition for their good humoured and efficient responses whenever I raise a query: my thanks to both of them and to those working with them. The problem is that the queries I constantly find myself raising should not be necessary in the first place.
Today, I shall attempt to reconcile the rest of my STL invoices and credit notes. It may or may not work, but it will almost certainly take most of the day. I am close to despair and seriously considering boycotting STL as a supplier.
It’s become clear that I am not alone in feeling like this: STL, be aware.
March 31, 2009
Last Updated August 20, 2010
Twitter. It seems you can’t turn on the TV or radio, pick up a paper or open a magazine without someone twittering on about twitter. Even April’s Christian Marketplace, p.39; but I’m to blame for that one.
So what’s it all about? What’s the point? Two words: twitter connects. Bookseller to bookseller: bookseller to customer: bookseller to publisher and supplier: bookseller to author; and vice-versa, as well as every other possible which way. It connects us professionally but, perhaps more importantly, as people. So let’s make it three words: twitter connects people; and people, surely, is what this trade of ours is ultimately about.
So who amongst us is twittering? Here’s a list of those I know of so far, with a few from beyond the Christian trade thrown in for good measure — because we wouldn’t want to be just talking to ourselves, would we? Since UKCBD is a UK focused project, I’m initially restricting this list to UK users or those with a clear UK crossover. Other users are very welcome to comment, of course!
Index: Bookshops and Booksellers | Authors | Publishers and Suppliers | Others
Bookshops and Booksellers (A-Z by Shop Name/Surname)
Authors (A-Z by Surname)
With links to authors’ blogs and UKCBD Reviews where available.
Publishers and Suppliers (A-Z by Company/Surname)
Index: Bookshops and Booksellers | Authors | Publishers and Suppliers | Others
If you’re on twitter, have some sort of connection to the UK Christian book trade and would like to be added to this list, please leave a comment on this post and/or follow/tweet me @notbovvered and I’ll gladly add you.
For a list of who’s twittering in the wider book trade, check out @jennifertribe‘s Directory of Book Trade People on Twitter; and be sure to visit the christianbookshopbods twibe and blog set up by @unicorntreebks.
If you’re not on twitter and can’t quite figure it out, check out these posts from a couple of guys who’ve been at it for longer than me:
If you’re not convinced after reading those, then I guess twitter really is not for you. No worries: the world will keep on turning.
Where Next?
November 19, 2008
Update, 22/11/2008: Thanks to Steve Mitchell for permission to reproduce his Powerpoint Presentation, SAP Go Live.
Cynics say that the light you think you can see at the end of the tunnel is the headlamp of an oncoming train. With Christmas fast approaching I guess that’s an easy mistake to make as we wait for our deliveries from STL to come through. But my own experience of walking through a railway tunnel (a few years ago at Birmingham New Street Station, if you must know) tells me that an oncoming train doesn’t necessarily spell disaster: on that particular occasion, the train stopped and the driver gave me a lift in his cab. It’s the only time I’ve ever had the privilege of riding in a train driver’s cab and it’s an experience I’ll never forget.
It was a bit like that at today’s meeting of the Booksellers Association’s Christian Booksellers Group: a sense of not quite despondency, but something fairly close, hung over us. Christmas is coming, our deliveries aren’t and our customers are going elsewhere; then Steve Mitchell (Director of Stores, Wesley Owen) stepped in with a presentation and explanation, an insider’s view of what had happened, what went wrong and how things are panning out. This was the view from the train driver’s cab: in the tunnel with the rest of us, but in a unique position to assess the situation.
Steve’s explanation was frank and straightforward, with no denials or excuses but with honest analysis, humble apologies and the assurance that everyone at STL is doing their utmost to bring things back up to speed. He was unable to offer a date for when that is likely to be but again emphasised the company’s commitment to resuming normal service a soon as possible.
He circulated a letter from Graham Sopp, STL’s Chief Executive (Europe), which has also been distributed to the trade by email:
Open Letter to the Trade
GJS/LR/10657
19 November 2008I am writing to apologise for the problems caused to your businesses as we have gone live with a new software system at STL Distribution.
The decision to change systems was not taken lightly but our old system, which was 20 years old, was beginning to show distinct signs of age and we feared that it would become unstable. We had already found immense problems in trying to upgrade the system to provide functions required by today’s market.
We originally planned to implement the new system in August. However as the date approached, it became apparent that further testing of the new system was necessary before we could commence training people in how to use the system. We were faced with a choice of going live in late October or waiting until January 2009. Unfortunately, we would have faced immense difficulties in standing down our external project team of consultants for three months while we prepared to go live and then to re-assemble that team in January. After extensive testing of the system we were confident we could start with, at most, minor disruption. So we took the decision to go live in October.
Most of the problems we have encountered over recent weeks are related to business process bottlenecks and are not directly related to software and, in fairness to the system team, could not have been anticipated by the extensive testing we carried out.
We have now deployed our warehouse team in a different way which we are confident will optimise the flow of orders through the warehouse.
At today’s date we are picking orders from 13 November onwards and are working hard to catch up.
I am determined to resume same day despatch for the vast majority of orders as quickly as possible, but I need to be confident we can consistently provide this high level of service. I will write to you again soon when I am convinced we can commit to same day despatch.
I know the last few weeks have been difficult for you as our normal service levels have been disrupted and I apologise once again. We are working round the clock to resolve these issues. I would also like to thank those customers who have contacted us expressing their support and understanding for our team in this difficult time.
Graham Sopp
Chief Executive (Europe)
