Supporting Christian Bookshops

I do love a good bookshop, don't you?

We live near Cambridge, a city of libraries, and have a number of bookshops on our doorstep. If I want to buy discount books, rare books, academic books, children's books, second hand books or new releases, the chances are that I can probably find what I'm looking for somewhere. Sometimes authors and illustrators visit these bookshops. We have a local Literary Festival. There are courses on writing and on teaching others how to write. Every other telephone box seems to be a second hand book swap location. 

We do not, however, have a Christian bookshop.

We used to, but it clearly wasn't viable and it closed down. It's not the only one. These days if I want specialist Christian books I go online and support various independent sites - either to buy new (to support the author) or second hand (to support the environment).

Some Christian bookshops are finding creative solutions. Green Pastures, based in Norfolk, operate pop-up book sales and one of these is a monthly gig in Bury St Edmunds. The event ties in with a day where the church is open for meals, and encourages people to drop in and browse. 

Green Pastures spoke with Amy Scott Robinson about linking some ACW authors with their pop-up shops and the Brecks, Fens & Pens group agreed to give it a try. Two of us - Amy and I - will be around at the first event in October and will give introductions to our upcoming books, both of which feature church engagement. This experiment, connecting authors with those selling books, and finding ways to engage with a potential customer base, may be a fruitful option all round. 

Have you had experience doing anything similar? What about finding out which Christian bookshops in your region might do a pop-up if you haven't got a bookshop nearby? Can you find a few authors willing to attend such a session? As well as meeting the author, signing copies and raising the profile of each others' work, you may well find some great titles to take home yourself.  





Lucy Marfleet is a tutor for Spurgeon's College 'Equipped to Minister' course and writes about the Bible. Her new book, Telling the Big Story: The Bible in 60 Minutes is coming out later this year. 

Comments

  1. Congratulations Lucy! Lovely post too. Great effort there with Amy as well. I love the suggestion of checking local christian bookshops around. I have noted this down and will definitely give it a try. Blessings.

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  2. Great idea. I used to love browsing around a Christian bookshop and discovering what was new, but as in most areas, they have all gone. I hope this initiative takes off.

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    1. Thanks, David. I realise it's a very patchy picture now - but there are still about 130 specialist Christian bookshops in the UK. You can find shops that are members of the Booksellers Association at the link that follows - look for the 'Christian Bookshops' filter! :-)

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  3. All power to your elbow! Christian bookshops (perhaps SPCK excepting?) shifted from the backstreets to the high street and now...oblivion...almost. At the same time as record sales for Christian books and literature is at an all-time high. Love the idea of pop-up book sales!

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    1. John, I think that's a very perceptive comment. The shops that have survived are now mainly in 'tertiary' trading sites and usually have something else distinct to offer the local community - it's very difficult to make a stand-alone bookshop work these days. In our case, we have coffee shop and also we let out rooms for local community use. These help to keep the bookshop trading and has the great result that we're serving a much wider local community who are now aware us!

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  4. Thanks to Lucy for this really positive and helpful comment :-) Fair warning- I comment as someone who works in a Christian bookshop! You're right, it is a difficult market to be in and we feel very blessed that we stand 'on the shoulders of giants' who had the faith and tenacity to purchase the property we trade from some 45 years ago. If we still had to pay High Street rent and rates, we wouldn't be able to survive. But it's not all doom and gloom - like Helen, we have built a nice wee business, partly by supporting various pop-up shops in our West of Scotland customer base. It doesn't always work and we are careful about the events we do. We have found the key thing is to find events and locations that 'cross-over' markets. So a book launch with a craft fair or a signing with a church anniversary or celebration works best for us. But, as Lucy says, always worth asking the question! It's good to talk!!

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