An A-Z of bookselling

An A-Z of bookselling

Deadline for online orders: midnight tonight

Join us this week

  • Christmas shopping night — with live music, drinks & mince pies

    THIS THURSDAY 21st December, join us from 6pm. No booking needed.

  • Christmas opening hours:

    • Mon 18th 10am-6pm

    • Tue 19th 10am-6pm

    • Wed 20th 10am-6pm

    • Thu 21st 10am-9pm

    • Fri 22nd 10am-9pm

    • Sat 23rd 10am-6pm

    • XMAS EVE, XMAS DAY, BOXING DAY Closed

    • 27th-31st Open 10am-6pm (we accept National Book Tokens!)

    • NEW YEAR’S DAY Closed

Coming up at Backstory

  • Paul Caruana Galizia — A Death in Malta

    TOMORROW, Monday 18th December, 7.30pm

    The very inspiring investigative journalist Paul Caruana Galizia joins us to discuss A Death in Malta, his book about the assassination of his mother Daphne, a campaigning journalist in their native Malta. It’s an astonishing story about one family’s quest for the truth, and about the fight against corruption in a modern European country.

  • Ed Conway — Material World

    Wednesday 10th January, 7.30pm

    Sky News’s Economics Editor takes us from our seats in Balham on a world tour as he uncovers the hidden stories behind the most important raw materials shaping our lives. 

  • Porn: An Oral History — Polly Barton in conversation with Jessica Andrews

    Wednesday 24th January, 7.30pm

    In the irresistibly-titled Porn: An Oral History, Polly Barton set out to bust myths by asking her friends about their use and abuse of porn. She joins Backstory favourite Jessica Andrews, author of Milk Teeth, in conversation. 

  • Coming up at the Non-Fiction Book Club: Bianca Bosker (Cork Dork)

  • Coming up at the Fiction Book Club: Andrew O’Hagan (Mayflies)

  • SOLD OUT: John Crace — Depraved New World

    Wednesday 17th January, 7.30pm

THERE’S TIRED, THERE’S DOG TIRED, and there’s Christmas tired. I’ve been heading towards the last of those three for a few days now but I knew I was truly Christmas tired this morning on arriving to open up the shop at 9.30, only to find myself thoroughly defeated by the simple mechanism of a bike lock. Every morning it’s the same quick procedure: unlock the lock, chain the bike to the rack, trot into the shop.

This morning, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t get past the first hurdle. After ten minutes I conceded defeat and carried my bike into the shop to file with the overstock. Lock 1, Tom 0. So yeah, Christmas tired.

The culprit was our busiest ever weekend. We sold 591 books yesterday, and another 320 today. Thank you to all the lovely customers who chose to buy so many of their Christmas presents at Backstory. But thanks, too, to Rory and Amy yesterday and Megan today for powering through some pretty gruelling shifts. You know this already, but they’re the best.

Here’s how we celebrated last night:
Christmas cheer(s): Amy, Rory and Tom. Not pictured: 591 books.

So I, for one, am grateful not to be writing this week’s newsletter. And, given how coherent I am currently feeling, you should be grateful, too. Instead, here’s Amy’s delightful A-Z of bookselling. I’ll leave you with everything she’s learnt.

Merry Christmas,

Tom

A is for the Alphabet. I know it. You know it. I’m sure most adults who choose to wander into a bookshop know it. And YET. I may be a woman with a brain and reasonable ability, but I will need to check every single time whether H or G comes first.

B is for Bestsellers. We don’t always get to choose which will be the Big Books, the ones which, whether through big-budget marketing or a famous name on the cover or some esoteric publishing magic, have earned that coveted buzz. But we are grateful to them either way because it is these books that pay the bills and give us the opportunity to hand-sell our lesser-known favourites (Swamplandia! The Memory Police! Shotgun Lovesongs!).

C is for Coffee. When I first started, I wasn’t even sure what the difference between a latte and an americano was… Shoutout to the (lovely) man who asked for a macchiato on our opening day which had me surreptitiously googling ‘WHAT IS A MACCHIATO AND HOW DO I MAKE IT’.

D is for Deliveries. The moment of truth when you discover just how many more copies of In Memoriam Tom has ordered in case we ‘run out’. [Editors’ Note: I just ordered another 20.]

E is for Events. Not to brag, but we get some of the coolest authors. Still not over the fact that Tomasz Jedrowski will be joining us on Zoom for our fiction book club.

F is for Face-outs. The running competition amongst the Backstory booksellers to turn our own personal favourites face-out is heating up as the weather is cooling down.

G is for Gratis. Who doesn’t love freebies at work? But when we realised we could ask publishers for free BOOKS?? Children in a sweetshop. Or booksellers… in a bookshop.

H is for Human Resources. Unsurprisingly, not a department we have. If anyone wants to volunteer to keep the nerdy teasing (see: R is for Reportage) in line amongst the six of us, raise your hand.

I is for Imprint. The big publishers are each made up of 50+ imprints, making it nigh on impossible for mere mortals to keep track of which imprint belongs to which publisher. All I know is that Viking (Penguin Random House) and Tinder Press (Hachette) have some absolutely stellar taste.

J is for Jubbly, of the lovely variety. I had never realised the frequency with which I utter the phrase lovely jubbly until it was pointed out (affectionately, I like to think) to me by Tom. But honestly, working the shop floor IS lovely jubbly, especially when you get to work with the loveliest and jubbliest people who are always there to tease you and offer a biscuit.

K is for Knowledgeable. Backstory has some bloody good and knowledgeable booksellers. If you ever want a recommendation, no matter how specific (so you want a feel-good book for your friend who is in her sixties and who has just separated from her husband and who is struggling with her self-confidence… have you heard of Went to London, Took the Dog?) or how vague (so you need a book for your sister’s boyfriend and you aren’t sure what he likes, what he does, or how old he is? I’d recommend Say Nothing), we will have something for you!

L is for Local authors. According to my involuntary market research, I have come to the conclusion that ever other person in Balham is an author. It has taught me a lot about saying no and enforcing boundaries. I’m so sorry but I actually don’t think this is the right market for your self-published political exposé about how the government is made up of Lizard People. Best of luck with it, though.

M is for Margins. If Tom has taught me anything, it’s the importance of those sweet, sweet margins. As a small business, these are what keep us afloat! 

N is for Newsletter. How meta. But seriously, I had no idea before what an incredible marketing tool a newsletter is! Nothing makes Tom as smug as when a customer comes in asking for a book they ‘read about in the newsletter’.

O is for Overstock. There was a lot of trial-and-error at the beginning as we tried to figure out how to keep track of what books were where and when we needed to replenish the shopfloor and where DO you keep 100 copies of Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow? It wasn’t pretty, but several extra shelves and some more practise on the computer system later, we seem to have conquered the overstock beast.

P is for Planogram. I’ve only just learned this word and I hate it. All language is made up, but why does this word sound so made up? For the non-retailers amongst you, a planogram is ‘a schematic drawing or plan for displaying merchandise so as to maximize sales’. So it’s relatively useful, but why such an ugly word? 2/10.

Q is for QD and QBO and QRC (quantity dispatched, quantity back ordered and quantity received copies) and other impenetrable acronyms generated by our very-up-to-date-if-this-is-1990 computer system. It is fair to say it was a steep learning curve.

Reportage. The RIDICULE I faced from Rory and Tom when I pronounced this re-POR-tage instead of re-por-TAGE was intense. Where’s HR when you need them? I’m also still only 60% clear on what counts as reportage.

S is for Subscriptions. One of my favourite parts of the job! You can buy them either for yourself or as a gift for 3, 6 or 12 months. The recipient fills out a short survey about themselves/ their reading tastes and we match them to the bookseller with the most similar tastes and they pick them out a book once a month for the duration of the subscription. Ideal Christmas present…

T is for the Till. One of the most vibrant and most unpredictable areas of the shop, the till is where we sell books, order books, look up books, answer questions about books… Customer: I’m looking for a book, The Man and the Pig, it has been all over your Instagram. Bookseller: I’m not sure we have that book. Unless… d-do you mean Isaac and the Egg? Customer: Yes, that’s the one! It certainly keeps us on our toes.

U is for Upcoming books. We are always trying to stay ahead of the next big thing. Sometimes we get it right, sometimes we have 10 copies of Britney Spears’ memoir to return. [Editor’s Note: I’m crying.]

V is for Very Tasty Nibbles. The Clink Bakery provides all our baked goods. The Clink is an initiative to reduce reoffending rates by providing prisoners with education, support and job prospects. I was lucky enough to visit their bakery and interview some of the students making our treats at Brixton earlier this year for our magazine and believe it is a truly marvellous scheme.

W is for Window. Bookshop manager and resident artiste Rory is in charge of our window displays and I have to admit, he does a fabulous job. These days we are twinkly and Christmassy and even this grinch has to admit to feeling rather festive when she sees it. 

Xmas. It’s the most wonderful time of the year. And for independent shops it is also the most important time of the year. Spread some festive cheer and support your local independent shops this Xmas.

Y is for Young Adult. Such an underrated genre! In a reading slump and want an accessible page-turner that still has interesting themes? Try YA! Noughts and Crosses, The Cruel Prince, A Monster Calls. There are so many terrific books that go untried because people are snobby about the YA label. But to me, characters in that liminal space between child and adult are some of the most interesting.

Z is for Z-read. This is the button we click at the end of the day to close the till. It prints off a receipt with a handy summary of how many books, drinks, cards, subscriptions etc. we sold and how much money we made. We then put this information into a Google form so Tom can have some nice juicy data, along with a few sentences about how the day went (or if it’s me cashing up, a few words; concision is key). So come along, have drink, buy some books, so that I can write the golden words: Today was good.

— Amy