As I’ve mentioned on numerous occasions, I live in Clunes and I’m part of the criteria that makes Clunes the International Booktown that it is (see my last blog entry). This year is the first year that I will be selling directly from a shop and not from a stall. To be honest, I’m a bit nervous about the whole thing. I’m not sure why, but I am. Some of the main differences for me personally this year, are: I don’t have to set up and pack up a stall as I’m now in a shop (and as I write this, I’m nearly ready for the onslaught), I will have help from friends and associates (solo is always hard, particularly if one wants a coffee… and then wants to micturate*) … I’m sure there are other differences which will occur to me later or over the weekend and most importantly I can’t think of any negative differences. Regardless of the positives (yes, I can be positive… regardless of the rumours), I still feel a bit nervous.
So one of my strategies this year is to open on Friday. Yes, the book fair is on Saturday and Sunday… We will open on Friday. One thing I can tell you all, is that when you have a town full of booksellers they tend to snoop around and look for anything they might need/want/can pick up cheap and resell expensive (I think I’ve even been guilty of doing this). They tend to do this less when they are selling and more when they are setting up, which is of course, Friday. I don’t have an issue with selling to other book dealers… except when they demand a discount on a $5 book… this bothers me (it’s 5 bucks and as much as I’d like to retire from the profit I make on a $5 book, it aint happening too soon)… and I figure I may as well make some money when I can. So Friday makes sense (cents) to me, that is if the other book dealers can be convinced to part with their $$$.
It’s now Thursday night… I’m still a bit nervous. I’ll try and take a few photos over the weekend and post them when I can.
*the wonders of the interwebs thesaurus.
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