Are London indie Books shops now a closed shop? If you are not famous, don’t have a large following or can’t guarantee selling 80 copies (seriously this figure was quoted to me by an indie store) then there is no way you are going to get a book signing even in an indie store. What is depressing is that we hear indie stores moaning their lot, crying and whinging about how tough it is and not willing to host an event where there is absolutely no risk to them financially and only a chance for them to make money. I have run into closed minds, pretentious fools and scared rabbits in headlights. The one thing they all have in common is they are all doing NOTHING. It’s almost as if they are paralysed with fear and content to continue on this course of inaction until they put up the shutters and close their doors for good. And if this happens we will continue to hear them blaming everyone but themselves. It’s eBooks fault, it’s Amazon’s fault, it’s supermarket’s fault, it publishers fault…boy can these guys whine! You know what, it’s your own damn fault. Engage with publishers, talk to authors, you are part of a community…talk to them. Sure times are tough and that’s more reason to be pro-active. The next time a small publisher gets on the phone to you asking if you will host a book signing from an unknown author, find out what the book is, listen to the proposal and think of ways of working with the publisher to make that event a success.
