Marketing, marketing, marketing...Winter

With Winter now upon us, I'm hoping you'll all be stocking up on books to help pass those long dark cold nights tucked up in front of the fire.

Check me out in the Window on Waipapa feature in the Northern News and Bay Chronicle this week, in print and online - it could be worth your while.

Meanwhile, I've been doing a lot of thinking lately about running a small business and how much marketing is necessary. As I understand it a business markets itself to maintain its current audience, and to attract new customers, with the aim of building and growing. But do I want to build and grow and if I do, how big is big enough? Do I want to turn this business into a behemoth like Borders, which then runs the risk of crashing and burning (figuratively speaking, you understand) or do I just want to provide a business which enables me to enjoy my passion and, at the same time, grow in line with any increase in demand from my community?

I've just read an interesting article this morning in the New York Review of Books regarding a new book about Jeff Bezos and Amazon. It explores the growth of Amazon and the history of similar enterprises over the years - e.g.supermarkets  - whereby the initial goal is to reduce costs to the consumer by bulk purchasing etc, but the eventual outcome is a monopoly of sorts which, while achieving that  goal, creates other problems such as pressuring suppliers to reduce prices. (think: Shane Jones and Countdown).

So where does it stop? or, does it stop at all? There is no single answer, but my logic says that while we continue to want increased income but cheaper goods the cycle will continue.

My latest great read

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

Donna Tartt is not a prolific writer but I believe her work is always worth waiting for. This time the  wait has been 11 years and no matter what Vanity Fair says, I thoroughly enjoyed this Pulitzer prize winning new story. I say enjoyed, but that is probably not quite the right expression. I was engrossed from the very beginning and, even though I often intensely disliked, or disapproved of, Theo Decker and his behaviour  this was also equally often tempered by a feeling of sympathy for him and the situations he finds himself in.

Theo is a 13-year-old New Yorker whose life is completely torn apart when he loses his mother in a terrorist attack on the Art museum he randomly happens to be in with her. Amongst the chaos and upheaval after the bomb he is asked, by a dying bystander, to take a painting - the 1654 Fabritius masterpiece, The Goldfinch - and a ring to an unknown person at an unknown location.

Over the next 14 years this painting accompanies him as he tries to cope with loss and change, moving between strangers and family and between New York, Las Vegas and Amsterdam. This is not an easy read, with some graphic descriptions of violence and drug-taking.

(Published by Little Brown & Company)

Exposed tape binding

Using project examples from Shereen LaPlantz's book 'Cover to Cover' I created these delightful journals at our Northland ABC meeting this week.

Book or movie?

Tom Gauld's cartoon from the usvsth3m.com website is spot on.

This has to be the most disturbing book trailer I have ever seen..."Guide to Troubled Birds" book trailer

A wild wintry day

Now that I have got into the regular habit of posting items of interest on my Facebook page I have decided it's time to resurrect my blog. From now on I hope to put those items here so that anyone can comment, instead of only Facebook users.

Today has been a pretty rough one weather-wise here in the Far North, but I have been safely tucked up most of the day at home, playing in my bookbinding room (aka The Office/Spare bedroom) putting the final touches to the embossed star book I began a couple of ABC (Association of Book Crafts) meetings ago and thinking about what we can work on next week when we meet again.

Embossing a book cover creates texture and visual interest. For this one I used stars cut slightly larger than the ones on the tissue covering, using a double layer of light card so that they popped! The spine is made from a piece of lovely soft black leather and the pages are black photo paper. Perfect for holding photos or writing special quotes.







Dan Brown's books are most donated to Oxfam

Charity givers donated more Dan Brown books to Oxfam than any other author for the third year in a row, its annual survey revealed today.

Dan and Frank share a shelf in my backroom with Captain Corelli and Bryce….

The writer of The Da Vinci Code also moved up the Oxfam shop best seller list from last year's number 10 to this year's number three, the charity said. Next most donated after Brown were crime writer Ian Rankin, prolific author of the Detective Inspector Rebus series, and Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson, who last year became the first non-fiction author to enter the top 10, and has moved up from number eight to number three.

The most donated authors to Oxfam shops are (with last year's position in brackets):
1 Dan Brown (1)
2 Ian Rankin (2)
3 Jeremy Clarkson (8)
4 Stephenie Meyer (New entry)
5 Alexander McCall Smith (4)
6 Stephen King (New entry)
7 Maeve Binchy (9)
8 James Patterson (New entry)
9 JK Rowling (7)
10 Jackie Collins (New entry)

In my shop the list is similar, with Jeremy Clarkson not really featuring, and with the addition of Wilbur Smith, Patricia Cornwell, Frank McCourt and Danielle Steel. In fact, I can see a time when my backroom stock will consist of the authors listed above, accompanied by piles and piles of black and red Stephenies.

BEST SELLERS
The best seller was Swedish author Stieg Larsson, who penned the Millennium trilogy, who moved up a place from number two, while new entry Sophie Kinsella's books were the second most sold, illustrating the enduring popularity of chick lit. Twilight author Stephenie Meyer was a non mover at number four, sharing that place this year with Terry Pratchett, who moved up from number eight. Last year's best selling author Ian Rankin dropped out of the top 10, but was still selling well.

Joanna Trollope, a new entry in the top 10 best sellers list, at number eight, said: ''I am very gratified to be one of Oxfam's top sellers. Their bookshops are most impressive - for the careful condition of the books as well as for the huge range of titles. I am so pleased to think that sales of my books are helping to support the vital work that Oxfam does.''

Meanwhile here in new Zealand, at my Waipapa shop, the authors I have been asked for most often over 2010 have been Stieg Larsson Lee Child and Bryce Courtenay, with Stephenie Meyer coming in a close fourth, but fading now. Jodie Picoult remains popular among my female customers, as does Lesley Pearse, but sadly, Joanna Trollope doesn’t even feature in my top 100!

The Oxfam lists were compiled to mark the launch of their annual nationwide book festival, Bookfest, which runs from July 2 to 17.  My lists and my shop are ongoing events.

(Original article source http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/8614903/Dan-Browns-books-are-most-donated-to-Oxfam.html )