Шон Байтелл - The Diary of a Bookseller

After lunch I drove to Dumfries with Anna to pick up her friend Lola. Lola works in the film industry and, like Anna, is an American living in London. She is a slight woman with dark hair, and very witty. Anna introduced her to her friend Diana, another American expat living in London, and also in the film business. Diana and Lola have started a production company and are keen to turn Anna’s book into a feature film. We stopped at Threave Castle on the way home. The castle is on an island in the middle of the River Dee, and access is via a small boat with an outboard motor. It was the seat of the ‘Black’ earls of Douglas and was built in the fourteenth century by a man who delighted in the name of Archibald the Grim, Lord of Galloway. It is an impressive fortification and was clearly designed as such, rather than as a luxurious home.

By the time we arrived home Alex (my brother-in-law) had arrived in preparation for his talk at 6 p.m. on building a new whisky distillery. Alex works for a company called Adelphi. When the business started, their strategy was to buy up casks of rare malts from distilleries, bottle it and sell it under their own label. His boss decided, though, that it would be worth producing their own whisky, so they’ve built a distillery in Ardnamurchan, the most westerly point on the British mainland. For someone who appears quite shy, Alex’s talk was superb. In fact, by any standards it was extremely good, made even better by the frequent samples of whisky that he liberally handed out.

Till total £417.57

28 customers

Online orders: 3

Books found: 2

When I attempted to open the shop at 11 a.m. (Twigger had a talk upstairs at noon), I discovered that the lock was jammed and the door wouldn’t open, so we hastily made signs directing people to the side door and I drove to Newton Stewart and bought a replacement mortice lock. Much of the afternoon was spent attempting to get the door open without breaking it, so that I could put the new lock in. Not the most professional or productive day of the Spring Festival, although Twigger’s talk was excellent and well attended. Anna introduced him and thanked him.

Anna and Lola spent the sunny spring day wandering about the town, Anna clearly happy to show Lola her beloved places in and around Wigtown, like an overexcited tour guide. Anna has embraced Wigtown life and befriended far more people than I would ever have anticipated, being blessed with a complete lack of shyness. One of her favourite locals was a man who used to zoom about on a mobility scooter with a number plate bearing his name, ‘Gibby’. When he died two years ago, she was distraught. She has so immersed herself in the community that – as with most people in Wigtown – crossing the street can take twenty minutes, depending on who you bump into on the way.

Started reading Twigger’s book, Angry White Pyjamas , which, despite having known him for some years, I had never got round to reading.

Till total £128.50

13 customers

Online orders: 2

Books found: 2

Bank holiday.

Nicky worked today so that Anna and I could entertain Lola. We had lunch at Margie’s, then the three of us (Anna, Lola and me) cooked a leg of lamb for ten friends for supper. Margie is a Cambridge academic who bought a house in Wigtown a couple of years ago. She is Dutch and has two daughters, who are leaders in their respective scientific fields. She lived in Galloway when the girls were children, then moved to Cambridge. She’s back – in part – because of Anna’s book. Margie is one of Wigtown’s biggest assets: hugely intelligent, funny, irreverent and generous to a fault.

Tracy called in at lunchtime to tell me that she had seen a few swallows during her lunch break. Spring has arrived.

Twigger left at 10 a.m. and headed back to Dorset.

Another late night, fuelled by red wine and the leftover whisky from Alex’s talk on Saturday.

Till total £106.99

13 customers

Online orders: 3

Books found: 3

Norrie covered the shop because Nicky spends her Tuesdays doorstepping people and telling them about Jesus. I drove to Dumfries – Anna and Lola wanted to go to the auction. Anna came away with two boxes of rubbish, which is her usual haul. I had a long chat with Angus the submariner about the conspicuous absence of Dave the Hat, who never misses a sale. We speculated wildly about what might have happened to him. The three of us spent the day eating and wandering about the town, including a trip to Caerlaverock Castle, then dropped Lola at the railway station at 5 p.m. and came home.

Among the usual bills and demands for money in the mail was Mr Deacon’s book.

Till total £120.50

13 customers

Online orders: 8

Books found: 7

At lunchtime I left a message on Mr Deacon’s phone to say that he could collect his book any time.

Till total £140.01

18 customers

Online orders: 4

Books found: 4

A friendly, chatty customer told me that he has to dispose of his uncle’s maritime history book collection, which is in his flat in the West End of Glasgow. I’ll go up next week to look at it.

Mr Deacon arrived to collect his book at about 3 p.m. As he was leaving, I noticed that he was missing his left shoe.

Till total £180.83

19 customers

Online orders: 2

Books found: 2

A customer was waiting at the door with two boxes of books when I opened the shop this morning, all Penguins, and mostly green crime editions, which are by far the most sellable. Nicky appeared ten minutes after I had bought them for £60 and asked me how much I had paid for them. I asked her to guess, so she rifled through them and said £20.

Foodie Friday’s treat this week was an out-of-date Mr Kipling’s Battenberg cake from the Morrisons skip. We spent the day pricing up the Penguins and putting them on the shelves and arguing about what consideration we should give to Amazon prices when we are deciding how much to sell something for in the shop. Nicky is all for being cheaper than Amazon, but I believe that most customers understand that our prices can’t always undercut the lowest on Amazon because of our overheads.

Till total £192

14 customers

Online orders: 6

Books found: 6

The frogspawn in the pond has all but disappeared, and hundreds of tiny tadpoles have taken their place.

Till total £170.70

14 customers

Online orders: 5

Books found: 3

After lunch I was accosted by a man in a cagoule with a terrible lisp, who came over to my side of the counter, uncomfortably close, and asked ‘Now, what do you specialise in?’ to which I replied ‘Books’, which was, I admit, fatuous. Predictably, he was not impressed and replied, ‘Do not be smart with me.’ In a pointless continuation of my previous fatuous comment I replied, ‘Why not?’ Needless to say, the conversation did not end well. In fact, he became so odious that I had to pull rank and make Nicky deal with him.

Till total £84.50

14 customers

Online orders: 5

Books found: 5

Clearly we have a problem with AbeBooks, as all today’s orders were Amazon, so I checked and our online stock with them has dropped from 10,000 to 450 books. I’ve emailed them to see what the problem is. I estimate lost AbeBooks sales to be about £100 a week. AbeBooks is the best place to sell more valuable books, and our average sale on the site is probably worth about £30, the equivalent to about six Amazon sales, so while we do not sell a vast quantity of books on AbeBooks, their value relative to Amazon is significant.