Шон Байтелл - The Diary of a Bookseller

Anne Brown, former chair of Wigtown Festival Company, has requested some audio pieces for Wigtown Radio, a station that will be broadcasting during the book festival, so this afternoon I went round the square and recorded short interviews with people who work in shops and businesses. Wigtown Radio started last year and runs throughout the festival. It is based in the Martyrs’ Cell in the County Buildings, a tiny vaulted room, and is nearly all live, with a presenter, a producer and a seat-of-the-pants line-up of guests whom the producer has to run out and find during broadcasts while the presenter holds the show together.

Finished As I Lay Dying this evening. A customer saw me reading it this afternoon and suggested that, if I liked it, I might also like Nick Cave’s book And the Ass Saw the Angel . I found a copy in the paperback fiction section and have started on it.

Till total £242.30

18 customers

Online orders: 3

Books found: 1

No Nicky today, so I was on my own in the shop on a warm, sunny day. Failed to locate two of the three orders. Nicky’s locator codes have been extremely inconsistent lately.

In this morning’s emails:

Subject:I have no money, I love books, please give me a job

Message Body: To the Book Shop,

I am writing to inquire into job vacancies as I am a writer and like most writers, I am out of pocket. Normally I would resort to waitress work but I am crossing my fingers for a job that involves being in close proximity to a lot of books.

I live in a campervan and am parked up in the area as my husband is currently working with local potter Andy P (he told me to mention him, so I cannot be judged for name-dropping …). I have plenty of experience working with other people and good customer service skills but what I believe qualifies me for a job at your book shop is a deep love and reverence of books in all shapes and sizes. I have always loved books and I always will. If it was legal then I probably would have married one.

I have a hard-working and friendly nature and I can provide references if needed.

I know this is a hopelessly unprofessional plea for a job in the Book Shop but I assure you that I can be professional when needed/forced.

Kindest Regards,

Bethan

I replied telling her that her timing was perfect as the run-up to the festival is frantic, and we need as many pairs of hands as we can muster, but that there will only be work until a few days after the festival finishes.

Carol Crawford, the Booksource rep, called in at around 12.30 p.m. She always times a visit before the festival to ensure that I am well stocked up from her iPad full of new books. I ordered about fifty titles, including three copies of Scotland’s Lost Gardens , one copy of which I intend to keep for myself. Again I feel consumed with the questionable rationale of buying from a distributor when Amazon is supplying the same titles cheaper than I can buy them from the publisher. I suspect that things can’t continue like this for much longer. Increasingly customers are using the shop merely as a browsing facility, then buying online. This is particularly the case with new books, which will almost certainly be for sale for less than their cover price on Amazon, but not so much so with second-hand books, where there is a good chance that they will be more expensive online.

In the early afternoon a customer entered the shop and asked if we have a copy of ‘the book called Kidnapped ’. I told him that, yes, we have several copies in the Scottish room. Without even bothering to reply, let alone check, he left the shop.

I made a wooden shield mount from an old tray, mounted the shot Kindle and hung it in the shop.

There has been no sign of Captain, the shop’s cat, since Sunday. When I spoke to Anna on Skype and mentioned it, she seemed very worried and depressed about it, imagining all sorts of unlikely fates that may have befallen the unfortunate creature.

Till total £235.47

27 customers

Online orders: 3

Books found: 3

Nicky came in to work today. She managed to find the two books that I couldn’t find yesterday. She had listed them, then put them on completely different shelves from the locator codes on the database.

The depressed Welsh woman telephoned again, with the usual consequences. I wonder whether she might have a vast list of bookshops and spend all day every day telephoning them and asking the same question. By my reckoning such a list must be long enough to occupy her for two months before she has to start at the top again, which coincides more or less with the frequency of her calls.

At 11 a.m. Norrie and Muir turned up with the concrete books and the steel rod to make the new spirals, amid much excitement and consternation from passers-by.

I offered Nicky a cup of tea at about 3.30 p.m. She replied, ‘Aye, but only if it’s in a bone-china cup and saucer. I do not want one of your rubbish mugs.’

After work I filled in the application for the James Patterson bookshop grant. I will check it later and send it in.

Still no sign of the cat.

Till total £273.94

24 customers

Online orders: 4

Books found: 3

Nicky was in again today. She brought me a present of four bashed-in tins of tomatoes that were heavily discounted in the co-op.

At 10 a.m. I drove to Newton Stewart to pick up building supplies. I have to create a performance space in the back of the shop for the festival. While I was at the builders’ merchants, I bumped into Ronnie, the electrician, and reminded him that he has not yet sent me an invoice for some work he did for me three years ago.

Wigtown’s co-op closed at 4 p.m. for a refit. We now have to go to Newton Stewart for food shopping. It opens again on the 18th. This news is being greeted with at least as much excitement by some people of the town as the Scottish independence referendum on the same date.

Till total £411.44

19 customers

Online orders: 4

Books found: 4

Nicky back in again. The first thing she said was, ‘Do you want some bramble jam? Well, it’s not really jam. And it’s pretty disgusting, it’s far too sweet and I put chilli powder in it too. It might be quite nice with some meat.’

We found all of the orders, and I asked Nicky to deal with Royal Mail and drop the parcels off with Wilma at the post office. At 5 p.m. I noticed that they were still sitting in the shop, so I confronted her about it. She replied that they could wait until tomorrow. When I pointed out that this means that customers who ordered books on Thursday will not receive them now until Monday or Tuesday, and that we promise delivery within forty-eight hours, she replied, ‘They wilnae mind.’

After lunch I drove to Glasgow airport to pick up Anna, who spent most of the journey home articulating her various implausible theories about what might have happened to Captain, the errant cat.

As I was closing the shop, I spotted – on the shelf where Nicky had previously housed her ‘Home Front Novels’ (which I had removed) – a new shelf label called ‘Real-life trauma/abuse’. I removed it immediately. She clearly put it there to annoy me.

Nicky told me, on leaving, that she might come in on Monday, but only if she feels like it.

Till total £141.22

17 customers

Online orders: 6

Books found: 4

At 10 a.m. a very pretty blonde woman appeared and introduced herself as Bethan, who had emailed me on the 9th. She seemed charming and bright, so I have offered her a few odd days between now and the end of the festival, depending on when Nicky can or cannot work.