Atherstone Booktown - The Next Chapter

28.04.05 Atherstone Booktown's May 14th launch has been delayed. Organiser James Hanna says the difficulties securing money from potential investors, matching shops to investors and fitting out premises have put the launch of the first phase back to the middle of June...more

TheBookGuide has been watching the progress of England's latest Booktown initiative with interest, particularly as it is the brain child of the man behind Blaenafon Booktown in Wales.

It's not difficult to see why the use of books as a catalyst for town centre regeneration is so attractive, surely one has only to look at Hay-on-Wye? Books and Hay are now as synonymous as vacuum cleaners and Hoover, and the continuing development of Hay's book festival, now The Guardian Hay Festival reinforces the town's iconic status.

A neat trick if you can do it, but to what degree have the UK's other Book Towns succeeded in emulating Hay's success over the last decade? Wigtown, 'Scotland's National Book Town' is the oldest and still trying hard, whilst Dalmellington, Scotland's 'other' Booktown, is now the town with no bookshops. The Sleepy Elephant, until very recently the only physical manifestation of Sedbergh Booktown, has just been joined by a new multi-dealer bookshop at the new Dales and Lakes Book Centre.The town has also benefited from exposure in a recent television series.

So what are Atherstone's chances of succeeding as a Booktown, in a bookselling landscape so profoundly and permanantly changed by the internet?

James Hanna's Booktowns International company (BTI) is offering novice bookshop owners a similar startup deal to the one pioneered in Blaenafon. Describing the £21k package, he says "Imagine a custom fitted shop stocked with books for £14k. Imagine training, advertising, website, publicity, a mentor with thirty plus years experience for £7k." He continues "The training provided by BTI enables the fledgling bookseller to enter the marketplace with as much skill as a bookseller with years of experience."

If you are an experienced bookseller there are a number of asertions in the above statement that you might take issue with. And in fact, that's exactly what several booksellers did on the 'Atherstone Booktown' thread at Atherstone-Online Forum.

However, during this discussion a number allegations about James Hanna and the Blaenafon Booktown project were made, and as a result the thread has been closed down. These allegations, although malicious, appear to amount to no more than reported in two articles on the icWales site: 'I have suggested he takes me to court' and 'Book battle turns over a new leaf'', both from June 2004.

Ironically, in his determination to air his old grievances, Hanna's accuser has effectively stifled discussion about just how well his Book Town model might work in 2005.

One strongly questioned assertion had been the degree to which the selling on the internet of wholesaled, (and therefore by definition, more common) books, can supplement or support a bricks and mortar shop. Is it possible for someone with no previous experience of bookselling to survive, let alone prosper, in a market where the number of books available online has simply exploded?

To put this into some kind of perspective, Stuart Manley, in researching an article for the IOBA (Independent Online Booksellers Association) website estimates that since November the internet market for books has grown by about 5%.In the same period, the supply of common books has grown by over 30%.

Stuart went on to say on the Atherstone-online forum: 'Personally, I would be a little worried about someone taking a 'package', especially the stock part of it, because it probably means (but not necessarily so) that they do not understand their business well enough to assemble the package themselves, which has long term implications about their overall business competence.'

Yesterday evening a further public meeting about the Booktown project was being held in Atherstone. It will be interesting to see if any of the concerns expressed on the forum were voiced at the meeting - I will keep you informed.

Mike Goodenough
Editor
29.04.05

Updates
29.04.05. A local bookseller reports that their were no new potential booksellers present at yesterdays public meeting. James Hanna outlined the reasons for delay and was critical of many of the comments made on the Atherstone-Online forum. Another bookdealer thought that the the tone of the meeting was acrimonious. You can find more comments about the meeting here.

30.04.05. Jude Haslam emailed to say the Sedbergh has just opened a new multi-dealer shop at the Dales and Lakes Book Centre. I've ammended my comments here and will provide details as soon as they are to hand.

03.05.05. I was unable to attend the Booktown meeting but I'm led to believe by several correspondents that James Hanna suggested that sales of 500 books per month from an online stock of 5,000 titles were not only possible but were being achieved.
    This seemed to me to be an extraordinarily high turnover rate, let alone one based on such a small stock, so I spoke to two booksellers with years of experience and very much larger stocks.
    Cotswold Internet Books in Cheltenham have been booksellers for twenty years and have been trading online since 1996. They currently have a stock of some 55,000 books listed on a number of databases including ABE and Amazon. John Newland, the owner, told me that he currently expects to sell approx.1 book per 1,500 listed, per day. That's 36 per day or 1,080 per month. John stressed that to achieve this he has to buy and catalogue at least 300 handpicked books every week. He also commented that he knew of only one bookseller still managing sales of 1 book per 1,000 per day, but this was a long established and very specialist dealer
    Stella Books has been established since 1991 and have shops in Tintern and Hay on Wye (Rose's). They have been selling books online since 1998 and currently have a stock of about 50,000 books on line. Chris, their manager, told me that they are currently selling about 1 book per day per 2,000 listed. That's 25 books a day, or 750 per month. Stella Books are members of ibooknet (a bookselling co-operative) who share monthly trading figures. Her view was that figures suggest that an expectation of sales of 1 book per 3,000 listed was becoming the norm. Chris also emphasised that increasingly they are not bothering to list more common titles as the market for them is saturated.
    I offer these figures simply as an example of the level of sales, two highly experienced and professional booksellers, with quality stock, are currently achieving online.

05.05.05. Jo Wyborn of Booktowns International, has asked me to add Atherstone's first book fair to our calendar. It's to be held on Saturday, 17th September and you can find the full details here.

11.06.05. After some delay, Atherstone’s first two bookshops will open on Saturday June 18th. The Atherstone Book Shop will be run by Jo Wyburn of Booktowns International. It will also host the Booktown office, the Atherstone Heritage Centre and provivde rentable shelf space for other bookdealers. Press release.

30.06.05. Atherstone Booktown's first week went well by all accounts. Their local MP is due to bless the project on July 6th and the BBC will feature the town in a new series entitled 'Around the Region in 80 Days'. Apparently there are still spaces to rent in the Atherstone Bookshop, contact Jo Wyborn for further information.

12.01.06. Mark Maddox shares his thoughts about Atherstone Book Town's leaflet and suggests a more cooperative approach, which could equally benefit other communities of bookshops.
    I've just checked the Atherstone Book Town website but all the links are still dead.

25.03.06. I've been trying to contact Booktowns International for an update on Atherstone and a comment about the fate of Blaenavon, but no luck so far. All I can offer is the following article from the Tamworth Herald, courtesy of Clive Keeble.

22.04.06. Atherstone resident and Booktown critic James Holdaway emailed us because his comments are being banned from the Atherstone-Online forum website ... more

08.06.06. Atherstone Booktown now has a working website.

15.07.06. According to an item on atherstone-forum.co.uk, the town's crime Writing day was a success.

07.09.06. I'm sure it will come as no great surprise to those who have followed the Atherstone Booktown chronicles here, that James Hanna has done a bunk ... more  Add a comment