What would you buy? The second-hand bookseller dilemma

Collating a bookshop shelf can be harder than you think...

Small child: ‘Have you got the latest Diary of a Wimpy Kid?’

Their desperate parent after two days of the holidays: ‘What about the David Walliams?’

Older chap (usually) who’s addicted to Wilbur Smith: ‘£7!! I’m not paying that, I’ll have a look in The Works next time I’m in town.’

Officious lady organiser of things: ‘I run a book group – can we have seven copies of that new one by Kate Atkinson?’

And so on. We love our customers but with no intention to offend, it is second-hand books that excite us. We are always happy to order you the latest bestseller new, but reselling and recycling reading matter is alliterative and sustainable, and we have no end of fun shaking out hairs, old breakfast cereal and the many bookmarks we find in them. The latter are so interesting, we have started sticking those least likely to shock on the ends of the bookcases.

A selection of bookmarks - (sadly no £10 notes…)

We try to make our shop cosy and welcoming - you can bring in a cup of coffee and the dog, browse whilst you are waiting for your Covid jab, optician appointment or partner in the hairdresser, or sit and chat to us whilst you catch your breath from climbing Market Hill. We might look busy tapping away at our computers behind the counter, but we are probably dying for a reason to step away from the proofreading or uploading. If you can buy something too - even better.

To bring myself back on-topic (never easy) we have now made the decision not to sell new books in store, other than a few titles from local authors with a national following writing about local issues. We have tried, in the two years since we took over the shop, to offer shelf space to independently or self-published books by authors in the area keen to find a shop willing to take them on, but we found it didn’t work. The copies we were given gathered dust and diminished in value to the author, who would have been better sitting outside in the twice-weekly Framlingham market with their own stall.

So what do people buy? They rarely seem to come into a second-hand shop to buy new items at full price, and believe me, my brother-in-law Chris and I - as writers as well as booksellers - are fully aware of the need to pay authors fairly for their work. However, the way some customers turn their noses up at the cost of a paperback not linked to a big-name publisher, or without a highly edited quote from the press or a famous author doing them a favour, is frustrating. You are missing out on some great stuff, guys.

Choosing what to stock on the shelves is an ongoing challenge. We are a small shop, and there are so many popular categories of fiction and non-fiction out there that it is impossible to stock everything, or even a little of everything. We have to consider what sells, and why. Relative to their value, we sell a lot of good general and crime fiction – only a small proportion of which could be called ‘classic’ – green and orange penguin editions, for example, Virago Classics or more recently the British Library Crime Classic series. We stock collectibles in the shop rather than antiquarian, but we still get the occasional comment from the aficionado of second-hand shops who would rather walk into a wall of Sir Walter Scott or a full set of Dickens. To be honest, they don’t sell so well here. Many of these sets were sold by subscription in the 1950s and it is sad, but true, to say a lot of the classics now end up pulped by companies that collect unwanted books by the ton. We would be a wealthy shop if we could take in all the thousands of books offered by owners who say, ‘I can’t bear to take them to the tip.’ We can’t either!

No, you can’t have our steps

For example, while writing this piece, I have just been asked ‘Have you any first edition H.E. Bates in hardback?’ We would need a much greater square footage than we’ve got to have space for the thousands of books we have in storage. Good editions of old books are often expensive, and are uploaded to our online shop – ‘RightWayUp Books’. (Chris lives in an upside down house…) Sadly, none of our H.E. Bates’ were of interest. In a tiny shop, it is impossible to please every collector and when the majority of comments we get include the phrases ‘great selection’ and ‘lovely shop’, we must be doing something to please.

Often we just choose to sell things we love. Our specialisms are probably poetry (we both love and write poetry), wildlife and ecology (I have three other brothers-in-law who work for environmental causes) and religion and spirituality (Chris was a theological college librarian and is married to a psychotherapist), so you can see where this is going. Sell (as well as write) what you know - although we don’t hunt, paint or collect trains and there’s plenty to interest those who do here. I am also the go-to for golden-age crime fiction. Don’t ask Chris for a recommendation in that genre – he seems to know everything, apart from the fact that Mo Hayder is NOT cosy crime. The lady he recommended that series to returned the book, had a laugh and left with a Ngaio Marsh more to her taste.

Poetry is good for the soul (and sells well)

Chris has been dealing second-hand books online for quite a while, and has a good idea of what is in demand. He knows his catalogue of stock well, too. I am learning so quickly you wouldn’t believe incipient senility seems to pervade all other aspects of my life.

So – to help with my education – I’d be interested in your thoughts. What do you buy? Do you like to browse things in alphabetical order, in clear sections? Do you like lots of local interest books, or classic books on history or politics? Rare poetry? Glossy picture books or cloth-bound books full of weird and wonderful wildlife as drawn in the 19th century? Or would you prefer dusty piles of books in no particular order that you can spend hours sifting through for a treasure?

I can’t promise to change anything but I’ll promise a response 😊