Decisions, decisions...

What next for The Book Room?

I cannot tell you the number of times I have started this email over the last few weeks. But what to say? What was stopping me?

Work mostly, that is the writing of books rather than selling them. I last spoke to you at the end of June when my final book with Wendy Mitchell ONE LAST THING was published. It was a busy time as I was also on deadline to finish writing Nusrit Mehtab’s THE GOOD COP which is out next April. I finished that book at the end of July and, exhausted, was planning a rest over the summer holidays. Then I was approached to start on another book, something so exciting I couldn’t possibly turn it down, and that’s what I am still working on, though progress is slow and I can’t tell you what it is just yet.

So between all this writing of books, what about the selling of them? Well, it’s taken rather a backseat.

Regular followers will know that since my pop-up closed on Christmas Eve I’ve been running my bookshop online whilst hunting for another home. I thought I’d found a dream place and then was thwarted when it came to the nitty-gritty of commercial let contracts. I got down to the final two of another place and then lost out to a hairdresser. The Bloom Foundry, where I had my pop-up, is now about to reopen as a tattoo parlour, and another place that I thought I’d secured was handed to the Lib Dems in the hope they get the Tories out at the next election.

So where does this leave The Book Room?

It was exactly this time last year when I decided to do my pop up, and I opened on November 5th for that seven week run up to Christmas. Should I do it all again? I’d love to. But where?

I don’t want to give up on this dream, I believe Tunbridge Wells deserves an independent bookshop and I would like to be the one who makes this happen, but right now I’m not exactly sure how.

I could continue running my bookshop online, and apologies to all of you who love my Sunday night reviews of the papers but they were just so time-consuming over the summer that I decided to have a break and that break has just rolled on and on. Shall I start them again? I know you loved them but for the time it took to compose they never really yielded many sales? Or perhaps this is the best time of year to get them up and running again?

You can see why I entitled this post ‘decisions, decisions'.

My bookshop stock is currently sitting patiently in my cupboard under the stairs. I could do what I did last year and get something together in a matter of weeks, and we could do another run up to Christmas.

But again, where? Oh I just don’t know… so for now I’ll carry on with the writing of this exciting secret project, with one eye on the To Let signs in the hope that The Book Room can keep you company this Christmas…

Remember last year’s Christmas window?

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