What A Nice Surprise!

I had a lovely surprise in my inbox this week, actually, one lovely surprise and three not-so-lovely ones.

Firstly, the lovely one was that I received my first big Christmas order of five books. Well, perhaps five doesn’t sound much to you, but I know that’s a big order for some people. One of my lovely customers was getting organised with her Christmas gifts and decided to order all her books from me. I was really touched.

They’ve now been dispatched and are winging their way to her.

The not-so-lovely ones, well, it’s not exactly that, but remember those advent calendars I showed you a few weeks ago? Well suddenly I had a run of three orders in the space of minutes on the website, and I was very excited indeed, only to realise that the Tom Gates Advent Calendar that people had ordered were completely out of stock. Imagine my disappointment when I realised I had to refund everybody! And imagine their disappointment, because I’m not sure if they’re all regular readers who had just left it a bit late, or whether those advent calendars were sold out everywhere else but still showing in my online shop.

It was all my fault really because I knew – and I warned everyone – weeks ago that those advent calendars go quickly, and yet I hadn’t remembered to check what was showing in stock on the website that was out of stock at the wholesalers. Rookie error!

Anyway, it’s all amended now, so if you are scrabbling for a last minute advent calendar, the ones that are showing are in stock.

I’m really missing not having the shop at the moment, there was a little thread on Twitter the other day talking about our rather depressing town centre and whether or not I was going to pop up in one of the units there for Christmas – I did say I fancied opening in the shop next to Waterstones as Whartonstones.

Sadly, I chose not to do that, I just couldn’t bear to be inside a shopping centre all day and not seeing daylight. Plus I have my new secret project book to write. It is currently out on submission so I hope I’ll be able to tell you about it soon.

But my cupboard under the stairs is nagging away at me. That’s where all my stock is currently, and at 1am this morning the spirit of all those books longing to be sold crept up the stairs and tapped me on the shoulder demanding to know what I was going to do with them. I stayed awake for three hours asking myself the same thing. Those who’ve followed my journey for a long time now will know that all those books were once full sale or return, except I’ve missed the window to send them back now, so I do need to get them sold. They are right. Though I wish they wouldn’t try and talk to me about it in the early hours.

I woke up this morning with a determination to find a solution. I popped a note through the door of a lady who I hear is opening her shopfront up for Christmas. I also wondered if I should perhaps take my pop-up into a large local business so staff could come and buy some books at lunchtime. I also thought about school Christmas fayres though I might be too late now (I did email one weeks ago but didn’t hear back so maybe tables go very quickly).

I thought also of having a sale on the website, which would be fun, but then what if the same thing happens with the advent calendars, and I’m not quick enough on my toes to change the website when they go out of stock and I leave people disappointed and refunded? It’s a dilemma.

There is still one option of a shop left, though weirdly its linked to the general election as it will only come available after that – and that’s if the party who is currently occupying it loses. But I don’t want to be hoping they lose just so I get a shop, do I? (Don’t worry, it’s not occupied by the Tories!)

So anyway, as you can see, I’m still trying to think of a solution. But if you are local to Tunbridge Wells, then don’t forget you could buy one of my book hampers for someone for Christmas. They can be custom curated, for that person, or you can trust me to put together something nice for them with a bit of an idea of what they like. There are also still the Writers Recommend curations that were very popular last year, remember those?

Here is Marc Hamer’s Nature Hamper

Here is Laura Marshall’s Thriller Hamper

Here is Jennifer Saint’s Greek Myths Hamper

Remember my interviews with each of these writers, and others, are over on The Book Room’s YouTube channel.

And here is one a customer put together for themselves….

And if you’re not local to Tunbridge Wells, like that lovely customer who ordered all her Christmas books from me this week, don’t worry you can do the same. You can send me a custom order here. Or email me: hello@thebookroom.uk

I’m going to be making some changes to this newsletter in 2024 because, without a shop in sight, I don’t have enough to tell you about. So standby for more…

But in the meantime as it’s nearly December, happy Christmas shopping, and don’t forget to support independents!

• These posts will always be free to read but if you enjoy them there are various ways that you can support my writing. Firstly, you can buy a gift subscription for £5 a month, which not only shows your appreciation of my writing, but grants you 10% off purchases in my online shop with your own unique discount code.

You can also order from THE BOOK ROOM, you might not find something you want here in this newsletter, or even in the online shop itself, but you can send me a CUSTOM ORDER and I can usually get any book to you within 48 hours.