New Beginnings
Hello,
Every so often life throws you a curveball, you might even think having experienced them before that you'd be ready to adapt and change and get on with things?
But, I'd say nothing could have prepared us for Covid-19 and the ensuing disruption to any form of normal life.
After closing my own Indie Bookshop, Formby Books 5 years ago almost to the day and embarking on a rocky road to Damascus that started with total destitution (again) and isolation (again), I really was starting to do OK. From September 2019 until March 7th 2020 things were going well, it had been a hard period on all levels, but finally the Niche was filled. I'd gotten a regular feed of authors and schools for events, I was writing and doing my own Workshops and getting paid, online sales were doing OK with a little tweak on adding Free Postage pretty much all of the time too. I was doing well and looked like I needed to invest in Research and Development for several projects.
Then, cough and splutter and we all fell down.
It has been a terrible time for us all, many have truly lost everything they had, many have lost loved ones and friends at short notice and couldn't even see them before or after they died.
And we have finally found out that the political system is broken, it just is not fit for purpose, and Buffo the Clown of Eton is more than a mess, he is utterly deplorably beyond contempt. It worries me that without implementing a Universal Basic Income that many are doomed to Benefits and no hope, but, if we did have UBI they maybe able to regrow their dreams. But, this is not a political blog, it is a new bookselling blog. So, we should begin and grow.
I knew I needed a better website, it suddenly dawned on me that other bookshops and shop less booksellers like me were in the same boat, so I spoke with Gardners my wholesaler and after a few weeks developing things, and we still have a long way to go.... we are at the beginning again.
This site is powered by Shopify and will grow as I learn it's strengths, it should be searchable, you should be able to navigate to key areas and it's safe and easy to use.
Signed Copies from events and offers are always a good place to start, we also feel that encouraging a love of reading from the earliest ages is the key to a wonderful person to be, so we are featuring children's books heavily. We can order any book, we also do some 2nd Hand too. At present they are on Amazon's marketplace, but we will import the listing to here soon.
Hopefully you can work through the blogs, I need to reload the imagery to make them what they were on my old site, it will take time!
My personal Facebook as Tony Higginson will be for my photography and jokes and music, the Beyond Books Media one with the Shop on it will focus on the books. My twitter is a mixture I don't fancy running two of them, it's @tonydoesbooks. Instagram will split into a Business one as Beyondbooksmedia and my personal one higginson.tony.
I am reachable by email tonythebook@live.co.uk and on 07914636545
I hope you all are Ok, it's going to be a worrying few months, maybe more...
Books and stories are thee for you, also do walk and observe what you see, I am so lucky to live by the Rimrose Valley Country Park and Leeds-Liverpool Canal and the coast of Formby, Crosby and the Antony Gormley Iron Men.