Reaching out to new markets
The Newham Bookshop was established over 30 years ago to serve the needs of its local East London community. It's still going strong - and has lately extended its reach, as Vivian Archer explains.
Newham Bookshop has always gone out to conferences, fairs, WI meetings, schools, book launches and our own external events… In fact, anywhere we are asked to go. But now there is a weekly Sunday market dedicated to books.
Goldsmith Row Book Market is an exciting new initiative to champion independents . It started in May, and at our stall I have invited authors to sign almost every week. They have included China Mieville, Jake Arnott, Iain Sinclair, Rachel Lichtenstein, John Hegley and many new first-time authors. Yesterday we had Clive Bloom signing Riot City. We are reaching out to a new audience and therefore gaining new customers.
Each stall at Goldsmith Row has a theme. We specialise in London and radical books, which has proved popular. Others sell art, photography and graphic novels, and there several excellent second-hand sellers. The area is vibrant, close to the Columbia Road Flower Market and Broadway Market.
Goldsmith Row has its own excellent coffee bar. The only slight problem has been the very unpredictable weather. Other than that, I can really recommend market selling: the interface with the public is very different to shop selling, and I’m not against a little haggling over price.
They are looking for more stall-holders - independent booksellers with specialist stock. Contact me at vivian@newhambooks.co.uk and I will pass on any expressions of interest.