Meeting the Booksellers: Gardners Trade Show

 

As well as the Self-Publishing Conference, the other main event that Troubador always attends at the start of the Autumn is the Gardners Trade Show, which takes place at the annual Booksellers Association Conference.

This is always an excellent event for us as we get a very real opportunity to meet many different independent booksellers and show them our books. We take copies of all our newly published titles so these bookshops can see the quality and range of the books we produce and, as always, we got a very positive response to these titles. The Booksellers Association Conference is the one time in the year when so many of our bookshop owners and managers are in one place, so it is actually a better event than even The London Bookfair for us to meet and talk to these book retailers. 

The Trade Show 

The Trade Show was an even busier event than normal this year. It seems that more publishers have realised the importance of this occasion and so there were rather more stands from different publishers than has been the case in the past. It is great to see how well supported the event is, and it is excellent that the booksellers can see such a wide range of different new books. It was certainly completely packed in the Trade Show rooms for almost all the time given over the event. It is the big name publishers that always get the first rush of interest from the bookshops, but after those first moments have passed we were busy for the rest of the afternoon. We also had a series of very good meetings with booksellers who visited our stand, looking at the books on display and talking to us about both our publishing and what is selling at the moment in their shops. 

Troubador's Books at Gardners 

We do always get a very positive response to our books, with bookshops particularly interested in books with really striking jacket illustrations, as well as any books with local interest to where they are based. To do a cover enhancement to a jacket can cost a little more, but it is a pleasure to see just how well these books are received and how much the booksellers notice them - it is a similar reaction that the customers have to beautiful covers in their bookshops. 

It is also good to hear that they have been receiving the 'local author' Advance Information (AI) sheets that we are sending out to them. As mostly we do not get a direct response to these AIs, it is always great to hear that they are looking at the information we send out to them about new titles. 

It is always very important for us to attend this event as it really gives us an opportunity to show the bookshops the range of exciting, and different, titles that come out of the self-published side of publishing. Booksellers do need to be reassured that our books are being published to the highest standards and will sit very happily beside those that they are getting from major mainstream publishers. As well as looking at individual titles, it gives a very good impression that all our books show the same high levels of quality and excellence. 

Troubador's Relationship to Gardners

The Trade Fair is very well organised by Gardners, the main UK book wholesaler, with whom we have an extremely good relationship. It is because we knew that they will always stock all our new books that we were confident that we would be able to change the distribution of our books from a third-party distributor to doing it ourselves, which is something we did several years ago. It was the strength of this relationship with them which ensured that there was no disruption to the supply of our books whilst this major change was taking place, and we have always been able to rely on them for an excellent service with our books ever since then. They also trust us to be highly efficient in the distribution, so it is a mutually very satisfactory relationship. 

This same efficiency is brought to organising this event: a number of high-profile authors are always invited to attend, so the bookshops have a good reason to come early to the conference and spend time in the Trade Show to meet these authors as well as seeing all of our new publishing. 

A Brilliant Day 

It was great to have met so many bookshop professionals at this event. We always come away from it feeling reassured that the independent bookshops remain a strong force in the UK retailing of books. We took the names of many bookshops who we have not dealt with before, but asked us to contact them again after the conference. The booksellers were obviously very impressed with the books that we were showing them. This is always a terrific event to start the all-important Autumn and Christmas season. We can all hope a very successful Christmas lies ahead of us.