passionate about non-fiction

Ever since I read The White Ladder Diaries three years ago and made that fateful decision to set up my own publishing company, I follow other publishing blogs with interest.

Susan Hill’s blog was a favourite but it has gone since she decided to reclaim her life from blogshpere. Another very helpful blog is at Snowbooks where Emma Barnes keeps others abreast of how Snowbooks are doing. You can get extremely useful insights into marketing and sales.

Snowbooks sell both fiction and illustrated non-fiction. My first love is non-fiction. I love useful and what some may term ‘boring’ books. Non-fiction is probably the one area in publishing where brand can play an important part in customers’ perceptions.

Non-fiction (let’s exclude autobiographies) is also one area that can bring in a steady stream of revenue. If a book sells, the bookshop will keep ordering it. The book might need updating and refreshing now and again with a new edition.

Non-fiction usually ties into people’s passions (or need to do something), say fishing (or DIY). They are often impulse buys by browsers. My passion is yoga and if I see a book that grabs my attention, I buy it. I was in a small bookshop (sorry, don't have link) in my home town of Lancaster last week which was full of flaky and practical stuff (my own personal heaven). I bought a book on yoga at £9.99. I hadn’t meant to buy it. I didn’t even think about the price. It touched on something I had been thinking about recently.

All this is a long-winded way of saying, perhaps this is the avenue down which some bookshops should go and trumpet that fact - we focus exclusively on non-fiction. If I were running WH Smith, this is what I would do. The supermarkets will be cornering best-selling fiction, and non-fiction could be an area where Amazon is not as equipped to compete. WH Smith could place all the specialist magazines next to the relevant section (as well as in their usual blob at the entrance).

People with passions, hobbies, homes to mend and wills to write are always on the look out to add to their collection of books and reference material.