A Shopping experience

First of all, how refreshing to get a comment from DownUnder. I always wonder who reads the blog (apart from Harry) so it's good to know it reaches parts I probably never will.

Anyway, today I had a bookbuying experience. I have a niece who suffers from IBS and I come from the school of boring but useful presents (a bit like the publishing), so I thought I would buy her a book on it for Christmas.

As it was 8 in the morning when I first decided this, my first port of call was Amazon. I did see a couple of hopeful titles - one with 5-star reviews. However, I am now a bit sceptical over the whole review issue and when I clicked on the reviews the reviewers had only ever done one review. And then I suddenly became overwhelmed with the number of editions of pretty much the same book. So I gave up as I had to go to town.

My cycle route takes me past a Waterstone's and I dashed in to see what they had. Dear readers, the selection was lamentable, nay non-existent.

On discussing the issue with a work colleague, she recommended I try WHSmith. So off I trotted at lunchtime. There I found at least a couple of books on the subject, one of which I had been looking at on Amazon. So I bought it. I didn't even mind paying the full price. It was exactly what I wanted in my sweaty hands without the stress of an online delivery.

Which is a long-winded way of saying that WHSmith are in a prime position to capture the boring but useful market. In those hopeful days when The Publishing Cupboard was just starting out, I felt that WHSmith was the spiritual home of the Nod offs. I reckon people with lives (ie hobbies and interests) find WHS more approachable than Waterstone's.

When I worked at Collins, we were asked to do a branding exercise. We had to describe the type of person who would buy Collins books. Overwhelmingly we came up with someone who dressed in M&S clothes who had hobbies and wanted clear accessible information. I fear this was felt just too boring. From that point onward practically any Collins title was to be presented by a celebrity. From changing a baby's nappy to fixing a shelf.

So while there is a big appetite out there for fiction, there's probably just as big a one for non-fiction. And when you get non-fiction right, it has a shelf life that can last years.

ps Remember there's a sale on in The Cupboard