The Diary of a Bookseller

TUESDAY, 13 MAY

Online orders: 5

Books found: 5

Clearly we have a problem with AbeBooks, as all today’s orders were Amazon, so I checked and our online stock with them has dropped from 10,000 to 450 books. I’ve emailed them to see what the problem is. I estimate lost AbeBooks sales to be about £100 a week. AbeBooks is the best place to sell more valuable books, and our average sale on the site is probably worth about £30, the equivalent to about six Amazon sales, so while we do not sell a vast quantity of books on AbeBooks, their value relative to Amazon is significant.

Two pairs of swallows have started building nests, one in the alleyway between the shop and next door, and another in the log shed.

At noon a customer tied his yapping terrier to one of the benches in front of the shop while he and his wife browsed. An hour later it was still yapping away. They didn’t buy anything. Shortly after they had left, a man with what appeared to be an eggcup taped over his left eye asked for books on ‘numerology’. I had to ask him what it meant.

Till total £107.99

12 customers