Bookstore Profile: Blarney Books and Art in Port Fairy

For tourists and book lovers alike, a trip to Port Fairy should include a visit to Blarney Books and Art.  Don’t be fooled by the somewhat ordinary outside of the ’60s brick building. Entering is ‘like walking into a rainbow’ as one young visitor has described it.

In 2004, Jo Canham was a young graduate with a dream of opening a bookshop in the country.  She and her partner did exactly that. Their choice of Port Fairy for their enterprise turned out to be brilliant.

The bookshop is pumpkin coloured, has fairy lights, strobe globes, billowy curtains, comfortable old couches, nooks and corners. And of course books everywhere. Behind her desk Jo is a serene, friendly presence, always ready to talk books, art or anything at all. Need I add that cats, dogs and kids are most welcome. As second hand as well as new books are available one can often pick up bargains and hard-to-find gems.

Books range from coffee table heavy weights to paperbacks. Australiana, Philosophy, Art, travel tales, environment, history, contemporary fiction, the best of children’s stories are all there to browse through. Prominently displayed are regional and local writers. She flies rainbow pennants and has a large shelf of LGBTQI writers and their stories represented. Jo is also happy to provide display space for all kinds of local talent. Strewn around Blarneys are bright and cheerfully upholstered chairs, the kind that would be perfect to curl into in one’s own reading nook. These are by Liz Gannon. She re-upholsters old chairs in quirky ways, bringing to life well-loved stories with inserts, embroidery and recycled fabric. The charming Alice in Wonderland chair is to die for.

When the bookshop first opened Jo had lots of damaged ‘vintage’ books, long past their read-by dates. Nothing if not inventive, she introduced the ‘Biblio Art’ prize in 2009. The prize encouraged innovative ways of using these old books in art. Biblio Art has since become an important event in the Art world. The 2020 competition initiated the referencing in art of contemporary fiction. Entries were received from all over Australia and overseas, including New Zealand, The U.K. and the U.S.A. The dedicated gallery space now hosts exhibitions throughout the year.

Book launches, poetry readings, author interviews, workshops, musical gigs and more are now on offer on a regular basis. Visiting authors have included Helen Garner, Geoffrey Robertson, Bruce Pascoe and Abe Nouk. Brian Nankervis, Reg Mombasa, Shane Howard and Mick Thomas have performed at Blarney’s. Leunig the cartoonist and Richard Weatherly the birdlife artist, are both due to appear here this March.   

With passion, imagination and hard work, in a little under two decades Jo’s dream has come full circle. Blarney Books and Art has become a much-loved icon and cultural hub for this little country town and is getting known well beyond the South-West and Victoria. 

To check out her website, go to www.blarneybooks.com.au

Article kindly contributed by Ganga Powell. See also our post on her excellent book.

Promote Your Book with Persistence and the Power of Networking

We asked author Pat Kelly to describe her successful efforts to market her two books set on the Isle of Man (Shadow of the Wheel and Hedge of Thorns). There’s quite a bit of detail, but it is a testament to persistence and networking (and having two excellent books to sell)

When my book, Shadow of the Wheel was accepted for publication I was not a member of Facebook but joined at my publisher's suggestion.

I happily admit to being a complete computer nerd and had no knowledge about Facebook other than that people seemed to send each other photographs of what they were about to eat. However, I dutifully joined and asked one or two people I knew to be my friends. Most of these were family, but a few were people I had known when I lived in the Isle of Man. So after a few days, I had a whole twelve 'friends'. I looked amongst their friends and put in a 'friend' request to quite a few. Some accepted, some didn't and some asked 'who are you?' From the ones who accepted I put in requests to some of their contacts. So it mushroomed until I now have over 100 contacts.

The important thing was, who some of these new friends were and the actions they took for someone who was almost, and in many instances, a complete stranger.

As the book started in the Isle of Man and I know the Manxies love their island and its history, I joined a couple of groups on the Island and saw one or two names I knew, so put in 'friend' requests to them. Several of them, on hearing about Shadow of the Wheel' got on to Amazon straight away and actually bought a copy while we were still on Facebook chatting. They enjoyed the book and some of them shared a picture of the book along with some very flattering words with all their friends. One actually said 'It is a terrific book DOWNLOAD IT NOW!' Others who had read it invited me to join another Isle of Man group they were members of. So I am now in five Manx groups and the good thing about this is that there are Manx societies all over the world, who are also members of the Isle of Man groups. So this got the word out to the world about my book.

It was a bit like throwing a pebble into a pool and watching the ripples spreead and grow.

One lady who is the secretary of the Isle of Man Family History Society, got in touch with me because she wishes to do a write up about me in the society's journal which will be out November, after which she is going to organize a write up in the local papers about me and my books and also a piece on the local radio.

Since launching Shadow of the Wheel, I have done a huge edit on a book I had published on the Isle of Man in 1993. It is a true story, as told to me by my late mother in law, telling about her childhood during the 1st World War, in a village of about 20 residents, when a huge internment camp was built in the village to house 'alien internees'. It was made rather a mess of when it was originally published, but with a lot of patient help from Luke Harris I undid all the wrongs that were done to it originally and Luke designed a beautiful new cover for it.

I re-launched it in the middle of September and put a picture of it, with a few words of explanation, out to my Manx groups. Within two hours I had enquiries from South Africa, Zimbabwe, USA and Canada asking where they could buy the book. Presumably they are Manx expats now living in these countries.

I also friended (only because she bore the same name as my beloved sister) a young girl - sixty years my junior who lives nearby and is studying journalism and history at university. She has similar interests to me and we got on like a house on fire from the moment we met. We are now close friends, she has bought and read both my books. She wrote my life story and,said a lot of flattering things about my books and took a very nice photo of me sitting on my front steps with a copy of Shadow of the Wheel as one of her assignments for university, then shared this assignment with her almost 2000 Facebook friends, including links for buying my books. Ending with a comment that they were terrific books and advising her friends to buy them.

This, to me, shows the value of choosing carefully on Facebook, then putting in requests to likely looking 'friends, contacts of theirs - and so ad infinitum.

I addition to this my friends in the Lakes Entrance senior citizens club put of a little launching morning tea for me a the club and invited a reporter from the local paper to come and take a photo. She duly did this, then called out to my house twice to interview me and did a great article about my life's history and how I came into writing. Now that Hedge of Thorns has also been launched, she is going to gake some more photos and do another little write-up.

Update #1

I had an email on Friday from one of my friends in IOM who told me that her friend, Carol Tomlinson, had just sent her a message (tongue in cheek) telling her she had just finished reading her wonderful book and didn't know she had it in her. So Pat and I exchanged a few messages about it and I told her about Hedge of Thorns, etc and she said she was going to buy them both. The following day I had a friend request from Carol Tomlinson, who had seen Pat's and my exchange. Carol and I had some long chats about my books. She had bought Shadow to read on holiday in Italy and couldn't put it down, so now she'll have to buy another book for the rest of her holiday. She said she was enjoying it so much she was very sad when it ended and asked if I would be doing a sequel.

I told her about my other books - Beyond the Seas and that at some time I am possibly going to re-launch Smugglers. She says she is going to buy Hedge of Thorns when she gets home, so I suggested she should buy it from the Knockaloe Trust rather than Amazon. She also said she is going to buy another copy of Shadow to give to her friend — who lives in Laxey — for Christmas. When I opened up her page there was huge picture of Shadow of the Wheel and a very glowing report. One of her friends thanked her for the tip and said she had just bought it and another two said they were going to.

Then yesterday I had a message from a lady who bought it not long after it was launched, but at the time said she had a few in a queue in from of it waiting to be read. She had just finished it and said she cried at the end when Jos got off the train along with the rest of the family. She also put a big picture and write up about it and sent it to all her friends.

So it still seems to be moving well over there. In addition I sold two copies of Hedge and one of Shadow to two friend in my carer support group on Friday. It's all quite exciting.

UPDATE # 2

I just thought I would bring you up to date with my latest exploits. I decided to make today a day of running around all the little businesses I could think of to see if I could make any sales.

I started with the General Store in Swan Reach. The fellow there was very happy to take some of my books and have a go, though he did say he didn't really think they would sell there. But when I came to discuss money and how much his share would be, he just flapped his hand and said they didn't do that there. Any he sells he will just give me all the dough — to quote him. So let's hope he sells some.

Then I got to Bairnsdale and my first call was to a 'cafe' I just discovered a couple of weeks ago when a friend suggested we should meet there for a cuppa. It was only afterwards that I realised that they sold school supplies, stationery etc. there. So I decided to give them a try today. The first thing I saw when I walked in the door was a little stand of books and above it said 'LOCAL AUTHORS'. When I went in, books in hand and told the lady what I was there for I thought she was going to jump over the counter and hug me. No hesitation in saying she would have some of my books. She said she takes 20 per cent, which is $2 less than I was going to offer her, so I didj't argue. She then asked if I did events, which I haven't but would be willing to. She is very involved with the Bairnsdale Show and says they have a stand there which they invite local authors to bring their books to, and they get about 60,000 visitors to the show. She says there are also other events they invite authors to.

As you know, it was a stinking hot day, so I decided to have an iced coffee while I was there and there was a lady at another table. As Charlotte (the shop lady) was putting my books on the shelf this other lady said something to her and she took one of each over to her. Then she came back to me, told me the other lady was also an author and gave me her book to look at. The lady, Leanne, was actually a poet and photographer and her pictures were absolutely stunning - all local pictures.

When I'd finished my coffee I stopped to chat to her and we spent about half an hour discussing our masterpieces. She told me the secretary of the Bairnsdale Historical Society is Manx and she thought she would probably be very interested in Hedge of Thorns. When I got up to leave she told me she was going to buy Shadow of the Wheel herself and as I went out the door I looked around and sure enough, she was at the counter buying the book.

Charlotte asked to take a photo of me with the books to put on social media. In actual fact, she stood on one side of the 'local author' stand and I stood on the other side with a book each showing the sign between us. It looked good.

When I got home I found both ladies on facebook and requested to 'friend' them. They could both prove very useful contacts.

When I left there I went to the newsagent in the main street, but the boss was out and wouldn't be back for about an hour.and it was too hot to hang around. I had also been going to try two places in Paynesvile and the general stor in Metung, but again the heat was getting to me. I'll do them and the Newsagent another day.

Great Little Bookstores in Victoria — No. 1 in a series

While the big bookselling chains may have gone the way of the dinosaurs (though department store book sections are expanding somewhat), the indie stores live on. However efficient an algorithm, it can never compete with the experience and warmth of a hand-curated bookstore. Victoria has quite a number of excellent little bookstores scattered across the state. As there is a particular kind of joy in finding a lovely bookstore, we thought we would run a series of posts, each highlighting an exceptional indie.

The first of these is our local. The Eltham Bookshop. Located at 970 Main Road, Eltham, it is a genuine book-cave, fitting an amazing amount of literary content into a relatively small space. Meera and Navin Govil run a active program of book launches, promotions and book-related events throughout the year, meaning the bookstore is very integrated into the local community. Meera has been trading for twenty years and has a loyal customer base. She supports local authors and small publishing houses. Definitely worth a trip — Eltham would be much diminished without it.

Next: Bookwolf in Maldon.

Public Relations and Authors

If you are one of those independent authors to whom selling does not come easily, you might want to consider a publicist. Local publicist Phillip Anderson offers reasonably priced six week campaigns. Such campaigns typically feature the following:

• Author interviews and reviews in relevant newspapers
• Author interviews with key online news sources
• Book reviews across national and regional newspapers and online publications
• National and local author radio interviews (where possible)

Phillip can be contacted via email: phillip@phillipandersonpublicity.com.au. Before engaging in such campaigns, authors will need to get their ducks in a row:

• Make sure their books are easily available in the areas reached by the publicity
• Ensure that they have spare stock in case sales go well (though this does not apply to print on demand and ebook sales online)
• Rehearse the points they want to get across in interviews, the key selling strengths of their book, the so-called 'elevator pitch'. And have some kind of idea of potential customers and what kind of angles might appeal to them

These might seem obvious points, but we have seen a remarkable number of authors who weren't really across any of them before initiating publicity efforts. Remember: bookstores will be much better disposed to independent authors who are making a clear and sustained effort to promote their work.

Amazon Set to Open Non-Virtual Bookstores

After spending the last decade laying waste to the bookstores of the world, it now seems vaguely possible that Amazon is about to build a few of its own. That's right: physical bookstores, with actual books on actual shelves. And actual customers, one assumes. Amazon doesn't do anything without a plan, and without a preternatural understanding of their customers, so their business model must be pretty robust. As this blog post points out, the massive number of print on demand titles that Amazon hosts gives it the ability to tailor store offerings in a granular way without having to maintain huge warehouses of stock. And no-one does logistics and fulfillment as well as Amazon. Lovers of books may find it reassuring that Amazon evidently subscribes to the view that print books will be around for the foreseeable future.

Keep Calm and Sell Your Book

Author and client Jaclyn Humfrey writes to inform us that she has found two new outlets for her excellent colouring book (both located in beautiful Albany, Western Australia) — Paperbark, and Yellow Bird. 

On the Road Promoting Her Book — an Author's experience

Deborah Benson recently wrote  "Judicial Murder — the Crown VS David Young", published under the Eaglehawk Press imprint. Here is her account of a recent promotional trip to the Goulburn Valley.

My book has been welcomed in the Goulburn Valley book shops and newsagencies. Helen Sofra from Collins Bookstore in Shepparton suggested we arrange to visit to speak about DY’s story. 

Jan Hutton the Project Manager of the Goulburn Valley Libraries went into action and had 3 venues organised, complete with media releases for each town. But before we began, we had an interview with the Shepparton News for the weekend edition. I say ‘we’ as my husband Chris shared the experience with me and during the course of the talk he read the hanging scene in his articulate expressive manner, resulting in numerous watery eyes in the room.

Numurkah library was our first appearance and the turnout of keen listeners was wonderful. Historical crime seems to be of interest and captures our imagination especially in the country areas where there is still a feeling of remoteness and a connection with the environment.

Our next engagement was in Nagambie again with an interested crowd of people and lastly at Shepparton. All venues supplied a good home made spread of delectable cakes and slices.

The fact that people were excited to actually meet an author said something about the way writers are removed from the general public who are their potential readers. Writers nowadays have to wear several hats to become known. A very enjoyable warming experience while sharing a story that has been waiting 150 years to be told.

If You Liked Author A You Will Like Author B

Amazon and other online booksellers are very good at picking up on your searches and purchases to anticipate other items you may be interested in. Of course, the selections are made by algorithms rather than Amazon staff members. Awesome Author Recommender goes in the other direction, using human beings to point the way from one author to the next. Judging from my searches, the site does not go very deep at present, but the authors it did highlight from the searches I made were definitely top drawer.