Greetings from Sweden

[M.A.N.]

Hello all!

My name is Magnus and I'm a book store owner from the south of Sweden. Naturally with a dream of - not only selling books - but also writing one. Or many.

I tend to work too much and I never seem to find the time to do any actual writing, but hopefully this will be a place to get the inspiration and/or the advice to get cracking.

I love to read, naturally, but not only fantasy. I'm quite fond of crime, especially with a bit of humour. Jasper Fforde mixes this and the fantasy bit as well. An inspiration.

Hope to hear from you all here on this forum.

Take care,
Magnus

 

[Paradox]

Welcome, I have thought about opening a bookstore. Though at the time a lot of the bookstore owners told me its all about the location and that online sales and big box retailers like Hastings, Barnes & Noble, ect. were just killing them and they wouldn't make it if they hadn't already had a large dedicated loyal following of customers. So I decided against it.

Whats some of your big sellers in Sweden, I am curious to see if they differ from what I see on the front tables in America.

 

[ade625]

Hello, and welcome.

I'm quite a bit of a Jasper Fforde fan as well. He often seems to get overlooked when it comes to fantasy, probably because his books are always in the 'fiction' section of bookstores, rather than the 'sci-fi and fantasy' section.

It'll be nice to get the input of someone who owns a bookstore on the forum. I'm sure you'll have some extra insight into the publishing process that others of us may not have.

 

[Black Dragon]

Welcome Magnus!

I agree with ade. It will be worthwhile to hear the perspective of a bookstore owner. If you are looking for inspiration and advice, you've come to the right place. We've got some very knowledgeable folks here.

Can you tell us a little about your bookstore?

 

[Kelise]

Welcome! It's good having a few more from all around the world Hope to see you active in the forum.

I have Fford's Eyre Affair that I haven't found the time to read yet - have you read that one?

 

[M.A.N.]

My bookstore

Thank you all for that warm welcome.

@Paradox: in a nutshell: Don't open, buy or get a bookstore. As fellow boostore owners have told you, the climate for doing so is not the best. It's very hard getting by these days.
As for books a lot of english big sellers usually find their way to us here in Sweden and eventually get translated. Stieg Larsson's books is old news and everybody's already read them.
A very funny book by Jonas Jonasson, "Hundraåringen som steg ut genom fönstret och försvann", is currently the most sold book in Sweden. It's been sold to a lot of countries around the world so you'll probably be seeing that soon. The title translates to: "The hundred year old that went out the window and disappeared".
And after the Twilight craze we've got Becca Fitzpatrick's books. WIth angels instead of vampires as I'm sure you all know.

I met Jasper Fforde when he was over in Sweden last year and a more nice person is probably hard to find. And really funny as are his books.
If you haven't read any of his books - do so - immediatly. He actually reveals how books are written. You see - they already all exist. We just think that we, the writers, are the ones that write them. Not so.

@Black Dragon - My bookstore "Billingska bokhandeln" is a small one in a pretty small town. More village actually. Population of about 14000. But it's been around since 1898, and I bought it 2005.
But since I and my colleague are interested in hitech and stuff we've embraced the whole e-book thing. We were actually the first bookstore in Sweden to sell e-readers and the first to sell e-books over the counter! (Because most e-reader customers turned out to be older people, enjoying the possibility to enlarge the text - and they didn't have computers - so they couldn't buy and download e-books by themselves)

And we are about to launch an e-book webshop in the very, very near future (a day or so away perhaps - I'll let you know).

The bookstore is a general type of bookstore (with the exception of the e-book thing) and we sell most types of books.
But since things are as they are, we're discussing to niche ourselves and start specializing in just a few genres. Perhaps crime. We would still have the same amount of books but not those that never sell. And we would make a name as the crime bookstore to go to. But we haven't decided yet. We'll see ...

As foor books that I myself read (I know, nobody asked, but I thought I'd share anyway) I recently finished Rachel Aarons "Spirit Thief" and have just started reading Bradleys "The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie". The first a fantasy and the latter a crime novel. Both as e-books of course.

Take care,
Magnus

 

[M.A.N.]

Hmm, strange ...
I did a long reply to all of the above welcome posts (Thank You), but the posting area looked different and it said something about waiting moderation ...
Hope it didn't get lost in cyberspace.

I'm not sure what happened.

Magnus

 

[Black Dragon]

Hey Magnus,

Your reply is visible now. It went into the moderation queue until a moderator reviewed it. We have a terrific spam filter here, but it gets a little overzealous sometimes. It takes a few posts before it learns to trust a new member, and then it will generally leave you alone.

Thanks for sharing about your bookstore. It sounds like a really special place. On one hand it has a great historical legacy, while on the other hand you are breaking new ground technologically.

I imagine that specializing in a specific genre has its pros and cons. This seems to be a necessary step for many enterprises, though. This is especially true for new web sites these days. You either pick a specific niche, or you never find an audience.

 

[M.A.N.]

... On one hand it has a great historical legacy, while on the other hand you are breaking new ground technologically.

I imagine that specializing in a specific genre has its pros and cons. This seems to be a necessary step for many enterprises, though. This is especially true for new web sites these days. You either pick a specific niche, or you never find an audience.

Hi Black Dragon,
and thank you for your kind words.
I do agree with you on the pros and cons bit. When the ebookwebshop is launched I'll turn my focus on how to steer this vessel that is my book store towards the future.

Take care,
Magnus