Right let us draw a line under all that odd BookRabbit, ArgentVive stuff and move on. I’ve deleted Charles Denton’s non existent blog (was all keen and nothing happened, funny that) from the blogroll & try not to look at the suspended shares on AIM (Alternative Investment Market : ARGV is the code). I may occasionally be tempted to post some comment – but I’ll try to avoid it. My mother taught me better than that.

So – the news was all covered ages ago really, but I couldn’t face blogging for a bit, if you need to catch up then have a read of this.

For the next few posts I might just have a play with a very simple thing of posting where I’m buying my books from and why as i’m interested in my, and others decision making processes – comments very welcome. It will also serve as a quiet intermission before I can start talking about all the great things on the new Book Depository site.

We’re a mere couple of weeks (well maybe three) from the public launch now – and a lot needs finishing/tidying and thankfully not too much needs actually fixing. The list is quite wide ranging and includes completely new home & interact pages – more along the lines of Facebook/Plaxo with lots of updates for friends and BookRabbit users – and a tighter design too – to integration of PayPal, which will be the first on a bookseller site as far as I’m aware.

I think the new designs are great – there does seem to be a bit of a learning curve with new social sites though (so much happening I think) so we’ll see how we do. We’re going to use Usability Exchange to look the site over, I like them a lot, you get a great report not one spewed out by a consultant and it is from people who actually have disabilities rather than following set rules.

We’ve loads of other exciting ideas to add to the site, but we really need to get it out into the real world first. The great thing with this project is that we can keep developing after launch – and at quite a pace, not distracted by 100 other internal projects like you are in a big business.

I had Will’s (the IT Director) appraisal today – which was great, but weird because we’ve been partners in this whole escapade really – when we chatted it reminded me of a quote that Michael Smith from Mind Candy/ Firebox has as one of his favourites:

“Tech start-ups are the dynamos of our society. They create new wealth, jobs and inventions – and sustain our competiveness on the world stage. Best of all, they shower wealth on the most unlikely people. Start-ups are the engines of human liberation. They’re also scary. They upset the established order. They’re risky. And they attract obsessive, difficult, headstrong people fixated on changing the world” (Wired magazine)

I think some of the team are unlikely revolutionaries, and almost anti the job titles they have. I’d be quite happy if Will called himself the anti-IT Director for example – because actually we’ve all bought into an idea and the traditional structures and titles don’t feel like a good fit – because they’re so much more than that. But hey, that’s half the fun.

One of our 8views for Retail8 that we developed as a team was that of Stories

“Your experience of shopping with one of our brands should be so good that you cannot help but tell other people what happened.”

So I was pleased to see that the, ever excellent, Trendwatching briefing for this month also talks of the need for brands to help customers tell stories about the brand.

It is potentially the hardest thing to do as a retail brand – but I think essential if you aim not to be a bottom feeding commodity pusher (god forbid).

I came to this conclusion from the fact I kept telling people about Daisy’s Dairy who deliver our bottled milk – they augmented this very staple of staples by providing a diary from the cow, nice.

Two things this week have underlined what sometimes appear to be difficult opposing forces within the book trade. The first was evident when I attended (thank you Bowker) the British Book Awards on Wednesday night. The red carpet was there, it’s televised on Channel 4 on Sunday, and it was arranged very much around that and the concious desire of the trade to create something ‘mass market’ but worthy that pushes books in the way other entertainment products are.

Celebs of varying degrees of fame were then wheeled on to present awards, chuckle with Richard and Judy, and generally push the ten or so titles the event revolved around. Don’t get me wrong many of these are great books – and yes, if involving a few celebrities sees more people reading them then all to the good.

I wasn’t convinced the trade had it’s heart in it though – many were talked over, and there was a general feeling of embarrassment. When Judy asked one award presenter whether she ‘bothered to read?’, in a very casual manner, it drew sighs from most of the attendees. As if the whole manufactured event was just so people who don’t read a lot or could be considered in any way intellectual could come on and say ‘aren’t books great!’ or as Geri Halliwell said ‘reading anything is good’.

I’m not sure how we as a trade really tackle the issue of ‘popular’ vs ‘worthy’ but I don’t think the BBA was it.

I’ve also been putting together a piece for the Bookseller’s Association conference. I have to pitch ‘the next big thing’ for a trade campaign against other industry people – very tough it has been too. What I wanted to do was come up with something that didn’t just sell more books to the same people, but actually grow the market. I’ll post the slides up post event – see what you think.