| Letter
Almost idly on Friday I wrote an email letter to the five and a half thousand subscribers to our email list offering them a free book if they ordered The Fortnight in September and another book before the end of September. I did this partly because every other mail-order organisation that I admire (Boden, Crocus, Wall, Brora, Cath Kidston, Bloom, The Linen House) sometimes has some kind of offer, and in any case a hundred people seemed pleased with the free hessian book bag we gave away in July; and partly to remind loyal Persephone readers that we are still here even though the Biannually does not go out for another three weeks.
However, I underestimated the success of this email letter. Although the norm is a one per cent ‘response rate’, a hundred people had taken up the offer by the end of Friday afternoon – how many more will there be when we go in on Monday? ‘But think if no one had responded!’ said daughter number two on the phone from Los Angeles this afternoon. Nevertheless, I feel a bit apologetic towards our (now) daily rota of Alarys, Moss, Celia, Sarah and Francesca, and the kind Persephone readers who sometimes come in to help (Judith, Sari, Sandy among others) – all of whom had perhaps been anticipating a quiet week.
So this first week of October will see a dozen mailbags leaving the office each day (and since our lovely postman has warned us that another post strike is rumoured for the end of the week, we will be doing our utmost to ‘clear the decks’). Then I shall finish writing the Biannually and the new pages of the Catalogue and, with the help of James Twist (who has done all our design work for nine years but is luckily over from Delhi on a temporary assignment) and with the help of our new young designer, Thomas, the printer will receive everything he needs in a few days. Then I am off to the Frankfurt Book Fair for the day, not so much to wheel and deal, but to have quiet cups of coffee with the publisher who is translating The Far Cry into German, with an Italian publisher interested in Miss Pettigrew, with the German publisher of Manja, with the people who will distribute the Persephone Classics in the US, with some of the other members of the Independent Publishers Guild…
Then, back in the office, we will re-do the shop windows ready for publication of the three new books (we’ll be displaying a wonderful green 1930s dress photographed for the endpaper of The Closed Door and Other Stories by Dorothy Whipple) and draw a breath before the Christmas rush begins.
(If anyone is reading this and is in two minds about whether or not to come to Wednesday’s Book Group: do come because it will be rather special. Not only is Isobel English’s daughter Victoria Orr-Ewing going to be there but so is Oriel Malet, who could not come a month ago when we discussed Marjory Fleming but happily is able to be with us this month. But, as always, please telephone first.)
Nicola Beauman
Lamb’s Conduit Street
30 September 2007 |
