Seumas Gallacher has survived long enough to savour places, characters and events for more than forty years in the Far East and the Arabian Gulf.
He started life in Scotland, travelled far and wide as a wannabe Trainee Master of the Universe, but the Universe had other plans for him.
From a career in banking, he escaped to become a corporate trouble-shooter.
He discovered the joy and torture of becoming a wordsmith, writing five best-selling crime novels, a book of poetry, and being hyper-active on social media.
‘Strangely, I’m Still Here’ is his story.
Author Bio:
SEUMAS GALLACHER escaped from the world of finance years ago, after a career spanning three continents and five decades.
As the self-professed ‘oldest computer Jurassic on the planet’ his headlong immersion into the dizzy world of eBook publishing opened his eyes, mind, and pleasure to the joys of self-publishing.
As a former businessman, he rapidly understood the concept of a writer’s need to ‘build the platform’, and from a standing start began to develop a social networking outreach, which now tops 30,000 direct contacts.
His first four crime-thrillers, in what has become the ‘Jack Calder’ series, THE VIOLIN MAN’S LEGACY, VENGEANCE WEARS BLACK, SAVAGE PAYBACK and KILLER CITY have blown his mind with more than 90,000 e-link downloads to date. The fifth in the series, DEADLY IMPASSE, was published in the third quarter 2016. When he reaches the 100,000 sales/downloads mark he may indulge an extra Fried Mars Bar to celebrate.
He started a humorous, informative, self-publishers blog, never having heard of a ‘blog’ prior to that, was voted ‘Blogger of the Year 2013’ and now has a loyal blog following on his networks. He says the novels contain his ‘Author’s Voice’, while the blog carries his ‘Author’s Brand’. And he’s still LUVVIN IT!
Reading Challenges have become very popular over the years. They’re a huge social talking point among readers and writers. As any introvert will tell you, if you want to strike up a conversation with them, ask them what they’re currently reading and you’ll earn yourself a worthy literary conversation.
As a mother, teacher and author, I think swapping Reading Challenge Lists is a wonderful way for friends, family and like minded individuals to connect and have meaningful conversations.
If you’re looking to add more books to your own To-Read List, (A-hem, coughs in a please-notice-me-but-I-don’t-want-to-be-rude-about-it sort of way) I just happen to have a few that might interest you or your children.
The Old BookShop Of Bordentown is the 8th stop on my Independent Book Store tour. In an effort to bring awareness of how vital these places are, I’m interviewing the great folks who manage them.
Located in historic Bordentown City in central New Jersey, The Old Bookshop of Bordentown are purveyors of out of print and antiquarian books. They have titles that cater to history buffs, sports and erotica fans, aspiring thespians, gardeners and religious folk.
But wait, there’s more!
Their inventory also includes
fantasy titles like Eragon, George R. R. Martin’s epic saga Game of
Thrones as well as Manga, mysteries, an expanding entertainment section and
a children’s room. It’s bookworm heaven!
Don’t worry if your book budget is
limited, the Old Bookshop has many discounted titles, some as low as a $1.00.
(FYI: if you check out their Facebook page you
may find even more savings.)
Their doors are open Wednesday through Saturday from
11:00 am to 5:00 pm and Sunday from
12:00 pm to 4:00 pm.
Doug, the owner of The Old Bookshop Of Bordentown, was kind enough to answer a few questions about his store and the value it adds to his community of readers.
Hi, Doug, welcome to Angel Kiss Publications. Thank you for agreeing to do this interview.
Thank you for having me.
What motivated you to open (or work at) an Independent Book Store?
I’ve been a book collector since I was about 14 years
old. After spending a career on Wall Street and with a large amount of books,
many in storage, I began to consign material to a cooperative shop in the late
1990s.
Once I got fed up with commuting to New York City from
the Princeton, NJ area and decided I’d rather watch my two little sons grow up,
we opened a shop in Freehold, NJ.
The bookselling trade is rewarding in ways other than
financial (it’s not particularly remunerative).
I like to think, however, that we’re providing a valuable service–books give people pleasure, knowledge, sometimes comfort, and help to expand horizons.
Can you tell us a little about Old
Bookshop Of Bordentown?
The Old Book Shop of Bordentown is a general used and
out-of-print bookstore with vintage and rare editions as well. Most of the
stock on our shelves is priced under $10 (though we also carry material that
runs into the thousands of dollars).
We sub-specialize in New Jersey books (naturally) and
have the largest section of New Jersey titles in the state. We carry general history,
American history (American Revolution, Civil War and WWII), fiction and
literature (geared more toward the classic authors like Austen, Hemingway,
Virgina Woolf, Tolkein, etc).
We also have sections on art, architecture, music,
theater, movie and TV, cooking, antiques, etc.
There are some 10,000 books on our open shelves and we
also have an online inventory of some 9,000 titles.
What’s involved with running an independent bookstore?
Nowadays a small independent operating in a brick-and mortar
open location has to be in a place where the cost of location operation is low
enough to stay in business. This is very difficult in New Jersey.
In order to pay the rent, one usually gives up any
significant walking traffic. For example, if I were in Princeton where there is
a large walking population during the days and evening, my rent would be 5 to
10 times what it is here—and I’d be out of business within 90 days.
Acquisition of inventory is also a critical issue—what do
you carry and from where do you get it?
We don’t buy inventory directly from publishers or from
overstock houses (except for a few very local history titles). We can’t compete
with Barnes and Noble in terms of prices or customer volume on that material.
We buy from individuals (people who are moving,
down-sizing), estates, historical societies or libraries who are deaccessioning
material, etc. One big advantage to having an open shop is that you get buying
opportunities that you would not otherwise.
As with any such business, it’s always a bit of a guessing
game — hopefully what we buy will interest our customers. Sometimes it is and
sometimes we have things in inventory for years.
Is competition with online
retailers difficult?
Competition with other online retailers is always an
issue. Certain ones, Amazon particularly but eBay as well, are a headlong dive
to the bottom of the barrel. Anyone with a cardboard box of books in their
garage and a computer can be a “bookseller”.
That hugely increases supply and buyers on these sites
usually are looking for the cheapest possible item—and they’re often
disappointed with the actual item when it arrives (or so a number of customers
have always told me). They are the world’s low-end yard sales.
How do small bookstores compete
with Amazon and Barnes & Noble?
All that having been said, you have to deal with the
devil. We sell on Amazon and it in fact makes up a significant percentage of
our monthly revenues. We get a greater number of orders through them than
through any other sales channel, but the orders are also almost always for
lower priced items—and there is absolutely zero customer loyalty as they are
hysterical about keeping sellers and buyers from communicating directly.
Barnes & Noble is not a competitive factor for us as we don’t deal in new books. We’re signed up as vendors for out of print stuff with them but rarely get an order.
Barnes & Noble is not a competitive factor for us as we don’t deal in new books. We’re signed up as vendors for out of print stuff with them but rarely get an order.
What makes your store unique?
We try to offer a bit of everything so that folks who
come in can hopefully find things they didn’t know they wanted when they came
in.
We also have a whole room full of books for children and young adults—everything from baby picture books to Nancy Drew, Diary of a Wimpy Kid and even more mature titles for teens.
I feel strongly about getting books into the hands of
children at an early age—that’s what my mom did with me and my sister when we
were little.
What are your biggest sellers?
Our single biggest seller over the years since we’ve been
here has been the Harry Potter series. We sell the hardcovers for around $7 and
the paperbacks for around $3.
J. K. Rowling has, in my opinion, done more to advance
literacy than anyone else in the last half-century.
We sell lots of New Jersey books—Pine Barrens and Jersey
Devil stuff is popular given our geographic location. American history is a
good seller as well.
In terms of adult fiction and literature, our steady
sellers have been Jane Austen, Hemingway, Virginia Woolf, J. R. R. Tolkien and
more recently Neil Gaiman, George R. R. Martin and Chuck Palahniuk.
There’s always a run on books with current TV and movie
tie-ins like Game of Thrones.
Do you have promotions throughout
the year?
Not really. We coordinate more with the big events here
in Bordentown: the Cranberry Festival in October, the Holiday Chocolate Walk
and the Valentine’s Day Chocolate Walk. Those events provide us with a
ready-made crowd.
Do you have author book signings?
We’re too small to do it effectively. The only exception
is for local authors that put out local history books or general interest
things—we have two local authors who have published children’s books and we’ve
had signings with them. We schedule those sessions during the bigger two events
as mentioned above so they get good exposure.
What advice would you give to
authors just starting out?
Don’t give up your day jobs.
The current publishing environment is extremely
competitive as writers have many more venues than just traditional hard-copy
publishers.
Yes, it’s easier to get your stuff out there via the
innumerable online venues but it’s incredibly difficult to actually get
eyeballs on your work.
And if you want to get an authentic following, don’t
write books about growing up, issues with your parents/siblings/spouses, or
your views on the cosmos, or poetry.
Write something that may be unique, write local history,
develop and write children’s book characters.
In terms of fiction, try young adult and have a plan for books two,
three and more in case you catch lightning in a bottle. Then you might have a
shot.
Is there anything else you’d like
readers to know about you and your store?
The same thing I say to consumers about all small local
businesses: “Use ‘em or lose ‘em”.
We welcome everyone to come in and browse, poke around
the shelves, try something new or just pick up a copy of an old friend. Just
picking up a $2 or $3 paperback or hardcover helps pay the rent and keep us
open.
Want to read The Great Gatsby (another of our most steady sellers)? Try finding a paperback copy at B&N for less than $15. We sell them for $3 or $4.
What are some of your favorite books/authors?
I enjoy historical mysteries set in the Middle Ages, the
Victorian Era, and the colonial period, so we usually have a good selection of
those.
I’ve also been a Sherlock Holmes fan since I was a
teenager, so we have a nice selection of that material.
My favorite 20th century American author is
John Steinbeck (I think The Grapes ofWrath was the greatest 20th
c. American novel) so we have lots of his books.
