Marketing for the Technically Challenged and Totally Terrified - Bookshops,Bunyan and The Word

Bedford is a town you tend to pass as you drive up the A1 or M1. Which is a pity because apart from having a multi-racial and multi lingual population - 100 languages spoken at the last count - it is the place where one of the most famous books in the English language was written. 

Pilgrim's Progress, a book that is second only to the bible in sales terms, was penned in Bedford gaol, when John Bunyan was imprisoned there for preaching outside of the established church.

It's always a great encouragement to me as a writer, that although few if any of Bunyan's sermons are remembered, it is what he wrote in prison, for the entertainment of his children, at what was probably the lowest point of his life, that has lasted and changed lives. 

So 'Books' are certainly 'Us' in Bedford and there has been a Christian bookshop here since the late 1970's. Initially it was housed in a room above a local GP's garage,tucked down a country lane. How people found it is something of a mystery, but find  it they did and The Pilgrim Christian Bookshop flourished within the limitations of its situation.

After two or three years it was moved into Bedford, fairly near the centre. Staffed mainly by volunteers it had a coffee shop upstairs which served to draw people in. My father was one of those who helped out and during his stint on a Monday morning my sales increased by about 100% since he turned them all face out on arrival! 

Scripture Union took the bookshop over when the Karach's retired and moved to Norfolk, followed by Wesley Owen and then the Living Oasis chain. Sadly it closed then for a while, before Joy Denny felt God giving her the vision for restoring the witness that a bookshop can give to any town, and the Word Bookshop was opened in a popular shopping area near Bedford's beautiful Embankment.

It is a small shop but crammed with stock and supported by at least 30 of the churches in the town. Joy has had bookselling experience, since she managed The Pilgrim bookshop for some years in the early part of it's life, and perhaps this is why she has seen steady growth in support and sales. But she is also aware of where the needs are. 

While I was in the shop a lady was asking for a bible to give to someone who was doing an Alpha course at the King's Arms,one of the town's bigger churches. Rather that give her any version Joy rang the church office to ask what was being used in the course. Sadly the receptionist didn't know but, when pressed, promised to ring back.

 I wonder if that is a 'Tip for the top' for other shops. Perhaps a register of the bible versions used by the churches running Alpha in YOUR locality would help you to serve enquirers well. And the Gideon booklet of 'where to help when' is available from your local branch of the Gideons, to tuck inside and make this Book of Books more accessible to a new reader.

Marketing for the Technically Challenged and Totally Terrified - York a city of surprises

York is a fascinating city with sudden surprises around every corner. And one of these is the Barbican Bookshop.

A family business, it was started by Dick Rollinson in 1961. Originally it was housed in The Walmgate Bar, one of the four medieval entrances to the city, but moved to the City centre in 1967.The premises are an Aladdin's Cave of books housed in 10 rooms. 

A real browsers paradise, the Barbican bookshop specialises in books on York and Yorkshire, Aviation and Railways, Christian books and  second hand volumes on a huge variety of topics.

In 1972, Pickering and Co joined the firm, selling books in the Shambles for nearly 30 years until the lease ran out. The  two stores then merged on the Fossegate site in 2000.

Les Bingham was very happy to see a Lion author in the flesh, having stocked my books for many years. Although now semi-retired, I persuaded him to let me take his photo with my latest offerings, which he did with cheerful grace.

 In four years time the shop could be celebrating its Jubilee, although Les was cautious about counting on that, in these harsh economic times. How sad it would be if they didn't make it to that special anniversary. The Barbican bookshop is obviously needed in York. The Cathedral shop has hardly any Christian books and is certainly not a competitor. So what is needed is for the Christians in York and the surrounding area, to 'man the barricades'  by shopping there themselves and recommending this treasure store of good reading to their friends.
Lets say it all together ...

Marketing for the Technically Challenged and Totally Terrified!

The late Edward England, who published many significant Christian books during his time as Director of Religious Publishing at Hodder & Stoughton, often said to his authors:

"It isn't enough to have written a book. It isn't enough to have had it published. You have only succeeded when the writer, publisher and bookseller work together so that the book is written, published, bought, read and acted upon.'

That is obviously true, and sounds great - in theory! But where do you start? A drop of ink may make a million think, but unless the 'million' know that your book exists, the thoughts that you might hope to provoke aren't going to blossom.

 In these days of the social media, it's tempting to think that a few well aimed tweets, blogs and Facebook updates will do the job. But physical bookshops do still exist, thank God, and there's still no substitute for REAL people who are out there, passionate about sharing the good news that books can and still do change lives. 

With that it mind, my first stop on 'Marion's Meet and Greet' tour was Lincoln to visit Melanie Carroll at Unicorn Tree Books in Lincoln's covered market. 

Melanie is stocking my two new titles 'Dear God It's Me and It's urgent ' and 'It's Just You and Me Lord' in a bookshop that must be the only one to be in the form of an open square, with its walls, both facing inwards and outward, made of books!

Melanie stocks both general and christian books; new and second hand, as well as cards and other gift items. I didn't like to ask, but I assume that the 2nd hand books form the  outside walls, in case any passer by  fancies reading a book without paying for it!

And why The Unicorn Tree? This is the name of a group of tapestries, as famous as the Bayeux, featuring a Unicorn, which is, according to Melanie, a symbol of Christ.

A unique name for a unique shop, right where people are in the heart of Lincoln. Do visit it if you're in the area - you'll be glad that you did!

From Russia with love

Our Russian Waterways cruise from St Petersburg to Moscow had been amazing. Now we were homeward bound in Moscow’s busy Domodedovo airport. But after 12 days of sight seeing, my husband’s trusty tripod stick, on which he could perch and take the weight off painful knees while waiting in line, was rather the worse for wear, and the line waiting for Security clearance seemed endless.

We had somehow become separated from the rest of our Tour Group and we were both wishing that we had asked about a wheelchair.  Unbeknownst to me, Gordon breathed a prayer for help. ‘Lord! Help! I don’t know how I’m going to manage this.’

A Russian lady in a blue jacket, who was standing behind us, commented on the long wait and we agreed that it was even worse than London. We turned to face forward again, silently estimating how much longer it would take us to reach the unsmiling individual who manned the barrier. Suddenly our acquaintance tapped Gordon on the shoulder. ‘Come’ she said firmly, beckoning us forward. We followed her cautiously, wondering if she was some undercover security official. She marched us firmly to the front of the queue, brushing the other passengers aside, said something to the Security clerk and we were ushered through the barrier like VIP’s.

Our next task was to get our Passports stamped by Emigration. There were two lines, one for Russian nationals and one for foreigners. You can guess which queue was the longest!  We had just joined it, resigning ourselves to another long wait, when our blue jacketed friend re-appeared. ‘Come’ she commanded. We demurred, pointing out that we had British passports, and the line to which she was attempting to usher us said ‘Russian passports only.’ But she would have none of our protests. Our fellow  travellers stepped aside meekly, and our passports were checked without comment. As we turned to thank her, I asked if angels always wore blue jackets in Moscow airport. But she was no longer there.

I have a feeling that God sent an angel to help us that day. What do you think? have you ever had a similar experience? If so I’d love to hear about it!

Mothers and Others

Maypole dancing and Morris men, ‘well-dressing’ and students who climb to the top of church towers to greet the dawn with song, before leaping into the river in Oxford and Cambridge, still happens here in England. Although this time of year can be cold and grey, we optimistically celebrate what we hope will be flower-filled days full of sunshine.

A village four or five miles from where we live, has its own Maypole and yesterday we saw the children preparing to dance around it, with garlands of flowers in their hair. An activity probably more popular with the girls than the boys! But the custom of leaving a bunch of flowers on a neighbour’s doorstep or in a porch to celebrate May Day was new to me … until this year. And it got me thinking. If I could give a bunch of flowers to someone who has made a significant difference to my life, who would I choose?

My mother would have been 100 years old this year, and she lived, always quiet and self contained but loving and giving, until she was almost 95. But I’ve been gifted with a second 'mother-figure' in my life. When my father’s job took him to Malaysia, at a time when there were no 12 hour flights to bring families together, and children tended to return ‘home’ for boarding school education when they reached their teens, I needed a ‘guardian’. Someone who would liase with the school and provide a home and family during the holidays.

My guardian, affectionately known as A.R, was a childhood friend of my mother, as unlike her as chalk is to cheese, but very special, so full of fun, possibility thinking and ‘get up and go’. She welcomed me into her home and family, was a second grandparent to my children and has blessed my life in so many ways. Now 98, she is waiting ‘for the call up yonder’ as she puts it, a little confused at times, but her example, and touch on my life at important moments, has helped to make me who I am, and I will send flowers to her care-home this weekend.

How about you? How many ‘unsung heroes’ have you had in your life? A teacher? A neighbour? A mentor, a grandparent or even someone who has written something that has made a difference to you? Who will you be sending a note or some flowers to celebrate the joy they have brought to your life. Mother’s Day is a chance to say thank you – to Mothers – and to ‘Others!’

Investing in the Few for the sake of the Many

I was discussing ‘summer camps’ for teenagers with a friend whose son leads a very prestigious camp. ‘They only work with private schools’ she said. ‘They reckon that even these days, statistics show that most leaders have a private educational background, and the camp vision is to invest in potential Christian leaders, and through them to bless the whole church.’

 I didn’t say so but it seemed unfair to me. After all Jesus didn’t look for 12 young men with immaculate backgrounds. The ‘band of brothers’ who formed his inner circle of twelve disciples were a very suspect group. An unscrupulous tax collector, an insurrectionist, someone who would betray him for a few gold coins, men with ambitions for themselves and fiery tempers when crossed … not very promising material .But he invested three years in these few men to whom he entrusted his message. If they weren’t effective in getting it out to the world when he had returned to his Father, there was no plan B.

And not only did Jesus invest in a few people, but he also knew what his mission was and when to say no. After an evening of healing people with many diseases and dealing with the demon possessed, the disciples assumed that he would continue to make the best of his popularity. But Jesus had other ideas. Mark 1:38

‘Let us go … to the nearby villages so that I can preach there also. That is why I have come.‘

What are you investing in? How good are you at focusing on what you feel to be God’s calling on your life? Do you have a dream? Are you prepared to put in the time and the commitment to see it come to pass? As we move through life we sometimes have to make adjustments. In his book ‘Put Your Dream to the Test’ Dr John Maxwell writes:

‘Going after a dream is like climbing a mountain. We will never make it to the summit if we are carrying too much …As we enter each new phase of the climb, we face a decision. Do we take on more things to carry, or lay down things that won’t help us climb, exchange what we have for something else or stop climbing all together?

The writer to the Hebrews put it so well in ch.12 ‘Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.’ It won’t necessarily be easy but there is joy in the offering. Just as the sun, focused through a magnifying glass, can start a tiny flame which can end up as a roaring inferno, so can our focused efforts.  And the key to success is to refuse to be distracted by the many things that clamour for our attention, and to fix our eyes on the One who has designed the race in the 1^st place.

Nothing is wasted

I’m glad that I wasn’t born at a time when missionaries packed their belongings in coffins and had an average life-expectancy of 18 months ‘on the field.’ Would you … could you have sent your son or daughter to what seemed like certain death with a heart full of faith for what they would accomplish in that short time? As a mother of a missionary daughter I quail at the thought. Would I have gone myself … knowing that I was unlikely to come back? I hope so but …And yet some of these brave men and women achieved more for the Kingdom of heaven in those few short months than the rest of us do in a lifetime

Most of us will have read a lot about North Korea in recent weeks. It seems a very unattractive place to go now, and I suspect that the ‘Hermit Kingdom’ seemed equally unattractive to most people in the 1800’s. But not to Robert Thomas, a young Welsh missionary. His wife died in China as a result of a miscarriage, but rather than heading back to his native Wales in his grief, Robert was haunted by the needs of Korea. In 1865 he set sail for this spiritually unreached land, staying there for some months, before returning to China. I would have been deterred from the beginning by the fact that I had no written Christian material in the Korean language. Not Robert. He handed out tracts and New Testaments in Chinese.

In 1866, Robert learned that an American boat, the General Sherman, was going to try to establish trade relations between Korea and the United States. Here was an opportunity to go back to this needy mission field. So he offered to accompany the boat as an interpreter in exchange for a chance to spread the gospel.

 The Governor of the province, Pak Kyu Su, attacked the ship, and as the sailors fled from the boat, the Koreans killed them. Robert leaped from the boat carrying a Bible. "Jesus, Jesus!" he cried in Korean to the attackers, offering them the Bible. His head was whacked off with a stroke of a machete according to one account, but others think he pleaded for his life and was beaten to death.

Was it all a waste of a young man’s life? However he died, God worked in the heart of the man who killed him. Convinced by Robert's beaming face that he had killed a good man, he kept one of the Bibles, wallpapering his house with it. People came from far and near to read its words. A church grew. A nephew of Robert's killer became a pastor.

Today 40% of South Koreans are Christians and the nation has some of the largest congregations in the world. Even in the totalitarian regime in the North Korea, there are believed to be secret Christian believers, but they risk everything for their faith. If they are discovered, they are brutally punished unless they recant. In fact a recent report claims that when fugitive Christians who were hiding in ditches in the countryside were caught, they were run over by a steam roller, feet first. 

Today, those of us who reach out in faith to others, take little or no risk physically. But we can easily become discouraged and de-motivated when little seems to happen as a result of our efforts. It is then we need to remember what happened at the Feeding of the 5,000. Jesus took a very small amount of food, willingly offered, and multiplied it to feed a huge crowd. Even the broken pieces were worth collecting up at the end of this mass picnic. Jesus said’ Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted.’ John 6:12

I love the words of the veteran missionary Amy Carmichael, who spent much of her ‘missionary’ work in India confined to bed. But her written words still resonate today:

“Our dear Lord cares for the broken pieces of our lives, the fragments of all we meant to do, the little we have .. to offer and he will use even these fragments. He will not let even the least of our little broken things be lost.”

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