Reviewing the situation

Author and former Booktrust online writer in residence Evie Wyld talks about the new chapter in her life - taking on the management of Review Bookshop.

In a week in which the largest online bookseller in the world was criticised by a UK parliamentary committee for the complexity and opacity of its tax arrangements, it feels good to be writing about the joyful simplicity of traditional bookselling.

After many years of doing the odd shift, I have recently taken over running Review in Peckham. A small, beautifully-formed independent bookshop, with strong links to the local community, we sell a carefully curated range of books we think our customers will love. We spend a long time talking to visitors about books they might like, asking them what they've enjoyed and recommending books they might not have heard of. No discounts, no 3 for 2, no algorithms, no paid-for chart promotions. Just some people, in a shop, talking about books. And we're doing great. (Incidentally, were a scary MP to ask us what our tax arrangements were, the rather boring answer would be, we pay tax on the profits we make in the country we exist in, and the books are bought in, so that along with everyone else, we can continue to help fund nurses and teachers and all the other people we need to be able to exist as a book shop with customers.)

I'll give you a specific example. A few weeks ago a man came in looking for something to read. After a quick chat, I recommended Steven Amsterdam's (newly-IMPAC longlisted) novel What the Family Needed. He loved it so much that yesterday he came back and bought Steven's first novel Things We Didn't See Coming. Seems simple, but he was genuinely grateful to have discovered a new favourite writer but also gratified that we had listened and given him a suggestion that worked. We love Steven's writing and we were proud to have hosted the launch for Steven's second book in September. And that's something I hope to do more with at Review. We can't compete with the infinite range or aggressive pricing of online retailers, but we can offer something they can't: people.

That's why we've combined local writers and creative types with well known award-winning authors for the Peckham Literary Festival. The idea is that we all help each other. The already-discovered authors bring their fans, who then discover new talent, such as Sam Mead, whose handmade book A thing that was built to be torn down sold out within weeks of coming into the shop. Our visitors buy the odd book from us, discover new writers and become fans. And the whole cycle continues.

I am especially passionate about this because as well as running Review, I'm also an author. I know that when I spend 4 years writing a book, I do it because I'm interested in people. I want my books to be read by people, to be talked about by people. So my advice this Christmas would be: keep it simple, go to a bookshop and talk about books. With people. It's a crazy idea, but it might just work.  

Peckham Literary Festival runs 19-25 November 2012.

Review Bookshop is located in Peckham

Evie Wyld's second novel is due out in 2013