Advice From A Bookseller

Yesterday I heard someone say that traditional publishing was boring. I sat there aghast as they explained why. They said that traditional publishing can get boring so they prefer indie books. It sat on my mind all day and into the night, as I sipped my tea I wondered how someone could get bored with traditional publishing.

It is a fact that indie publishing is full of brilliant authors who hone the craft through the books that they create. Indie authors are not restrained in the same way as traditionally published authors, for example they might not have to think of the book's commercial appeal the same way. Without the confines surrounding the trad pub structure authors are free to express their most creative selves in boundless ways. As with Indie music Indie authors set trends and shape culture. There is also the notion of accessibility, the Indie structure allows for anybody to create according to personal needs. This is a beautiful thing!

What sat heavy on my mind wasn’t the implication that indie is better than trad when both have equal strengths and weaknesses, it was the idea that books could ever be boring. Even as I’m typing this I am overwhelmed with a sense of incredulousness!

I am a lifelong reader who has made a career out of something that started as an escape, became a joy and then became a purpose. I am a naturally curious person, if I see something interesting I’ll pick it up and try it. During COVID-19 alone I read 200 books! This is not me attempting to humbly brag, this is simply just background information because not once in all my years of reading have I ever been bored. I actually rarely read a book that I don’t at least appreciate in some form.

With this context you can perhaps understand a little more why this revelation of boredom shocked me. I have been working with books for a long time now and my curiosity has both been my biggest asset and my financial downfall! I could go into just about any section in a bookshop and find a book that piques my interest in some way. I learned throughout the years to allow my curiosity to guide me from page to page across continents and genres and my life has been made all the richer for it.

You might be thinking that this is all well and good but what is the advice? My advice is to simply be curious. Although some may find that curiosity is not so simple, it is always worth following. I say this because I know with certainty that by only engaging with books that are familiar you might find yourself bored! Being bored with familiarity is not a reflection on what is published, it is perhaps merely a sign that it is time to try something new and to get curious.

We can very naturally gravitate to voices that sound like our own, I’m not perfect even I can find myself easily falling into reading patterns. I however have always believed that the fun and pleasure of reading comes from unfamiliarity. People experience the world in innumerable ways, one story can be told a thousand different times entirely dependent on who’s telling it. Engage with the choices you make in the bookshop, stop and think if something is new or interesting or maybe even just ask if you have ever read something like this before.

We as human beings are capable of such expansion in this life and expansion doesn’t just happen all at once in an explosion of shadow and smoke. Expansion happens incrementally bit by bit every time we choose something a little bit different. So the truest advice I can give is to be curious, engage with voices that sound different than yours and you might find yourself surprised at how easily the shackles of boredom are shed and how much fun you can have along the way.