Onyx goes down a Storm

And big leaps forward from the last two weeks

It’s been a couple of weeks since hearing from one another. Mainly I have been settling into the swing of what the regular life of a bookshop owner is. Meeting with reps to hear about new releases (something we weren’t able to do initially due to the speed of opening). Staying on top of orders and deliveries. Tinkering with reorders, display placement and reordering shelves to best reflect stock on hand. Chatting with customers. Building out staff rosters. Dust, dust, dusting.

Sales have been slow, but we’ve had lovely, generous people in, knowing that buying books from indie booksellers in January matters. Readers from here, even. (Hi Sally, hope you found the good donuts!) And people shopping from our website and placing click and collect orders. It has all helped. We are hurtling towards February with our wits fully intact and spirits high.

When I’m not installed behind the counter, I have noticed there is an increasing timidness towards my 35-week pregnant physicality. Having done the last pregnancy in lockdown, this is new to me. A staff member in Terra Madre shouted at me (I read it as playfully, if a little manic) to “get out” as she “wasn’t paid enough to also deliver babies”. Another passerby asked me if I was “due today?”.

I get it. It’s open-sandal weather and absolutely no one, myself included, wants amniotic fluid on their Birkenstocks. But I’ve got this, guys.

New word I’ve learned in the past 7 days: moxibustion. And that’s the last of my over-sharing for the week.

So, to the big bookstore news of the last fortnight

I wasn’t sure how Onyx Storm would go for us. The third in Rebecca Yarros’ Empyrean series: full dragons + smut fantasy. A major deal on BookTok. It was my first embargoed book release, the first time I’ve had to buy a full carton of a singular title (16 books) ahead of launch. In fact, I had to order it ahead of even opening the store. It came with strict instructions not to open the box before midnight on 21st January. Not to take pictures of the box or share its location.

Witnessing the delight with which its readers scooped up copies last week (we sold 13 copies in week one) really was quite magic. That passion for reading is what it’s all about! I love it. Whatever floats your boat. And honestly I wish I had time to dive in to Book One, to understand the lure and join its readers in their fandom.

Also, big news! We have scooped our first spot being the bookseller at an event. Which is a big deal for little guys like us - giving us opportunity to sell 100+ copies of a single title in one evening, with very minimal overheads, to an entirely new audience.

So drumroll please… we will be the retail face of Kinky History Live, The Eggplant Tour, at Capitol Theatre on the 15th February. Kinky History is the best-selling book by sex historian Dr Esmé Louise James, who also has chart-topping podcast and amassed a huge online following. Here’s hoping they’re all coming to the Capitol on the 15th. The night is billed as education with a heavy dose of frivolity, which feels perfectly suited to Ramona (although I am incredibly allergic to eggplant and need to read up on kink pre-1965).

There was a moment earlier today where I was brainstorming with a team member what sort of marketing materials we’d need for the event. I suggested a t-shirt. My member of staff thought on it, and reflected that yes, but maybe with the nipple-area cut out. Turns out they thought I was intending to sell the tees at the kink event, when I was planning on just wearing them to promote Ramona.

We’re deep in renovations prep too, doing Marketplace runs for furnishings and making final tweaks to the designs. We met with a bevy of builders last week to see who’s up for the job, which we hope to kick off in a month. And most importantly, who can do it to-budget. As Anthony keeps reminding me, we need to sell 30-35k worth of books to account for every 10k spent on the refit. Must restock Onyx Storm. Hell, write my own.

We’ve been busy securing our location for a pop-up while Ramona proper’s doors are shut. And we have good news on that front: we have still to put pen to paper but have had our offer accepted on a location verrrry close to Ramona. That was important to us for a few of reasons: to have continuity for the community we have established, to keep new releases and fast-moving stock turning over and to be able to keep staff rostered while we refit.

We have also become a bookshop partner on Libro.fm, an audiobook platform which enables readers/listeners to nominate an indie bookstore who receives a percentage of their audiobook sale. It’s such a magic way for people who aren’t/can’t be physical readers to support their local biz. We’re really grateful to a couple of customers for bringing it to our attention.

It’s also back to school! I have ambitions to create a paper airplane window display something akin to this:

So do swing by to see how that turns out.

Til next time!

Katie

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What I’m reading: I just finished Bill’s Secrets: Class, War and Ambition by Belinda Probert and was blown away. Belinda has meticulously researched her father’s secret past, when at times that must have felt painful and complicated, and woven it into a fascinating account that’s really universal. It had me reflecting upon knowledge-sharing and identity within my own family’s history. Belinda is chatting with ABC’s Conversations, I’ll share the link to that when it goes live.

I’m also reading the snappily titled Challenging the Story: A Surprisingly Simple Approach to Supporting Children with Challenging Behaviours by David Jereb. But the less said about that whole situ, the better. Sigh.