Gripes and grumbles

Even when the sun shines, things happen that can darken one's mood. As vaguely mentioned in a previous post, one of the more difficult tasks can be to get publishers to sell their books to smaller concerns such as mine, even though I pay up front on a proforma basis.
It becomes more difficult when the person you're dealing with, suddenly goes off on holiday, and the first thing you hear about it is an "out of office" warning via email. This has now happened to me twice over the last weekend, once from a UK based publisher, and once from one based in Catalonia. In neither case did they give me warning this was about to happen, so I could shift the negotiation to someone else. Luckily, in one case, the books required were for a book presentation that has been delayed, but it could have proven very damaging to my business.
Another thing happened this weekend that at first glance was bad news for my bookshop. The discount chain TikBooks has taken over premises on the top of San Bernando street close to Plaza Santo Domingo ie close to my bookshop. These are discount book retailers and sometimes have a stock of books in other languages - all their books retail at 2,90 euros, and can often produce some gems.
But to be quite honest, I don't see them as a threat, more of an opportunity. They will bring more book browsers to the area, and hopefully I can encourage some of them to also pop in my store. Where incidentally I have a lot of books retailing at 1 or 2 euros, even though many others are of high quality and obviously command higher prices.
Additionally, we have big names in the pipeline to bring to Madrid for book presentations - please watch this space. So long as we can get the publishers to sell us their books, of course!