The philosophy and practice of Special Orders

3:17 PM, 6 August 2017

Special Orders are one of the main points of difference between Independent Bookshops and chain stores. Customers will come to know of a book through a variety of mediums within and without mainstream sources. Often it will be from a brief mention on the radio or, increasingly, through the internet. The practical meaning of this is that the book may not be available through standard means. Chain store booksellers aren’t trained sufficiently well to source books outside the usual channels, or, often, within them. The result of these factors means that customers will often come in to an Independent Bookshop looking for a book they’ve been told doesn’t exist or can’t be sourced – when, in fact, it can.

The efficient use of search engines, creative searches on minimal information and the ability to contact the producers of Vanity Publications (one-off books by Aunt Maude on the family’s history in Eketahuna) are all vital in confirming the reputation of Independent Bookshops as bastions of intelligent booksellers able to locate and obtain hard-to-find titles.

The efficient and creative use of online bibliographic resources are vital – Nielsens or Global Books in Print are a must, and are far more versatile than they first appear, but for hard to find titles Baker & Taylor is probably the most important and impressive resource we have. B&T is a massive wholesaler based in the U.S.A. who distribute books throughout their country and all over the world. Because the U.S. market is so enormous, American publishers tend to keep titles in-print longer. Many titles, especially those by US authors, will be produced earlier, cheaper and in greater quantity (and usually with a better quality binding) than here or the UK. Meaning that when a book is Out of Stock, Out of Print, Reprinting or unavailable for whatever reason with one of the domestic suppliers, Baker & Taylor will more often than not have a U.S. edition that we can order.

It is important to understand how impressive and gratifying it is for a customer to be able to get a rare or obscure book they thought unobtainable; how good it makes us look, and the sort of reputation that confers on us. The flip side of that is that it is important that we don’t make the mistakes usually made by the chain stores – ordering Out of Print titles, the wrong editions, giving woefully inaccurate information on arrival times and prices.