Alas WHSmith and Tesco

A couple of weeks ago I wrote a post about our attempts to try to get our books stocked by bricks and mortar booksellers. Since then we've had further successes, and further setbacks. So here's an update...

Our books were already stocked by Gardners Books ("the UK's leading book wholesaler" - www.gardners.com), and now they're also stocked by Bertram Books ("the UK's leading book wholesaler" - www.bertram.com). We've naturally found it much easier to get our books stocked in local branches of major bookshops, but this week Borders decided to stock The Burglar's Dog nationally. But the big news is that we have finally managed to get Wor Al and The Burglar's Dog in WHSmith - in one location at least. Visitors to the Gateshead Metrocentre will now be able to purchase both books from that branch of Smiths, although other branches remain unmoved. The big WHSmith on Newcastle's Northumberland Street is now the only book shop in the city that isn't stocking either book. We're still working on them, but in the meantime shoppers might like to cross the street to Virgin or Fenwick, walk up to HMV, or down to Waterstone's, or across to Blackwell's, or drive across to Borders... You get the idea. Tesco are the other retailer that remain uninterested but on our hitlist.

On the subject of problems getting the books on the shelves, this week we had an astonishing exchange with out local library service. Details will be posted soon...

Meanwhile, The Burglar's Dog is out on Monday. It's beginning to get publicity, which you can see on our media page. And if you buy the book from Amazon on Monday you can get a free Burglar's enamel badge. Full details here.