We want to mash-up a drinks social with a book selling market. Help us do it.

Here’s the idea – it’s about 9.30 on a Friday night at a busy venue somewhere in London. Inside and outside the atmosphere is bustling, the drinks and conversation are flowing, shenanigans are ensuing, there’s a bar (or three) doing a brisk trade.

Ok, so we’ve done this bit before.

But this time around, lining the room are a multitude of market stalls – actually, the venue looks more like Greenwich market than a London pub. The stalls are manned by traders from independent publishing houses selling their latest books, expanding over a drink on why revelers should buy their latest title.

Maybe somewhere at the back of the room, there’s a book swap area where swaps arranged online are carried out.

By midnight, book reading people have met other book reading people, connections have been made, and everyone is weighed down with a pile of new titles.

The stall traders have shifted a few books, but more importantly have spread the word about their titles to a network of early adopters: the same type of readers who picked up Girl With a Dragon Tattoo when it was distributed for free on London transport and told all their friends to go buy it.

So, does this sound like your kind of night out? Are you an independent publisher looking for a new way to get the word out?

If so, do let us know in the comments or send us an email. In a few months, this could be more than just an idea.

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Responses

  1. Great idea — I’d love if a way of doing this with ebooks could be worked into this idea as well. Print books are all well and good, but pretty soon they’re just going to be deluxe collectors’ items. The main bulk of reading will be done on devices before very long — and I believe there are more ways to market ebooks than simply online. I guess what I’m saying is, that this idea is nice for now, but it won’t last.

  2. Thanks for the comments folks.

    Barry, as a digital man myself I definitely agree we should have an ebook
    element worked into the event in some way – also if print books do become a
    bit like vinyl records are to the music industry, an event like this one should continue to attract collectors/enthusiasts…

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