Interview with Scott Pack, Head Buyer At Waterstone’s

Written by:Chris Mitchell.

I wrote before about Scott Pack, the Head Buyer at Waterstone’s, keeping an eye on British litblogs. Well, Scott agreed to answer some questions for me that I thought might help out some more authors looking for a break for their book.

Chris: I was interested that you appear to be tracking what people are saying about you on the Web. How do you locate mentions of yourself on the Net? Do you have someone else doing it for you?

Scott: I like the idea of having someone else do it for me but alas, the truth is nowt so grand. A friend of mine mentioned that they had seen something in a blog and I had a nose around for it. I didn’t realise I had been so widely quoted, misquoted, revered, chastised etc. in blogdom until I followed that up so now check out Technorati once a week or so to see if anything else pops up. It is quite fun.

CM: Is browsing the Web and book blogs a standard part of your daily or weekly routine?

SP: I have always referenced literary and book associated websites and, more recently, blogs as a general part of finding out about the reading habits of the great general public. They can be a great way to find out about books you would otherwise have missed or to pick up on the buzz behind a book as it starts to build. Personally, I think you’d be hard pushed to find a better site for that sort of discussion than Palimpsest.

CM: I think if you started a blog and managed to keep it updated regularly, you’d get a lot of interest.

SP: It is all a question of time to be honest, running a blog is a big commitment. I’d rather spend time playing with my kids.

CM: I was quite taken aback when Ian Hocking mentioned that you’d been in touch and, further, volunteered to read his novel Deja Vu. I thought it was a hoax at first, to be honest. And then you actually did read it, and gave feedback. That’s quite a lot of time, effort and interest on your part. Very encouraging for an author, especially a self-published one. Is this something you did on a whim or are you interested in doing more of it?

SP: I was struck by how easy it was for major publishers to get their books in our stores and how difficult it was for small publishers or self-published authors to do likewise. Fair enough if the major publishers have all the good books, but they don’t. So we created a new role, rather ponderously titled Independent Publisher Coordinator, to act as a contact for anyone who wanted to try to sell their books in Waterstone’s. Naturally a lot of what we got sent wasn’t much cop but some of it was and we have gone on to stock, sell and promote those books. So authors such as Ian can get in touch and have a fair chance of success, if being stocked by Waterstone’s counts as success. As far as me reading books sent to me, I always read at least a decent chunk of anything I get sent and if I think it would be of interest to readers then am happy to do what I can.

Sending your book to Waterstones for consideration is really as simple as sending the book or details of the book to Independent Publisher Coordinator, Waterstone’s, Capital Court, Capital Interchange Way, Brentford, Middlesex, TW8 0EX. We recently promoted the previous incumbent of the job to Non-Fiction Buyer but a new person is starting soon so anything addressed as above will reach them.

CM: Can you name a couple of books from small publishers and/or self-publishers that you’ve championed over the last year?

SP: Because we have a lot of shops and many people enjoy browsing in them we can help to sell more of a book just by stocking it, but that is only part of the story.

With regards books that I have championed, the one that most people know I got behind was The Colour Of A Dog Running Away by Richard Gwyn. It is published by the Welsh press Parthian and was my favourite novel of last year. Waterstone’s promoted it in the 3 for 2 for much of last year and sold a few thousand in trade paperback at £9.99. It comes out in a normal paperback edition soon. Apart from that a few others spring to mind. Scenes From A Smallholding by Chas Griffin was self-published when I read it and I helped get the author an agent. He is now published by Random House. I am also a big fan of Ice Trap by Kitty Sewell from Honno Press and Waterstone’s will be promoting that next month.

CM: Is it true you’re leaving Waterstones?

SP: Yes it is. After 15 years in music, video and book retail I have decided to try something else. We will see what crops up. I stay in my current role for the next six months though.

CM: Would you be happy to answer more questions from Spike readers if they send them in?

SP: By all means.

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So there you have it. Any more questions that aren’t covered above can be posted here in the comments and if there’s some decent ones, I’ll send them to Scott for Round 2.

Thanks to Ian Hocking for helping me out with this - and to Scott for taking time off from his kids to answer my questions.