List of Independent bookshops that might appreciate Scots books
In the absence of a bricks and mortar Scots language bookshop, what is there?
I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it, but I have published a book, its available on eBay, but some people might prefer to pick it up in an actual real life bookshop. To the best of my knowledge there are no specialist Scots language bookshops.
The Booksellers Association don’t hold any information on this sort of thing, and Publishing Scotland treat Scots books as part of the normal mix of publishing.
My Rhyming Dictionary of the Scots Language currently has a monopoly over the entire market for rhyming dictionaries in that language, I have no competitors or rivals, so sharing market information isn’t going to harm my sales, and might help other writers and publishers find a market for their books.
I’ve tried to compile a list of every bookshop in Scotland, outwith WHSmith, Waterstones and Blackwells, and Christian bookshops, and then tried to discern how receptive they would be to stocking Scots language books. Some bookshops are in areas that don’t have many Scots speakers, some are entirely devoted to secondhand books, and some are specialists stockists for certain genres.
Probably
Most likely to be receptive to Scots language books (12 shops). Shops who actually stock my rhyming dictionary are highlighted in bold
Orb's Bookshop, Huntly
Deeside Books, Aberdeenshire
Far From the Maddening Crowd, Linlithgow
Hyndland Bookshop, Glasgow
Inkspot & Silverleaf Booksellers, Bo'ness
Kingdom Books, Fife
Number 11, Wigtown
The Aberfeldy Watermill, Aberfeldy
The Bookhouse, Broughty Ferry
The Bookmark, Grantown-on-Spey
The Dornoch Bookshop, Dornoch
The Nairn Bookshop, Nairn
Maybe
Not necessarily in Scots speaking areas, but might have an interest in this sort of thing (23 shops)
Topping and Company, St Andrews
The Orcadian Bookshop, Orkney
Yeadon's, Elgin
Yeadon's, Banchory
Achins Bookshop, Inverkirkaig
Adventure into books, Blairgowrie
Argonaut Books, Edinburgh
Atkinson-Pryce Bookshop, Biggar
Aye-Aye Books, Glasgow
Books and Beans, Aberdeen
Carmina Gadelica, Portree
Golden Hare Books, Edinburgh
Hillbillies Bookstore, Gairloch
J & G Innes, St Andrews
Kesley's Bookshop, Edinburgh
The Book Nook, Stirling
The Edinburgh Bookshop, Edinburgh
The Mercat Bookshop, Aberdeen
Cairngorm-Books, Aviemore
The Portobello Bookshop, Edinburgh
The Ullapool Bookshop, Ullapool
Shetland Times Bookshop, Shetland
The Kergord Hatchery Bookshop, Shetland
Nope
Not in Scots speaking areas or are second hand bookshops, or specialists (11 shops)
Armchair Books, Edinburgh
Good Press, Glasgow
Gilleasbuig Ferguson Books, Skye
Leakey’s Bookshop, Inverness
Lighthouse Bookshop, Edinburgh
Picaresque Books & Galerie Fantoosh, Dingwall
Stirling Books, Stirling
The Highland Bookshop, Fort William
The Old Aberdeen Bookshop, Aberdeen
Transreal Fiction, Edinburgh
Voltaire & Rousseau Books, Glasgow
I haven’t been in touch with many of these bookshops, so this is all guesswork and assumptions. But its the best market information I have.
Regretfully I haven’t looked at bookshops in Northern Ireland, that might be receptive to stocking Scots and Ulster-Scots literature. I’m a bit scared.
Publishing Scotland, network, trade and development body for the book publishing sector in Scotland, reckons there are 450 Scottish book outlets. As an English publisher myself, they’re not really going to be much help to me.
The Bookseller’s Association is a UK and Ireland body, they have a neat map and bookshop search facility. By going over a sample of their list we can estimate that about 5% have gone out of business since the infographic was published, about 70% are chain bookshops or supermarkets, like Tesco, WHSmiths, Waterstones, Blackwells, and another 5% are Christian bookshops.
Ignoring these, leaves about 90 independent bookshops in Scotland. I have listed 46 shops, so there might be another fifty or so to identify.
Online Scots Language Bookshop
In the absence of a bricks and mortar Scots Language Bookshop, there is the website I knocked up : Gilmour’s Scots Language Bookshop
Its a bit naff, and the images are all Amazon affiliate links, but its the best I’ve got.
This article is part of my series of articles about linguistic infrastructure for the Scots language.