freya blyththe bookshop by the sea, AberystwythFor this week’s Bookshop Spotlight, we caught up with actress, writer, former librarian, and now bookshop owner, Freya Blyth, to talk about their prestigious whirlwind of a bookselling journey so far.
As booksellers, we want to share books, we want to share our passion and our love for books and we want to create communities around bookselling and around reading these incredible stories. |
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JR: Firstly, Freya, I want to congratulate you on winning the TikTok Indie Award. You’ve had a pretty mad year, haven’t you?
FB: Amazing, yes. Absolutely amazing. I think we're having a bit of a wonderful year.
I think you work hard and when you're running something like a small business you're doing it for your community, you're doing it for the love of bookselling, and so to see a rural Wales-based bookshop succeeding in these often London-centric awards - or in the book world in general - is just very exciting. I just feel incredibly grateful. It’s such a lovely privilege to be recognised for all of the work really and also that it brings more business to the community and the town and to go to Wales in general which is always a good thing.
JR: And your story is quite a unique one. As a writer, actress, and librarian-come-bookshop owner, there's so much I want to talk about. But let's start at the beginning. The shop launched in July 2021 initially, you then relocated to larger premises in May 2022, and it's been a pretty wild ride ever since.
I was wondering, for those who haven't been to The Bookshop By The Sea, if you could give us a little introduction as to where you are and what you're all about.
FB: Oh, I love that. So we're based in Aberystwyth in rural Wales which is a small town right on the coast with stunning scenery, beautiful mountains right behind us and the gorgeous coast in front of us. The sun sets into the sea and there are very frequent dolphins which is just beautiful. I actually went and did my undergrad university degree here which is how I think a lot of people find out about the town. But then I was working as a librarian, as you said I worked, after studying here, I worked as an actress in London and then ended up working as a librarian running the Children's International Peace Library in Jerusalem. So I was living in the Middle East when Covid hit and I had to move back to the UK for visas but I didn't want to live in London again and all the theatres were shut at that point so I moved back here and I thought, ‘Well, if I have to do lockdown I'm going to do it with a view of dolphins!’
So I moved back here and got a flat on the seafront and just really felt like the community here needed, we all needed something, we all needed more community, we were all suffering a bit at that time in Covid and lockdown. But the only things that were allowed to open were shops and I thought, ‘Well, what can I do?’ And I was like well I'm a librarian I can open a bookshop and I could run book clubs and I could run children's storytimes and that would just bring people together. And so further along the seafront there was a spot that I kept looking at from my window and I thought, ‘Okay, I could start one right there, right on the seafront’, and that's what I did.
I worked five jobs, saved up the money and then opened a little pop-up bookshop there and we immediately had people saying, ‘Oh, could we do live folk music here?’, ‘Could we do board games here?’, ‘Could we do a poetry night?’ I was like, ‘Yes!’ And that freedom for the first time I think when you work in organisations such as libraries everyone will understand there's processes to go through and meetings to go through. Suddenly when you work for yourself or when you own an independent bookshop you have the privilege as an independent shop to make your own choices and to meet that community's needs immediately and for that not be something that it's going to take two years to come but to be able to just say yes, which is such a joy.
And so I started doing that. And then as you say, we got to November and Aberystwyth is somewhat famous for its storms and we had waves that were hitting over the top of the roof and they went over the top of the roof of the bookshop, and through the roof! And I watched from my flat as this wave came through the roof of the bookshop and we had the tragedy of wet, soggy books, which was just as sad as books can get really. And I then was like, ‘Okay, is this the end of the road? Should I just go back to being a librarian and actor?’ as things are opening up again… But the community just did not let go. Everyone kept asking me, everywhere I went, coffee shops, swimming pool, everywhere I was, people were like, ‘When are you reopening the bookshop by the sea?’
And I realised very much that it was something that I had enjoyed doing so much but also that the town had loved having as a part of our community and I think bookshops do hold this liminal space where they're, you know, curators of community but also this space where people can go alone and feel safe, people can pop in, and people can find stories that inspire them. And I realised that I wanted to do that and continue that. So I found a location after many months of searching in the centre of town and we now are on a wonderful street right in the middle of town, only one street away from the sea still so it's still ‘by the sea’ but not right by the sea. And so a little bit more protected. It's a lovely street filled with other women-owned independent shops so it's a perfect match.
JR: It sounds like you've really found your home and settled in really well.
I've seen a lot of it online, whether that's TikTok or Instagram. You get a pretty good idea about where you are in town and the kind of books that you feature there, but could you tell us about the size of the shop and the range of books that you've got?
FB: Yeah absolutely, so it's actually I think bigger than people think it is. I mean, it's a small shop still because it's a small town but there's a second floor so you can go downstairs. So when you come into the bookshop there's a mix of new and secondhand books which are in all different genres and they're sorted by genre and then alphabetically within that. And we have a specialism in feminism and in nature, poetry, and fantasy sections, just because I love reading fantasy at the moment. It's really whatever the booksellers and the lovely women that I work with really want in there and I want in there as well. And then every single book that we have, whether it's secondhand or new, is handpicked by one of us because we've loved it. Our aim is that no matter what book you pick up you're going to enjoy it and it's going to be a really good book whatever genre that's in. But then if you go down downstairs, the bookshop basement is full to the brim, there's much less organisation it's just an old bookshop feel, it's just piles of books everywhere and you can kind of root through and all of those books are secondhand as well.
FB: Amazing, yes. Absolutely amazing. I think we're having a bit of a wonderful year.
I think you work hard and when you're running something like a small business you're doing it for your community, you're doing it for the love of bookselling, and so to see a rural Wales-based bookshop succeeding in these often London-centric awards - or in the book world in general - is just very exciting. I just feel incredibly grateful. It’s such a lovely privilege to be recognised for all of the work really and also that it brings more business to the community and the town and to go to Wales in general which is always a good thing.
JR: And your story is quite a unique one. As a writer, actress, and librarian-come-bookshop owner, there's so much I want to talk about. But let's start at the beginning. The shop launched in July 2021 initially, you then relocated to larger premises in May 2022, and it's been a pretty wild ride ever since.
I was wondering, for those who haven't been to The Bookshop By The Sea, if you could give us a little introduction as to where you are and what you're all about.
FB: Oh, I love that. So we're based in Aberystwyth in rural Wales which is a small town right on the coast with stunning scenery, beautiful mountains right behind us and the gorgeous coast in front of us. The sun sets into the sea and there are very frequent dolphins which is just beautiful. I actually went and did my undergrad university degree here which is how I think a lot of people find out about the town. But then I was working as a librarian, as you said I worked, after studying here, I worked as an actress in London and then ended up working as a librarian running the Children's International Peace Library in Jerusalem. So I was living in the Middle East when Covid hit and I had to move back to the UK for visas but I didn't want to live in London again and all the theatres were shut at that point so I moved back here and I thought, ‘Well, if I have to do lockdown I'm going to do it with a view of dolphins!’
So I moved back here and got a flat on the seafront and just really felt like the community here needed, we all needed something, we all needed more community, we were all suffering a bit at that time in Covid and lockdown. But the only things that were allowed to open were shops and I thought, ‘Well, what can I do?’ And I was like well I'm a librarian I can open a bookshop and I could run book clubs and I could run children's storytimes and that would just bring people together. And so further along the seafront there was a spot that I kept looking at from my window and I thought, ‘Okay, I could start one right there, right on the seafront’, and that's what I did.
I worked five jobs, saved up the money and then opened a little pop-up bookshop there and we immediately had people saying, ‘Oh, could we do live folk music here?’, ‘Could we do board games here?’, ‘Could we do a poetry night?’ I was like, ‘Yes!’ And that freedom for the first time I think when you work in organisations such as libraries everyone will understand there's processes to go through and meetings to go through. Suddenly when you work for yourself or when you own an independent bookshop you have the privilege as an independent shop to make your own choices and to meet that community's needs immediately and for that not be something that it's going to take two years to come but to be able to just say yes, which is such a joy.
And so I started doing that. And then as you say, we got to November and Aberystwyth is somewhat famous for its storms and we had waves that were hitting over the top of the roof and they went over the top of the roof of the bookshop, and through the roof! And I watched from my flat as this wave came through the roof of the bookshop and we had the tragedy of wet, soggy books, which was just as sad as books can get really. And I then was like, ‘Okay, is this the end of the road? Should I just go back to being a librarian and actor?’ as things are opening up again… But the community just did not let go. Everyone kept asking me, everywhere I went, coffee shops, swimming pool, everywhere I was, people were like, ‘When are you reopening the bookshop by the sea?’
And I realised very much that it was something that I had enjoyed doing so much but also that the town had loved having as a part of our community and I think bookshops do hold this liminal space where they're, you know, curators of community but also this space where people can go alone and feel safe, people can pop in, and people can find stories that inspire them. And I realised that I wanted to do that and continue that. So I found a location after many months of searching in the centre of town and we now are on a wonderful street right in the middle of town, only one street away from the sea still so it's still ‘by the sea’ but not right by the sea. And so a little bit more protected. It's a lovely street filled with other women-owned independent shops so it's a perfect match.
JR: It sounds like you've really found your home and settled in really well.
I've seen a lot of it online, whether that's TikTok or Instagram. You get a pretty good idea about where you are in town and the kind of books that you feature there, but could you tell us about the size of the shop and the range of books that you've got?
FB: Yeah absolutely, so it's actually I think bigger than people think it is. I mean, it's a small shop still because it's a small town but there's a second floor so you can go downstairs. So when you come into the bookshop there's a mix of new and secondhand books which are in all different genres and they're sorted by genre and then alphabetically within that. And we have a specialism in feminism and in nature, poetry, and fantasy sections, just because I love reading fantasy at the moment. It's really whatever the booksellers and the lovely women that I work with really want in there and I want in there as well. And then every single book that we have, whether it's secondhand or new, is handpicked by one of us because we've loved it. Our aim is that no matter what book you pick up you're going to enjoy it and it's going to be a really good book whatever genre that's in. But then if you go down downstairs, the bookshop basement is full to the brim, there's much less organisation it's just an old bookshop feel, it's just piles of books everywhere and you can kind of root through and all of those books are secondhand as well.
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JR: How big is the team then? You're gonna want to be keeping fairly tight reins on things with it being such a small space but within the team do people take on different roles or do you all chip in together?
FB: It's kind of one of those things when you work in a small place I think we all take on all roles to a certain extent like you're all just hustling to try and make it the best it can be, but we have five team members on my team and five wonderful people, all of them part-time. They're all writers or creatives in their own right, so I think at the moment we have two artists and three writers but that varies a little bit and so it gives them the freedom to be creative when they're not in the bookshop but then the bookshop has this wonderful creative feel as well. And also, it's that stability and that joy that we have. I just do the TikTok all myself; I don't look at Twitter-slash-X, that's all done by somebody else. Somebody else does the Facebook and then we all mix in on the Instagram. I think it's trying to make sure that everyone's working to their strengths and that everyone has something that empowers them and that they love doing and I'm always asking people what they would like to do more of and then it's a really person-led approach with whatever skills they bring. We all are confident in supporting one another, you know, I'm highly dyslexic, ironically for a bookshop owner, so emails are not my strong suit and I don't shy away from that. But I'm great at interviewing authors, so I'll do more of that. Somebody else will do more emails. And I love that we work together to make sure that everyone feels like they're empowered in that as well. JR: I always say, I think a bookshop is only as good as its team. And only as good as the people whose passion feeds through into the stock and into the way that things run. |
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Obviously, Wales has some of the best bookshops in the UK but you have quite a few booksellers on your doorstep as well, don't you? What's it like sharing the town, a relatively small town, with other bookshops, and do you feel like you're competing for customers much or is there enough for everybody?
FB: I feel like it creates this wonderful hub of being a book town. I mean, we've got Hay-on-Wye in Wales already, but I think there's this wonderful opportunity. I've read this statistic that Aberystwyth has the highest amount of books per square mile, probably because we're a small town and we've got the National Library of Wales. So we also have the library and other indie bookshops, as you've said, and Waterstones. I think it makes it a destination, people want to come and visit all the bookshops. And we promote each other all the time and we work together. I've set up something just recently this summer. We've got a treasure hunt and it goes to all the other bookshops and it starts with us and comes back to us and people get to solve a riddle in each shop that they go to. And it's all with independent shops. There are 10 little independent shops and you solve a riddle and you get a letter and then you have to solve the anagram and then you come back to us and you get a free secondhand book. And it's completely free to do. And the reason why we set it up is just because we were getting all this wonderful press through the awards, and I thought, ‘Okay, fantastic. How can we share that with the other local businesses in town and bring that prosperity while we're getting a bit more media coverage?’
And I just think that it doesn't harm anyone if everyone's successful. I think working together and building everyone up is important. And it's important to the community and making this a thriving place to live as well. But also I started in one of the other bookshops in town, one of the secondhand bookshops. It's an independent secondhand called Ystwyth Books, which has been around for I think over 75 years and it's just a treasure trove of books. And I worked there for years while I was a student. I loved it. And the owner of that was so supportive and gave me so much advice when I was opening mine.
JR: I think we keep saying this, but like the bookselling community is so generous with their time. And, you know, if you do have a problem, especially when you're not just new to, not just new to books, you know, you might've been doing books a long time, but running a business is tough regardless of what it is, especially in the last few years, five years, it just seems to be getting tougher and tougher. So sharing skills and sharing knowledge is so important. And I think the bookselling community seems to do that better than anybody else.
FB: I love that. I think it's because we all have a common goal. As booksellers, we want to share books, we want to share our passion and our love for books and we want to create communities around bookselling and around reading these incredible stories. We also have something that connects all of us, which is the stories in the world we've inhabited. I can talk to somebody I've never met before and suddenly we're talking about Hogwarts, we're talking about Narnia, we're talking about these places that both of us have had our imaginations lit up by for so many years and we have that commonality and that community and connection through the books and I think that that's something that's really unique.
JR: Yeah, absolutely. And you've said it already, you know, the interest you've received online, especially through TikTok over the last couple of years has been amazing, but you hope that that converts into book sales somehow or footfall through the shop.
We're in the middle of the summer season now. How's Aberystwyth been for tourists this year?
FB: It's been so much better this year. I think because I started the bookshop during lockdown, I had a very strange beginning to the book world and to the business world. But now I can see things are picking up every year. But also what's wonderful, as you say, people follow us on TikTok. And we've become like the internet's independent bookshop on TikTok, which is fantastic. People follow us, people join our lives, people join our hybrid events - we’re interviewing an author tonight and we're having her in the bookshop, so there'll be people there and live on TikTok. So we've got this hybrid. You can join us and feel a part of those, even if you're joining online. And then what we find is people make these book pilgrimages. So once a year, people will come who've been following us and buying books from us and our website all year. And then they'll come to the shop in person and experience in person and see the town and see the castle and see the dolphins and the seafront and meet us who are working there, who maybe they've met online. And so you have this really wholesome energy in the bookshop all summer. All these people are like, ‘Oh, we already know the bookshop. We already love it!’ And they're coming in just as super fans. And it's amazing. People are coming up to me like, ‘Hi, Freya! I've been joining, I've been watching. Now I get to see you in person.’ And that's so lovely. And so I'm always trying to hide things in the bookshop that people will be delighted by, that maybe they don't know from TikTok. Downstairs we have an antique writing desk with all of these postcards that people can write to the bookshop. And that's fun when people come in and they find like secret hidden things that I've left. Because it's just such a joy for me to meet people in real life as well.
JR: And it's bringing people out again. I know you're such a community-centred, community-focused bookshop. Events must have always been a big part of your business plan and the way that you wanted to run this hub for books. And I know that Miriam Margolyes was one of your first events back in September 2021. I mean, that has to be an amazing thing to happen and that huge support so early on must set a strong foundation going forward.
FB: It was so encouraging. She was filming a film in Aberystwyth or nearby and Sally Phillips, another actress who I have known and loved for many years, came into the bookshop and was chatting to me and loved the bookshop and came back the next day and said to me, ‘Oh my friend Miriam has just launched a book. Would you like her to come and do a reading?’ We had never done one before. We'd only been open a little bit. And I said, ‘Yeah, sure.’ And so she gave me the phone number and I called her up and I was like, I recognise this voice. And it was, of course, Miriam Margolyes who came and was just an absolute delight and bought all of our Charles Dickens books. She's huge with her work on Dickens as an actress. And she ate cake and sat in the corner and was like, ‘This is fantastic!’
FB: I feel like it creates this wonderful hub of being a book town. I mean, we've got Hay-on-Wye in Wales already, but I think there's this wonderful opportunity. I've read this statistic that Aberystwyth has the highest amount of books per square mile, probably because we're a small town and we've got the National Library of Wales. So we also have the library and other indie bookshops, as you've said, and Waterstones. I think it makes it a destination, people want to come and visit all the bookshops. And we promote each other all the time and we work together. I've set up something just recently this summer. We've got a treasure hunt and it goes to all the other bookshops and it starts with us and comes back to us and people get to solve a riddle in each shop that they go to. And it's all with independent shops. There are 10 little independent shops and you solve a riddle and you get a letter and then you have to solve the anagram and then you come back to us and you get a free secondhand book. And it's completely free to do. And the reason why we set it up is just because we were getting all this wonderful press through the awards, and I thought, ‘Okay, fantastic. How can we share that with the other local businesses in town and bring that prosperity while we're getting a bit more media coverage?’
And I just think that it doesn't harm anyone if everyone's successful. I think working together and building everyone up is important. And it's important to the community and making this a thriving place to live as well. But also I started in one of the other bookshops in town, one of the secondhand bookshops. It's an independent secondhand called Ystwyth Books, which has been around for I think over 75 years and it's just a treasure trove of books. And I worked there for years while I was a student. I loved it. And the owner of that was so supportive and gave me so much advice when I was opening mine.
JR: I think we keep saying this, but like the bookselling community is so generous with their time. And, you know, if you do have a problem, especially when you're not just new to, not just new to books, you know, you might've been doing books a long time, but running a business is tough regardless of what it is, especially in the last few years, five years, it just seems to be getting tougher and tougher. So sharing skills and sharing knowledge is so important. And I think the bookselling community seems to do that better than anybody else.
FB: I love that. I think it's because we all have a common goal. As booksellers, we want to share books, we want to share our passion and our love for books and we want to create communities around bookselling and around reading these incredible stories. We also have something that connects all of us, which is the stories in the world we've inhabited. I can talk to somebody I've never met before and suddenly we're talking about Hogwarts, we're talking about Narnia, we're talking about these places that both of us have had our imaginations lit up by for so many years and we have that commonality and that community and connection through the books and I think that that's something that's really unique.
JR: Yeah, absolutely. And you've said it already, you know, the interest you've received online, especially through TikTok over the last couple of years has been amazing, but you hope that that converts into book sales somehow or footfall through the shop.
We're in the middle of the summer season now. How's Aberystwyth been for tourists this year?
FB: It's been so much better this year. I think because I started the bookshop during lockdown, I had a very strange beginning to the book world and to the business world. But now I can see things are picking up every year. But also what's wonderful, as you say, people follow us on TikTok. And we've become like the internet's independent bookshop on TikTok, which is fantastic. People follow us, people join our lives, people join our hybrid events - we’re interviewing an author tonight and we're having her in the bookshop, so there'll be people there and live on TikTok. So we've got this hybrid. You can join us and feel a part of those, even if you're joining online. And then what we find is people make these book pilgrimages. So once a year, people will come who've been following us and buying books from us and our website all year. And then they'll come to the shop in person and experience in person and see the town and see the castle and see the dolphins and the seafront and meet us who are working there, who maybe they've met online. And so you have this really wholesome energy in the bookshop all summer. All these people are like, ‘Oh, we already know the bookshop. We already love it!’ And they're coming in just as super fans. And it's amazing. People are coming up to me like, ‘Hi, Freya! I've been joining, I've been watching. Now I get to see you in person.’ And that's so lovely. And so I'm always trying to hide things in the bookshop that people will be delighted by, that maybe they don't know from TikTok. Downstairs we have an antique writing desk with all of these postcards that people can write to the bookshop. And that's fun when people come in and they find like secret hidden things that I've left. Because it's just such a joy for me to meet people in real life as well.
JR: And it's bringing people out again. I know you're such a community-centred, community-focused bookshop. Events must have always been a big part of your business plan and the way that you wanted to run this hub for books. And I know that Miriam Margolyes was one of your first events back in September 2021. I mean, that has to be an amazing thing to happen and that huge support so early on must set a strong foundation going forward.
FB: It was so encouraging. She was filming a film in Aberystwyth or nearby and Sally Phillips, another actress who I have known and loved for many years, came into the bookshop and was chatting to me and loved the bookshop and came back the next day and said to me, ‘Oh my friend Miriam has just launched a book. Would you like her to come and do a reading?’ We had never done one before. We'd only been open a little bit. And I said, ‘Yeah, sure.’ And so she gave me the phone number and I called her up and I was like, I recognise this voice. And it was, of course, Miriam Margolyes who came and was just an absolute delight and bought all of our Charles Dickens books. She's huge with her work on Dickens as an actress. And she ate cake and sat in the corner and was like, ‘This is fantastic!’
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JR: That's such an amazing experience and I think that's such a great example of how people like to support each other. But you have a great programme of regular events now: you have Soup and Stillness events, a knitting workshop, you have poetry workshops and afternoon tea, and wine nights. I see also that you have a book club which is now available online. All on top of author events like the one at the very beginning with Miriam.
FB: I just love doing events. I think there's something so exciting about hearing an author read their own work and talk about their work and talk about their process. And I'm excited about doing more online as well and doing these hybrid events live on TikTok, because we have received so much amazing support from the Booktok community. I want to give back. And I think essentially it comes back to that again and again. I just want to give back to these people who are being supportive of us and like, how can I serve? And that's always my question. How can I serve this community? What does this community want? What would help this community? Through winter we ran a program called Winter for Wellness and we did well-being things every single week and they were all completely free to our community. And then through the summer we did in the summer of creativity and we've got lots of creative workshops that are being held and that's exciting. So I think it's about seeing what excites people, what excites us at that time and then we just try it and say, ‘Okay, let's see if we can make it happen.’ JR: And is that how the Poetry Festival came about? |
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FB: Oh my goodness. The Poetry Festival has just been such a joy. The Poetry Festival came about because I was doing an MA in Creative Writing, specialising in feminine spirituality and poetry at Aberystwyth University. I just actually finished that a month ago now. I was doing that alongside setting up the business, and part-time. And I noticed that I didn't have any non-white, female poets teaching me. At one point I didn't have any female poets teaching me, it was just the way that the course had worked out. And so I went to the wonderful head of English literature at Aberystwyth University and said, ‘I'd love to get some women poets in to talk about their journey and to hear their stories and their poetry.’ And she said, ‘Okay, if you organise it, we'll help out.’ I was like, ‘Great, let's do it!’
And we had the anniversary of the book shop coming up, the first year anniversary. And I emailed all my favourite poets and every one replied and said, ‘Yeah!’ And I thought, well, we can't just have one then. We've obviously got to have them all. And wouldn't it be wonderful to have a conversation rather than just having one author, which I think a lot of events are, having that communication and that conversation between authors and between events as well would be so interesting, especially because I think it's more rare perhaps in the poetry world? And so it's really fun. And so it happened very organically. And then this year we really ramped things up. We [were] over four venues, we had the National Library of Wales, we had over 400 attendees, 42 poets and musicians. We had simultaneous events running in the bookshop and the town library and another venue. And so that was exciting to get to see how it has grown. And I think it's so wonderful to get more creativity, more people travelling to West Wales and mid-Wales. I think that that's really important, that people don't have to travel to big cities to get access to this kind of thing, that we also have it here. And of course, it's just a wonderful place to host something creative because if you're a poet, coming to this beautiful nature and beautiful scenery is just a joy as well. So I'm really excited for 2025 now.
JR: Yeah, I was going to say, have you started planning that one yet? Or do you kind of wait until after the summer to get that started?
FB: I mean, me and my team start planning pretty much the week that the other one finishes. It was fairly immediate with it. It has to happen. And we already have so many poets lined up who perhaps weren't able to meet this year or, you know, we’re choosing poets based on the theme as well. So that's very exciting. The theme for 2025 is Home and Identity, with a focus on the Welsh word, hiraeth, which kind of translates as that feeling. It doesn't have a direct translation, but it's that connection with home and with yourself. So that's very exciting. That's coming next year. I can't wait already.
JR: Yeah and obviously all this hard work is clearly paying off. As we mentioned at the start: finalist for regional and country British Book Awards Independent Bookshop of the Year, and selected as a Rising Star this year as well. But I want to talk about TikTok and BookTok specifically. That was so huge and voted for by, I think I read somewhere that the overall votes for the awards were by something like 82,000 people, is that right?
FB: Oh my goodness, is that the correct statistic?
JR: Yeah, so the BookTok community really got behind the votes and it was just incredible.
How has all this affected the shop? Now, with TikTok being such a massive part of high-street bookselling, what's your opinion on the BookTok community and the BookTok trends that we see online?
FB: I actually think it's really positive. To have such a wonderful, wholesome side of social media. I think it's wonderful that the BookTok community has grown and to see people, and a younger generation as well, engaging with books, but also with this fun side of reading. Sometimes we take reading a little bit too seriously, and people think if you're reading, you're very serious and you're very studious, and of course, those things can be true, and that's a wonderful side of books as well. But it also should be fun. And it can also be lovely to see people playing with books and having good friends that are going around or seeing people's reactions to books. I love watching reaction videos to people's books or seeing musicians create music to go alongside, kind of soundtracking these books almost, and the artwork. I think it's lovely because what you're seeing is a real collaboration of creativity. So the book world then meets the cosplayers and the cosplayers and the musicians and the artists, and you're getting this wonderful community.
And again, it goes back to what we said earlier about books being a thing that links us in these worlds, being a world that's accessible to everybody as well, which I love, and promoting literacy, which is never a bad thing and always opens up so many opportunities for people in the future.
And we had the anniversary of the book shop coming up, the first year anniversary. And I emailed all my favourite poets and every one replied and said, ‘Yeah!’ And I thought, well, we can't just have one then. We've obviously got to have them all. And wouldn't it be wonderful to have a conversation rather than just having one author, which I think a lot of events are, having that communication and that conversation between authors and between events as well would be so interesting, especially because I think it's more rare perhaps in the poetry world? And so it's really fun. And so it happened very organically. And then this year we really ramped things up. We [were] over four venues, we had the National Library of Wales, we had over 400 attendees, 42 poets and musicians. We had simultaneous events running in the bookshop and the town library and another venue. And so that was exciting to get to see how it has grown. And I think it's so wonderful to get more creativity, more people travelling to West Wales and mid-Wales. I think that that's really important, that people don't have to travel to big cities to get access to this kind of thing, that we also have it here. And of course, it's just a wonderful place to host something creative because if you're a poet, coming to this beautiful nature and beautiful scenery is just a joy as well. So I'm really excited for 2025 now.
JR: Yeah, I was going to say, have you started planning that one yet? Or do you kind of wait until after the summer to get that started?
FB: I mean, me and my team start planning pretty much the week that the other one finishes. It was fairly immediate with it. It has to happen. And we already have so many poets lined up who perhaps weren't able to meet this year or, you know, we’re choosing poets based on the theme as well. So that's very exciting. The theme for 2025 is Home and Identity, with a focus on the Welsh word, hiraeth, which kind of translates as that feeling. It doesn't have a direct translation, but it's that connection with home and with yourself. So that's very exciting. That's coming next year. I can't wait already.
JR: Yeah and obviously all this hard work is clearly paying off. As we mentioned at the start: finalist for regional and country British Book Awards Independent Bookshop of the Year, and selected as a Rising Star this year as well. But I want to talk about TikTok and BookTok specifically. That was so huge and voted for by, I think I read somewhere that the overall votes for the awards were by something like 82,000 people, is that right?
FB: Oh my goodness, is that the correct statistic?
JR: Yeah, so the BookTok community really got behind the votes and it was just incredible.
How has all this affected the shop? Now, with TikTok being such a massive part of high-street bookselling, what's your opinion on the BookTok community and the BookTok trends that we see online?
FB: I actually think it's really positive. To have such a wonderful, wholesome side of social media. I think it's wonderful that the BookTok community has grown and to see people, and a younger generation as well, engaging with books, but also with this fun side of reading. Sometimes we take reading a little bit too seriously, and people think if you're reading, you're very serious and you're very studious, and of course, those things can be true, and that's a wonderful side of books as well. But it also should be fun. And it can also be lovely to see people playing with books and having good friends that are going around or seeing people's reactions to books. I love watching reaction videos to people's books or seeing musicians create music to go alongside, kind of soundtracking these books almost, and the artwork. I think it's lovely because what you're seeing is a real collaboration of creativity. So the book world then meets the cosplayers and the cosplayers and the musicians and the artists, and you're getting this wonderful community.
And again, it goes back to what we said earlier about books being a thing that links us in these worlds, being a world that's accessible to everybody as well, which I love, and promoting literacy, which is never a bad thing and always opens up so many opportunities for people in the future.
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But winning the TikTok award has been such an honour and has affected the bookshop so wonderfully because we do have these people making book pilgrimages to come and see us in person, and so seeing that translation from online to the in-person. And I think what's important to me and what I can see moving forward is that people don't want to only shop online. We do want that real in-person, tiny, magical bookshop in a small town in Wales. But we also want convenience, and so to be able to let people shop with us online and to be able to offer next-day delivery and to be able to have book merchandise and different things on our website and engage with people and give book recommendations through TikTok, just like we would in real life in person, is a wonderful way to do that, definitely.
JR: I've spoken to some booksellers who are maybe slightly wary of BookTok and these kinds of trends. And I don't know whether they've been in the industry a little bit longer and they think that this is just a passing trend. But there are certainly some booksellers who are a little TikTok illiterate or are a little sceptical about diving in. It's obviously feeding through into the books that we're seeing on the shop floor. But do you think that BookTok affects the kind of books that you stock? FB: I think we're always trying to meet the people who want to buy books, so whatever the community needs and whatever our community is asking for, we're certainly looking at that, but I'm also coming at it with a librarian's eye of what books do I think are really good and what books are feeding what we want to feed into the world. So I'm always aware as a feminist myself, what books am I stocking? What messages are young girls getting out there? And that does impact massively the books that I order and have in stock. So that's really important to me as well. I'd say in terms of people being nervous about engaging with BookTok, this is something where my acting background comes into play. I never thought the two would link so well, but I don't mind being in front of the screen. I love it. This is something that I trained for when I went to drama school. So I think that the performance element can be intimidating. You'll notice a lot of my team are never really on TikTok because they don't want to be, and I respect that always. But I enjoy it, and I don't mind that kind of engagement. I think the actress training comes into play there. |
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JR: I can definitely see that. I was wondering if you could tell us a little more about your time working in libraries and how that's fed into your bookselling foundations. I read somewhere that you were working in a library in Jerusalem for part of the pandemic. Can you tell us about that experience?
FB: Yeah, absolutely. So I think my love for books and reading started in libraries. I grew up in a small town in the Lake District in Cumbria, so very rural again. Libraries were really my way of experiencing the world and reading about all of these incredible places. And I started volunteering at Kendal Library in the Lake District and helping run their children's summer reading scheme. So getting children into reading and that side of it has always been massive for me right from the beginning. And then going from there, I've done a lot of different jobs, but libraries and books have always been intertwined in that, whether it's working in a bookshop through uni or taking on part-time work in libraries. And then I was doing some charity work over in the Philippines with children for a few months and came back from that. And that was all about storytelling. And I was honestly just praying for a job with children and books in a hot country because it was so cold in the UK. And I saw this advertisement for this librarian job in a British school in Jerusalem. And it was so unique, that library is so unique because you've got a country that's in the middle of a war zone and has been for a long time, but that library and that school specifically had people from all backgrounds and ethnicities in the school and in the library. So suddenly you have people who are Israeli, Palestinian and international all in the library, which is an incredible thing. Again, just an incredible testimony to the connection of books and reading. And so really getting to create a library as a sanctuary, as a safe place in the middle of turmoil and everything that's going on, was just my joy and my honour. And it's still doing very well, which I'm always thrilled to hear about and thrilled to see.
JR: What would you say was the main thing that you brought to bookselling from working in libraries when you opened up that shop back in 2021?
FB: Yeah, great question. I would say all of those events and all of that community focus is something that I bought from libraries, massively. They’re such good training grounds because you are seeing what everyone's pulling off the shelf every single day. And so that's something that you're engaging with. So yeah, everything I learned in libraries ended up training me and translating into running the bookshop, but also even things like how to do book orders or predicting trends of what people are going to want to read. I think that came into it massively. And also recommending books. For me, that’s a massive part of the bookseller jobs. And I think the hardest thing was trying to adjust. I don't get to give everyone books for free. I just felt like books should be free to everyone, right? And so that was that was an adjustment. I was like, ‘Oh, wait, I have to have to try and make people pay for this?’ I think the first few months my colleagues and staff and friends were saying, ‘You have to stop giving away so many books!’ But I love it and learning the business part that has been a joy as well. Yeah.
JR: It's always hard to try and find the balance between managing a business and managing a team of staff, and business, in general, is tough regardless of what your background is, but I feel like it's quite hard to always be on the shop floor and continue being hand on and hand-selling. It's what we all got into this for. Those connections to customers, hand-selling and recommending great books.
Now that you're in a larger premise and busier than ever, do you think you're more or less hands-on with bookselling than you used to be? Do you feel like being busier means that you're tied to the shopfloor more? How has it worked in your experience?
FB: That's a really interesting point, and I think how things grow is interesting. I still work on the shop floor, I still love it, I still adore it, and it keeps that connection between me and the customers and me and my community, 100%. But when you are running the business, you do unfortunately, as the owner, have to step away more. And in order to do things, and it is a joy as well, to step into the new role and see what new things need to be done, you know, contacting different authors or arranging events or organising a lot of the poetry festival, that does take a lot more time. Sometimes I really miss being in the shop. So it creates a lot of freedom, and I'm excited to get to do things now like coming to the TikTok Book Awards and the Rising Star Book Awards in London a couple of weeks ago, you know, I could go do that and meet more people who are in the book industry, and that's just a complete joy to me, and that's only possible because I can step away from the shop and leave it in very capable hands.
JR: Yeah exactly and I think it's it is really important to have staff that you rely on. I think knowing that you've got faith in your team to be able to work independently is important but it's that love for the job that I think all booksellers have and you buy into that ethos when you work as a bookseller.
FB: Absolutely. Having staff you trust is super essential, but also I remember the first time after a year of opening I got this opportunity to go and do a writing residency in Australia and work on my own book and that's been a dream of mine for a long time and so to be able to step away and go and do that - and that was such a wrench. I was like, ‘Can I do it? Is it even possible?’
But January-February in Wales is quite dark and quite grey so I was glad to be able to step into the Australian sunshine and have the opportunity to work on my book and so I think there's something very exciting about as we grow to be able to work on more projects like that. And I'm now editing my first fantasy book and getting ready to query agents soon, so that's exciting, and I'm looking forward to that process and to pitching to agents and publishers and that's going to be quite new for me and so I look forward to growing in these other areas of the book industry as well.
JR: That is really, really exciting. Congratulations!
FB: Thank you.
JR: It must be quite hard sometimes to think outside of the four walls of a bookshop, you know?
FB: Or maybe I'm thinking very inside the four walls! I'm looking at all the books going, ‘You know what we don't have? A feminist Welsh myth-inspired fantasy book, and you know who could write one of those?’ And I'm like, ‘We've got to fix this problem.’
JR: I mean, you've done your audience research already!
FB: Exactly, yes! I know we can sell this book, I know that we sell that book in the shop.
JR: That's so amazing. I can’t wait to hear more about it.
So, looking into the future of The Bookshop By The Sea, what's your what's your next big challenge, what are you most looking forward to exploring or developing as a business next?
FB: I'm looking forward to - well, I don’t know if this is business or personal, because it all links in a way - but I’m looking forward to developing my writing and that's my next dream. My next goal is to have my own book in my own little bookshop, which would just be a joy. So that's my next dream. Expanding the Poetry Festival and seeing that grow and nurturing more young writers to be able to grow in that as well. I'm really excited. I'm excited about our new TikTok book club, which is really cool. We've got a feminist book club that we're running on TikTok now and we send people the books and then we meet there at the end of the month to chat about the books. So I'm excited, we already have that in person in the book shop and now we want to kind of include the TikTok community as well.
JR: Yeah, yeah, that's amazing. I mean, I think you're one of the few booksellers I've spoken to who’s really embracing TikTok and Instagram in that way. I think there are lots of amazing booksellers that I've talked to who do live stories or they do virtual events when possible, but I think TikTok specifically, you're certainly one of the ones I see regularly.
Clearly, in the book world we all exist in our own little bubbles, don't we? And I think I see so much book content and so much bookselling content that there are a handful of names that pop up quite frequently. And yeah, you seem to be super active.
FB: I'm here for it! I am here for it. I'm embracing it. I love that the Booktok community is supporting us so much and obviously winning Tiktok Independent Bookshop of the Year was just a joy and helped me see the impact of all of this work that you do so I'm embracing it. If we want to help little bookshops to survive we've got to be diverse, we've got to be creative and we've got to build and grow and so yeah I'm 100% here for it and it's been such a supportive community to me. I mean, people talk about negativity or trolls on the internet and I have just received so much support that it's encouraging on those days like today in the middle of August when it's pouring with rain and very windy and cold here in Wales. But I know that there are going to be people who can potentially join us at our event tonight from all over the world and that's incredible and really joyful.
JR: My final question to finish us off: what are you reading right now and what are you looking forward to reading in the next few months?
FB: Oh, I love this question. I could talk about this question all day. We could have another three-hour conversation about both. I am reading so much Fantasy and Romantacy at the moment and, specifically, I'm doing so much research into Welsh myths and legends to inspire my writing. So I'm digging into all of these feminist retellings of Greek myths that we've been having and of course, Cersei, Ariadne, and Medusa. We’ve just had some amazing ones recently. So I've been digging into a lot of research about mermaids and underwater cities. That's just some of the clues of what I might be writing about it. Anything to do with dragons. Fourth Wing [Rebecca Yarros]. That's one of the TikTok Books of the Year. I love reading Fourth Wing and Iron Flame. I'm very here for A Court of Thorns and Roses [Sarah J. Maas].
At the moment, the book that I'm currently reading is Our Lives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield. That's fantastic. And that is also about under the sea and also has some kind of creepy, thriller-y elements. So it's about that relationship between this couple, and how, when she comes back from being under the sea, something has gone wrong. We're doing that one in book club so I'm preparing for my book club by reading that one.
And what's exciting as well is we decided with a lovely woman who works at The Bookseller to start a book club based in London - and we might consider doing it online if there's enough interest - for women in the book industry, across all areas, whether you're a publisher, editor, writer, agent, or a bookseller. We thought it would be so wonderful to have a place where everyone can connect and meet each other and support each other. And so that's what we're doing for the book club in London, which we're calling The Book Club by the River, along the river Thames on the South Bank.
So yes, there's also the book that we're doing in the bookshop for this month's book club, Dark Earth by Rebecca Scott. So I'm reading that at the moment and just loving the writing. It's brilliant. I would recommend it to anyone!
FB: Yeah, absolutely. So I think my love for books and reading started in libraries. I grew up in a small town in the Lake District in Cumbria, so very rural again. Libraries were really my way of experiencing the world and reading about all of these incredible places. And I started volunteering at Kendal Library in the Lake District and helping run their children's summer reading scheme. So getting children into reading and that side of it has always been massive for me right from the beginning. And then going from there, I've done a lot of different jobs, but libraries and books have always been intertwined in that, whether it's working in a bookshop through uni or taking on part-time work in libraries. And then I was doing some charity work over in the Philippines with children for a few months and came back from that. And that was all about storytelling. And I was honestly just praying for a job with children and books in a hot country because it was so cold in the UK. And I saw this advertisement for this librarian job in a British school in Jerusalem. And it was so unique, that library is so unique because you've got a country that's in the middle of a war zone and has been for a long time, but that library and that school specifically had people from all backgrounds and ethnicities in the school and in the library. So suddenly you have people who are Israeli, Palestinian and international all in the library, which is an incredible thing. Again, just an incredible testimony to the connection of books and reading. And so really getting to create a library as a sanctuary, as a safe place in the middle of turmoil and everything that's going on, was just my joy and my honour. And it's still doing very well, which I'm always thrilled to hear about and thrilled to see.
JR: What would you say was the main thing that you brought to bookselling from working in libraries when you opened up that shop back in 2021?
FB: Yeah, great question. I would say all of those events and all of that community focus is something that I bought from libraries, massively. They’re such good training grounds because you are seeing what everyone's pulling off the shelf every single day. And so that's something that you're engaging with. So yeah, everything I learned in libraries ended up training me and translating into running the bookshop, but also even things like how to do book orders or predicting trends of what people are going to want to read. I think that came into it massively. And also recommending books. For me, that’s a massive part of the bookseller jobs. And I think the hardest thing was trying to adjust. I don't get to give everyone books for free. I just felt like books should be free to everyone, right? And so that was that was an adjustment. I was like, ‘Oh, wait, I have to have to try and make people pay for this?’ I think the first few months my colleagues and staff and friends were saying, ‘You have to stop giving away so many books!’ But I love it and learning the business part that has been a joy as well. Yeah.
JR: It's always hard to try and find the balance between managing a business and managing a team of staff, and business, in general, is tough regardless of what your background is, but I feel like it's quite hard to always be on the shop floor and continue being hand on and hand-selling. It's what we all got into this for. Those connections to customers, hand-selling and recommending great books.
Now that you're in a larger premise and busier than ever, do you think you're more or less hands-on with bookselling than you used to be? Do you feel like being busier means that you're tied to the shopfloor more? How has it worked in your experience?
FB: That's a really interesting point, and I think how things grow is interesting. I still work on the shop floor, I still love it, I still adore it, and it keeps that connection between me and the customers and me and my community, 100%. But when you are running the business, you do unfortunately, as the owner, have to step away more. And in order to do things, and it is a joy as well, to step into the new role and see what new things need to be done, you know, contacting different authors or arranging events or organising a lot of the poetry festival, that does take a lot more time. Sometimes I really miss being in the shop. So it creates a lot of freedom, and I'm excited to get to do things now like coming to the TikTok Book Awards and the Rising Star Book Awards in London a couple of weeks ago, you know, I could go do that and meet more people who are in the book industry, and that's just a complete joy to me, and that's only possible because I can step away from the shop and leave it in very capable hands.
JR: Yeah exactly and I think it's it is really important to have staff that you rely on. I think knowing that you've got faith in your team to be able to work independently is important but it's that love for the job that I think all booksellers have and you buy into that ethos when you work as a bookseller.
FB: Absolutely. Having staff you trust is super essential, but also I remember the first time after a year of opening I got this opportunity to go and do a writing residency in Australia and work on my own book and that's been a dream of mine for a long time and so to be able to step away and go and do that - and that was such a wrench. I was like, ‘Can I do it? Is it even possible?’
But January-February in Wales is quite dark and quite grey so I was glad to be able to step into the Australian sunshine and have the opportunity to work on my book and so I think there's something very exciting about as we grow to be able to work on more projects like that. And I'm now editing my first fantasy book and getting ready to query agents soon, so that's exciting, and I'm looking forward to that process and to pitching to agents and publishers and that's going to be quite new for me and so I look forward to growing in these other areas of the book industry as well.
JR: That is really, really exciting. Congratulations!
FB: Thank you.
JR: It must be quite hard sometimes to think outside of the four walls of a bookshop, you know?
FB: Or maybe I'm thinking very inside the four walls! I'm looking at all the books going, ‘You know what we don't have? A feminist Welsh myth-inspired fantasy book, and you know who could write one of those?’ And I'm like, ‘We've got to fix this problem.’
JR: I mean, you've done your audience research already!
FB: Exactly, yes! I know we can sell this book, I know that we sell that book in the shop.
JR: That's so amazing. I can’t wait to hear more about it.
So, looking into the future of The Bookshop By The Sea, what's your what's your next big challenge, what are you most looking forward to exploring or developing as a business next?
FB: I'm looking forward to - well, I don’t know if this is business or personal, because it all links in a way - but I’m looking forward to developing my writing and that's my next dream. My next goal is to have my own book in my own little bookshop, which would just be a joy. So that's my next dream. Expanding the Poetry Festival and seeing that grow and nurturing more young writers to be able to grow in that as well. I'm really excited. I'm excited about our new TikTok book club, which is really cool. We've got a feminist book club that we're running on TikTok now and we send people the books and then we meet there at the end of the month to chat about the books. So I'm excited, we already have that in person in the book shop and now we want to kind of include the TikTok community as well.
JR: Yeah, yeah, that's amazing. I mean, I think you're one of the few booksellers I've spoken to who’s really embracing TikTok and Instagram in that way. I think there are lots of amazing booksellers that I've talked to who do live stories or they do virtual events when possible, but I think TikTok specifically, you're certainly one of the ones I see regularly.
Clearly, in the book world we all exist in our own little bubbles, don't we? And I think I see so much book content and so much bookselling content that there are a handful of names that pop up quite frequently. And yeah, you seem to be super active.
FB: I'm here for it! I am here for it. I'm embracing it. I love that the Booktok community is supporting us so much and obviously winning Tiktok Independent Bookshop of the Year was just a joy and helped me see the impact of all of this work that you do so I'm embracing it. If we want to help little bookshops to survive we've got to be diverse, we've got to be creative and we've got to build and grow and so yeah I'm 100% here for it and it's been such a supportive community to me. I mean, people talk about negativity or trolls on the internet and I have just received so much support that it's encouraging on those days like today in the middle of August when it's pouring with rain and very windy and cold here in Wales. But I know that there are going to be people who can potentially join us at our event tonight from all over the world and that's incredible and really joyful.
JR: My final question to finish us off: what are you reading right now and what are you looking forward to reading in the next few months?
FB: Oh, I love this question. I could talk about this question all day. We could have another three-hour conversation about both. I am reading so much Fantasy and Romantacy at the moment and, specifically, I'm doing so much research into Welsh myths and legends to inspire my writing. So I'm digging into all of these feminist retellings of Greek myths that we've been having and of course, Cersei, Ariadne, and Medusa. We’ve just had some amazing ones recently. So I've been digging into a lot of research about mermaids and underwater cities. That's just some of the clues of what I might be writing about it. Anything to do with dragons. Fourth Wing [Rebecca Yarros]. That's one of the TikTok Books of the Year. I love reading Fourth Wing and Iron Flame. I'm very here for A Court of Thorns and Roses [Sarah J. Maas].
At the moment, the book that I'm currently reading is Our Lives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield. That's fantastic. And that is also about under the sea and also has some kind of creepy, thriller-y elements. So it's about that relationship between this couple, and how, when she comes back from being under the sea, something has gone wrong. We're doing that one in book club so I'm preparing for my book club by reading that one.
And what's exciting as well is we decided with a lovely woman who works at The Bookseller to start a book club based in London - and we might consider doing it online if there's enough interest - for women in the book industry, across all areas, whether you're a publisher, editor, writer, agent, or a bookseller. We thought it would be so wonderful to have a place where everyone can connect and meet each other and support each other. And so that's what we're doing for the book club in London, which we're calling The Book Club by the River, along the river Thames on the South Bank.
So yes, there's also the book that we're doing in the bookshop for this month's book club, Dark Earth by Rebecca Scott. So I'm reading that at the moment and just loving the writing. It's brilliant. I would recommend it to anyone!
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If you liked the sound of what Freya and The Bookshop by the Sea team are up to, make sure to pay them a visit online or in person this summer. Head to their website to check out all the book club & author event news, plus afternoon tea, knitting & poetry workshops, and countless other inspiring community activities they have going on.
And keep your eyes peeled for their TikTok Book Club where you can take part in the conversation wherever you are in the world! |
