A ramble...

If you're on the NoBooksNews mailing list, you may have seen this in your inbox. If not, why not?! Go, sign up for it below (there should be a sign up box towards the bottom of the page - unless it's disappeared again)

The latest NoBooksNews email began as something else, but it became a bit of a steam of consciousness. Who am I to argue? So I'm hit send! And now I'm adding it to the NoBooksBlog!

Hand folded to order and dispatched within 7 days. Usually!

I'm a one woman band, working from my home studio in the north of Scotland. Since 2014, I've retailed and wholesaled worldwide, and have NEVER missed a deadline yet.

I had several hard deadlines to meet throughout June, so, as I've always done, I've warned customers in advance, when my 'normal' turnaround times will be increasing. My 'normal' turnaround on 'most' orders is 7 days. I actually guarantee 7 days on individual, retail orders, but, of course, I supply shops and galleries all over the world, and they're likely to be ordering a dozen, two dozen, a hundred books at a time, so wholesale lead time does of course vary according to the seasons.

With a decade of experience, dedicated work ethic and limited sleep (haha) I still mostly manage to keep it within 7 days though :-)

Every book you order is hand picked by me, from my rolling stock of 4500+ reclaimed book, choosing the most physically suitable one for each design. I prep each book - sometimes delicately cleaning it, sometimes strengthening the spine, counting each page individually, and taking various measurements. I tweak my master design to work beautifully in each book, and add it to my order queue. I then hand fold every page between 2 and 4 times, working my way through 500, 800, 1500 pages, creating your design. It's also me who prepares each book for shipping, packing it safely, doing all the paperwork and saying hello to the cheery couriers, who collect from me most days. Actually, Mr No Books drops most orders at the post office on his way to work. But I'm still claiming one-woman-band status, OK? ;-)

This is what I do. This is what I love. And you make it possible. Thank you.

We're now in to July, and things have settled back to 'normal'. That word again haha

What isn't quite so normal, is that my wonderful Dad, who lives 20 miles away, suffered a heart attack, whilst on holiday in Germany, a couple of weeks ago. What a fright. He's home now (Thank feck for travel insurance) and he's actually doing absolutely fine. Well, as fine as an elderly man with blood cancer can be doing!

He is my inspiration for learning to run, and I will be running a MARATHON in September. A frigging Marathon! I ran 15km today, for the first time. It was super boring. Running is weird. It's hard and it's not fun. Anyway, I will be aiming to raise funds for Blood Cancer UK, so I will no doubt be adding a justgiving link to a future email - feel entirely free to ignore it, but I'll be doing the charity a disservice if I don't at least mention it here and there. I'll blog about it at some point. When I have time. hahaha TIME!

My Dad has been pretty ill for a couple of years. Some weeks we've been to hospital (a 200+ mile round trip) as many as 6 times in one week. But this is the first time I've ever mentioned it to my customers. Why? Because I've never missed a deadline, and my problems are not your problem. Why mention it now? I dunno. Maybe because in business marketing we are forever getting get told to build "Know, Like and Trust" and whilst I've no control over the 'Like' bit, I hope this serves to reinforce that I'm letting you 'Know' me a little bit deeper, and is proof positive that you can 'Trust' me have my customers and my business as my priority at all times. Well. My Dad is my priority, 100%, but I have never and will never let my work ethic slip, no matter the outside influences.

Unless I break my hand. If I break my hand, we're all f*cked.

Anyway, how's that for a ramble? I type fast, so I've basically just typed out loud. And you get to read it. Soz. I've just read it over, and not only is it a ramble, but it's a slightly pointless ramble. But I'm gonna hit send anyway!

Thanks for your interest/support/custom! And thank you for reading this slightly out of the ordinary email/blog post!

~ Jo
nobookswereharmed.co.uk

Hand folded
Never cut
Designer made
Book art

Est 2014

Me - Mum - Dad in June 2024