So I happened to wander into the works this week, and I think they’ve had a bit of an adjustment in the books that they’re stocking. Previously, the majority of the fiction wall space would be given over to the 3 for £6 offer books – but now they seem to have a lot more new releases and books outside the offer.
So admittedly the Rebecca Yaros and the Richard Osman came out in the autumn and Heartstopper 5 just before Christmas, but House of Flame and Shadow only came out a couple of weeks ago – I know because Gower Street had that event for it. But there are three brand new books here – the Amy Lea, the Tessa Bailey and the Jessa Hastings all only came out *this week* and it’s already on the shelves. Yes there are some old books here too, but this is much newer than The Works used to stock.
And then we have the trending titles – aka stuff that’s not in the 3 for £6 – indivudually priced, no deals. There are two shelves of these and it’s all a bit mixed up in terms of genre, but someof these are pretty new too – stuff that I’ve bought new or had pre-ordered over the last year along with some of the popular warhorses of the moment (HI Colleen Hoover and all those paperback Richard Osmans)
I think you can see as well how cover design for romance is changing – so much of the cartoon pastel covers, that read as slightly YA even when they’re not. In fact Wild Fire and Icebreaker actually have a warnings on the back that they’re not for under 18s – and contain explicit content. And clearly the other big trend of the moment is Title In Huge Words with a misty blurry background. It’s sort of fascinating to see how quickly covers are changing at the moment and how the trends are evolving.
And there were two shelves of the 3 for £6 books – but unlike days of yore, they were all stacked front facing like this rather than a mix of front and piles and a fair proportion were books that I don’t remember seeing anywhere else before – rather than the old pattern which was year plus old paperbacks of romances and mysteries. In times gone by, four of the five sets of shelves would have been the offer – and one would have been the non offer books. I shall monitor the situation and see how it develops!
Have a great weekend!
Verity Reads Books (lots of them) 
This is quite a departure for The Works, although having said that, it’s a long time since I went in one, for the simple reason that I don’t know where my nearest branch is these days. We do not have occasion to visit the York one anymore, which was the most often visited.
I mean i went to the one next door to Clarks in the town centre, but there’s also one in Weston Favell centre…