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Bookstore fails to sell books, Neil Gaiman seeks Twitter’s help. This is how they oblige
Two days back, on January 14, Petersfield Bookshop took to Twitter to share an image and a sad incident.
Every now and then we come across such stories which remind us of the power of social media. One such tale is of a local bookstore in England and how one gloomy tweet by them led to an overflow of orders.
Two days back, on January 15, Petersfield Bookshop took to Twitter to share an image and a sad incident. “Not a single book sold today... £0.00... We think this maybe the first time ever,” the store wrote. “We know its miserable out but if you’d like to help us out please find our Abebooks offering below, all at 25% off at the moment,” they added. Along with the post, they also shared pictures of the empty bookstore.
The bookstore’s tweet captured people’s attention when fantasy and science fiction author Neil Gaiman retweeted it. In the caption, he urged Twitter to come together and do something good. “In these dark days it’s wonderful to see Twitter doing something good!” wrote Gaiman.
People answered the call and orders came flooding in from different corners of the world. In fact, the store ended up receiving £1,000 worth of orders overnight with many waiting to purchase more. The store also shared a tweet to give an update on the situation.
In another tweet, they thanked Neil Gaiman:
“It was really touching,” Robert Sansom, the store’s 13-year-old employee who shared the gloomy tweet, told The Guardian. “People have been so kind. This will really make a difference. There are slow days, but it was a really unusual day for us to have not sold any books – no one wanted to come out because of Storm Brendan,” he added.
“It blows me away. I don’t understand social media because I’m old-fashioned, but when Rob called me and told me the figures, I was gobsmacked,” John Westwood, 56, one of the owners, told The Guardian.
