Spineless Blog

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Romeo and Juliet for Valentine's

Saturday, January 29th 2011

I'm not going to lie to you. There is absolutely no way I would normally spend part of a Saturday afternoon in January fretting about Valentine's day. Of course the only reason I'm blogging about it is because I recently spent about twice as long as I should have done crafting a really great Romeo and Juliet poster and, dammit, nothing would make me happier than if people actually ordered the thing.

I know your inbox is full of exhortations to visit this and that restaurant or jewellery shop (I know this because mine is too). But some things last longer than a salad and a bottle of chianti. Some things are beautiful without being shallow and actually get better when you look at them up close. And now I think about it, people encouraging us to buy stuff just because it's that time of year doesn't have to be a depressing experience; sometimes we need to stop being so cynical and take the prompt to do something really special for somebody we love. Because otherwise Feb 14th will just be another dreary Monday with people sneezing on your shoulder on the bus to work. And nobody wants that to happen.

Oh, just to show willing, I've also done a run of Pride and Prejudice as a special Valentine's discount. You can thank me later.

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School programme kicks off

Monday, January 24th 2011

Spineless' appeal to experienced readers almost goes without saying. We still get daily email from people raving about how perfect this or that print would be for their girlfriend / husband / self and telling us how excited they are to experience their favourite book in a new way. It's gratifying when people are so enthusiastic but until recently I hadn't realised how many people appreciate the posters as objets d'art first and books second. While at the stand at 100% Design last year, I noticed a girl walking by stop suddenly. "Excuse me," she said. "Is that really the whole book?"

Because I am a consummate salesman, I had the facts at my fingertips. "Yes, all 108,000 words."

"That's amazing," she said, which was a compliment to which I had been treated several times that day. What she said next however, changed the way I think about Spineless permanently. "I wish I'd seen that before I had to slog through it for 'A' levels. It doesn't look nearly as daunting."

That evening, over a high class mid-trade-show dinner of kebab and chips, I made a decision: Spineless was going to dedicate some of its efforts to getting kids excited about literature. Specifically, I was going to make it our goal to get book posters into as many schools as possible in 2011 by offering big discounts to educational establishments.

Fortuitously enough, the next day a teacher showed up on the stand, very exercised about the idea of getting a print of "Wuthering Heights" which was one of his students' set texts. Within a few moments, I had his details and I agreed to draw up and send him a price list forthwith. Between his end-of-year exams and our Christmas rush, it actually took until the new year to make a delivery but I can now announce that Spineless Classics are currently on display in the Sixth Form common room at St Christopher's in Letchworth.

I encourage anyone with an interest in putting prints into their school or college, regardless of budget, to get in touch through the website.

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A Caledonian treat

Saturday, January 22nd 2011

Just for fun, we donated a framed copy of The Complete Robert Burns to the Burns Club of London, which will be one of many tempting prizes in their charity auction at the Burns Night dinner this evening.

Delivery had to be made in the official Spineless Classics convertible. At full A0 size, it doesn't really fit in your average boot! Best of luck to the organisers; I'm sure it will be an excellent evening. Who knows? It might even raise a few quid for Ayrshire schools.

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I have RSI, and other exciting news

Thursday, January 20th 2011

So yes, after a long, long festive season it seems my tube-stuffing arm is completely knackered. Just this morning I was trying to get toothpaste back into its container and couldn't even manage that without wincing in pain. Not that I'm complaining; it's been an incredible Christmas - the best yet by a mile - and it's given us all the chance to take a few big steps forward with the way we do business.

First of all, we've reviewed and upgraded our packaging and have had fewer than 1% of orders returned because of post damage, which is pretty impressive given the punishment some delivery guys seem to mete out. It's like a kind of arms race.. but we're winning for now.

We've upgraded our storage facilities and now have a few thousand prints in stock so we can keep up with demand when people get excited about a particular design.

Finally, I've been bullied into opening a facebook page, a twitter feed and this blog. Look forward to sporadic updates with declining frequency. It's going to be awesome.

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