Desperate Author Thrown Out of Waterstones
A desperate writer was thrown out of a central London bookstore yesterday (13 MARCH) after launching a one-man fly-posting campaign to boost sales of his own paperback.
Author Shed Simove walked into one of the UK’s largest bookshops, Waterstones in Piccadilly, yesterday afternoon armed with a pile of posters promoting his book IDEAS MAN.
As puzzled staff looked on Mr Simove proceeded to place posters around the store and even gained access to the shop window.
The posters told browsing shoppers: “Don’t Panic! We still have a few copies of Ideas Man by Shed Simove left!”
The 36-year-old author also moved copies of his book into prominent positions within the store – placing copies inside the window, on display plinths and even inside the Harry Potter section.
Staff at first thought he was an official merchandiser but became suspicious after the writer began accosting shoppers and pleaded with them to buy his book.
Eventually he was asked to leave by a senior member of the sales team and was led out by the arm when he resisted.
One of the bookstore’s staff said later: “It was quite funny. I spotted this shifty looking guy sticking posters up around the shop.
“I didn’t think too much about it at first but then I noticed he was behaving very strangely. He was looking over his shoulder and glancing this way and that.
“He definitely looked as if he was up to no good. When I saw him entering the shop window I thought there was something dodgy going on. Then when he started harassing the customers, I thought it was time to call security.”
A shopper, who did not want to be named, said: “I was looking for a Harry Potter book for my daughter when I noticed this man placing another book face forward on the shelf in front of JK Rowling’s books.
“I noticed the book had a photo of a man on the front and realised it was the same man who was putting it onto the shelf. He turned to me and said, ‘Buy this instead. I wrote it and it’s very good. Please buy it.’ I immediately found a shop assistant and complained about him.”
After he was thrown out of the shop a defiant Mr Simove vowed to move on to another bookshop and continue his bid to sell more books.
He said: “I’ve spent five years writing this book. Now it’s published I just want to let people know it’s out there.
“It was nerve-wracking putting my poster in the window. The Waterstones staff were all lovely, but after I started trying to tell customers abut my book and kept putting my posters up all over the shop, they rapidly tired of me.
“It was rather disappointing to discover that the bookstore only actually had four copies of my book in stock, compared with the hundreds piled high from other authors, so in fact my spoof posters proclaiming “we have a few copies left” were depressingly accurate.
“I popped a One Ego banknote – my own currency that trades on eBay and is currently worth more than the Euro – into some of the books too…
“I tried to get the customers interested in my book, without being too pushy of course. I must say, there seems to be a lot of beautiful women who shop in bookstores. I must go more often.”