Lewes Waterstones brightens our day!

Lewes Waterstones is open

Although this site makes it a snap to download digital books from our eBook Store, ilex’s range of books can also be found in bricks-and-mortar bookstores and today’s opening of the new Lewes Waterstones – not 200 meters from our offices – reminded me (Adam) what a nice experience that could be.

Why is Lewes Waterstones exciting?

Well you’ll forgive us publishers for saying that all bookstores are a little exciting, but the arrival of Waterstones in Lewes is especially so since the chain hasn’t opened a new store in six years, so the store might just herald new confidence in the publishing industry as everyone realises that digital and print can co-exist side-by-side.
In the six years since the last Waterstones opened, much has happened in the publishing industry. Digital books have well and truly arrived, as well as sophisticated apps; as publishers we have so many more ways to reach you, the reader, that many were saying that bookstores hard reached their limits. Much has gone on for the chain of stores, too, and local journo Nick Clark covers this is more detail in The Independent.
As well as the industry shifts, the arrival of hyper-clean Apple stores and their like has changed expectations on the high-street. No one needs a Book-warehouse any more – Amazon can do that – so Waterstones needed to find a way to improve the experience, where Amazon can’t really compete.
Enter new, fresh-looking shelving and a seamless cafe-bookstore blend that makes a virtue of the small rooms that make up the listed building it occupies on Lewes high street. Rather than giving a room over to an uncomfortably placed franchise coffee bar as is common in other stores, tables and chairs are placed throughout the store so if you choose you can sample coffee and cakes surrounded by books (and a generous amount of natural light). Better yet, the cakes are a locally made treat, rather than something wrapped in plastic identical to the one you could get at Membury services.
If you’re in the area (or you want to know how to plant your bookstore) I urge you to check it out (ilex.photo is in the Reference section).

Perhaps most importantly, Lewes Waterstones pulls it all off without being anything like Simon Pegg in Black Books: