Ever wanted to run your own bookshop on holiday? Now's your chance
The Open Book shop in Wigtown is listed on AirBnB for £150 per week
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Your support makes all the difference.Literature lovers often dream about owning a bookshop and now, the opportunity is there if you're willing to fork out £150 for the privilege.
The Open Book shop in Scotland's "national book town" of Wigtown has been listed on room-letting website AirBnB offering wordy holidaymakers the chance to work a 40-hour week selling books and customising the store with their "own stamp".
Local book experts will be on hand to train guests in the seaside town, with Wigtown book festival director Adrian Turpin, who leases the shop, describing the trip as "a particular kind of holiday for people who don't feel that running a bookshop is work".
"I wouldn't call it a working holiday," he told the Daily Mail. "It's not about cheap labour - it's about offering people an experience. Part of the idea was to get new people in - people who would hopefully end up having a long-standing relationship with the town."
Some ten guests have already hired the bookshop and apartment above, including an elderly couple fulfilling a lifelong ambition, two members of a band that writes and performs songs about books, a librarian from Oregon and a Dutch civil servant.
Bicycles for exploring the countryside are provided with the stay, as is a laptop and WiFi for running the business. Guests are encouraged to blog about their experience while carrying out "all the normal duties of a bookseller", including:
- Opening/closing the shop during normal working hours
- Welcoming visitors
- Selling books (stating the obvious)
- Staffing, stocking, creating awesome window displays and basically putting your own stamp on the shop
- Keeping the shop clean, tidy and safe for visitors
The flat sleeps a maximum of two holidaymakers at a time for a minimum of six nights and guests are free to choose opening hours that suit their schedule.
Independent authors are invited to sell their own books in the store and set up their own promotional displays.
Contact the host and set up your bookshop takeover here.
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