Competition Winner!

We now have a winner for our New Year competition.

You will remember that the prize was a Diplomatist Books' 2018 Membership, giving 10% off the cost of orders. 

The questions we asked were:-

• Our spreadsheet tells us we have sold 1004 books in the UK.  What is the total number including overseas sales (to the nearest 20)?  Answer - 1247.
• To which non-English-speaking country have we sent most books?  Answer - Italy.

Unsurprisingly, nobody got the answers to these questions, so we went to Plan B and had a draw of the public followers of this blog.

And the Winner is...  Paul Smith!

Paul, the e-mail I have for you is out-of-date.  Please drop me a note so I can explain how the membership deal works.

Oversees Sales

Why have we sent more books to Italy than to Spain or Germany (which are next on the list), or even Ireland?  I don't know!  Perhaps the subject for a future competition...

Back to Normal and Competition Reminder

This is what our backlog looks like after a few days' illness meant I had to miss a couple of post-runs.  It's all now sorted.

A lot of small businesses can get into difficulties with orders during cold/flu seasons (especially if they have to make the stuff!).  I've known some to get into really serious difficulties because they didn't know when to stop taking new orders, take a cash-flow hit, and concentrate on fulfilling the orders they already have.

It's great to support a specialist supplier.  A lot of them are (like us) one-person-shops who just bob along more-or-less solvent.  Please have some patience with them.

Midnight tonight (GMT) is the closing date for our competition.  It looks as if it will come down to a straight draw between public followers of this blog.  So you have just under 11 hours to sign up!  News of the winners tomorrow...

Disruption to Normal Service...

A photo taken chez Diplomatist this morning
(obviously...)

I'm poorly, so I'm afraid that there's been a little delay in dispatching order this week.  Hopefully things will be back to normal by Monday.

Competition Reminder

As it's a week since I announced the New Year Competition and a week until the close for entries, it's time for a reminder and a clue.

The Reminder

Details of the competition are here.

The Clue

Since setting the questions last Monday, we have sent books to the Netherlands, Norway and Spain.  None of these countries is the answer to Question 2, and sending these books out wouldn't have affected the answer.

And Finally...

Remember, that if no-one answers the questions correctly the prize will be awarded to a random follower of the blog.  It's time to become a follower now!

Incoming! RPGs

Just a heads-up to say that I've acquired a batch of RPG publications that I'll be adding to the store in the next few days.  For the sake of somewhere else to put them, they'll be in our Modelling and Wargaming section.

There were also about a dozen unpainted 1980s vintage minis - Grenadier Model's Lord of the Rings and Nightmares ranges.  I've forgotten to photograph these.  These'll go up on eBay, so I'll probably do a separate post once that's done.

Feel free to send a message if you can't wait for the listings.

New Year Competition!

The above picture is of 2018's first post-run.  Yes, we're back on track!

Now, my dodgy performance indicators suggest that the pile includes the 1,000th book we've sent out within the UK.  In honour of this, and because it's New Year I've decided to run a competition.

The winner will receive a Diplomatist Books Membership Discount (B) - 10% off all orders during 2018.  The usual cost of this membership is £20,00, but astute readers will realise that the value could run into thousands...

To enter, simply answer these two questions by sending an e-mail to diplomatist2@gmail.com before the closing date of 16 Jan 2018.  I have disabled the comments on the blog until then.

1. Our spreadsheet tells us we have sold 1004 books in the UK.  What is the total number including overseas sales (to the nearest 20)?
2. To which non-English-speaking country have we sent most books?  Clue: it isn't Denmark, which is where the above parcel is going.

However, if this proves too difficult and no-one gets both answers right, then the competition will turn into a straight draw and a random follower of the blog will be chosen (you have to be a public follower for this).

Good luck!

Winston Churchill

What with the great Gary Oldman apparently doing a sterling job represented Winston Churchill on the big screen at the moment in 'Darkest Hour' in seems an opportune moment to remind you all that we had a section of books by and about Churchill.  We might might as well pick up some of the crumbs from the marketing machine (it's called 'slipstreaming').

Happy New Year everyone!