Harnessing the power of the written word

We charged a nominal fee of £5, which ensured a level of commitment from our customers and gave us a clue as to how many to expect, and we included a pint and some bar snacks in the price.

Around 50 people came along to listen to Pete talk about the George in Southwark, south-east London. He is a great raconteur and had the audience hooked and chuckling away throughout his 45-minute reading, before staying to chat, and sell and sign his books.

After the event we had some great feedback from our customers, both in person and on social media. Simon Appleby, director of Bookswarm, tweeted: “Excellent afternoon courtesy of  @ThatchersArms and @petebrownbeer. Why aren’t more book readings in pubs? Cheers!”

Pubs do seem like the obvious choice, after all they have always been places where tall tales and stories are told.

While I know there are pubs up and down the country that have book clubs and host regular readings, it doesn’t appear to be commonplace. I can’t help wondering, why not?

So while Pete got some PR, sold out of books and hopefully enjoyed himself in the process, we had 50 or so people arriving early for a few drinks, hanging around for a few more drinks and, in some cases, a meal afterwards.

In March we have local author Charlie Haylock coming along to talk about his book on Suffolk eccentricities, Sloightly on the Sosh!​ As it’s an evening affair we are offering customers either a £5 ticket only or £15 including a meal beforehand.

Mark and Ali Daniels at the Tharp Arms in Chippenham, Cambridgeshire, have had similar success with their Author & Cupcake evenings, finding that many authors are happy to host the session for free and the additional drinking trade in an otherwise quiet period is most welcome.

At the Thatchers we host many different types of event, from the usual quiz nights and beer festivals to the less usual film nights, theatre productions and book readings. As most publicans realise, we are in an age where the pub is having to reinvent itself continually to curry favour with customers and encourage them to spend their hard-earned cash.

Hosting an evening or afternoon’s entertainment with an author is a low-cost, low-risk way to entice different types of customer into your pub.

Give it a try, what have you got to lose?