New Beginnings

You'll have noticed that while my main blog has remained alive and well in 2007, this is the first time I've posted on NewGen Blog in seven months. No excuses, but rather a chance for anyone who's interested to follow the progression of the experiment called NewGen Books.

NewGen Books started about a year ago (I've just had to renew the domain name www.newgenbooks.com for the first time). After a slow start (I needed a while to set myself up whilst juggling my degree course) we finished 2006 on a big high - we'd taken more orders than I had ever imagined we would in the first term, and most of the activity was condensed into just 4 weeks which made it even more exciting.

By the time January came around, things had gone quiet enough for me to think about a bit of advertising. Rather than plunging in at the deep end, I started by contacting church leaders in my local area who may be interested in what I was doing. This gave a few more orders after a time, and helped me to understand a bit more what people require.

But by the beginning of January, most work on the website had stopped - I now had to begin to work in earnest on my dissertation, and this frenzy of activity, quickly followed by finals, and then getting stuck into planting a church, has meant that work on the website has not happened at all in 2007.

Meanwhile, orders from various churches continued to come in, helping the thing to tick over, but not meaning that I had a huge distraction from my degree on my hands!

NewGen Books was always an experiment, and I have certainly learnt things along the way so far. So from September 1st, 2007 I'm making some changes to NewGen Books based on what I've learnt so far.

Firstly, I'm employing someone for a few hours a week to do what I should have done from the beginning, and work on the website. The idea was always that people would be able to log on and buy (and pay) online, and I'm aiming to unveil a new shop sometime before Christmas.

Secondly, I'm developing a set of terms and conditions for organisations (mainly churches) who wish to buy in bulk. Discounts will be revisited, and there will be a shipping charge for large orders (delivery will remain FREE on website purchases). Orders over £50.00 will require payment to be received before the order is despatched.

Thirdly, I'll be pursuing opportunities for the business to expand through more of the large-scale opportunities around my local area. I've already gotten wind of a few - I'm hoping there'll be more!

So please do support us as we move forward - the aim has always been to improve the customer's experience of buying Christian books, and to make material more readily available. Do help us get there!