Information

Alternatives has been selling Books By, About and For Women since 1994.
We operate from Cornwall in England and sell books by
Mail-Order, Stalls, E-mail, Internet, and Private Viewing...

Those of you who already know Alternatives Women's Books will know the way in which we operate, and will now be able to get regular book lists by e-mail! Including the occasional catalogue by post.

We concentrate on books that are usually hard to find and keep our prices low to accomodate women with low incomes. We have a large selection of good quality Second-Hand (and sometimes some New) Books By or About Women at affordable prices...

 
We will try and find books that are rare, out-of-print or just hard to find. We cannot guarantee to be able to find your title(s), but we will try our best and we do NOT charge for this.

 
We aim to bring a personal touch to our sales procedure and will glady assist our customers in whatever ways we can. So please do not hesitate in contacting us.

Sue B - "In the summer of 1994 my then partner and I set up a small women's second-hand book business, called Alternatives. At first it was just a glorified hobby; we both loved reading but found that there was hardly any access to women's books of any kind in Cornwall. We started selling the women's books that we had bought at local stalls and then were encouraged to compile a catalogue and sell by mail-order. The respnse we got was amazing and we realised that it was not only in Cornwall that Women found it hard to attain books by or about women, but all over.

Neither of us had any experience in the business so we had to learn as we went along.
This caused some problems early on: we put every penny we had into buying women's books when we found them, which left us with a very limited cash flow.

Living in a remote and rural area where income is low hasn't helped. It has been very hard work, with long and unsociable hours and little financial reward... The main thing that has kept us going was the responses from our customers, giving us great encouragement and a huge sense of job satisfaction.

Our long term aims are to run a bookshop here in Cornwall, combined with a resource centre for women to use, employing women with low incomes, whilst continuing to sell the books by mail-order and stalls".

Article from "Women Making a difference" (A Directory for Change) 1997/98