First Chapter Award: Spotlight on Sorina Marinescu

Posted on February 3, 2025 in AHEAD, INTO, UK

In a continuation of our organisational focus on the First Chapter Award and the brilliant folk that they recognise across the publishing and books industries, we are delighted to feature Sorina Marinescu, one of our inaugural 2025 winners of the FCA.

Sorina Marinescu is the founder of Blue Sheep Books in Wednesbury, where she turned her passion for reading into a thriving community hub. After leaving her stable job during the pandemic, she started selling books online and opened her brick-and-mortar store to support those in a deprived area in the West Midlands. As a proud LGBT+ advocate, Sorina creates a safe space for underrepresented voices and provides opportunities for local youth through work experience and affordable books for schools, believing that access to literature is essential for all children.

1. In a nutshell, please could you tell us about your role and what a typical day-in-the-life might look like for you?

As founder, owner, barista, book seller and sole employee of Blue Sheep Books my days are often busy but deeply rewarding! I start at about 9 checking eBay for collectible book sales and making offers – we export about 10 collectible books a month overseas via the global shipping programme – and then head to the store to open for 10am. Serving book and trading card game customers takes up my day till 4pm. I’ll then do any postage I need to, order any items the store needs and head home for about 5pm. 

2. The First Chapter Award celebrates those who support others, show passion for the industry and demonstrate dedication to their goals. Which of your goals are you most proud to have achieved (so far!), and why?

I might the sole full time employee but I have given several young people their first job. This is deeply satisfying and makes me really proud! To see a business I’ve built from scratch help people gain invaluable experience is amazing. 

3. What challenges do you anticipate the book and publishing industry facing in the future, and how do you think the publishing and book community could work together to improve the industry?

It’s really simple – STOP SELLING TO SUPERMARKETS! I’m a little ranty about this because my store sits opposite a Morrisons who sell all the latest releases at between 50% and 60% off. This has a huge effect on my local market and is worse for my store than Amazon. If the book sellers and publishers want to help each other then stop allowing supermarkets to sell at such ridiculous prices. It’s not sustainable for anyone and whilst it must make sales figures look great in terms of numbers of books sold the profit must be terrible which harms book shops, publishers and authors. 

4. What is one piece of advice that you would give to those reading this who want to make a difference in the book and publishing sphere?

To steal from Nike – Just Do It! I was terrified of giving up my full time job and I have had to take a significant pay cut to make the shop work but the work life balance and satisfaction is through the roof!! Seriously, whatever idea you’ve got around books and publishing do it today, not tomorrow, believe in what you’re doing and it’ll happen. After all if it can for me, it can for anyone! 

To steal from Nike – Just Do It!

Sorina Marinescu

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Thanks so much to Sorina for volunteering her time to speak to us!

The First Chapter Awards recognise early-stage professionals, volunteers and hopefuls within the book community. This award aims to celebrate those in the very early years in the industry – those in the first five years in the industry – and crucially seeks to involve those from different roles within the book ecosystem, from librarians to content creators, aspiring publishers to booksellers.

The award is run by SYP in collaboration with The Publishing Post, two volunteer-run organisations that work to improve the accessibility of the industry.