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By: Stuart Manley
stuart@barterbooks.co.uk
Whenever the subject of discount comes up in a bookseller discussion group, back come a wonderful range of opinions and advice. Most of it being the 'it works for me' variety, but of such a mixed message that any newcomer must be left wondering how on earth one can make any sense of it.
This article is an attempt to clear the thinking on this thorny subject.
Of course, you Americans are part of the problem: - not content with over-tipping our taxi drivers, you mess up our discount structure too!
From time immemorial, the accepted trade discount in Britain was 10%. Somehow, our transatlantic cousins seem to have crept up to 20% in some quarters, but we will leave that to one side at the moment.
The key point about this discount was that it was TRADE and it was RECIPROCAL. It was referred to as 'TWC' - Trade, With Card. It was therefore offered only to genuine fellow traders - not collectors, amateurs, or poseurs. To qualify, you had to be a member of a recognised book trade association such as ABA or PBFA, or be listed in one of the bookdealer directories such as Shephards, Skoob, Coles, or even the memorable Drif's guide. Or at the very least, to produce an acceptable business card or catalogue.
The arrival of the internet has blurred these lines considerably, but that is no reason not to have standards and stick to them.
Why bother, you might ask?
(Once again I have to give the health warning that I seem to have to give with all the articles I write for the IOBA - if you are a 'bookdealer' for any of the following reasons, do not bother to read on - this article is not for you:
But if you are serious about trying to run a business, read on.)
Why not just increase your prices and give discount to anyone who asks? (And rub your hands with glee when they don't ask.)
Well, for one reason, it is not FAIR.
Secondly, it tends to make your books overpriced. And, most importantly, it encourages the culture of haggling.
Haggling in itself is fun, but as a business practice it is time consuming and therefore expensive. Every time you have to negotiate a price, the dollars or pounds are going out of the window - not only are you having to give a discount, but it is costing you money to do so!
Or why not keep your prices level but give a discount whenever the customer asks or insists?
Once again, because it is not fair. But more importantly, because it eats into your margins, both in time and money. And the more you encourage this sort of haggling by caving in, the more difficult you make it for yourself in the future. Whereas I do not care too much if you struggle to make a profit because of your own stupidity, I do care about the effect it has on other more sensible dealers - who strive to run a fair discount policy and are constantly undermined and have their time wasted by customers expecting a discount for no good reason beyond that they asked for it.
So what is a fair discount policy?
One way is to give no discount whatsoever.
This has many advantages and is certainly easy to administer. But it does not encourage trade. Nor does it reward genuine major orders or regular clients.
Another way is to establish straightforward rules - and stick to them:
'Genuine fellow dealers'?
Set your own standards, but our criteria goes like this:
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Although we operate the usual 10% reciprocal trade discount to accredited fellow dealers for our main catalogue range, this does not extend to the 'Bargain Book' section (the under £10 range) of our catalogue. Books from this range are strictly net. Important - trade accreditation: We require ONE of the following references: EITHER (1) direction to a trade directory (Sheppard's, Cole's, Skoob, PBFA, IOBA, etc.) where you are listed, OR (2) the URL of a site where your catalogue is listed, OR (3) A scan of the cover of a recent book catalogue that you have issued.
We regret that without one of these references, we will be unable to offer trade terms. |
10% discount?
All right, you Yanks, give me 20%, but don't expect it to be reciprocal!
If you do decide to adopt a solid discount policy in some similar fashion to the above, how do you handle those customers who ask 'What's your best price?'
The answer is to treat them in a courteous, friendly, but firm manner - they are still potential customers and it is not their fault that others have encouraged haggling in the past.
Our stock reply goes along these lines:
“Long ago we had to decide whether we should inflate our prices so that we could 'give' a 'discount', or work from a straight margin. For better or worse, we chose the latter course. I'm very sorry we cannot help in this instance.” |
Quite apart from this being fair to all (a concept on which I am very keen), in practice I have found it to be effective - as often as not the customer proceeds with the purchase and accepts the clear guidelines that have been laid down. 'Sorry we cannot help in this instance' seems to increase the appetite to purchase, not diminish it!
On a few occasions, just as an experiment, we have tried the other tack - giving in to an unjustified discount demand/request and offering the book at the price the customer wanted. The astonishing result of this experiment was less finalised sales than refusing to reduce the prices, which gave much food for thought and helped solidify the advice being offered in this article.
Selling books on the web at any old price is easy - any fool can do it and many do. But SUCCESSFUL book dealing (i.e. selling books in enough volume and at a big enough profit margin to make a proper living), whether on the web or via a bookshop, is quite a skilled and complicated business. A sensible discount policy is only one of a myriad of things you have to get right, but it is a very good foundation stone to lay before tackling other issues.
If you think that selling your books at any price is more important than maintaining your profit margins, keep on doing it your way, but don't blame me if you join the many moaners that I see on the book discussion groups complaining of their lack of profitability.
But for those who have followed this complex argument to the end, I thank you - If I have convinced just a few of you to tighten up and clarify your discount practices, I will be well pleased - welcome to the professionals.
Having had a surprisingly large response to my article 'Penny Selling' in the last issue of 'The Standard', I intend to talk further on pricing and profitability next issue - if I'm asked back!
Stuart Manley, co-owner, Barter Books, Alnwick, Northumberland, England
http://www.barterbooks.co.uk
By: Chris Finan, president
American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression
chris@abffe.com
Attorney General John Ashcroft is on the campaign trail.
He is not running for office. He is trying to shore up support for the USA Patriot Act. Ashcroft is making speeches to groups all over the country in an effort to head off a growing list of amendments that have been proposed by members of Congress.
It's a remarkable change in the political fortunes of the Patriot Act, and booksellers can claim a considerable share of the credit for calling attention to its problems.
Certainly, no one could have predicted even eight months ago that opposition to the Patriot Act would grow so quickly. It was approved with astonishing speed-just six weeks after the September 11 attacks. It passed almost unanimously. Russell D. Feingold of Wisconsin was the only opponent in the Senate. The vote was 357 to 66 in the House.
The Patriot Act passed so quickly that few members of Congress knew what was in it. One House member observed ruefully that when his copy of the bill reached his desk shortly before the final vote, it was still warm from the copying machine.
The American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression (ABFFE) discovered only in the final days before passage that the Patriot Act contained a provision that gives the FBI the authority to secretly obtain a list of the books purchased by a bookstore customer or borrowed by a library patron. Section 215 gives the FBI the right to search the records of anyone in connection with a foreign intelligence or terrorism investigation, even someone who is not suspected of committing a crime. It also bars booksellers and librarians from reporting the fact that their records have been searched.
We were deeply concerned about the chilling effect of such unprecedented power to inquire into what people were reading. But it was impossible to get much attention for our concerns at a time when anthrax had contaminated the offices of members of Congress and another terrorist attack appeared imminent.
We didn't have much luck even six months later when ABFFE joined ACLU, the National Coalition Against Censorship and several other free expression groups in holding a press conference in Washington, D.C. Senator Feingold and the late Patsy Mink, a representative from Hawaii, joined us in a hearing room on Capitol Hill. Only one reporter showed up.
That's pretty much where things stood until March of this year when Congressman Bernie Sanders (I-VT) was persuaded by a group of Vermont booksellers and librarians to introduce the Freedom to Read Protection Act (H.R. 1157). The Sanders bill exempts bookstore and library records from Section 215. The FBI can still obtain the records. However, the requests are subject to the same safeguards that normally apply when the police subpoena bookstore and library records. Even then, we did not expect the support for H.R. 1157 to grow as quickly as it did. It was soon apparent that Section 215 had struck a deep nerve in booksellers and librarians. In May, ABFFE released a statement supporting the Sanders bill that included the names of over 30 book and library groups as well as a number of large companies, including Barnes & Noble, Borders Group, Ingram Book Group and Baker & Taylor.
Soon newspapers were carrying stories about the issue, and public outrage began to grow. Congress is beginning to reflect that concern. The bill currently has 141 co-sponsors, including both Democrats and Republicans.
It wasn't just Section 215 that was making people nervous. Civil libertarians raised the alarm about Section 213, which authorizes the FBI to conduct secret searches in foreign intelligence investigations. They also criticized the expansion of the FBI's power to engage in wiretapping. More than 200 communities around the country and several state legislatures have now announced their support for curbing some of the powers granted by the Patriot Act.
In July, pressure to amend the Patriot Act produced a stunning result. By a vote of 309-118, the House voted to bar the Justice Department from executing “sneak and peak” search warrants. This was the first restriction on the Patriot Act to pass the House. The attorney general hit the road very soon after.
Meanwhile, pressure continues to grow to amend Section 215. Several bills have now been introduced in the Senate that have the same purpose as the Freedom to Read Protection Act: Barbara Boxer's Library and Bookseller Protection Act (S. 1158) and Feingold's Library, Bookseller and Personal Data Privacy Act (S. 1507). Perhaps the most significant political development recently has been the introduction of corrective legislation by Republicans. Senator Larry Craig of Idaho is the sponsor of the Security and Freedom Ensured Act (S. 1709), which includes the language of the Feingold bill. Representative Otter has introduced a companion bill in the House, H.R. 3352.
The 2003 Congressional session closed without any of this legislation passing. However, we have laid a solid foundation for progress in the 2004 Congressional session.
ABFFE is asking booksellers to help in two ways. First, if you have not done so already, please write or call your members of Congress. If they are already co-sponsors of the Freedom to Read Protection Act or another corrective bill, thank them! It is not easy to support civil liberties at times like this, and your representatives need to know that it is appreciated. If they are not supporting the legislation yet, ask them to become a co-sponsor. To see a list of the co-sponsors of the Freedom to Read Protection Act, use this link, http://news.bookweb.org/freeexpression/1257.html
Co-sponsors of H.R. 3352 and the Senate bills are available through the Library of Congress Web site, THOMAS, To look up contact information about your members of Congress, click here, http://www.house.gov and here http://www.senate.gov
Second, if you're not already a member of ABFFE, please join today. ABFFE is the bookseller's voice in the fight against censorship. ABFFE helped pay for the defense of Kramerbooks and the Tattered Cover Book Store when they faced government efforts to obtain their records. A sponsor of Banned Books Week, we are actively involved in a wide range of issues that affect the First Amendment rights of booksellers and their customers.
Dues are $35 for individuals and $100 for bookstores. You can join through our online store, https://www.abffe.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv, by sending a check to ABFFE, 139 Fulton St., Suite 302, New York, NY 10038, or by calling us at (212) 587-4025 with your credit card.
For those of you who have already supported the fight to restore the protections for bookstore privacy, thanks!
By: Phillip Bevis, Arundel Books
IOBA Standard readers are getting a good look at what should be the big bookselling story of 2004, with a chance to play an important part in this campaign that will help our businesses, our customers, and America as a whole.
This February, retail and online booksellers, coordinated by the ABA, ALA, and PEN, and other concerned groups and organizations, launched a nationwide and on-line petition, backed by large-scale phone and email campaigns. The goal is to generate 1 millions signatures in support the over 150 US Senators and House Members who sponsor important bi-partisan bills to amend Section 215 of the Patriot Act. This on-line petition, phone and email campaign is being reinforced by a nationwide petition campaign at ABA-member bookstores (open to all stores).
Chronology:
February 17th: ABA, ALA, and PEN jointly announce the "Campaign for Reader Privacy". (See: http://www.readerprivacy.com/?mod[type]=press and scroll down to Press Release.) READERPRIVACY.COM goes live. This site is a simple one-stop resource supporting this campaign for booksellers, bookstore customers and concerned citizens (no commercial use will be made of information collected). ABFFE.COM also has extensive info.
Emails and calling scripts (see below) go out to booksellers. This is a carefully scripted plan to make sure that Congress hears not just random noise, but that an entire industry is demanding action. This is where you can help, by making sure that Congress hears this is an important business issue. This will take less than 10 minutes of your time.
You will be surprised at how receptive your elected representatives are on this issue when you are calling as a business owner (no matter how small).
Late February: The ABA booksellers and organizations petition campaign rolls out in stores and online. This campaign is open to all and still going on; please participate! You can sign the on-line version at http://www.readerprivacy.com, download a printable version to circulate to your customers and friends, or both! If you would like to add your business name as a supporter of legislation amending Section 215 of the Patriot Act, please go to: http://www.readerprivacy.com/?mod[type]=book_community to sign on.
Late Spring: We will begin to present the petitions to members of Congress this spring during meetings in their home districts and in Washington.
Our goal: To restore the protections for customer privacy-something that will help our country and that we can take pride in for the rest of our lives.
If you don't make an effort, don't complain.
What is Section 215?
Section 215 "gives the FBI virtually unlimited access to... bookstore and library records" (please see the ABFFE.com home page for more info and links), and has caused tremendous concern among booksellers and bookstore customers, authors, publishers, distributors, librarians and library patrons, as well as many other groups.
Section 215 of the Patriot Act is an issue that has united American retail and online booksellers, large and small, as never before. It has only been recently that efforts by ABFFE (The American Bookseller's Foundation for Free Expression) have revealed how united we are as an industry in being concerned about Section 215, and thus it is only now that we can collectively realize how much power we have to drive change.
An Industry United
Most, if not all, American retail and online booksellers are concerned about Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act. The firms and associations supporting the two main bi-partisan bills in Congress represent roughly 90% of retail book sales in the US, big market shares of publishers and distributors, as well as the entire library field. (See: http://www.readerprivacy.com/?mod[type]=learn_more.) Changing this law will repeal the troubling aspects of Section 215 that concern booksellers and our customers.
What does that mean? It means collectively we have the power. It means that if we use this power properly, Congress will hear us. Our customers and staff will no longer be worried by Section 215, and we can get back to serving our customers, growing our businesses, and creating jobs. The uniformity of opinion in our industry regarding Section 215 means that we can address Congress with a clear and simple message: "This law is bad for business and we want it changed now".
Section 215 - Bipartisan Mistake
The USA Patriot Act was hurriedly crafted and passed after the tragedy of 9/11, a time when Congress clearly felt that the consequences of inaction outweighed the dangers of a bad law. The Patriot Act passed with near-unanimous, bipartisan support, meaning that almost every member of Congress voted in its favor. (Russell Feingold of Wisconsin was the only “no” vote in the Senate. There were 66 opponents in the House.) Most Senators and Representatives will honestly tell you that they did not have a chance to read the bill before voting for it.
In an effort to shore up the increasingly shaky support for the Patriot Act, Attorney General John Ashcroft recently revealed that the Department of Justice has never used Section 215. We should accept him at his word, and conclude that, if Section 215 was not needed in the two years after 9/11, during our Nation's greatest crisis since Pearl Harbor, then it is clear that the laws that already give the government the power to seek bookstore and library records while protecting against potential abuses of customer privacy are entirely adequate to the task of pursuing terrorists. What this proves is that Section 215 has not made a single American family safer, yet it has upset our customers and cost our industry revenue and our country jobs.
Using Our Muscle
Americans are increasingly concerned about intrusions into their privacy. As a result of this feeling, Congress enacted the "Do Not Call List" which garnered support from over 54 million households in a matter of weeks. As booksellers, we sell a single product category, which means our businesses are extremely vulnerable to changes in consumer behavior. There is evidence that consumers are becoming nervous about making purchases where material is controversial in nature or would be an embarrassment. Any law, such as Section 215, that associates our sole product line with negativity or risk in the mind of the consumer is a threat that must be dealt with.
To my knowledge, there is not a single company in our industry that supports Section 215. A law opposed by our entire industry, which concerns our customers, and has never even been used, is a law without a constituency. A few hundred or thousand phone calls from businesses like ours could make the difference.
Although ABFFE and other Civil Rights and Free Speech groups are currently challenging Section 215 and other aspects of the Patriot Act in court, as businesses we have the ability to get Congress to repeal the part that troubles us, and get results fast.
Get Off the Fence
In my memory of this industry, this sort of unity is rare and unique. I realize that for independent retail and online booksellers continually buffeted by change and brutal competition the very thought that we do in fact have power is an alien concept, but I can assure you that this is in fact the case. So often in our business careers our companies and this nation as a whole are adversely affected by bad laws or circumstances that we feel powerless to change. Section 215 of the Patriot Act is a bad law that we can change.
If you have not considered this issue, or are a fence sitter, I suggest you ask a few random customers the following:
Are you aware that the Federal Government has the right to make us tell them what you read?
If you believed the government would learn what you were buying, are you more likely, less likely or as likely, to buy books in the following subjects:
firearms & Second Amendment rights
religion (if you want to be specific pick any one you want)
depression, anxiety and personal medical issues
addiction & recovery
abortion, pro-choice & pro-life issues
sexuality
And last: As credit card transactions can be traced, ask do you believe your privacy is "better protected" if you pay cash?
The answers will get you off the fence. They will also lead you to understand that there are other, powerful constituencies and special interest groups (all of whom poll extensively), who will shortly realize that Section 215 is impeding their ability to get their message across to future members. And, in the case of the credit card companies, how will they feel about customers shift to cash in bookstore purchases?
Do You Want to Vent - or Win?
For some companies and individuals in our field, opposition to Section 215 is strictly a matter of principle and a patriotic commitment to the freedoms and Constitutional rights bequeathed to us by the Founding Fathers, and sustained by the blood and toil of our forefathers. For others, opposition is strictly based upon business principles and their customers' increasing discomfort. I believe that most of our colleagues oppose Section 215 on both counts.
It is important to remember that the Patriot Act is not a Republican law, it is a bi-partisan law. Just as Democrats were full partners in creating and passing the Patriot Act, Republicans are playing a leading role in changing Section 215 (and Independents as well, Congressman Bernie Sanders, I, VT is author of the leading bill in the House). Just as with Democrats and liberals, Republicans and the Republican Party are not monolithic, and if we approach this as a bad bi-partisan law - not a bad Republican law - Republican Senators and Representatives will in many cases be receptive.
Just prior to 9/11, we at Arundel Books had our own fight over our customer records with Attorney General Ashcroft, the Justice Department, and the FBI. Yes... we won, with help from ABFFE and other groups across the political spectrum. While I realize that Mr. Ashcroft is a divisive and controversial figure, he alone did not pass Section 215 of the Patriot Act. Democratic and Republican Senators and Representatives did. I personally am opposed to Section 215 regardless of which party is in power, no matter who fills the office of Attorney General.
If we individually and collectively confuse Mr. Ashcroft or the Bush Administration with the problem that Section 215 represents, we will make our ultimate victory more difficult.
So, when I tell you that you can vent, or win, what do I mean? Section 215 presents us with a business problem that needs a businesslike solution. Hundreds if not thousands of business owners like you and I need to pick up the phone and spend a few minutes making calls. If we are businesslike, it will be easier to pick up support. If too many of us use this opportunity to attack Mr. Ashcroft, President Bush, or the Republican Party as a whole, there is a good chance that Republican Senators and Representatives whose votes we need will circle the wagons to defend Section 215 - which is at the end of the day a law that they oppose in principle and would otherwise happily repeal. We would also lose the support and votes of many Democrats (and possibly Independents) who are interested in results and not posturing. The Senate bill, S-1709 (the Security and Freedom Ensured (SAFE) Act), which we should support, was in fact written and sponsored by a Republican, Senator Larry Craig of Idaho.
If you want to vent, call a talk show, your Mom, or your therapist. If you want to win, take this seriously and treat it like an appointment with your banker. If we take this approach and leave the partisan political rhetoric aside, we will win, our customers will be happy, and America will be better off for our efforts. Our industry is so united that there will be no cost or retaliation and you will feel like you made a difference and achieved something important.
GETTING IT DONE
What to Do?
First of all let me assure you, you are in fact going to enjoy this. It is not like going to the dentist, these people actually want to hear from you and stay in office by being responsive to business owners like us. It is companies like ours that create jobs, pay taxes and make this country work.
If this takes more than 10 minutes, you are a slow dialer.
Get your phone numbers and bill numbers ready, and get your script ready (see below for examples). This will get you to the right person, help you get your point across, respect that person's time, and leave them time to speak to you. Your 'script' should fit on an index card, and you should do one each for the House and the Senate. Feel free to write your own, I have provided a generic model if it helps. Just remember, venting and winning are two different things. Let's win!
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Congress has Two Houses & Two Bills
Just as there are two houses of Congress, there are two somewhat different bills.
The bill in the US Senate is S-1709 (the Security and Freedom Ensured (SAFE) Act), written and sponsored by a Republican, Senator Larry Craig of Idaho.
Your Senators:
Find your senators' names and contact info. Go to the following website (you can also check the Government section of your white pages phone book):
http://www.senate.gov Use the pull-down menu to select your state (if you operate or own homes in more than one state, go for broke - call them all).
Write down or print out both of your Senator's names and phone #'s. Unless you are allergic to long distance, it is best if you call their Washington offices (starts with area code 202).
Have your script ready. Call both of your Senators.
Sample Senate script:
2 Senators, 2 Calls: ---------------------------
How it works:
[ring... Senator Blank's office]
FIRST - GET THE RIGHT PERSON (hint - it is NOT the Senator but a staff member):
You Ask: Who can I speak with regarding the Senator's position on S-1709? [If they need more info S-1709 is the Security and Freedom Ensured (SAFE) Act - bi-partisan, sponsored by Larry Craig and Dick Durbin]
[answer will include name and number - write them down; if the person is unavailable you will get voice mail - in which case you say your name and number, and that you are a business owner and constituent calling for info on the Senator's position on S-1709]
When you get through, here is a sample script:
Hello [name], thank you for taking my call.
I am calling to inquire about the Senator's position on S-1709 [If they need more info S-1709 is the Security and Freedom Ensured (SAFE) Act - bi-partisan, sponsored by Larry Craig and Dick Durbin].
I am a business owner and a constituent (if you share the Senator's party affiliation say so). Section 215 of the Patriot Act is causing my customers concern and giving me and my business headaches. Mr. Ashcroft himself has plainly said it has not been used, and I would like the Senator to join in support of S-1709 - a bi-partisan bill, sponsored by Larry Craig and Dick Durbin, that will restore the safeguards for customer privacy without undermining the ability of the government to pursue terrorists. Are you aware that virtually every company in our industry opposes Section 215 and supports S-1709 - from the malls to Main Street - amounting to over 90% of gross retail book industry market share?
Where does the Senator stand on this?
If the Senator is supporting the bill - express your thanks and restate the importance of this issue to you.
If the Senator is not yet on board, it helps to leave your name and number and ask for a follow-up call, and ask: How can I help the Senator to understand the importance of this bill to our industry, our customers, and the Senator's constituents?
Repeat this phone call to your state's second Senator. Great job!
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Calls #3 & 4 - Your US Representatives (unless you live in the same zip code as you work - if you own multiple houses of businesses call all Representatives in your areas)
Go to the following website
http://www.house.gov
Enter the zip codes that apply for your home and work, and write down names and phone numbers.
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[ring... Representative Blank's office]
FIRST - GET THE RIGHT PERSON (hint - it is NOT the Representative but a staff member):
You Ask: Who can I speak with regarding the Representative's position on HR-1157? [If they need more info it is Bernie Sanders' Freedom to Read Protection Act (H.R. 1157) which has over 140 co-sponsors so there is a good chance they are on board]
[Answer will include name and number - write them down; if the person is unavailable you will get voice mail - in which case you say your name and number, and that you are a business owner and constituent calling for info on the Representative's position on H.R. 1157]
When you get through, here is a sample script:
Hello [name], thank you for taking my call.
I am calling to inquire about the Representative's position on H.R. 1157 [If they need more info it is Bernie Sanders' Freedom to Read Protection Act with over 140 co-sponsors].
I am a business owner and a constituent (if you share party affiliation say so). Section 215 of the Patriot Act is causing my customers concern and giving me and my business headaches. Mr. Ashcroft himself has plainly said it has not been used, and I would like the Representative to join in support of H.R. 1157 - a bi-partisan bill, sponsored by Bernie Sanders, that will restore the safeguards for customer privacy without undermining the ability of the government to pursue terrorists. Are you aware that virtually every company in our industry opposes Section 215 and supports H.R. 1157 - from the malls to Main Street? - amounting to over 90% of gross retail market share?
Where does the representative stand on this?
If he/she is supporting the bill - express your thanks and restate the importance of this issue to you.
If he/she is not yet on board it helps to leave your name and number and ask for a follow-up call, and ask: How can I help you folks to understand the importance of this bill to our industry, our customers, and your constituents?
************************
************************
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Phillip Bevis
Arundel Books
(206) 624-4442
By: Rick Russell
rick@sangraal-books.com
When any business changes, and the used/rare/antiquarian book market has changed dramatically over the last decade, everybody seems to be pointing fingers at everyone else. The terms "fraud", "forgery" and "fake" get tossed around in wild abandon. "Playing fields" are described as "tilted", "honest information" is hidden and "the buying public" routinely cheated. This is, of course, hogwash. There has, in fact, been a revolution in used and rare bookselling, occasioned by the internet, and a lot of the old ways are disappearing. Tuesday was once dedicated to quoting books on postcards, now, we put books into databases to put them into our sites, on a database site or in an auction. Of course, with anything new, there are glitches, and how the internet gets over these will probably determine the future course of the business.
The internet did several things that changed the nature of the book business. First, it opened it up to a new and larger audience, which is vastly different from that of seven or eight years ago. Second, it put information at the tips of their fingers. Third, it opened up trunks in attics, garages and storage sheds, so that rare, isn't so rare anymore. There are a lot more booksellers in the world now than there were before the internet came along. Some very good ones have grown up on the net, with its wealth of information, and then, of course, there are always the ones who cut corners.
Booksellers did not create the internet. The database and auction sites were created by people with vastly different ideas, goals and expertise than a bookseller. eBay, for example, began life as a sort of internet flea market. It is evolving in two directions at once, as if deciding to be a flea market, or an antique mall, while trying to hold onto both markets. There are inherent differences between the two, thus leading to all manner of problems and becoming a “target of opportunity” for those who want to cut corners a bit.
Not so very long ago, a “flat-signed” book without any verification of the signature, would not have been worth much more than the same book sans signature. In a flea market atmosphere, it is worth more, in an antique mall atmosphere, it is not. eBay's taxonomy puts all signed books in the “First Edition” category. There is no separate category for verified signatures, or signatures on later printings. Thus, with a signed book, and a light box, one can begin a cottage industry. Hence, the oft-leveled charge of forgery. Not that forgeries don't sit in catalogues, on database sites, or in brick and mortar stores, they do in gay profusion. eBay, after all, did not invent the light box. It is the seeming aid and comfort eBay is giving to forgers that draws fire. Does this mean that all signatures on eBay are forgeries? Of course not. On the net, I have little doubt that the hidden forgeries on ABE outnumber eBay's by several times. On eBay, there is often a picture that can belie a forgery, unless it is very good.
And, of course, the “First Edition” category is a big “Welcome” mat for those bent on deception. First Edition is really a pretty meaningless term. And to create a category that is just this catch-all mishmash of a thing creates the confusion that con-men can feed on. If it were put in the Genres, as “Modern First Edition” and defined, it would cut down on a lot of the confusion. Every single book there is had a first edition. “First Editions” are neither especially rare nor particularly valuable. Because eBay is neither designed nor run by booksellers, it is understandable that eBay should fall for this superstition, giving the modern later printing of a best seller this status. So the charge of fraud gets levied. In point of fact, many publishers label later printings “First Edition”, and, indeed, they are; the printing plates are the same. The collector, by and large, is looking for the first appearance of the work and therefore the first print run, and often, if a change was made during that run, the first state. Again, the taxonomy of eBay can be seen to be aiding and abetting the bogus bookseller, and indeed, it does. Once again, the flea market mentality comes into play. The first assumption, and an undoubtedly true one, is that a great many eBay sellers do not know how to distinguish a first edition, first printing, first state. Those who do are, thus, according to some, placed at a disadvantage. In the short run, quite probably this is true. In the long run, however, the honest, knowledgeable and frequent eBay bookseller gains a reputation that not only outweighs the disadvantage, but actually allows for a higher opening bid and final price on better books.
The internet has opened new vistas of information. As a bookseller for more than 30 years, I have a room full of reference books. Yet the internet eclipses my poor little library to the point of making it almost a nonentity. Never, outside of major cities, with large libraries holding extensive collections, has so much information been available to the average collector. Again, eBay doesn't help, doesn't recommend sites, or even point out that such references are a google search away. So we get the charge that eBay is hiding information. Indeed, they are. The flea market mentality puts the onus on the buyer, “caveat emptor”. In a brick and mortar store, the onus is likewise, on the buyer, but the atmosphere makes the knowledge available seem greater. While, in many cases this is an illusion, in many cases it is not. Knowledgeable booksellers often take the time to explain, and verify what they have. Many such booksellers have reputations that draw people into their stores, and allow a buyer to trust “First Edition” when they pencil it on the free end paper. This is only beginning to be available on the internet, as some booksellers build an online reputation. Should eBay do more to point out information? Perhaps. Should they do more in the way of providing information, if only links? Probably. However, not being booksellers, not even focusing on bookselling, can they be accused of hiding information? Hardly.
The schizophrenic nature of eBay is open to numerous charges of all types. I don't think there has been anyone who has been more vocal on the eBay booksellers' board than I have been about these deficiencies in better books. I am sure that flea marketers, on the other end of things, have their woes as well. Eventually, either eBay or outside entrepreneurs will change this. There will eventually be an auction site and a database site for better books on the internet. That is the future, and we can look forward to it. Time never moves backward, except in Science Fiction novels. Until then, if you are honest and are working on becoming more knowledgeable, you are a part of that future. For now, it doesn't get better than eBay. But, it will.
Rick Russell, Bookseller
Selling as rickrussell on eBay
http://sangraal-books.com/
By: David Holloway
Hollowayd@aol.com
Buying books on eBay can be a frustrating experience. I hope to give a few basic pointers to make the experience safer and more rewarding in the long run. To begin with, I must explain that nobody ever bought a book from eBay, but thousands of people buy books offered by eBay sellers. This is an important distinction. I have been in open shops where Grosset & Dunlap reprint titles were offered as first editions, and I have received catalogs where book club reprints were offered as first editions. My point is that a smart book collector needs to use common sense and be careful no matter where he shops.
How can you be sure on eBay? Since so many sellers on eBay have little experience selling books it is important to be careful. Try to buy from a dealer who takes returns. Even the most experienced bookseller makes errors, and the more experienced and professional sellers are willing to admit that and will take a return within a given period of time with no questions asked. This has been a standard in the mail order book trade for as long as I can remember. An honest seller will take a return if the book isn't as described, and most sellers will take returns for any reason. I've had several books returned because the person ˜found out they already have a copy.” As a seller it is frustrating, but I know it gives buyers the confidence to bid on or purchase my books so I have always accepted returns.
Another way to make your shopping safer is to buy from people who sell books. I know it sounds ridiculous; after all, you are buying a book so they sell books, right? Look and see what else they are selling. If they have three books, and two hundred pokemon cards, six chipped mugs, and a vintage motorcycle for sale, maybe they aren't primarily booksellers. If all you want is a reading copy, these dealers will be fine to buy from, but they generally don't understand condition standards for book collecting or how to identify first editions or how to properly describe them. These sellers often write "I'm not a bookseller" somewhere in their descriptions. The truth is they ARE booksellers, they just aren't very good at it.
Another way to judge the experience of the seller is to look for bookselling terminology and clear descriptions of condition. If the person knows the ˜lingo” of bibliography and of book description then they will be able to answer your questions and describe their books correctly.
In general it is wise to be suspicious of dealers who sell through private auctions. Although it does protect the identity of their bidders, it also hides information that is important for bidders to know. Many times books that are misdescribed or contain bad signatures are offered in private auctions so that the bidders cannot be warned off by other members of the eBay community.
If the image and the written description are at odds, believe whichever is worse. I have seen books that are beautiful in the scans with condition descriptions of "fair”--upon inquiring it turns out that a major flaw has not been described or pictured in the scan.
Following these rules may lose you some bargains. You might not get that first edition of Huckleberry Finn for $10.00. On the other hand you might not get that first edition of Huckleberry Finn for $1,000 and find out that it is a Grossett & Dunlap reprint, and the seller doesn't take returns.
Essentially a buyer's responsibility on eBay is to learn enough about the seller from their listing style, the types of goods they sell, and their feedback history to feel confident buying from them. It may be a bit more trouble than some mail order transactions, and there certainly are more unsophisticated sellers on eBay, but it really means no more than knowing something about the person or business that you are buying from.
By carefully reading the seller's listings, judging what types of items they usually sell, and not bidding on auctions where the terms are unfavorable (no returns, or private auctions for instance) anyone can buy safely on eBay. There are as many honest sellers on eBay as there are on any other venue. Unfortunately, the dishonest and irresponsible sellers are the ones that get the most attention.
David Holloway, Bookseller
Selling as Hollowayd on eBay.
Books online at ABEBOOKS at:
http://www.abebooks.com/home/DRHBOOKS/
By: Tim Miller
unitedpublishing@surfnetcorp.com
[Note: IOBA in no way endorses the contents of this article. It was printed here as an alternative viewpoint, and is left here in the interest of archival integrity.]
For the past five centuries, regular people like you and I have enjoyed the pleasure of collecting autographs of both the well known and the not-so-well-known. The hobby began when 16th Century German students maintained albums of correspondence from family, friends and noblemen. It wasn't until the late 18th century that autograph collecting, in its modern sense, had evolved into a worldwide past time for millions of people from all socioeconomic levels of humanity. While the number of collectors continued to expand, the hobby went through a natural transition to focus on the most popular figures in human culture - those in power and those in vogue. The subjects of our affection have changed very little - politicians, religious leaders, sports heroes, and literary greats.
Many people have invested small fortunes in the hobby. This has been true when the economy and markets have done well as well as when the economy and markets have done poorly. Many people have hedged their portfolios by investing in Americana; signed books, unsigned 1sts, art and other collectibles. The educated consumer of autographs is becoming more and more discriminating, the result being that the quality of the autograph is now highly important. Details are significant - such as whether it is a full signature, or just the family name and first initial (the famous A. Lincoln versus Abraham Lincoln variation), and if the autograph has a good provenance or history that is verifiable and/or special. Important content, like historical references or the mention of well-known persons included in a note, means increased value for an autographed piece. A signature from a United States President is usually more valuable if the signature can be dated to the time the President was in office. The phrase “Signed as President” is used to distinguish this and we tend to value these at a premium price.
Recently there has been a “great-debate” between the old-guard and the avant-garde about autographed books and their values with inscriptions versus Flatsigned, which is the author's signature alone, without being personalized to some stranger. Many booksellers, who have been selling signed books far longer than I have been, have stated that inscribed is better. I do not believe this to be the case. While I find there are exceptions like a lengthy inscription from Lincoln or Hemingway for example, the marketability and hence the value of a Flatsigned modern book is far superior to those that are personalized to some stranger. This has proven to be one of the keys to my successful venture of selling online and has also been a target of attack from those who dismiss and attack internet booksellers in general.
This is an exciting time to be an autograph collector. Many of our most prominent people are recording their thoughts for posterity and then signing their works. The medium that has generated huge interest (and prices) among collectors recently is signed books. The collecting of books was a recognized hobby long before autograph collecting became popular, but it wasn't until the invention of the printing press that those other than the very wealthy could afford to own even a small library. Then, in the 19th century, the idea of having authors autograph their books struck gold and now is one of the most popular and most rewarding forms of autograph collecting. Signed books are the medium through which I first became hooked on the love of select, special autographs, and how I phased away from my previous full-time profession into my current multi-million dollar business of selling books, art and Americana, mostly Flatsigned, via online and especially on eBay.
Selling online began for me via Amazon.com auctions. I owed the IRS twenty thousand dollars and decided to sell part of my collection to pay off the government. After selling a few of my books via Amazon.com Auctions it became increasingly apparent that there was a need and a market yet untapped for the selling of autographed books online. Within a couple of weeks I had the money to pay the IRS and began reinvesting my revenue into building an even larger collection. Within six months it was apparent to me that this was an obvious career move.
In the early days of Amazon.com auctions, the prices conceived for signed books was incredible. There was little competition and good marketing led to monthly sales that were close to my annual salary. I hired two part-time employees to do the computer-related tasks and to do packing while I then focused on buying and marketing. Within a year I quit my “real-job” and began selling online full-time.
All during this time I was being attacked by the old-school of booksellers who wanted to completely do away with online book sales. While most fellow on-line booksellers stuck together and worked together for the greater good, many decided to go on the offensive. Within a few months Amazon.com Auctions were basically dead…….no customers, no sales, no revenue. That is when eBay really came alive with booksellers, including myself.
Along with selling books from my long-term, personal collection I had been buying books on eBay and selling them on Amazon. All during this time I found literally thousands of people who wanted to learn more about the hobby and who wanted to invest in what was an incredible future. Many of those people have remained in contact with me over the years and many are still loyal customers of mine, making the shift from Amazon to eBay with me.
Since that time literally thousands of people have become “booksellers” resulting in a flooding of the market for the lower end, collectible books and a devaluation of the prices. However, the high-end, non-replaceable, collectible books have continued to go up in price and value. The logic here is simple. When the internet became an option for people to sell books, thousands of people searched their world and found more and more product to sell. But, there were few or no Hemingway's or To Kill a Mockingbirds which resulted in the low-end books going down and the high end books going up as there were more and more collectors and still few high-end books. This entire flooding and devaluation has begun to level off as should be expected with the advent of a new technology that resulted in a new marketplace.
For those of you who are meek at heart, I do not advise a life of selling on eBay. It is expensive (I pay about $7,000.00 per month in fees), difficult and puts your future out of your control and into eBay's. For those of you who are already there then I encourage you to grow by providing the best service and product available. That is how to distinguish yourself from those who truly harm the trade. Beware those who do not show signatures online and beware those who do not give their real, physical address and their real telephone numbers. eBay is a wonderful and scary place to work, visit and buy.
Selling on eBay has now allowed me to become a family-owned business with four full-time employees. We have been featured in national magazines and in a nationally televised infomercial about making money online. We have met and made friends of some of the most wonderful people in the world. We have made enemies of those who hate that online book sales have taken away from used to be a very controlled and monopolized business. To paraphrase a wonderful line of literature, “These have been the best of times and the worst of times” but I would change few of the things that I did along the way.
When it comes to eBay, my success has been due to a number of things. One of the most important was the addition of the bulk-loading services offered by http://www.auctionwatch.com (now http://www.vendio.com). This company provided the ability to bulk-upload, schedule in advance, schedule repeat auctions, monitor hits and bids as well as preview capabilities long before eBay or companies like Andale (I do not like Andale at all) ever were on the scene. This company also provides post-auction management services, which I don't use. My system is very simple; upload the auctions, PayPal sends out an automated "congratulations" email, customer pays and we ship. We truly do "keep it simple." The MOST important aspect of this business is providing almost 24/7 customer service and we provide many, many free services like an informative newsletter, free opinions and we answer almost any questions posed by our members, customers and strangers.
I believe the area of signed books is the fastest-growing segment of the autograph collectibles trade. After carefully watching the autograph and book markets for two decades, I observed a very intriguing trend that is quite significant in this time of economic instability. When the stock market went up during the booming years of the late 1990s, signed book values climbed, as did most collectibles during that era. However, as the United States economy and collectibles in general began to move toward a recession, the price and value of most signed books continued to go up. The rationale behind this apparent paradox is simple: When the market goes up, more people have more money available to invest in long-term collectibles that they really enjoy. When the market goes down, people look for other investment potential and restrict their spending to areas that they really enjoy (i.e., long-term collectibles).
Investors and collectors have been speculating and investing in collectibles of all types for decades. While many collectibles, such as baseball cards and beanie babies, have large followings, they have provided a market with peaks but mostly valleys. However, many collectible books have enjoyed relatively upward-spiraling increases in value over a long time, and they reward investors with hours of pleasure as well as a nest egg for the future. While there are never guarantees, collectors have seen some of their signed “first edition” books increase in market price from two thousand to twenty-five thousand dollars in a decade or so. One example of this is a First Edition, First Printing of “Old Man and the Sea” by Ernest Hemingway.
There are two things to be very mindful of when purchasing an autographed book for both collecting and/or investment: condition of the book and popularity of the title. As with most collectibles, books in As New/Fine condition command a premium price in the market. It is especially true of what we call “hyper-modern” books that condition plays an incredibly important role in determining value. By hyper-modern, we mean in the last twenty years or so, since there are so many more people who have been carefully storing their treasured copies as they come off the bookstore shelf. For more rare books, it isn't unusual to find just Good condition copies of titles in demand by such legends as Hemingway or Salinger that still command prices of over a thousand dollars
For best values, always pay close attention to new authors and their new books. If you are able to get an As New hardcover signed first printing for $50 or less, what have you got to lose? At worst, you have another interesting and collectible autographed book for your library! There is no doubt some of today's newcomers will be the literary giants of our future!
How does someone best predict which autographed books will go up in value? One of the most certain signs that an autographed book will significantly go up in value is when that particular book and/or author wins a prominent award. This may be a national book award like the Shamus or a worldwide award like the Pulitzer Prize.
Other signs of particular interest, when buying books for long-term investment potential, would be those that have already held their own during decades of collecting. Examples are books by Hemingway, Steinbeck, Fitzgerald and Faulkner. Those books will experience less volatility in the marketplace since they have withstood the test of time. More recent books are much more likely to have large price swings.
We cannot know for certain if our investment in autographs or autographed books will provide us a fortune when we retire. However, we can certainly improve our chances by being smart collectors. Always remember to collect what YOU enjoy! That way you will always have a wonderful collection whether book values go up or down.
Just like all other autograph collectors, I still get a real thrill when I see and hold that long-desired signature of that famous person who I have always admired. Today's newsmakers and yesterday's heroes all continue to help us have a wonderful hobby and for some, a satisfying career. For me, I am fortunate enough to have both. My best wishes to you on your collecting adventures!
Tim Miller is an author and entrepreneur who regularly advises collectors of rare books and fine art. He is a life-long collector of autographs. Miller is the publisher of his own newsletter and magazine who has contributed to many other publications in the field of autographs. Miller is a fully credentialed member of the International Society of Appraisers, a Certified Member Trainer of the United States Junior Chamber of Commerce and an Ambassador of the Junior Chamber International, an affiliate member of the United Nations.
The term FLATSIGNED was originally coined by the world's most popular author, Stephen King. This word has now become a worldwide, recognized symbol of the best quality of rare and collectible books. Visit the website at http://www.FLATSIGNED.com or phone Tim Miller toll free at 888 568 3048 to discuss your needs for rare, autographed books, art or other rare, autographed collectibles. A full-time staff of professionals is available to assist you.
By: Chuck Pierce
gub@shasta.com
There are many types of book dealers. When one uses the words “book dealer” to someone who is not in the business, what is often pictured is a poorly lit and cramped bookstore in the poorer side of town, with shelves sagging from the weight of too many dusty but beautifully hand carved leather wrapped collectibles. In the corner of the store is an over stuffed chair, with a goose neck lamp looking over the shoulder of the dealer, who sits and puffs on his pipe while reading.
This well educated and well read, slightly grumpy (but in an oddly kind way) old timer is more at home with his books, and the store cat, than with customers. He knows that the customer really does not understand his books, and he hesitates to sell them - preferring to adopt them to a good home. He is as independent as his cat (maybe that's why he likes the store cat - they share a secret). When he does finally sell a book, it is for lots of money, and he takes great care in preparing the book for it's long and dangerous journey to its new home. Wrapping it in plain paper and tying a string lovingly around the package before passing it over the cluttered counter to the eager and very happy customer. His strong sense of independence does not allow him to ACT like he really needs the sale - even if he does.
I'm sure that such places exist. I know that such dealers exist. In fact, I've been there. I am describing a scene that I've seen (sorry about the pun). From talking to others in my industry, I know that they are just that kind of dealer, or close to it. They are everywhere: on every continent, in every country on the planet.
The modern traditional dealer has an on-line presence, but he brings many of the ideas and customs of the dealer from a hundred years ago with him into a new millennium.
A different kind of dealer has emerged. I call him the New Age Book Seller.
The biggest difference between the contemporary book seller and our old curmudgeon is that our new age seller is a businessman first. The skills that he brings to bear to sell his wares could easily be applied to any commodity. He views the books he has in stock as inventory. He has no emotional ties to his inventory. He recognizes that a book has no soul and no feelings. He sees a book as a tool, like a wrench or a car. It has a use, and it has a useful life. When it becomes valueless because of age, condition or obsolescence, it should be discarded to make room for inventory that has value (i.e. can be sold).
He buys in bulk, by the truckload for pennies per unit - knowing full well that a third of the purchase will be worthless, and will therefore be destroyed. This is reflected in the price he pays for a book. He does not “donate” books - he sells them or he destroys them.
Most, if not all, of his inventory is paperbacks. A third of it is Historical Romance, another third is Science Fiction. He knows that the reason there is so much Historical Romance out there is because a lot of people read it. Bored housewives and old women who just adore Danielle Steel and Nora Roberts. Pimply faced kids who can't wait for that next StarTrek episode. Middle aged men who will re-read that Robert Heinlein classic until it falls apart. Youngish pierced and tattooed females who wear all black and truly believe that Anne Rice and Stephen King are the ONLY authors in the world. These are the customers of the New Age Book Seller.
His store is on-line. He has a couple of thousand square feet of warehouse space in the light industrial section of town. His “store” is sandwiched between a carpet cleaning business storage facility, and a guy that rebuilds marine engines. Across the street is a propane storage facility, so the “neighborhood” always smells bad. But, it doesn't matter because he only goes there twice a week for three or four hours to pull the orders and prepare them for shipping. It's not unusual to see an open can of beer on the shipping station desk and the TV blaring a football game as he wraps the last two days' orders.
His office is nice, because that's where he spends most of his time. There is a network of state of the art computer equipment. He spends at least half of his time marketing. He uses pop-up ads, swaps links with other non-bookselling websites that share demographics, and utilizes email marketing (some people call this spamming.) While he complies with the law, he is acutely aware where the line is, and purposefully gets as close to it as possible in his marketing strategies.
While our traditional book dealer might sell five or ten books a week, our New Age dealer must sell that in one day just to break even, and he is not in business to break even. He demands profit so he has to sell twenty or thirty books - every day. His overhead is much higher; he spends so much on shipping the IRS doesn't believe his tax filings and he gets audited most every year.
He is a practical expert at computers, a generalist. He knows how to do much of what needs to be done, but more importantly - he knows when to not spend too much time learning to be what he isn't. He figures that if it takes him six hours to learn how to do it, and he can pay a professional $100 to do it in an hour, he'll hire the professional. He knows he'll make much more than $100 in six hours doing something more productive.
His approach to dealing with a customer is much different too. While our wizened traditional book dealer appears to be in no big hurry to sell a book, the New Age Book Seller is always in a hurry. Time is money. “Speed and profit” is his motto. He hits the cash register as often as possible. If sales slow down, he gets busy. In fact he works harder when sales are slow than when they are roaring.
The New Age Book Seller admires the efficiency of MacDonalds - not necessarily their cuisine. He notes that there has never, ever been a MacDonalds restaurant that has failed - gone out of business. He tries hard to emulate their operation, and apply its assembly line efficiency to his business. He sells brain candy, empty calories for the empty craniums that he serves. He also copies their approach to customer service.
I was in a MacDonalds once. I got a Big Mac meal deal for $3.95 - when I got back to my seat I looked down at a cardboard box that was only half full of french fries, um, I mean freedom fries. Well, I want ALL of my fries. I went back up to the counter and pointed out that I didn't get a full measure. The clerk shrugged and gave me another one. I now had one and a half orders of fries. No complaint right?
Well, our New Age Book Seller takes the same approach. If someone orders a paperback Patricia Cornwell book, and two weeks later he gets an email that says, “The book was in poor shape, and it arrived late, and the story was awful” he refunds the buyer's $3.95 because it just isn't worth a whole lot of his time. If it happens too often with the same customer, he politely invites the customer to shop somewhere else. If the customer consistently takes up more than his allotted few minutes per purchase of customer service time, he is a liability. Liabilities need to be referred to his competition.
Should the customer get the same service as the one who is spending $100 on a rare coffee table book about tall sailing ships? Of course not. And the traditional dealer MUST treat his sale differently. He can't just go to the shelves and get another copy and give it to the customer if it is damaged in transit. He has to take extra care in everything from confirming the financial transaction information to packaging for shipment and insuring. The New Age Seller drops the book in a paper envelope and mails it - and if it gets damaged in transit, he ships another one or refunds - or both.
Our New Age Book Seller is a capitalist. He works equations all day long in his head. “Is what I'm getting worth MORE than what I'm giving up?” and “Can I have someone else do this job cheaper than what my time is worth?” and, “Yea, it's a beautiful book - I wonder what it will sell for, and cost to ship?”
While the dealer and the seller have a lot in common, they are also as different as night and day. They are as different as two restaurants. One where you are seated by a waiter with a freedom accent and the cheapest bottle of wine is a day's minimum-wages - and the hamburger stand uptown where you fill your own paper cup with soda pop. The traditional dealer believes that it is much less work to sell one book for $100 than ten books for $10 each. I wonder if that's true, but to each his own. We both serve a need - or we wouldn't both exist.
The New Age Book Seller is looked down upon by the traditional dealers. I've heard us described as “drek dealers” and “penny dealers”, and worse. But we serve a need, we fill a niche.
Since we make a hundred small decisions every day, a bad decision is not earth shattering. If we miss an opportunity, we learn from it and keep an eye peeled for the next one because it's right around the corner. It is fast paced, fun, and profitable, and much to the chagrin of the traditional dealer - we are here to stay.
By: Joyce Godsey
book_pundit@comcast.net
So, the other day I was chewing the fat with this guy, this book collector guy, you know, and in the middle of emailing the conversation back and forth this guy he comes right out and just gives me a URL for a Roman numeral converter. Without even asking if I needed it, or wanted it or anything. And like, it gave me like the weirdest feeling, you know? I was shocked for like an entire ten minutes. I mean, I may not know much but I KNOW my Roman numerals.
I have since found that there are many Roman numeral converters on the net. Why is that? Has American education devolved to the point where Roman numerals are considered higher math? I think I learned how to convert them back in third grade. Granted there were nuns and corporal punishments involved and until I discovered I was a bookseller, they weren't good for much of anything except reading inscriptions on buildings and the thing at the end of the movie next to the MPAA rating. But now it is just something I can do subconsciously. It's really hard to imagine that it's not common knowledge anymore.
There are a lot of basic skills a good bookseller should have, being able to convert Roman Numerals is one of them. Even if you have to you make up a post-it crib note and put it on your monitor, do it, because eventually you just have to do it all by yourself on the fly. When you're standing in a crowded aisle of a book sale holding a crappy ex-Harvard-library copy of Frankenstein it's good to know it DOES say 1836 on it. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing...and most especially when you don't have it.
Another useful asset is a basic knowledge of Latin. Now, I am not saying you need to be able to stand up in from of the class and conjugate "amo, amas, amat" like an "O" level student, but to be able to distinguish the verbs FROM the nouns is a good start. Epigraphs still pop up in Latin from time to time and for those of you 21st century booksellers who don't know what an epigraph is, you have bigger issues at hand. Besides if Latin wasn't still a valuable asset, why would Harry Potter be translated into it? Huh? Nevermind. Trust me, it's a good thing and it can't possibly hurt you.
Speaking of epigraphs, versos, and appendices: learn the proper terms for the PARTS of a book. You learned the proper names for all YOUR body parts. Why not do the same for the thing you supposedly hold most dear? And don't be alarmed when you find that people who publish books, people who collect books and people who print books have different terms for the same parts. Parts is parts, use good reference works, like Carter's ABC's of Book Collecting and the first chapter of Chicago Manual of Style. Oh yeah, BTW: the Internet is NOT the end-all and be-all of information, it's just the tip of the iceberg. GET SOME REFERENCE BOOKS.
And speaking of the Chicago Manual of Style... learn how to write a proper catalog listing or bibliography. You need to know the correct forms and terms before you can go off and start inventing your own abbrevitions. THIS: "cvrscuff,crnrbmp&edgefeather, H2Owaving,edg'fthr&spinecrs LibraryHB, dw/DJ.Ins.cvrpg.cutout,typical-mrk&stmp"....IS BAD. Can you hear me in the back? If you don't have a good manual of style by anybody in the house, look up listings by long established booksellers like those in the ABAA. Learn by example. You can't tack up an unprofessional listing of a valuable book on any old database and expect people to take you seriously; that's how accidents happen.
Another thing that not enough booksellers pay attention to, which I don't think even has a name, but is the ability to recognize non-English languages by sight. You know that table that everyone cruises past at a booksale? The one over next to reference? It's covered in books that aren't in English; you may not be able to read any of the books, but it is helpful to know if something is in Icelandic or Farsi or Sanskrit. At least it will make you feel all superior while you browse. Oh yeah and guys, those books that look like they are written in some gothic script language, guess what? It's pre-1930's German using the Gothic typeface, and if you look around you can find an old Cassel's English/German-German/English Dictionary in the same typeface (which I don't think anyone produces anymore.) If I am not mistaken a German first edition of Nietzsche would be in this typeface...but how would YOU know?
That's all I can think up at the moment. I am well past the deadline on this thing and if I think about all the knowledge that used to be passed from learned bookseller to apprentice bookseller wanna-be that isn't I get all wound up and start hollering at the computer screen, but that could be just me.
By: Joe Perlman
Mostly Useful Fictions
Perlmanj@aol.com
This past August, my wife and I made a long awaited trip to Greece. For the first time in many years, this vacation would represent an almost two week break from the book business. No email, no checking orders, no buying books, no schlepping books, no arranging to have books shipped. There was one exception. I personally collect copies of James Joyce's Ulysses in various editions and translations, and intended to pick up a copy translated into Greek to add to my collection.
We boarded the plane on a rainy Sunday afternoon, and I did what I always do when forced into a cramped seat and with a safety belt fastened tightly around me--I fell asleep. For some reason I can read almost anywhere except on airplanes. My wife, in contrast, does most of her reading in the air. Needless to say, when we arrived in Athens around noon on Monday, I was rested and ready to explore the city, while she was eager for a hotel room and a long nap. Thus, I had a perfect opportunity to check out the bookstores and purchase my copy of Ulysses.
In my years of business travel, I have discovered that concierges are often excellent sources of information about local bookshops. After checking into our hotel room, I went down for a consultation with our friendly concierge. He was a bit surprised that I was looking for store with books in Greek when it was obvious to him that I did not even know how to say the word “book” in his language, but he pulled out a map and highlighted a street in the center of Athens, right in back of the University.
The street with the bookstores was three subway stops from the hotel. I stepped out into bright Athens sunshine, and saw the Acropolis looming in the distance. Trusting my sense of direction considerably more than my ability to read the subway signs in Greek, I opted to try to walk, using the Acropolis as a point of reference. I walked for about half an hour and decided that it was time for an ice cream break. I scanned the storefronts and was surprised to learn that in spite of the sun and the heat, there were no ice cream stands in sight. The news kiosk had a freezer with pre-packaged ice creams, so I bought one, sat on a bench and ate it. It tasted like a good humor made with skim milk instead of cream, that had been thawed and re-frozen at least three times.
I pulled out my map and tried to figure out where I was. This was no easy task, since my map was in English and the street signs were in Greek. Much to my chagrin, the Acropolis proved to be an illusory point of reference, and I discovered that I had just walked half an hour in the wrong direction.
One of the things that I learned from Leopold Bloom was the value of carrying food in my pockets. Power bars have replaced beef kidneys since this is, after all, the twenty-first century. I threw out most of the ice cream, and walked the half hour back to the hotel munching on my tasty high protein, low carb treat. Now I was ready for anything, including the subway. The platforms were large and not crowded. In less than one minute a train pulled into the station and within five minutes I disembarked at my destination.
I walked up several flights of stairs to the street level and found myself directly across the street from the university. In front of me was a familiar sight--a Starbucks Cafe. I walked in and order an iced coffee to go. The large sign over the counter was identical to the ones in the United States, except that it was in both English and Greek. I was so impressed that I whisked out my digital camera and took a picture of it. The counterman became irate and almost confiscated the expensive 256K photo disk in the camera. He told me that the prices on the sign are confidential information and should not be photographed.
Iced coffee in hand, and camera intact, I crossed the street and headed towards the university. On a small side street just in back of the main campus, I saw a large bookstore. I went up to a clerk and politely asked he had a copy of James Joyce's Ulysses in Greek. He signaled for me to wait, then disappeared to the back of the shop. A few minutes later a different clerk appeared, who asked me in English how he could help me. I told him what I was looking for and he too disappeared, returning shortly with a copy of the book. It was a very large format paperback, not unlike the actual first edition of Ulysses, with French flaps. It was all in Greek, but I could decode enough of the letters to know that it was the item I was looking for.
“How much?” I asked.
He replied “Thirty-five euro.” I was taken aback, as this was quite a bit of money- about 40 American dollars, and for only a paperback. I thought it over for a minute, then reached into my wallet and took out a credit card and handed it to him. “Sorry” he said, “the telephone lines are not working well, we can't accept credit card payments.” I did not want to use up all of my cash the first afternoon, so I decided that since the book was readily available, I would come back and get it another day. I was already long overdue back at the hotel, so I left the shop, and headed toward the subway.
The next morning we boarded a bus for a five-day classical tour. Each night we stopped in a different town, Nafpoli, Olympia. Delphi, etc. and each time we stopped for I went looking for a bookstore, but without success. These towns had shops that sold a few books, mostly popular novels to read on the beach, along with suntan lotion, hats and other necessities. If I collected John Grisham or Stephen King, I would have been in luck, as each store had wide selections of their novels in Greek translations. There were also many editions of Greek versions of the Kama Sutra, with the instructional illustrations taken from ancient vases. In Delphi, when I passed the tree that marked the site of the original oracle, I leaned over and whispered, “Where can I find a copy of Ulysses in Greek?” There was no response. I did notice a spider spinning a web in some of the dead branches, but she was no Charlotte, and there was no hidden text.
We arrived back in Athens late Saturday afternoon, just after the bookstores had closed. They would not re-open until mid-morning on Monday, by which time we would already be aboard the ship heading to the Islands. Greece may be the ˜cradle of civilization” but they still have not discovered the value of the late-night book-cafes that dot the landscape of even small cities across the United States.
On Sunday, I did manage to find one open bookshop in the flea market district. It was a large, dark, cavernous basement store filled with piles of dusty (and musty) old books. The shop clerk spoke little English and did not understand my question when I asked if he had a Greek translation of Ulysses. Instead he pointed me to the English language section, which consisted of dog-eared paperbacks abandoned by young English speaking visitors attempting to travel lightly by abandoning their books as they finished them.
The next morning, by the time the shops had opened we were on a bus speeding toward the port of Pireaus. Once aboard the ship, and settled into our stateroom, I decided to skip the orientation, grab a book and head for the pool deck. Topless sun bathing was strictly prohibited, so I decided to walk around and check out what the other passengers were reading. Perhaps I would find a copy of Ulysses and try to persuade its owner to sell it to me. I am familiar enough with the novel to tell them the ending. In fact, I can quote the last sentence verbatim. I quickly discovered that the reading selections of Europeans on Greek cruise ships are what Americans call “beach reading” - mostly light bestsellers, advice books and the occasional long Russian novel.
We arrived in Mykonos, late in the afternoon. With its reputation as a haven for writers and artists, I was sure there would be a well-stocked bookshop. We found pelicans, windmills, cobblestone streets with whitewashed shops, and a magnificent sunset, but no books. The next day, I did find a bookshop on the island of Patmos, but it mainly contained souvenir picture books for the religious pilgrims who flock to the island, and a few popular novels. I did not want to return home without buying at least one book, so I purchased an English translation of a historical novel about Alexander the Great, that I had seen at least three people on the boat reading in different languages.
We spent the third day on the island of Rhodes. The city of Rhodes is quite large and has its own university. We spent the morning on an organized tour of the old city. At the end I asked the tour guide where I could find some bookshops within walking distance of the dock. She pulled out a map and pointed to a neighborhood that she described as the sophisticated shopping district. After lunch on the boat, I dropped my wife off at the archeological museum and headed for the bookstores. I found two large bookstores, but both of them were closed for the remainder of the afternoon. The typical shop on Rhodes is open from 10 A.M. to 2 P.M. then closes for lunch and reopens from 5 P.M. to 8 P.M. I did manage to find an ice cream shop with excellent soft ice cream then headed back to the museum to pick up my wife. We were not due back at the boat until 5:30, so we headed for the beach. This time, the sun-bathing was topless, so there were few readers to survey. We left the beach at 5, so I could stop at the larger of the two bookstores on the way back to the boat. By the time we reached the shop it was well after 5, but the windows looked dark. The door was locked, so I peered in through the glass and saw a light on in the back room. I banged on the door, and an elderly gentleman appeared, and opened the shop. After I explained to him what I was looking for, he confessed that it was really his daughter's shop, and he was not very familiar with possible contributions in her stock. He called her at her home, and she explained to him where the book would be if she had it. We walked over to the section, but there was no Ulysses. In fact, there was no James Joyce at all. By this time I would have settled for Portrait of the Artist, or even The Dubliners. Sadly, we raced back to the boat empty-handed.
I had no luck on either Crete or Santorini, and my last chance was at the Athens airport. The airport bookshop had a nice selection of world classics in Greek. If I was looking for Hemingway, or Faulkner or even Virginia Woolf, I would have been in luck, but Leopold Bloom's musings in Greece are even scarcer than punctuation in his wife Molly's famous soliloquy, and I returned home with nothing to add to my Joyce collection.
A few weeks later, when I was labeling the photos from the trip, I picked up a picture of the site of the oracle, and realized that it had been right. There was no response, because I could not obtain a copy of the book in Greece. Then, I remembered the spider web. Eureka! I logged onto the Internet and went into the worldwide web. I did a search on Athens bookstores and sent a few email queries looking for the book. The first dealer who responded wrote that he could not accept credit cards, but I could send a money order in Euro. I went to a local bank, but had no luck obtaining a foreign money order. Fortunately, the next day, I received an email from a different dealer who had the book and accepted credit cards. I sent him the information, and 5 days later a pristine copy of Ulysses in Greek arrived, identical to the one that I had passed up that first day in Athens. (The price, including shipping, was even the same as I would have paid in the store.) Up on the shelf it went, next to its cousins in Hebrew, Turkish, Rumanian, etc.
Next year, I would like to fulfill another dream, and visit Mainland China. While it would be easier just to log onto the web and order a copy of Ulysses from a bookstore in Bejing, it would only spoil both the fun, and the mystery of the chase.
Joe Perlman, Editor
LIABDA (Long Island Antiquarian Book Dealer Newsletter)
By: Peter Tafuri
frost@teisprint.com
Rome wasn't built in a day, and neither were the seemingly endless miles of perfectly straight stone walls which line the fields and places in the woods where fields once were. Having spent a week of hard labor rebuilding a not too long section of a collapsed one, I have first hand experience of the work involved, to say nothing of what it must have been like to bring all the stones to the site. Some of the descendents of the pioneers who built the originals are now selling them off for a quick ten bucks a pallet, indifferent to the fact that they fetch between $250 to $350 on the suburban frontiers of New Jersey and Long Island, a fitting metaphor for the fate of books now that the Internet has opened the frontiers of the trade to all comers. Everyone who has a computer, or knows someone who does, seems to be trying their hand at it; everyone who has been in the business for more than a couple of years is certainly aware of the affect on the selling side. The point of this article is to give a glimpse into the current buying experience in this corner of the world.
Most people, or at least those who remember when domestic poverty was a national concern (rather than a personal reality for those who went into the book business), probably associate Appalachia with places like Kentucky and West Virginia, but like the trail, it stretches from Maine to Georgia, and apart from some pockets of prosperity, the poverty is still there, even if the media is not. Here in northern Pennsylvania, the coal mines have long since been abandoned, and the few remaining family farms often do not generate enough income to even make the operating expenses. While there are some decent paying jobs, especially if you know someone to get you one with the government or in the public schools, such a rare event as the opening of a warehouse brings out long lines of people hoping to get something that pays a dollar or two above minimum wage. Even back in the good old days, workers in the now vanished iron industry made $12 a month, coal miners the equivalent in script from the company store, and farmers what they could. While the $2 prices we see in the tipped in publisher's catalogues in some 19th century books may seem cheap, they were actually a small fortune for the working class. Thus, besides a Bible, some religious tracts, possibly a few children's titles and purloined textbooks, most households had rather sparse libraries, assuming the occupants could read. The more prosperous could enjoy the luxury of acid paper reprints, and for those fortunate enough to live in those nice 15+ room Victorians, a decent assortment of more respectable bindings and titles could perchance be found. A few small colleges sprang up which, along with some vacation homes and retirees from New York and Philadelphia, and the advent of book clubs and chain stores, all added a bit to the biblio-Mulligan stew. Death and fortune level us all; one way or another books drifted around on the tides of time, and eventually wound up in such venues as rummage, library and yard sales, flea markets, auctions, etc.
A lifelong book nut, even in the days before we moved up here in 1989, I always made it a point to browse through whatever local sales I learned about when in the area to go canoeing or camping. Prices were low, the quantity high, the selection decent enough and people quite happy to get rid of them. Once in a while a gem, more of a garnet such as a Civil War regimental history, rather than a ruby, such as one signed by Grant or Lee, would turn up but again, considering the demographics, not much more could be expected. Not to complain; for a few dollars I had a few boxes of books and maybe a bag of apples thrown in as a thank you from the seller.
After a series of misfortunes and follies, I decided to commit perhaps the greatest one and go into “professional” bookselling. The caprices of the gods being what they are, the timing at least was right, since it was just at the dawn of online selling, that now fabled Golden Age when a Stephen King could bring $10 but, foreseeing the coming Age of Iron, I went on a buying rampage, coming back with literal truck loads (full bed Ford pick-up with rails, anyway), which, even after ruthless sorting of those I had to buy en masse, still yielded more inventory than I will live to process.
I also made the acquaintance of most of the few other dealers in the area. With one or two exceptions, they were friendly and helpful. Thus, if say at an auction, one had a particular interest in a certain lot, a de facto, unspoken protocol of not spitefully running up the price was observed; at library sales there would sometimes be a show and tell before checking out, and if you spotted a missing volume to a set or something you had a customer lined up for, all you had to do was ask, and why not? There was usually more than enough to go around, and it happened often enough that there would not even be any other dealers present.
Sic transit gloria mundi, and we might add, libri, and thus the sands of that time began running out with the last years of the millennium. The personal computer, the internet and the word that one could sell just about anything online spread. I first noticed the effects of this at auctions. In the ante-eBayian (pardon the crude neologism) world, antique dealers rarely, if ever bid on books, but now if any saw a bookseller bidding, they jumped in; even boxes of junk were being seriously bid on, and treasures such as falling apart McLaughlins would sometimes go for more than the pots of gold the leprechauns in the stories were guarding. More and more people climbed aboard, and going to auctions became more an exercise in seeing what prices garbage would go for than serious buying venues. Not that there was much worth buying after a while. Whether people were no longer consigning their more promising looking books, or they were being cherry picked beforehand, it seemed a bit odd that in the midst of dozens of boxes full of Horatio Alger reprints, Yearbooks of Agriculture and the rest from an advertised “huge estate sale” there was rarely a single book that would have even paid for the gas, let alone time wasted in going there, whereas in the past say a Cram's Atlas, a few decent first editions and the usual nuggets would have been mixed in with the debris.
Two examples (skip ahead, fair reader, if bored):
A box of six books, the bait in which was an Arctic travel that looked like it had been recovered from a melting glacier and was missing a map, was bid up to $45 by a competing trio of eBay barons. How the winning member of the Unholy Trinity described it or what he got for it I never found out, but intact very good (or so the descriptions claimed) copies started at $15 on Addall and Bookfinder
An estate auction that was billed as having “1000s and 1000s of books”, which was true, except they had almost certainly been skimmed, nevertheless had three leather bounds that somehow made it past the censor librorum, the only one of which that was possibly sellable being an 1820s Webster's Speller. While there was no indication of the edition, a look at the testimonial pages featuring various, and obviously (to anyone with a rudimentary knowledge of history) long dead luminaries, made it clear it was far from the first, even if one did not know the date of its debut, far enough to make it worth maybe $15 to $45 retail, and perhaps $5 to $10 at auction. It went to an antique dealer who dabbles in books for, if I recall, $125.
Had it not been for some bad experiences with things I consigned mysteriously vanishing, I would no longer have to bother selling online; my donation box of Grosset & Dunlap Zane Greys alone would make my fortune.
To jump into flea markets, they are now mostly full of literal garbage, i.e., boxes of books taken out of the trash on town clean-up days (annual or biannual occasions when people may legally dispose of broken appliances, tires, 20 year old condensed books and other treasures), the more figurative kind, such as romances and 1980s bestsellers, or, what the vendor, after watching “Antiques Roadshow” KNOWS are RARE BOOKS. Rather than belabor this, two anecdotes will suffice to manifest the Zeitgeist:
Seeing me going through some books on his table, the seller took one that had been sitting by itself in the center, handed it to me, and asked, “How much do you think this is worth?” It was a moldy, falling apart Authorized Edition of “Roughing It”. He took it back, opened it to the appropriate page, and proclaimed, “See! It's signed by Mark Twain!” While honesty is a virtue, discretion should accompany it; I naively said, “It's a facsimile; it's worth a quarter or so.” While not particularly creative, the quantity, vehemence and volume of the profanity with which he replied took me aback and, worse yet, he came out from behind his table. Discretion should also accompany valor; I backed away, and thankfully no shots were fired.
At the end of another flea market, I saw a table full of old looking books the dealer was beginning to pack away. Unsolicited, he said, “I won't be bringing this s--- with me anymore. $2 each and I couldn't sell a f------ thing! The f------ old lady says she can sell them with the f------ computer; they're worth a lot of money she says and I'm f------ crazy to be selling them here.” Unless the price of scrap paper skyrocketed, I didn't see his fortune in the making. It was all the usual late 19th and early 20th century reprints, forgotten bestsellers, scribbled to oblivion textbooks, etc. The only thing that looked even remotely promising, and even more remotely sellable, was a fair memoirs of Lady So-and-so. Since I had bought nothing book-wise that day, an increasingly common occurrence, and felt it would be worth a skim through for some cheap entertainment before going into the donation box, I asked him how much he wanted. “I better let the old lady handle this.” The “old lady” materialized. She might have been in her 40s, but the cigarette wedged into the gap left by missing teeth and presumed other such peccadilloes probably resulted in the descriptive adjective. She grabbed the book out of my hands, opened it at random in a few spots, thus adding to the cracks, and said, “This book is real old!” It was copyright 1915. “$100!” I foolishly replied, “I thought he was selling them for $2.” “$2! The best I can do is $10! This book is real valuable!” Considering that 50 cents would have been more apropos, I passed. She threw it at the gentleman, “What the f--- did I tell you! I'll f------ sell all these f------ books on the computer and make some real f------ money!”
Assuming the astute reader gets the point, I will move on to library sales. While more the Ship of Fools than the Good Ship Lollipop, in times past the passengers at least recognized each other as fellow sufferers from the gentle madness of bookselling, and thus displayed at least courtesy, often compassion, and never (well, hardly ever) the cannibalism which seems to be more the case now that we are on board the Raft of the Medusa.
As mentioned above, this deep pocket of poverty was once a coal mining area, and as an unheeded sign to those coming here certain they will capture an Audubon double elephant lurking in the dollar book jungle, most of the highways leading in are lined with culm banks; these are mountains of mine waste consisting of dirt and rock in which are bits of coal that, even during the good old days when wages and working conditions were such as would appall the most rapacious Third World sweatshop operator, was simply not worth the time and trouble to recover. Both an omen, and a fitting metaphor for what awaits them. Again as mentioned, this area never really had much book-wise to begin with, and what little there was has mostly long since been picked clean. Besides in situ scavengers, such as myself, a large New York dealer has been running display ads, complete with toll free numbers, for years, and a local with a rumored significant other source of income has a daily classified ad. What little may be left is now often sold online rather than donated; there are still a few occasional crumbs that Lazarus may hope to beat the dogs to, but it should be remembered that it was hope that was the cruelest of the punishments inflicted on Pandora.
Ruling out the more established dealers that come here in the spirit of Petrarch who, when asked why he climbed Mt. Blanc, replied, “Because it was there!” and like him nevertheless do not repeat the escapade, local wannabes who, after having spent a few hundred hours listing the 1000 books they got for a buck a bag at the last sale, actually sold one and seek to double their profit, who is bothering to drive 100, perhaps 200 or more miles to attempt Mt Biblio-culm? Here Hieronymous Bosch, or some other allegorical painter would find a plethora of faces to depict the Deadly Sins. Avarice, boasting how his just discovered Heritage Press in the ORIGINAL SLIPCASE is worth a fortune; Envy, incessantly complaining to the bedraggled librarian running the sale that the people who set it up grabbed all the illuminated manuscripts, incunabula and such before she could get it; Gluttony, adding ever more to his pile of self-helps and Danielle Steele modern firsts; Drunkenness, running back and forth, banging into three year old kids paging through Winnie the Pooh, giddy with all his “real OLD books from the 1800s!”; Sloth, remarking how once he starts making enough money selling books he'll never have to do anything except turn on the computer; Anger, ranting about how she saw that James Beard cookbook first; Lust, drooling over his COMPLETE SET of Time-Life World War IIs, but I will stop, since I am perhaps acting out of the spirit of that sin which even the angels can succumb to, Pride. St. John of the Cross warned us that the seven-headed beast of Revelation was in fact the Seven Deadly Sins which prevent us from even beginning the ascent of Mt Carmel, and that Pride was the trickiest of them all. Thus, in an attempt to keep the beast at bay, I shall brandish the sword of Charity, and write with a bit more compassion towards Sisyphus attempting to reach some bookish apotheosis.
It is obvious that it has become very easy not so much to sell books, as to try to sell them. Disregarding the hobbyists, retirees and others who wish to do something book related, and would be of actual use to society if they volunteered for a children's reading or adult literacy program, amongst the “thousands of dealers” many on-line sites boast of, it seems that a large number, perhaps the majority, have but tasted a few drops from the Pierian Spring, not so serious as regards book terminology, identifying editions, etc., which, while sadly lacking in too many cases, can nevertheless be had easily enough with a few decent reference guides, but more so concerning that almost bottomless pool of human knowledge out of which only the deepest draughts can see one through the spreading desert of bookselling. True specialists rarely waste their time at the run of the mill general sale, which, by definition is just that, and hence the domain of often justly (but often enough not) maligned generalists. With the market oozing the more (and even less) common titles, this is a far narrower niche than it may seem, with survival dependent upon knowing the scholarly, the unusual, and the collectible. In this ever worsening environment, to be able to distinguish between Chrysogonus and Chrysologus, Aruj and Khayrad'din Barbarossa (neither to be confused with Frederick), Zosimus of Panopolis and Zosimus, sometimes called of Constantinople, sulfate and sulfite, and other such minutiae is, while perhaps not the sine qua non, certainly crucial to survival, as is telling a coffee table book from a catalogue raisone, a text book from a treatise and, more germane to this article, knowing when to stop belaboring the point. Mindful of the difficulty of keeping Pride, and its outrider Scorn at bay, based upon my unscientific survey of the vast culm banks of books I see my random sample of the “thousands of dealers” heaping up, it all seems to be the result of a little bit of knowledge, and both optimism and desperation. To guess that Herod is probably not the nickname for Herodotus is laudable enough in our culturally illiterate society, but to buy a paperback copy of the latter, even if as new, and then spend time copying the blurb from the back cover for the description, followed by a stream of consciousness discourse on what a wonderful book it is, or having no description to speak of, and pricing it at either 25 cents or 25 dollars depending upon one's marketing strategy, but also passing over a good copy of Herodian, is not conducive to success, and neither is driving 100 miles in hopes of grabbing a 1502 Aldine. Thus, assuming it's not all a tax write-off scheme, the boxes of new cookbooks, recent nonfictions, and 50 year old deluxe editions are all symptomatic of the Quixotic quest to make it in bookselling, with the occasional odd volume that may actually sell for $50 serving as an intermittent reward, which, just as winning $50 on a slot machine makes gambling such a difficult psychological addiction to break, keeps them coming. Apparently, they have few, if any other sources of supply, did not do enough buying back in the days when it was possible to get a quantity of the far more important quality, and have not drunk deeply enough out of that other, and most bitter of springs, experience, to know the difference. Mindful of the fate of Phidippides, take pity on those engaged in this marathon race to the bottom.
If a sale is close by, I usually go to it, both for the thrill of the hunt and to support the sponsoring organization. Occasionally, I'll even venture into the First World sales of New York, New Jersey and southeastern Pennsylvania, where the quality and quantity are several orders of magnitude better than here, but only if I have other business in the area, or wish to visit someone there, otherwise, it simply is not worth the time and trouble. In any case, I buy one book for every five, ten or more I see most others accumulating, but would not trade any randomly chosen five or ten of mine for any 50 or 100 of theirs, and even so, am often enough horrified at how far far too many of these have been half-witted to death in price. Along that line, most of the local dabblers who try to sell books on the f------ computer usually wind up getting analogously as much as they do for a stone wall. Besides the expected descriptions such as, “Like new book! Covers torn off,” at the other extreme I have noticed one dealer who has several thousand mostly $1 to $5 books listed, complete with a picture and usually a verbatim copy of the publisher's blurb. Rumor has it the seller is associated with a fundamentalist religious organization, so perhaps this is a spiritual practice in lieu of self-flagellation.
The economics of bookselling have been discussed in other issues of this august journal, so I shan't make this already too long article any more tedious by delving further into that. Rather, I will approach a conclusion with the thought that it would be nice if those who wish to go on this quest could first consult some oracle, but alas, all are now silent. Engraved upon the Temple at Delphi were three admonishments, which, if the supplicant understood, would obviate the necessity of seeing the Pythia. Besides the now much misunderstood, and more often misused, “Know thyself,” were, “Thou art,” and, “Nothing in excess.” Upon the hypothetical biblio-sanctuary would be, “Know thy books,” “Time is money,” and “Do not nickel and dime thyself to death.”
Thankfully, the Gorgon is also no longer extent, or I would have been turned into stone by some of the glances I received from the guardians of the heaps of books I had to navigate around during a local sale that occurred while writing this. I spotted an older children's title, fine, in a rarely seen near fine dustjacket, that I probably could have gotten enough money for to have made it worth buying. I also spotted someone from the Golden, or at least gold-plated, Age who specialized in children's books. I picked it up, ran over, and gave it to her. As one of the great philosophers, Bozo the Clown, put it so well, “It's nice to be important, but it's more important to be nice.”
By: Ken Fermoyle
(Ed. Note: We suspect that every dedicated reader and book lover remembers at least one library from his or her past in a special way. We hope that the following article will stir up some of those memories among readers of The Standard. We hope further that some of you will be moved to share them with us in future issues. Send your paeans to libraries past, or present, to editor@ioba.org .)
This impressive half-dome topped the large doors of the McGregor Library's front entrance, which was an impressive one indeed!
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I recall being awed by my first sight of the imposing granite and limestone building. Built in the Beaux Arts style and designed by noted New York City library architects Tilton and Githens, the rectangular two-story library sat in a park-like setting about half the size of a large city lot. Magnificently crafted doors topped by a striking half-dome (see accompanying photos) sat squarely in the center of the McGregor's symmetrical façade.
Craftsmanship evident in the McGregor's front doors was typical of the loving care lavished on the building when it was constructed. Construction was completed in 1926.
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The McGregor was less than a mile from our flat over a store at 12023 Hamilton, where we lived when Dad and I walked to the library. It was only a tad further, perhaps a mile, when we moved to a larger two-family flat at 377 Richton a year or so later. By then, I was able to walk to that magic structure on my own. (Remember that this was the mid-1930s, when the streets were safer for kids in those days.) I made the trek often.
Centerpiece of the McGregor's interior was this spacious, airy central hall.
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My crowning McGregor reading achievement came in the summer of 1936. All my friends were away at camp or visiting relatives. I walked to the McGregor after breakfast on Monday and read a Tom Swift book in the library. I took out four more titles (all in the Treasure Island, Nancy Drew or Lad, a Dog category) read them at home that afternoon and evening. I did the same thing Tuesday and every day for the rest of the week, going through 30 books in six days. If I had been the librarians' pet before, now I was their reading poster boy!
One of the librarians introduced me to Arthur Ransome's Swallows and Amazon books. I was enthralled, and a small sailboat replaced a Schwinn bicycle as the top item on my wish list. (An impossible dream in the midst of the Depression.) Other librarians turned me on to other books and authors. They were delighted when I returned the books with my thanks for their recommendations.
This sculpture is just one example of the decorative touches that adorned the building interior.
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At age 12, as I recall, I became eligible for an intermediate library card. This meant you could take out six books at a time, two from the adult section and four from the children's section. At about the same time, I came under the care of a doctor located just a few blocks from Detroit's Main Library at 5201 Woodward Avenue. I took the bus to his office three times every two weeks-and visited the Main Library to take out my six-book quota every time.
The treasury of books here was even greater than at the McGregor. And like many an adolescent swain, I began to forsake my first love for the lure of a new, more enticing romance.
My reading horizons broadened considerably as my tastes became wildly eclectic. I discovered such varied authors as P.G. Wodehouse, Thorne Smith, Kenneth Roberts, James T. Farrell, Owen Wister, Ernest Hemingway, Alexander Dumas, Conan-Doyle and Upton Sinclair, to name a few. My non-library reading habits, however, leaned to Doc Savage Magazine, daily paper “funnies” and early comic books. One such was The Phantom. (He made his debut on February 17th, 1936 and was the first costumed hero.)
My next well-remembered library was a tiny one, compared to the McGregor or Detroit's Main Library. Housed in a small room of the USO at Camp Wolters, Texas, it amounted to a few shelves stocked with donated books. I recall it because it was responsible for one of the most prodigious reading feats of my life.
I was heart-broken when I learned in the late 1990s that Highland Park's budget problems forced closing of the McGregor. Here we see the workers boarding up the massive entrance, hiding the front doors that graced the library for nearly 75 years.
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At times, I got up from my bunk and paced the aisle of the near-empty barracks, reading some of Old Man Gant's passages aloud. This understandably cemented my reputation as the company character. The only thing that elevated me somewhat in the eyes of my fellow soldiers was that I was on the battalion boxing team, and eventually won the camp flyweight division championship.
(An added, admittedly non-book related footnote: Maximum flyweight limit was 114 pounds. Yet once some guys in my platoon weighed me just before we set out on one of our many 25-mile full field pack marches, I tipped the scale at 211 pounds. My pack, rifle, ammo, cans of C rations and other gear totaled just 19 pounds less than my body weight.)
I finished Angel by mid-afternoon and hurried back to the USO to return it and take Of Time And The River, which I had spotted during my earlier browsing. I started reading while walking back to the barracks, then kept on through the afternoon and into the night. I finished the book in the latrine after “Lights Out,” about 10 p.m. (I later read everything Wolfe wrote, and everything I could find written about him. This made it easy to do an in-depth paper on him later when I was a junior in college. My teacher gave me an A+ and said the paper needed only a little more work to qualify as a Masters thesis.)
Libraries continued to be important in my life, but a career, marriage and children overshadowed them. Most were commonplace and forgettable, a blur in my memory. One exception were the libraries at Ford Motor Company in Dearborn MI, where I learned a lot that that helped me tremendously during my later years as an auto and racing writer/editor.
"Left for Dead" was the caption on this picture in a local paper, just after Highland Park's financial problems forced closure of the library, but before boarding up of the entrance.
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The original Woodland Hills library was torn down in 2000 and replaced by a new one that opened in August 2003. It has two stories, is twice the size of the old facility, but retains hints of the previous building. The trees remain, by request of the community, and the exterior again is red brick and glass. The new library and I are going through a flirtation stage right now, but I'm sure a lasting love will develop. I'm active in the Friends of the Library again, serving on the executive board and as newsletter editor.
Another library has captured my heart in recent years also. My wife and I have spent a week or two in Palm Springs, California, in recent years. We discovered that the Palm Spring Library Center on Sunrise Way is a true treasure.
The building is a large, airy, low-slung structure with a circular koi pool (see accompanying photo) as its central interior focus. I will hold off on more details of the Palm Springs Library for the moment. It merits more space than I can give it here, so I will return to it in a 2004 issue of The Standard.
In my case, love of libraries, books and reading literally (pun intended) shaped my life. By age 10 or 11, I decided I wanted to be a writer. And that's what I became. My first paid writing job was on a small Michigan weekly paper in October 1947. I've made my living as a writer, editor and journalist ever since. Now, 56 years later, I look back on a career that has been varied, challenging and rewarding in many ways. I never got rich but seldom was bored and always got by. And I can thank the McGregor, my first library love, for planting the seed that grew into a lifelong vocation.
By: Martha Kelly
Gutenberg Books
mkelly03@rochester.rr.com
This is the third article on the American women's suffrage movement. All three are overviews in which I've tried to emphasize the major books and ephemera of the period. Although much new material continues to appear, The History of Woman Suffrage is still the main source of information.
“Dr Gannon told me I must be fed. …I was held down by five people…Gannon pushed the tube up left nostril…It hurts nose and throat very much and makes nose bleed freely…Operation leaves one very sick.” Lucy Burns in a note smuggled out of jail, where she was leading a protest against jailed suffragists treatment in 1917. (1)
After nearly seventy-five years of unsuccessful attempts to pass a federal amendment giving women the vote, the Susan B. Anthony amendment passed in 1919. Why was the drive for suffrage finally successful after seventy-five years? There were a number of reasons. Suffrage had finally become respectable after the largest suffrage association, NAWSA, the National American Woman Suffrage Association, worked to gain social acceptance for the movement. Younger and more militant women, inspired by British suffrage workers, embarrassed politicians and the Wilson administration into supporting suffrage. Increasing political sophistication, better communications, the influence of the national progressive movement, and the new consumer movement were factors as well. And, as 19th Century leaders Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton had predicated, the time had finally come for right to prevail
Much of the collectible suffrage ephemera now available (mostly on ebay but also, occasionally, from dealers and private sellers) was printed between 1900 and 1920. The onslaught of suffrage paper increased after 1910, and posters, fliers (must have been hundreds, maybe thousands of these), postcards, trade cards, ads, articles, debate manuals, fund-raising items like cookbooks, and periodicals were produced by both the pro and the anti suffrage groups. Suffrage sheet music and romance novels were popular, there was Stanton soap and beauty and health hints dedicated to “Aunt” Susan.
Both pro and anti suffrage arguments, influenced by the increasingly strong reform and progressive movements, were different from 19th century arguments based on traditional values, democratic ideals, the Bible, and the constitution. Twentieth century debate was less lofty, appealing more to self-interest and less to the rightness of the cause.
Pro suffrage supporters argued that women who could vote would clean up society much as they cleaned up their homes: the evils of alcohol, poverty, and crime would yield to the cleansing brush of the woman's vote. Antis argued that women could be more effective as reformers and as workers to alleviate the misery in society if they were not involved in the political process. Once women became committed to political action and parties they would, like men, lose their ability to act altruistically.
The anti suffrage movement had gathered members and money between 1895 and 1910. NAOW, the National Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage, with an estimated membership of 200,000, passed out leaflets, took out ads, organized meetings, and continued to argue that women were more effective reformers when they stayed out of politics. (2)
Collectibles of the anti suffrage movement are very similar in type to those of the suffrage movement. Remonstrance, published in Boston, was the leading anti suffrage paper. Early anti suffrage books had often been written by men, frequently by clergymen, but women dominated in print by the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Helen Kendrick Johnson's popular book, Woman and the Republic, published in 1897, effectively presented the antis' arguments, and a number of other women writers including prominent journalist, Ida Tarbell, produced anti suffrage books. (3)
The October 1913 issue of Remonstrance includes articles arguing that legislation limiting women's working hours and requiring additional safety measures for women will be eliminated if women have the vote, that women are more effective as independent workers for civic reform, and that, yes, women's place is in the home as God and nature intended. There is also much criticism of the militant tactics of British suffragettes, with Emmeline Pankhurst as a particular target.
Antis also used uglier tactics. Scare leaflets and ads linking suffrage with socialism, communism, atheism, and anarchy, as well the very popular cartoon postcards (usually depicting a dominating caricature of a woman smoking a cigarette while her submissive husband did the wash and cared for the children) were common, as were anti suffrage jokes and cartoons in newspapers and periodicals like Judge and Life.
Much of the increased attention resulted from the pro suffrage movement's steady gains. At the same time women worked through state organizations to pass amendments, the push for a federal amendment continued. Although a Congressional amendment enfranchising all woman citizens, first introduced in 1868, was introduced every year after that, NAWSA had long focused on the passage of state amendments.
In 1906, the year of Susan B. Anthony's death, women had achieved voting status in only four states: Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, and Idaho. A disastrous non-binding referendum in Massachusetts in 1895 (most women, at the urging of the antis had stayed home to show that women did not want to vote) had strengthened the suffrage opponents' argument that many women either did not care about or did not want the vote. By 1900 anti suffrage forces were increasingly organized, the old suffrage leaders had retired or died, and the movement appeared stalled.
Suffrage leaders knew the “radical” image, which had haunted the movement for half a century and turned middle-class women away, had to be changed, and historians of the suffrage movement now see the period between 1900 and 1910 as significant for the progress made toward making involvement in the movement not only respectable, but socially desirable.
Before her death in 1906, Anthony had recognized the need to change the image of the movement and had urged younger leaders to gain acceptance by drawing the socially and financially elite into the movement. Memories of her “unwomanly” youthful radicalism had faded and she was well on the way to sainthood, an idealized icon of the movement, the womanly, domestic Aunt Susan who symbolized a socially acceptable reform movement. Her long-time friend and co-worker, Stanton, who definitely did not become “conservative when old” had become something of an embarrassment and was de-emphasized.
Carrie Chapman Catt, Anthony's choice to succeed her as President of NAWSA, and Anna Howard Shaw led the drive for respectability. They made a successful effort to draw wealthy, elite women into the movement, giving it social cachet, though the tactics were not such as would draw more militant, reform-minded women who found leaders in Alice Paul, Lucy Burns, and Harriot Stanton Blatch (Elizabeth Cady Stanton's daughter).
NAWSA's approach worked. Between 1906 and 1910 membership increased from about 12,000 to more than 117,000, a dramatic increase, and by 1916 there were over 200,000 members. A tightly organized campaign and a million dollar legacy from Mrs. Frank Leslie helped strengthen NAWSA's position. (4)
Collectibles from the first decade of the twentieth century include the usual meeting notices and convention-related material, as well as more of the “official” documents of the movement. Volume 4 of The History of Woman Suffrage was published in 1902 and Volumes 5 and 6, written by Ida Husted Harper, Anthony's carefully chosen biographer, appeared in 1922 and cover the twentieth century movement. Volume 3 of The Life and Works of Susan B. Anthony, also written by Harper, was published in 1908. Both The Life and Works… and The History continued to be available from NAWSA headquarters through most of this period.
Several groups, leaders, and philosophies (sometimes conflicting) were at work during the second decade of the century. NAWSA, the oldest and most conservative suffrage organization, was increasingly effective politically, utilizing committees in states where suffrage amendments had passed to influence elections and garner support for passage of the federal amendment. This, combined with the politically-oriented and popular approach of the Women's Political Union, headed by Harriot Stanton Blatch, and the confrontational approach of the National Woman's Party, led by Alice Paul and Lucy Burns, led to the successful passage of the 19th amendment, but keeping the cast of characters straight during this period of time is difficult and unnecessary in an overview of the movement. It's helpful, however, to the collector or bookseller trying to identify the source of the many leaflets and pamphlets from this period, to be aware of the number of sometimes competing groups. These have been analyzed in recent scholarly books; a few of the most useful are listed in the bibliography.
Between 1910 and 1915 seven more states (mostly western) had passed suffrage amendments and by 1920, another seventeen states had done so. When the federal amendment was finally ratified in 1920, 339 of 531 presidential electors represented states in which women could vote. This, of course, made possible political action, capitalizing on the support of those states in which women could vote,
By 1912 popular suffrage novels, sheet music, ads, postcards, books of argument aimed at high school and college debaters as well as Suffrage Schools established by NAWSA had become common.
World War I presented a dilemma---to continue the fight for suffrage or to hold off in deference to the war effort. The NAWSA, while not abandoning the fight entirely, largely adopted the second course. The New Woman's Party, led by Paul and Burns, who learned their tactics from the British Women's Social and Political Union led by the Pankhursts, did not. Instead they pointed to the contradiction of “fighting for democracy” when the nation excluded women from voting. They embarrassed the administration with parades and demonstrations, set fire to copies of presidential speeches and chained themselves to the fence of the White House. The government obligingly martyred them with increasingly lengthy jail sentences, in terrible conditions, and force-feeding. The conflict, though never as extreme as the British suffrage battle, became increasingly violent.
Two especially interesting and fairly available first-hand accounts of the period by New Woman's Party leaders are Doris Stevens' Jailed for Freedom and Inez Haynes Irwin's The Story of the Woman's Party, reprinted as Up Hill With Banners Flying. Yes, she's also the author of Maida's Little House.
Some of the most interesting and elusive books of the period are by suffrage workers recounting their experience during this period. That it was a “peak' experience for the women involved is clear. Their reminiscences, like the reminiscences of war veterans, are full of the desire to tell “what really happened” and reflect the great significance the events had to the teller. Some of these accounts have not been reprinted and are serendipitous finds for the collector.
Accounts by NAWSA leaders and historians, Harper, Catt, Shaw and others are more readily available than Women's Party material and are listed in the bibliography.
By 1918, with the war over, a suffrage amendment passed in New York, and with a President now committed to the suffrage cause, prospects for passage of a federal amendment looked good.
There was still plenty of resistance, however. The Susan B. Anthony amendment passed in the House, but two more votes were needed in the Senate. Two postponements of a Senate vote led to renewed picketing by the NWP. Forty-eight women were arrested and sentenced to fifteen days in jail. The vote was rescheduled after an embarrassed President Wilson took the unusual step of personally addressing the Senate, but the amendment again failed by two votes. In 1919, the House again passed the amendment, but the Senate was still one vote short. After considerable maneuvering, the amendment finally passed on June 4 of 1919. It was ratified in fifteen months and in 1920 women all over the United States were eligible to vote.
Notes
Primary Sources
Blatch, Harriot Stanton and Alma Lutz. Challenging Years: The Memoirs of Harriot Stanton Blatch.
Catt, Carrie Chapman, and Nettie Rogers Shuler. Woman Suffrage and Politics: The Inner Story of the Suffrage Movement.
Irwin, Inez Haynes. “Up Hill with Banners Flying” The Story of the Woman's Party. Originally titled The Story of the Woman's Party. First-hand account with many quotes from NWP members.
National American Woman Suffrage Association. Victory How Women Won It: A Centennial Symposium 1840 - 1940. A collection of articles including one by Carrie Chapman Catt and several by her biographer, Mary Gray Peck.
Shaw, Anna Howard. The Story of a Pioneer. Shaw's autobiography.
Stanton, Elizabeth Cady; Anthony, Susan B.; Gage, Matilda Joslin; and Harper, Ida Husted. The History of Woman Suffrage. The six volumes were published between 1881 and 1922. The first three volumes are by Stanton, Anthony, and Gage, Volume 4 is by Anthony and Harper, and Volumes 5 and 6 are by Harper. They have been reprinted a number of times and are also available on CD-ROM.
Stevens, Doris. Jailed for Freedom. Probably the most readily available first-hand account of the NWP.
Secondary Sources
Baker, Jean H., Editor. Votes for Women The Struggle for Suffrage Revisited. A good and very readable collection of articles.
Dubois, Ellen Carol. Harriot Stanton Blatch and the Winning of Woman Suffrage. Dubois may exaggerate Blatch's importance a little, but the story of the 1915 New York suffrage campaign is interesting.
Jablonsky, Thomas. The Home, Heaven and the Mother Party: Female Antisuffrage in the United States 1868-1920.
Kraditor, Aileen S. The Ideas of the Woman Suffrage Movement. Classic.
Linkugel, Wil A. Anna Howard Shaw: Suffrage Orator and Social Reformer.
Lunardini, Christine. From Equal Suffrage to Equal Rights: Alice Paul and the National Woman's Party, 1910-1928. Lunardini's discussion of the NWP is as complete as any I've found, especially since no biography of Alice Paul is available. Contains a helpful bibliography of secondary sources.
Peck, Mary Gray. Carrie Chapman Catt: A Biography.
Van Voris, Jacqueline. Carrie Chapman Catt: A Public Life. Most recent biography of Catt.
Wheeler, Marjorie Spruill, Editor. One Woman, One Vote: Rediscovering the Woman Suffrage Movement. Good, scholarly introduction to the historical issues.
By: Shawn Purcell
mail@balopticon.com
They sleep in attics, less frequently in lower rooms, silent survivors of the ravages of expediency and modernism. Most of these ephemerons, "hovering over a pool for its one April day of life," disappeared shortly after birth. The remaining population dwindles on a regular schedule. Like ancient Anne Rice vampires, they grow weary of prolonging fate, and molder away or burst into flames. The final survivors rely on the initial act of preservation, dry storage space, rag content, and the serendipity of discovery and restitution. An undiscovered sole survivor has little chance of research-level reacquaintance with the modern world around it. And yet these ancient ones do rise to prowl the earth again on occasion. "Found: the Long Lost 'Ulster County Gazette'!" by Henry S. Parsons appeared in Antiques (1/1931, Volume 19, No. 1, pp. 14-19), as follows.
When does an old newspaper cease to be a bibliographical rarity and become an antique? The question was recently raised at the Library of Congress in connection with the receipt of a document so rare as to be perhaps unique: a genuine specimen of the Ulster County Gazette for January 4, 1800. Accompanied as it is by a specimen of the preceding issue, for December 28, 1799, and one of the succeeding issue, for January 11, 1800, this happy discovery constitutes the most noteworthy recent addition to the Library's large collection of early American newspapers.
The Ulster County Gazette was established May 5, 1798, at Kingston, New York, by Samuel Freer and Son, as a weekly paper supporting the Federal party. Publication in the original form continued until 1803, when the title was changed to Ulster Gazette and the publisher became Samuel S. Freer, the "Son" of the original partnership. Among the two hundred or more purveyors of news in the states along the Atlantic seaboard, this journalistic effort occupied no very important position. Its news items, aside from local gossip, may be found duplicated in the pages of many of its contemporaries. Yet, today, one issue of the Ulster County Gazette commands a wider and more interested attention than all of its once more influential rivals put together. This is the issue for January 4, 1800. On its second page appears John Marshall's address on the death of Washington, delivered before the House of Representatives. Marshall concluded with the House resolutions drawn up by General Henry Lee, father of General Robert E. Lee. It is here that we first encounter the famous phrase, “the first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his country.” Then come[s] an address of condolence by the Speaker of the House, delivered to President John Adams, and the President's response, the Senate's message on the same subject, and its official acknowledgment. The latter is continued on page three, where, in addition, we find a dispatch from George Town, under date of December 20, giving a full account of Washington's funeral.
This number of the Gazette has, on many occasions, been more or less faithfully reproduced; and has become famous largely because no original from which the copies might have been made has hitherto been found. The Library of Congress itself has examples of twenty-six different versions of these reprints. A recent Bulletin of the New York Public Library (April 1930) carefully compiled by R. W. G. Vail from available collections, lists a known total of sixty-four spurious editions. This extensive series began during the first half of the nineteenth century, perhaps as early as 1825. In 1876, the year of the Centennial Exposition at Philadelphia, thousands of fresh copies were sold as souvenirs. Meanwhile, librarians had so long watched for the discovery of a genuine original that they had given up hope of such a miracle.
As time passed and the fame of the Ulster County Gazette was spread abroad through the medium of newspaper write-ups and more weighty articles, innumerable bogus specimens began to appear as claimants to the honor of acceptance as originals. Many an insistent owner brought a treasured sheet to the Library of Congress, only to learn, incredulously, that what grandfather had preserved in the family Bible might be of some faint interest as a curiosity, but was quite lacking in appreciable monetary value. It was sad to disappoint the widow who hoped to give her son a college education on the proceeds from the sale of her supposedly priceless heirloom; but hers was only one case among many.
Yet the reprints are usually easy to recognize because of their modern presswork and the inferior quality of their paper. They are not printed on the rough-surfaced, durable, and rather soft rag paper of the eighteenth century. Their typography betrays the distinctly outlined letters of a power press instead of the blurred edges common to hand-inking and hand-pressing. In most instances, too, their appearance is far different from the known aspect of the original as the latter has been determined by examination of the few, very few, genuine copies of other issues of the Gazette--that of May 10, 1800, for example. In these early issues the title is set in italic capitals, whereas most reprints use Roman letters. The original, too, must have employed the old style long s in many words, whereas most reprints reveal the modern s throughout, or substitute a lower case f.
Another test sometimes applied concerns an estate item headed Last Notice on page 3, column 2. In this, the name of the deceased as reprinted is “Johanais Jansen,” and that of the executor “Johannis L. Jansen.” Librarians were sure of the incorrectness of these forms, because the same notice reappears in the Gazette for April 26, 1800 (in the collections of the New York Historical Society), giving the names, respectively, as Johannis Jansen and Johannis I. Jansen, Executor.
Over a period of some decades, the Library of Congress has encouraged the submission of copies of the Gazette for examination. Always the specimens that came proved to be spurious, until the hope of finding an original grew so faint that its expression could elicit nothing more than a pitying smile. A moment of optimism dawned when it was learned that the Freer Art Gallery in Washington had unearthed a copy among the possessions of its founder, Charles Lang Freer, a relative of the Kingston publisher; but it quickly subsided into the usual disappointment. Hence, when a modest note from Mrs. James Lydon, Jr., of Suffern, New York, asked for an opinion concerning three copies of the Ulster County Gazette, it was only the magic three that differentiated her request from hundreds of others. When Mrs. Lydon's package was opened, it revealed copies for December 28, 1799, January 4, and January 11, 1800.
And these met all tests. They are printed on rag paper, with the same watermark throughout, slender parallel lines, 1 1/16 to 1 3/16 inches apart. The title is set in italic capitals. The print shows the blurred edges of hand-press work. The old-style s appears where it should. Spelling and initial are correct in the Last Notice.
In a subsequent letter from Mrs. Lydon, the Library received the following history of these papers. Mary Crawford Lydon (Mrs. James Lydon, Jr.) is descended from Petrus, or Peter, Decker, a Revolutionary soldier from the northwest side of the Shawangunk River, in Ulster County. He served in the New York militia, was ensign in the Fourth Regiment, and was promoted to a first lieutenancy under Captain Mathew Jansen, March 9, 1773 (New York State Archives, Vol. 1, pages 301-302). In early days the family attended church at Kingston, and thus Peter Decker came to have copies of the Ulster County Gazette, three of which have been preserved to the present time.
So the long search for the lost Ulster County Gazette for January 4, 1800, ends triumphantly, with the discovery of three missing copies instead of one; for, though only a single member of the trio had risen to fame, its companions had also been counted among the irretrievable strays. Consigned now to the safe-keeping of the Library of Congress, they bring a long-standing mystery story to a satisfactory ending.
By: Susan Siegel
bookhunterpress@earthlink.net
Publishing statistics on the used book market can be a dangerous job as the numbers keep changing and it's not always clear what is being "counted."
With these caveats, as of October 2003, the Book Hunter Press database of United States used book dealers showed the following breakdown of dealers by region and type. The footnotes offer a brief explanation of what is and is not included in the figures.
How are these numbers arrived at? By actual contacts with dealers -- not a sample survey. Book Hunter Press is continually updating its database with new listings, deletions and changes based on email, snail mail, phone and monitoring a variety of online and off line sources. We also get valuable leads from traveling book hunters that we follow up on; not every store closing means that the dealer is out of business. Sometimes, the store simply moved across town.
What do the numbers show? Depending on your outlook (is the glass half empty or half full?), it appears that the decrease in the number of open shops, the number most frequently looked at, has stabilized at 4,167 shops since reaching a peak of 4,328 shops in 2000. Yes, there have been lots of store closings -- but there have also been lots of new stores opening up. As the chart below shows, it's a very mixed picture.
Who are the new store owners? Again, it's a mixed picture. Young people as well as retirees fulfilling their dreams; owners of one successful shop opening another, people burned out from one career looking to start another, etc.
Also, contrary to some reports, not all closings are due to the Internet. Many have closed due to retirement (some dealers continue to sell online; others leave the business entirely), some when their rents skyrocketed, and many for a host of other personal reasons. And some, no doubt, because they just failed to make it financially -- again, for any number of reasons.
Given its diversity, generalizations about the used book business as a whole are extremely risky.
In addition to maintaining its dealer database, Book Hunter Press has recently undertaken a major survey of the used book market with the goal of gathering additional information about the used book market as it relates to sales. The findings of that survey should be available by the first quarter of 2004.
| total dealers | open shops (1) | by appt | mail/internet (2) | antique mall | |
| new england | 893 | 409 | 239 | 198 | 48 |
| mid-atlantic | 1194 | 523 | 316 | 306 | 49 |
| south atlantic | 1050 | 645 | 146 | 179 | 80 |
| midwest | 1312 | 696 | 223 | 258 | 136 |
| central/western | 1312 | 878 | 147 | 222 | 65 |
| pacific coast | 1514 | 1016 | 227 | 247 | 25 |
| total | 7275 | 4167 | 1298 | 1410 | 403 |
Copyright Book Hunter Press
| Pub Date | Count when published | Added since publication (1) | Deleted since publication (1) | Current Count | |
| New England/2nd Rev | 2000 | 402 | 41 | 34 | 409 |
| Mid-Atlantic/Rev | 1997 | 504 | 121 | 102 | 523 |
| South Atlantic/Rev | 1998 | 594 | 154 | 103 | 645 |
| Midwest/Rev | 1999 | 728 | 58 | 90 | 696 |
| Central/Western | 1997 | 912 | 197 | 231 | 878 |
| Pacifc Coast | 2000 | 1028 | 93 | 105 | 1016 |
| Total | 4168 | 664 | 665 | 4167 |
Copyright Book Hunter Press
| REGION See Methodology for list of states in each region | # of Dealers (1993-1996) | # of Dealers (1997-2000) | # of Dealers 2002 | Net Change # of Dealers 1993-2002 1 | # of Bookstores (Open Shops) (1993-1996) | # of Bookstores (Open Shops) (1997-2000) | # of Bookstores (Open Shops) 2002 | % Change in Bookstores (Open Shops) 1993-2002 1 |
| New England | 774 | 881 | 892 | 15% | 354 | 413 | 412 | 16% |
| Mid-Atlantic | 915 | 1,160 | 1,182 | 29% | 444 | 534 | 519 | 17% |
| South Atlantic | 634 | 962 | 970 | 53% | 458 | 622 | 577 | 26% |
| Midwest | 1,052 | 1,339 | 1,339 | 27% | 640 | 757 | 717 | 12% |
| Central/Western | 1,270 | 1,2702 | 1336 | 5% | 938 | 938 2 | 907 | -3% |
| Pacific Coast | 1,361 | 1,500 | 1,479 | 9% | 1,006 | 1,064 | 987 | -2% |
| Total | 6,006 | 7,112 | 7,198 | 20% | 3,840 | 4,328 | 4,119 | 7% |
Copyright Book Hunter Press
By: Madlyn Blom
Center Aisle Books
Madlyn@CenterAisleBooks.Com
I haven't been this disappointed in a long, long time.
Remember the kind of disappointment when you didn't get the bicycle you wanted for your birthday even though your parents had talked about it and you had every reason to believe that you were getting one (not just hope)? Well, that is what I felt after my tour of the Library of Congress.
My excitement started when my I contacted my state senator's office to see if my husband and I could get a White House tour during our October visit to D.C. One of his assistants emailed me back and said he would put us on a list and get back with us later but did we want to visit the Library of Congress - he would get us on that list also if we did.
Well, yes, of course we did and we got another email and a telephone call confirming our scheduled tour time - Tuesday at 1:45 p.m. - bring photo ID. So we made our tour plans around the highlight of our visit - left our relatives on the steps of the National Archives Building (they hadn't planned ahead and made a tour reservation) and caught the 11:30 AM bus toward the Capitol Building - we didn't want to be late.
We finally found the entrance (it is NOT the one at the very top of the many marble stairs) and went up to the INFO desk with our appointment paper in our hands and were told that the public tour started at 1:30 - if we didn't want to wait there we could do a self-guided tour. Even after explaining that the tour we were taking wasn't a 'public' tour, that it (we) had made special arrangements, we were told, once again, about the public tour. We could, however, go across the street and have lunch in the LOC cafeteria while we waited the 1 hour and 45 minutes. She wasn't buying the idea that we, or our tour, were special.
So we went out of the building and found the cafeteria in the other building - going through yet another body and bag security check. Of course the guard at the cafeteria entrance made us wait for the public entrance time of 12:30.
But we were in line with the rest of the scanned public for our library tour, which would last about one hour. At the end of the tour, I asked the question I guess I should have asked my senator initially: Where are the books? This is, after all, a LIBRARY TOUR!
That's right. The Library of Congress Tour does not include seeing books. Well, o.k. I got to see 2 books: The Guttenberg Bible and The Manse Bible. Awesome, yes, but I could have walked up the steps with my relatives and viewed them just as we did the Declaration of Independence - no appointment, no calls from the senator's office, just go look at an amazing piece of history. The handouts I read after the tour say that the stacks are closed. I suppose that means something to a librarian--to me it meant that I couldn't check something out, couldn't pull something off the shelf and handle it. I didn't really expect to handle the books but I expected to be able to look at the books on a tour of the library.
According to the brochures, the LOC collection “comprise the world's most comprehensive record of human creativity and knowledge, …has 500 miles of shelves holding 28 million cataloged books in 460 languages, maps, films, etc. The LOC has over 4,000 employees and uses volunteers to lead the tours that highlight the historical and architectural aspects of the building. Special displays are presented periodically with the Lewis & Clark Exhibit on display in October. The main goal of the LOC is “…to make knowledge and creativity available to the U.S. Congress on a continuing basis…”and the staff fills approximately 500,000 congressional requests for information annually.
With a free library card, you can search the card or computer catalogue and have books retrieved for your study. If you wish to access information on line, go to http://www.loc.gov.
My digital camera's memory stick was filled up so I wasn't even able to take photos of the beautiful building. I did pick up a brochure and therefore know the answers to the 25 Questions Most Frequently Asked by Visitors, in addition to knowing that the Greek Goddess Minerva watches over the interior of the building. She represents Civilization - protects us from war and according to the docent, she has been very successful - there has never been a war in the LOC.
If you would like to see some rare books while in D.C., try one of the Smithsonian's museums. They have some on display at the various exhibits in addition to their 20 individual libraries - open by appointment - no congressional interface needed. The Washington National Cathedral's Bookstore also sells old (rare?) Bibles. I don't know what the Bureau of Engraving and Printing has available. My senator's office told me that tour was also unavailable - but, of course, it was too late for us when we found out that it is open to the public.
We never told our relatives that they could have joined us at the LOC - they still think we're special!
Copyright 2004 Madlyn Blom
Written by: Stan Gorski
Special Collections Librarian
Paul J Gutman Library
Philadelphia University, Philadelphia, PA
Edited By: Ken Fermoyle
While many reference books are still printed on paper, digital products are omnipresent in today's reference libraries. Many serial/journal/magazine indexes are now available either as CDs or web-based databases. Most libraries choose web-based versions of indexes due to the currency of the information, convenience to patrons, and no need for physical control of back files of CDs.
However, many reference tools are produced in a stand-alone CD format. For example, the Sweets architectural catalog set, published by McGraw Hill, is available as a CD. Accessible Archives Inc. (Malvern, PA) publishes a number of historical newspaper indexes only in CD format. Increasingly, a large number of academic books are packaged with CDs. All of Plunkett's business texts include CDs, which include all the table and graph statistics from the text. This allows for further manipulation by the reader.
A number of magazines also produce CDs for special issues or articles. For example, Communication Arts presents its “best of the year” media projects on a CD included with the magazine and Émigré has included music CDs with its magazine. In fact, some magazines are including articles or images on CDs with each issue. A good example is VilleGiardini, an Italian architectural magazine. Except for the web-based journal indexes, all these products have been meet with varying degrees of acceptance.
An example of the quality of items offered in Freeman's was a book of Three Stories... & Ten Poems, by Ernest Hemingway, Inscribed First Edition (Sold, September 18th, for $64,250). The inscription in Hemingway's hand is shown here.
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So this past spring, subscribers to Freeman's book auction catalog series received both a CD version and a printed copy of the catalog. The CD version included the same descriptions included in the printed catalog. The contents of the CD catalog were arranged exactly like the printed catalog. However, there was a controlled subject index that allowed the viewer to "jump" to specific subjects. Along with the CD, was a small pamphlet (about 30 pages), which included instructions, general auction information, and subscription order blank and sample entries with small color images. This pamphlet also included a more extensive index with appropriate lot numbers. Of course, the appropriateness of the various index terms is always a subjective decision.
Depending on one's collecting interests, it is always possible to argue that the subject indexing could be more extensive or specific. In an ideal universe, you would be able to search for any word used in the title of an item, its description, and/or even subjects associated with the item. Of course, then there would be complaints on the number of false hits. Also this degree of subject indexing would probably be cost prohibitive.
The most obvious benefit of this format is the inclusion of more color images. Since it is less cumbersome and time consuming to transfer images directly from a digital camera to CD, the overall cost of production is much lower. And since color does not add to the cost, this allows for the inclusion of a greater number of color photos. The individual cost of the CD to the auction viewer was $15, which was cheaper than the cost of the printed catalog for the sale. While Freeman's printed catalogs in the past may have included a few color images with about 20 black and white photographs, with the CD it was possible to present over 250 color images (585 lots in the sale). In fact, in sections devoted to autographs, maps, bindings, books with plates, it was possible to show an image of each lot described in that group. One minor problem was the small size of the images and that it was not possible to enlarge their size for closer inspection.
This format does raise the possibility of a cumulative file of auction catalogs and/or images of items sold. It would be possible to include all the catalogs for each year on a separate CD with a cumulative index. This product would be useful for pricing or identification. It would especially be helpful in showing the physical condition of the items sold. It would be more understandable to the book viewer why certain titles or items commanded their auction price with an image of the item available.
I had hoped that an updated CD with auction results would be made available after the sale. Understandably, considering postage and other costs, Freeman's did not follow this path but made the auction results available through their website (www.freemansauction.com). I enjoyed viewing the CD and appreciated the large number of color images. However, in conversation with David Bloom (Freeman's VP for books, prints & manuscripts), he stated that the response was mainly negative regarding the CD catalog and that the majority of collectors and dealers preferred a printed catalog to the CD. Their next book auction will be sold by using the traditional method of a printed catalog.
From left, Julius Fast (winner of the first Edgar Award), pulp author Ann Bannon and John Norman, creator of the Gor science fiction series, are kept busy by ardent autograph-seekers.
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By: Bob Riedel
Printmat@aol.com
This show just keeps getting better and bigger. I've been exhibiting here for the past four years, and sporadically attending for a little longer than that, and it's become one of my favorite bookselling and collecting venues. Not because it's the most lucrative - but it is often far and away the most interesting.
Impresario Gary Lovisi managed again to keep things lively on two fronts - the 35 dealers ranged from relative newcomers to longtime paperback specialists like Chris Eckhoff (who's forgotten more about adult paperbacks than I ever hope to find out, and has authored a useful checklist on the subject), and the guests' table was a great mix of authors and illustrators. Between checking out all the gems on the tables and garnering signatures from the guests, attendees were packed in throughout the day. The show drew collectors from far and wide (we noticed, for example, Tom Lesser, who produces the Paperback Collectors Show and Sale in Los Angeles, making the rounds).
Walter Wager (left), author of Telefon and many other thrillers, talks shop with crime and mystery writer Dan Sontup.
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Partly as a tribute to the female guests, Lovisi also made available the long-running show's first souvenir T-shirt, which featured the imaginary cover of Book Show Girl ("Men bought her books at their peril!"). I bought two; one as a back-up in case the need for emergency biblio-apparel comes up. (There are still a few available from Lovisi; check out his Gryphon Books website.
Expo organizer Gary Lovisi (center) of Gryphon Books, introduces guest author Ann Bannon to Howard Schoenfeld, author of 1950s crime cult classic, Let Them Eat Bullets.
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This show is particularly welcome when I'm hunting up specific titles, especially given the vagaries of Internet-dealer grading, and the heightened importance of condition in paperback collecting. There's nothing like actually handling the goods. This year, I've been trying to assemble a "Kerouac in paperback" collection, and managed to get quite decent copies of both the first U.S. and first U.K. paperback printings of On the Road. To have a show that allows one-stop shopping like that is a treasure indeed. The next Expo is sheduled on Oct. 3, 2004, again at the Holiday in on West 57th Street in Manhattan. See you there!
The booth of the Rochester Historical Society, the fair's sponsoring organization, was a popular stop.
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By: Bob Riedel
Printmat@aol.com
The sighs of relief from organizers were palpable. The 2003 Rochester Antiquarian Book Fair was under new management, in a new location, and had a new sponsoring agency. But the fair exceeded expectations, drawing a significantly higher number of patrons than it did in 2002. You could almost hear the fingers uncrossing.
The recently formed Rochester Area Booksellers Association had had its hands full. Following the 2002 fair, the Friends of the University of Rochester Library announced that they would no longer be able to sponsor the book fair. Add that to dealers' disaffection with problems at the former site at St. John Fisher College, and there began to be some question as to whether the fair would continue. But RABA members ponied up front money and divvied up the tasks of finding a new location (the Genesee Valley Ice Rink), securing dealers, sending out contracts, advertising, and obtaining a new not-for-profit sponsor (the Rochester Historical Society). The Rochester Bibliophile Society provided staffers for the admissions table, and the ABAA graciously funded the hiring of two musicians, who soothed savage bibliomaniacs all afternoon.
Rochester Mayor Bill Johnson (right) and local author and historian Donovan Shilling look over an offering at the Gutenberg Books booth.
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Refreshments ran out early as the manager of the food-vendor service confessed he'd had no idea how big the turn-out was going to be, and had only stocked a rudimentary supple of snack food. “But next year,” he said, “we're gonna have calamari.”
Vendors interested in exhibiting at next year's fair can contact Franlee Frank at Greenwood Books (franleef@aol.com). And keep an eye on the RABA website for details early in 2004.
 Guitarist Stephen Smith provides some background sounds, courtesy of a music grant for the fair from the ABAA. |
 Jim Malley of Mercury Posters talks to fair patron Ed Locke of Marion, NY. |
 The large antique state map in Dennis and Janet Seekins' Quiet Friends booth was one of the fair's most eye-catching items. |
 “The calm before…” The morning before the show opened. |
New York Is Book Country Fair
By: Shirley Solomon
PageantBks@aol.com
Over 18 used and antiquarian book dealers exhibited in this year's 25th anniversary of New York is Book Country.
It is definitely a long, hard day, but reaps many rewards. With over 250,000 people attending this daylong street event, it's a great way to reach out, cultivate the masses and introduce them to the world of used books, prints and maps.
There were over 200 exhibitors, including large publishing houses, small presses, libraries, cultural organizations and bookstores running along Fifth Avenue from 42nd to 57th Streets. For once, we were not relegated to a little side street, but were part of the main action on Fifth Ave.
Antiquarian Row, in the past, was set up on 52nd Street, with little kiosks for the dealers. The street would become jam-packed by the crowds, so this year, it was nice to spread out and have some breathing room. All the used book dealers were given 20 running feet, quite a bit of space.
Marvin Mondlin, member of the Appraisers Association of American and the Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America, appraised books all day long.
ABE Books set up a table and gave out little bags of "branded" goodies, pencils, erasers and mints.
The weather was magnificent, cool and sunny. Business was as usual, and having ATMs on just about every block really helps with impulse buying!
Seattle Fair Continues Success in a Tough Economy and Looks to Future AdditionsBy T.M. Fitzgerald
“Given the state of the economy we were pleased that so many patrons were loaded down with purchases before the Fair had been open an hour on Saturday,” said David Gregor, co-producer of the Seattle Antiquarian Book Fair (SABF). “ In fact, one of my best customers was racing around at closing on Saturday picking up six boxes of purchases and she hadn't even bought from me yet.”
While the most important statistic for the 2003 fair is the approximately 2,000 visitors thru the door, it is the changes to take place for the October 9 and 10, 2004, event that the producers are looking forward to incorporating into their successful formula. Seattle dealers, Louis Collins of Louis Collins Books and David Gregor of Gregor Books, Book Seminars International, produce the SABF annually. Both are members of the Antiquarian Booksellers' Association of America (ABAA) and regularly exhibit at numerous book fairs. Together they bring over 50 years of collectible and used bookselling experience to staging the Northwest's premier antiquarian book event every fall. It is this expertise that they will call on as they move the Seattle Book Fair back to the larger Exhibition Hall at Seattle Center next year.
There are advantages to the move. The 2003 Fair was sold out in June, even after additional booths were added. However, the larger venue for 2004 has only 88 booths; six of which are designated premier booths as they directly face the front doors. In addition to the booths themselves being larger (10 foot by 10 foot), there are 26 corner booths.
Collins and Gregor have a long established policy of extending to returning exhibitors first right of refusal on their booths for the following year. To date, a full third of this year's dealers have signed on for 2004. After March 1, 2004, new exhibitors on the waiting list are allowed to sign-up with booth assignment on a first come, first served basis.
Furthermore, the producers will add a book arts show in conjunction with the 2004 Book Fair. The show is a unique opportunity for two related collectible book industries to cross-pollinate. Book Arts Show exhibitors must offer for sale book-related items or services they produce, publish, create or manufacture. Book artists, binders, fine small presses, conservators, book centered non-profits, and hand printers are expected to bring an added dynamic to the Northwest's premier book event.
“We are looking forward to building on the past success of the SABF as we diversify our offerings and build a broader customer base than is typical of local book fairs,” Louis Collins summed up in a recent conversation. “I feel that is why our exhibitors tell us that the Book Fair enjoys a reputation world-wide as one of the best regional book fairs.”
For more information or to be placed on the exhibitor waiting list call 206.323.399 or email info@seattlebookfair.com.
By: Julie Fauble
julie@centurybooks.com
The Rocky Mountain Antiquarian Booksellers Association sponsored its 19th Annual Book Fair August 1 and 2, 2003. With more than 80 dealers from across the country, the Fair is the biggest antiquarian book event in the Rocky Mountain west. This year's event included celebrity limerick readings and panel discussions on children's literature and Edward Abbey.
Dates for the next fair are August 6 and 7, 2004.
Scenes from the 19th Annual Rocky Mountain Antiquarian Book Fair August 1 and 2, 2003
 "Gentleman Jim" Arner of The Book Ranch, Evanston, WY, chats with Western mystery author Robert Greer. Greer contributed to the Celebrity Literary Limerick Reading held before the fair opened. |
 Lois Harvey, fair coordinator and owner of West Side Books in Denver, poses with a few literary friends. |
 Roger O'Connor of Mostly Books in Pittsburgh, KS, chats with Dan Larson of Colorado Pioneer Books in Englewood, CO. |
 Sam Gottlieb of Camelback Books, Scottsdale, AZ, poses reluctantly. |
 Tony Delcavo of Bella Luna Books, Castle Rock, CO. |
 Richard Mori of Mori Books in Amherst, NH. |
 RMABA's crack security team - Chuck Yeager, Gretchen Bryant and David Kinnaman - watches over the exit. |
 Panel discussion on Edward Abbey - "From Walden Pond to the Monkey Wrench Gang." Tony Delcavo, Luis Urrea, Ken Sanders, and Gary Penely. |
 Today's Children's Books Discussion Panel. Bob Topp, owner of the Hermitage Bookshop, introduces Michael Hague, one of the most collectable of children's illustrators working today, Cheryl Scheer, children's materials selector for the Denver Public Library, and Mildred Pitts Walter, noted children's author and recipient of the Coretta Scott King Award in 1987. |
 Members of the Guild of Bookworkers, Rocky Mountain Chapter, showed off their skills. Here, Ray Tomasso is demonstrating paper-making. |
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| Tom Parsons is showing some of his small press creations and Linda Bevard is demonstrating the press. | |
 Vic Zoschak of Tavistock Books, Alameda, CA, dressed for the hot weather, is relaxed and comfortable while his customers are engrossed in his books.
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September 20, 2003, the date of the 10th annual Sacramento Book Fair sponsored by the Central Valley Antiquarian Booksellers' Association dawned bright, sunny and unseasonably hot - but inside the spacious Scottish Rite Temple, the location for the show, it was cool and comfortable - which might have contributed to the fact that the afternoon sales seemed to be just as brisk as the morning ones.
This book show is consistently well produced and well attended. Bill Ewald of Argus Books, the Fair Director, and Rebecca Frederickson do a great job both before the show in publicizing it, and in all of the organizational details during the show. The large booths in the main room are always sold out, and usually the even bigger booths in the side room are full too. Set-up is available on Friday afternoon and evening before the show, complete with a really tasty and varied buffet dinner, which gives booksellers a chance to relax and catch up on some trade talk in the midst of the work of setting up.
 John and Susan Hardy of Hardy Books in Nevada City are tireless promoters of the 'newest' Northern California Book Fair: the 4th Gold Rush Book Fair which will be held in Grass Valley on May 15, 2004.
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One of the pleasures of participating in a show like this - especially for those of us who sell mostly on the internet - is the chance to see old customers, and even more significantly to let potential new customers see your stock: the quality, the condition, the variety and depth of your offerings. The successfulness of a book show cannot be measured just by the number of books sold (or bought) in one day; it is an invaluable way of advertising your business to a group of serious collectors. However, the CVABA show is also usually considered a success based on sales also: five minutes before the closing of the show, booksellers were still writing up their final sales of the day.
It is only a mild complaint when I say that we were too busy in the booth to really check out the collections showcased in the lobby, or even the offerings of other booksellers. At the end of the day, most of the tired dealers were also seen to be smiling.
 Chris Volk of Bookfever.com in Ione, is enjoying an enthusiastic discussion with one of her customers, while others browse the shelves.
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 The Meetinghouse Books booth is set up and ready to go |
Of course, we do hear rumors and reports from book dealer friends who continue to exhibit at a variety of fairs. We hear gossip at the fairs themselves, and in our shop in the aftermath of fairs. And many of these reports are, I'm afraid, rather negative. We've heard dealers talk about the steady erosion of sales, the tire-kicking, the shrinking attendance of buyers and the concomitant falling off in the number of exhibitors. Not true of all fairs, to be sure (the ABAA fairs will, of course, always be the one plus ultra of Book Fair as Must-See-Shindig), and not everyone agrees that the smaller fairs are going downhill -- I've spoken to more than a few booksellers who remain steadfastly optimistic about the viability of these fairs both now and in the future. Still -- we have, as I say, heard things. One fellow gripes that whereas he used to count on a take of at least a few thousand dollars from just about any of the fairs at which he exhibited, now he's often lucky to get his booth rental fee back. Another fellow reports indignantly that the number of dealers exhibiting at a particular fair was down to fewer than ten; the result, a fair so scantily stocked as to be downright embarrassing, was of course a thorough disappointment both to the dealers and to those stalwart customers who did manage to attend.
 Bruce Gventer (B&S Gventer - Books) displayed this impressive early Missale |
Aside from our continuing pleasure in attending fairs hither and yon, there's also one fair where we still enjoy exhibiting. This is the Massachusetts and Rhode Island Booksellers Fall Fair held in Springfield, Mass. We do it because it's close, because it's more easy-going and fun than a lot of other fairs, because we know many of the other booksellers exhibiting, because MARIAB is a fine organization that deserves our support, and because we regard this MARIAB fair as an excellent advertisement for our shop and for MARIAB booksellers in general. And, because this is one fair where we can always find things to buy!
 A friendly wave from Barbara Verrilli (Trotting Hill Park Books) |
So how did it go? Well, for us it went fine. Using our usual strategy, we brought a range of material varying widely in subject and price -- a small but sufficiently representative selection of books from our eclectic shop. Since we have a fairly large open shop with a lot of different subject areas, we may do things a bit differently than a specialist dealer who brings to his booth only his choicest (and priciest) material. In our case, we think it's important to let folks know that we have unusual and interesting books in many fields, and that we offer books in all price ranges, too. This time we had everything from a mortuary monument dealer's catalogue from the turn of the century to several newly acquired, fairly recent books on African Art to some low-priced books by authors we're particularly fond of to Bronson's magnificent four volume set detailing the traditional tunes of the Child Ballads. While Judith held the fort in the South Deerfield shop, Ken had fun at the fair. Attendance did indeed seem to be up a bit from the previous year, and there were about as many dealers exhibiting their wares as in the past two years. Ken spread the Meetinghouse Books word by handing out flyers and bookmarks and by chatting with both dealers and collectors, making some new contacts as well as reacquainting himself with old friends and colleagues. He also found a few items to buy. At the end of the fair Meetinghouse Books showed a tidy profit. It is interesting to note that more than half of our sales were to other dealers. Still, the “civilian” customers were quite enthusiastic even though they may have lagged behind a bit in actual buying.
 A flock of customers descends on the booths of Retired Books and Taurus Books. |
So, to sum things up, we believe that how a book dealer experiences any book fair has a great deal to do with what he brings to it - in expectations as well as in merchandise. In our case, we reckoned that the best way to make a profit at this particular fair was to bring a user-friendly variety of books. We further reckoned that a lot of the benefit we'd get from the fair would be in good will, word-of-mouth, and publicity - which would not be immediately apparent, perhaps, but is extremely important in continuing to build our business.
There were, as usual, varying responses from other dealers at the fair. For some, it was the “best MARIAB fair ever” and for others it merely confirmed their gloomy predictions of a depressing and inevitable downhill trend. As for us, we probably will continue our current plan of doing this one fair each year. It's a damn fine fair, and it suits us.
By: Vic Zoschak
vjz@tavbooks.com
This erstwhile IOBA member was, after the fact, pressed into service as Pasadena Book Fair Correspondent by the Standard's pugnacious editor, Shirley Bryant. Having recently celebrating a 51st birthday, one can easily imagine the Correspondent's difficulties in recalling events that transpired yesterday, much less at a book fair 2 months ago... yet, duty calls. So, if not specifics, impressions can be provided for all the many readers of the Standard.
GOOD FRIENDS.
GOOD BOOKS.
GOOD TIME.
And pictures are available, albeit primarily of yours truly for, not having this commission prior to the event, my camera-woman was more interested in Moi & my booth, rather than the many other worthy exhibitors one found at this event.
Your correspondent, dressed in SF colors in the land of Blue. The book? An inscribed 1st edition copy of Dana's Life Of Grant.
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Sitting down on the Job. |
Standing up on the Job. | 
Moi & the Camera-woman. |
Stay-tuned. Santa Monica is next July, and I'll turn camera-woman loose on the entire event.
By: Kathy Lindeman
klindeman@ColoradoCollege.edu
Mike Ginsberg, Mary Ciletti, Dan De Simone
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“The Faculty was beyond outstanding.” 2003 participant.
Jim Canary demonstrating repair techniques at evening tutorial.
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“I'm not sure how so many long days can make up such a short week!” 2003 participant
Ed Glaser and Mary Billings discuss a fine point at lunch.
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Of all the special features of the seminar, the Auction Demonstration is one of the favorites and most fun. Items are donated by faculty, our friends in local book shops, and supportive businesses from all over the country. All proceeds are donated to the libraries that loan us reference books for the week.
At our final session on Friday, we said goodbye to our new friends and colleagues with hugs and certificates.
Thursday's auction in progress. |
“Basically, this was one of the best weeks of my entire life! Not only did I get what I came for-- a new direction for my business as well as better skills, but I was able to get to know people I would never have had the opportunity to meet and make friends with who will be a part of my life for years to come. It was an incredibly invigorating week.”
I look forward to Book Seminar 2004!
Kathy Lindeman, Book Seminar Coordinator
Pictures courtesy of Sue Gallagher, of Denver's The Gallagher Collection, our great friend and perpetual volunteer!
The Independent Online Booksellers Association is pleased to announce the launch of IOBAbooks.com, a website where IOBA members will offer their books for purchase online. Book buyers can be assured that all IOBA member booksellers will provide professional and reliable service, as provided by the IOBA Code of Ethics.
IOBA members can participate in IOBAbooks.com at very favorable rates.
The site is operated for IOBA by Choosebooks.com and is based on their full-featured, high-quality software.
Please write to webmaster@ioba.org with any questions about this exciting new project of the Independent Online Booksellers Association.
One of the most pernicious knids in the last several hundred years of bookselling has been odoriferous books. As all booksellers know, most books stink, but some of them go so far as to smell. It breaks the heart to tear into a lovely milk crate of potentially mortgage- paying volumes only to discover that they have been stored in the back of a disused lavatory along with the owners' collection of rare molds & spores.
There are many makeshift methods to drive odors out of books, from a dose of sunlight to a good strong coating of Febreze®. But they may work or not work or even damage the invalided book.
So, if you have recently unearthed a nice fat modern first whose mindless half-wit of an owner had a fondness for pellet burning wood stoves and you would like it made more socially acceptable in a reasonable amount of time, I suggest you try my exclusively made Book Deodorizer*. It is made from harmless chemically neutral highly absorbent granules, (with the recent addition of real cedar scent!*) and when put in an air tight container with the convalescent tome it is guaranteed to absorb odor molecules. Length of time necessary for the abrogation of the odor is dictated by the severity of the stench.
Available in either the original clay based or the new biodegradable corn cob-based. There is no risk as each bottle is guaranteed. Hundreds of bottles have been sold over the years with no refunds...as yet.
*We have tried including NO smellum in the product, however since the odor remains in the granules, it gives the distinct impression that nothing is happening; besides cedar is nice and repells bibliovores.
*see: http://www.bookdeodorizer.com
J. Godsey
14 Pleasant St.
Methuen, MA 01844
pundit@bookhumor.com
http://www.bookhumor.com
Selling books since 1980
Publisher of Sic, the Book Humor magazine
Distributors of "Book Deodorizer"
http://www.bookdeodorizer.com
Walter Mosley, Sharan Newman And Monterey, Too! That's What
Left Coast Crime 2004 Promises
By: Ken Fermoyle
(Editor's Note: I apologize. Since this issue of The Standard is so late in going live, this event was held this last weekend. Hopefully Ken Fermoyle can report on it in the next Standard issue. I'm sure it went very well indeed, as always.)
Walter Mosley, award-winning author of the story collection Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned and its sequel, Walkin' the Dog, as well as five Easy Rawlins mysteries. His novel RJ's Dream was a finalist for the NAACP Award in Fiction. (Photo Credit: Anthony Barboza)
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We attended the LCC 2003 event in Pasadena, CA and were mightily impressed. Robert Crais was Guest of Honor and did his usual fine job as a speaker. Walter Mosley is a great choice to follow the popular Crais. I've heard him speak a number of times in recent years and can confirm that his talks are as provocative and insightful as his writing. Mosley's best-known book, Devil in a Blue Dress, introduced Easy Rawlins. One of his latest, Fear Itself, brings Rawlins back and in more trouble than ever.
Sharan Newman specializes in historical mysteries. Her Catherine Levendeur Medieval Mystery Series now consists of eight books, with release of the latest, Outcast Dove, on November 5, 2003.
The 14th event in the LCC series will be held at the Double Tree Hotel in Monterey, CA, setting of some of John Steinbeck's most famous novels and not far from the John Steinbeck Library in Salinas. Monterey itself, of course, offers Fisherman's Wharf, a greatly sanitized and commercial Cannery Row with its colorful John Steinbeck Plaza, the famous Aquarium and capping it all, the gorgeous Monterey Bay.
LCC Guest of Honor Sharan Newman writes the Catherine Levendeur Medieval Mystery Series. |
And, there's more. There will be several special publications available only to registered participants: Program book; book of original short stories written for LCC by guests of honor Walter Mosley, Sharan Newman, Judy Greber (Gillian Roberts) and Richard Lupoff; Bibliography of attending authors; and pocket program.
Outcast Dove is latest in Sharan Newman's Catherine Levendeur series |
Black Raven Press (Chris Aldrich)
Deadly Alibi Press Ltd. (Margo Power)
Deadly Serious Press (Kate Derie)
Friends of Chester Himes
Friends of Mystery (Jay Margulies)
Jen's Book Exchange (Jenifer Nightingale)
Little Bear Productions (Rochelle R. Bernet)
Mystery Place Online (Stephanie Shea)
Mystery Readers International (Janet Rudolph)
Poisoned Pen (Barbara Peters)
Sisters in Crime
St. Martin's Minotaur (John Cunningham)
The Double Tree Hotel is sold out. Here are some other possibilities:
The Monterey area boasts eye-catching vistas, like this view of Carmel River Beach, in every direction. |
Casa Munras Garden Hotel (least expensive, short walk or drive to the convention center); phone number is 1-800-222-2446 from CA and 1-800-222-2558 anywhere else in the US.
Scenic Monterey Bay includes a bustling marina, so you can even come to LCC 1004 by boat if you're so inclined. |
The Monterey Hotel at 406 Alvarado St. Phone 1-831-375-3184. Room rates are at special group rate of $115 plus tax. Rooms are on a first hotel registration basis and are limited in number. Please note that this hotel is located in a restored building from 1906 and is not recommended for persons with disabilities.
To register on-line or to find out more about Left Coast Crime 2004, go to: http://www.lcc2004.com/
By: Ken Fermoyle
Awards for mystery novels and their authors abound! Probably the best known, and most coveted, of those given in the United States are the Edgar All Poe Awards. Chosen by members of the Mystery Writers of America since 1945, they are more commonly known as the “Edgars,”
The Macavity Awards differ from most mystery novel honors in two important respects.
Janet A. Rudolph is known as "The Mistress of Mystery." She is the director of Mystery Readers International (MRI), editor of the Mystery Readers Journal, a teacher of mystery fiction, and a columnist for several mystery publications. |
Second, the Macavity name obviously is a tad unusual. Most other awards are named for people (Edgar Allan Poe, Agatha Christie, Anthony Boucher, Canadian Crime Writers Arthur Ellis Awards, et al) or bear titles like the Shamus or Dagger Awards, The Macavity Awards, however, are named for the "mystery cat" of T.S. Eliot's Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats.
Started by Janet A. Rudolph, Berkeley, California, MRI now has members in all 50 of the United States and 18 foreign countries. Members have been voting to select Macavity winners each year since 1987.
Here is the list of 2003 awards (for books published during 2002) by category, with title, author and publisher. Nominees are also listed in each category.
S. J. Rozan, 2003 Macavity winner for best novel, with goddaughter Eve.
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Nine by Jan Burke (Simon & Schuster)
Savannah Blues by Mary Kay Andrews (Harper Collins)
City of Bones by Michael Connelly (Little, Brown)
Jolie Blon's Bounce by James Lee Burke (Simon & Schuster)
Julia Spencer-Fleming, 2003 Macavity winner for best first mystery novel.
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A Valley To Die For by Radine Trees Nehring (St. Kitts Press)
The Blue Edge of Midnight by Jonathon King (Dutton)
The Distance by Eddie Muller (Scribner)
Best Bio/Critical Mystery Work: They Died in Vain: Overlooked, Underappreciated, and Forgotten Mystery Novels edited by Jim Huang (Crum Creek Press). Other nominees:
The Mammoth Encyclopedia of Crime Fiction edited by Mike Ashley (Carroll & Graf)
The Art of Noir: The Posters and Graphics from the Classic Era of Film Noir by Eddie Muller (Overlook Press)
Intent to Sell: Marketing the Genre Novel by Jeff Marks (Deadly Alibi Press)
Best Mystery Short Story: “Voice Mail” by Janet Dawson (Scam and Eggs, Five Star). Other nominees:
“Boot Scoot" by Diana Deverell (AHMM, October 2002)
"The Adventure of the Rara Avis" by Carolyn Wheat (Murder, My Dear Watson, edited by Martin H. Greenberg, Jon Lellenberg & Daniel Stashower; Carroll & Graf)
"An Empire's Reach" by Brendan DuBois (AHMM, Nov 2002)
"Too Many Cooks" by Marcia Talley (Much Ado About Murder, edited by Anne Perry, Berkley Prime Crime)
"Bible Belt" by Toni L.P. Kelner (EQMM, June 2002)
Winners in 2002 were:
Best Mystery Novel: Folly by Laurie R. King (Bantam)
Best First Mystery Novel: Open Season by C. J. Box (G.P. Putnam's)
Best Bio/Critical Mystery Work: Writing the Mystery: A Start to Finish Guide for Both Novice and Professional by G. Miki Hayden (Intrigue)
Best Mystery Short Story: "The Abbey Ghosts" by Jan Burke (AHMM, Jan 2001)
Notable nominees and award winners in previous years include:
Blood Work by Michael Connelly (Best Mystery Novel of 1999)
Trunk Music by Michael Connelly (1998 Nominee)
Killing Floor by Lee Child (1998 Nominee)
Two for the Dough by Janet Evanovich (1997 Nominee)
Under the Beetle's Cellar by Mary Willis Walker (Best Mystery Novel of 1996)
The Last Coyote by Michael Connelly (1996 Nominee)
She Walks These Hills by Sharyn McCrumb (Best Mystery Novel of 1995)
The Sculptress by Minette Walters (Best Mystery Novel of 1994)
A Thief of Time by Tony Hillerman (Best Mystery Novel of 1989)
By: Ken Fermoyle
Mystery author Robert Crais filed suit against game show giant Activision in October in response to the apparent hijacking of his private eye series protagonists Elvis Cole and Joe Pike for a new video PlayStation game, True Crime: Streets of LA. Fans of Elvis Cole and his enigmatic sidekick immediately rallied round in support of Crais and their heroes, introduced in The Monkey's Raincoat (1987).
What's most interesting in the case is what impact it may have on other authors, particularly those in the crime and sci-fi categories. If Activision wins, will this mean game creators can steal characters and ideas from novels with impunity? The film and TV industries traditionally have paid good money for rights to use authors' works, never mind that the final product often bears little resemblance to the written version.
“Since news [of the suit] broke, we have received literally hundreds of posts and emails,” reported the webmaster for Crais' website, robertcrais.com “…To those of you who sent letters of support and good wishes, we extend our deepest thanks and gratitude.”
Crais has long been known for his careful stewardship of the Elvis and Joe characters, the whole Cole series, in fact. Despite lucrative film and TV offers, he has steadfastly refused to sell rights to his Cole novels or their main characters. He pointed this out in the following statement on his suit against Activision.
”A video game titled True Crime: Streets Of LA was recently brought to my attention. The creators of this game have admitted it was patterned after my Elvis Cole/Joe Pike novels. Those of you long familiar with my work know that I guard Elvis and Joe closely. You know that I have turned down well over thirty offers to sell the film and television rights to these characters and books. They are not for sale. They may not be used without my permission.
”To quote a character from The Monkey's Raincoat, where it all began: 'He accepts the duty of protecting what is his.'
”To that end, I have engaged Bruce Van Dalsem and Henry Gradstein of Gradstein, Luskin & Van Dalsem to help in the effort. Requests from journalists are forwarded to them. Legally, I can make no comment upon the case so long as we have a pending action. I look forward to sharing my views with the jury.”
Crais ended his comments with a bow to the fans who registered support in e-mails and on his website Forum:
”Thanks for your good wishes and support.”
Here is how Activision describes the game.
“The streets of Los Angeles are being overrun with criminal scum and it's going to take a renegade ex-cop like you to clean them out for good. As Nick Kang, your brutal reputation and lethal skills have landed you a nasty job: heading up an undercover task force to stop the Chinese and Russian gangs from turning the City of Angels into their hellish playground. Across hundreds of square miles of L.A., you've got to drive, fight and blast your way through a branching storyline comprised of a massive array of unpredictable missions, using stealth techniques, martial arts moves, and an ask-questions-later arsenal. Looks like the hardcore streets of L.A. just met their match.”
Here is the comment of a journalist who covers the video game beat.
True Crime taken to true court L.A. crime author Robert Crais sues Activision over Nick Kang character
Activision saw its drive to publish True Crime: The Streets of LA hit a pothole today as crime author Robert Crais reportedly announced that he is taking legal action to stop the game's November 4 release.
”Crais filed suit in Los Angeles US District Court and is currently seeking an injunction to prevent Activision from shipping the game. The suit also seeks undisclosed monetary damages and "destruction of all infringing works."
What's Crais' beef? The writer claims that Nick Kang, the grizzled ex-cop antihero of True Crime, is a rip-off of Elvis Cole, the grizzled ex-cop antihero of nine Crais novels, including L.A. Requiem and Free Fall.
"'True Crime is substantially similar to the Elvis Cole novels,' states the suit, which accuses Activision of copying "protectable expressions." (Those who've read Crais' novels and seen footage of True Crime will notice Kang and Cole also share an affinity for mirrored sunglasses and beating criminals senseless.)
“E-mails to Crais were not returned and Activision representatives wouldn't comment on the matter except to say it expected the game to ship as scheduled.
“Developed by Luxoflux, True Crime LA is one of Activision's most heavily promoted Q4 releases. The title's combination of Grand Theft Auto-like shooting and driving with martial arts-influenced hand-to-hand combat has generated significant interest among gamers.” - by Tor Thorsen, GameSpot [POSTED: 10/17/03 11:10 AM
(Actually, ol' Tor doesn't seem all that familiar with the Crais mysteries. It's Joe Pike who wears mirrored sunglasses and is the more physical one of the partners.)
Does Crais have a legitimate beef in this case? Not having seen the game yet, I can't speculate. The fact that people who have seen it and spotted the parallels does suggest that there is at least some smoke hovering over the situation. Is there fire there, too?
Stay tuned; we'll update you on this suit next issue.
Few booksellers have made as big an impact on online selling as Richard Weatherford. A former professor who began his bookselling career in 1972 and who co-founded Seattle's Bowie & Weatherford, Booksellers, Richard went on to start Interloc, a seller-to-seller Internet service that predated the widespread use of the web. In 1997 Dick joined with Marty Manley to launch Alibris, a site that is well-known to most IOBA members. Alibris recently launched the Alibris Pricing Service which enables sellers to re-price books. IOBA decided to find out more about this service by speaking with Weatherford.
IOBA:
Alibris recently launched a new pricing service for online booksellers that has caused quite a stir. What is the service and why are you doing this?
Weatherford:
The Alibris Pricing Service is the beginning of a revolution in used bookselling. For the past four centuries, booksellers set the price of their book based on their personal knowledge and on conditions in their local market. In some cases, we charged almost whatever we wanted.
The Internet is creating a real market for used books - and in real markets, the laws of supply and demand set prices. Our pricing service simply lets booksellers apply current market information to their prices. As a result, their sales go up - a lot. That is good for them, good for book buyers, and good for Alibris.
Weatherford:
At Alibris, we have had a running joke about the book Bridges of Madison County - the best-selling fiction book in1995. Alibris, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and ABE all have thousands of copies for sale. You can get them for a penny on Amazon - and you can get a new copy for nine cents! Obviously nobody makes any money selling this book, unless you charge sellers a listing fee, which Alibris doesn't.
What should sellers do? Simple - STOP LISTING THIS BOOK! The Internet has a lifetime supply, thank you very much. When supply overwhelms demand, prices collapse - in books, just like in anything else.
Falling prices are a concern - a big concern - for all online booksellers. But prices are just information from the market - and if the market is telling you that it already has too many copies of a certain book, we think that booksellers need to know this, even if it is bad news. Any bookseller who pretends they can charge above-market prices or pretends that we are still living in the good old days when anybody could charge almost anything for any book is a bookseller with a hobby, not a business.
Weatherford:
You bet we are concerned. Heck, we are the only service left that doesn't charge a listing fee, so if prices fall, our income falls with it. But the weatherman does not create the weather: We report current market conditions to our booksellers whether we like what we see or not.
Weatherford:
The previous question about falling prices presumed that we are causing prices to fall - and we aren't doing that. This question suggests that we are somehow holding prices up artificially - and we aren't doing that either.
Believe me, if there were a legal way for Alibris to fix prices, we would be more than happy to do it. But Alibris does not set prices - and neither does any one bookseller. Prices are the result of supply and demand. In the old days, customers did not have a lot of choices, so booksellers could charge more. Online, they have a lot of choices, so prices fall if there are more books than customers.
Our service simply helps booksellers keep up with all of this - which is impossible to do without technology. Some sellers compare it to the Kelly Blue Book, which tells you how much your used car is worth.
Weatherford:
The market isn't shrinking - it's exploding. Used books are by far the fastest growing and most profitable part of the book business. Sellers who are pricing books accurately are enjoying the results of this growth. Sellers who insist on doing it the old way will see their sales continue to fall. So far, the Alibris Pricing Service is the best way for a seller to keep up with market changes. Personally, I would hate to be a bookseller without this service competing with sellers who use it.
Weatherford:
It's true that the Alibris Pricing Service really is oriented mainly around common books - but that's more than 80% of the demand out there, so it tackles the vast majority of the market.
Three things need to be true before we can provide you with a market-based price. First, your book needs to be in our catalog. Our catalog is enormous and global - but it doesn't have pamphlets from the 1930s and other obscure items.
Second, we need to be able to recognize your book. This means we need to be able to match your record to the catalog. If you have entered the information carefully or if the book has an ISBN, there is a good chance we will recognize it. If your record has typos, then our systems may not recognize it. Our systems accurately recognize about 75% of the records we get, which is outstanding compared with any other bookseller.
Third, we need to have market information about the item. We may recognize it but not know about any sales or other items like it for sale, or the seller may have indicated that the item is collectible (signed, for example). In these cases, we do not make recommendations because the bookseller knows as much or more about the item as we do. Statistically, we are able to recommend a price most of the time - and our recommendation is based on recent selling prices and recent sales.
Weatherford:
Because we are not smart enough to do that. Pricing collectible books is still more art than science. The reputation of the seller matters a lot - established sellers can charge more for the same book in the same condition. I would be very cautious of anybody who claimed they could automate the pricing of collectible books.
Weatherford:
One of our next enhancements will help on this front - allowing sellers to create "filters" for condition, binding and other elements.
But more importantly, condition doesn't matter to most customers if the book is in very good or better condition. As John Adams famously said, "facts are stubborn things". We know who buys books online - and it is overwhelmingly readers, not collectors. We know which copy they pick - usually the lowest priced one that is not torn, broken, or marked up. If you have a book that is in mint condition and you want to charge more for it, go right ahead - but there is no factual basis for our service recommending a higher price.
By the way, at least one bookselling pioneer figured this out ten years before the rest of us. Michael Powell has a million books for sale and none of them have condition descriptions. As best we can tell, it hasn't hurt his sales much.
Weatherford:
It won't help with your antiquarian or highly specialized books - your expertise will be more accurate than our market data. But most antiquarian or specialized booksellers acquire enormous amounts of out-of-field material or simply common used books. Smart sellers liquidate this material at prices that pay for the entire collection. Our service is excellent for this task, which is something many antiquarian sellers are grateful for.
Weatherford:
I would have killed for this service. Pricing a book sometimes took longer than cataloging it. And we never had the time to re-price books - it simply took too long, so we never bothered with it. Think about it this way: I could easily go back and re-price books I have that were cataloged years ago and never sold - without having to check them one at a time.
By the way, this tool is designed for online pricing. If you run a store in a major metropolitan area, like I did, you can and should charge higher prices in the store. Customers do not pay shipping and they get the convenience, shopping pleasure, and expertise that only a good bookstore can offer. These things cost money, and a bookseller should price accordingly.
Weatherford:
We are astonished at the response this service has received, and our early indication is that our sellers are very happy with the results. Most of them figured that old listings were dead stock. Using this service, they are repricing and selling these books. Many feel like it is found money - and some have told us that they paid for the service with sales increases the day after they used it.
Weatherford:
It's a six month subscription based on a monthly fee that ranges from $9.95-$49.95 depending on how many books you have. We deduct it from our payments to you. Sellers who want to learn more or sign up can do so at http://sellers.alibris.com.
IOBA:
Can you tell me how many of my books are over- and under-priced before I sign up for the service?
Weatherford:
As noted earlier, we're planning to add new features designed to enhance how sellers can search on their inventory. Also, a small number of our price recommendations turn out to be dumb. This is a minor problem, but occasionally it makes sellers think that we are silly. Turns out that if one or two people are charging $300 for a book that most folks charge $50 for, our system doesn't yet adjust for this very well. It's a small problem that affects relatively few books - and we can fix it, but it is the kind of thing you discover when hundreds of sellers use a tool that you don't pick up when a couple dozen sellers are helping test it. Sellers should expect that we will regularly add new capabilities to the Pricing Service as we go forward - and look for continued integration into other Alibris services in 2004.
Weatherford:
Yes - and this will also give you a sense of how many of your books we can help you to re-price. Just go to the seller hub at http://sellers.alibris.com and select "Pricing Analysis Report" from the Account Management menu.
By: Jean McKenna
booksone@comcast.net
Q. Who knows where I can find a list of the countries that DO NOT accept global priority mail?
I'm getting quite a few international orders these days and it's always a moment of truth at the counter when I find out the tab is not $7 or $9 but $20 and up. I know from bitter experience there is no global priority to Italy, but what are the other countries?
Susan Halas
Prints Pacific
A. This chart names all the countries that accept GPM: http://pe.usps.gov/text/pub51/51cl.html
George Cross
Q. Can anyone recommend a book-safe pesticide for silverfish?
My main problem is that they are finding a nice, comfortable lifestyle inside of boxes of books. Periodic vacuuming is not a good option.
Doug McClure
A. Here are a few suggestions. All of these are repellents, not true insecticides.
1. Menthol crystals -- best to keep these in a small container such as a cotton-plugged tube. I have never observed any damage or color change in bindings or djs exposed to menthol crystals, but you never know.....
2. Eucalyptus leaves/branches. Just menthol in a natural form. Be sure the plant materials are thoroughly dry before placing near the books. Again, dried, crushed leaves in a cotton-plugged tube might be safest.
3. Depending on where you are located and whether you can obtain them, fruits of the Bois d'Arc tree (Osage orange, Maclura pomifera) also repel silverfish and many other insect pests. I do not know what the active ingredient is here, and obviously more care should be taken to avoid contact between the books and the plant materials.
C.O.Patterson
A. As an entomologist and IPM specialist for museums the past 25 years, I have found that boric acid is not very effective against silverfish. In fact, cellulosic insulation for buildings (ground up paper treated with borates for fire retardancy) does not deter silverfish at all. They feast on it.
Another dust, such as Drione (finely divided silica gel plus pyrethrum) would be a much better choice. Even straight silica gel pesticidal dust would work quite well. Both are basically desiccants with sharp particles that scrape the wax off the cuticle of the insects and dehydrate the pests. Such dusts should be applied to pipe chases, voids in walls where pipes emerge, and cracks and crevices where the pests hide during the daytime.
If conventional, residual sprays are to be used, an encapsulated or wettable powder formulation would work best. These should be applied as perimeter sprays to the baseboards under which silverfish hide. They can also be directed into cracks and crevices and pipe voids.
Actually glueboards (also known as sticky boards or capture traps) work well against silverfish. They are a non-toxic approach which stay in place for long periods of time intercepting silverfish while the nocturnal pests roam about the space.
Also, I noted a response from someone on the Internet about sensitivity and allergies to pyrethrum. When dusting for silverfish, you place a light amount of the dust as a coating in voids and pipe chases, never in the open. For instance, the 4" void beneath cabinetry, shelving, or natural history ranges would be a logical place to put Drione dust. Pipe chases are often inhabited by silverfish and would be another logical place to blow in Drione dust with a bulb duster. If Drione is used in a sane manner, no one will ever come into contact with it. Besides, after application, the pyrethrum eventually breaks down and disappears, leaving the finely divided silica gel in place for intercepting crawling insects. Not bad for carpet beetle larvae either.
Thomas A. Parker, PhD
Pest Control Services, Inc.
14 East Stratford Avenue
Lansdowne, PA 19050
610-284-6249
610-284-4494 FAX
www.termitesonly.com - website
Editor's Note - Joyce Godsey's Book Deodorizer, http://www.bookdeodorizer.com, may work as well. I understand she is testing it for silverfish, etc., as we speak.
Q. This is probably a silly question...but why on older books are some of the pages "uncut"? I purchased a set of nice Dickens off of PBA. I was hoping to read them, But no! Every other page is uncut and obviously unread. I find this annoying as I can also presume if one carefully cuts the pages, the so called collector value drops faster than the Dotcom bust.
I would appreciate some insight on this. Forgive me if it has been discussed before as I must have missed it.
John Scott Porterfield
A. Publishers deliberately issued books with pages uncut, in their original boards, so that owners could take them to a binder of their choice who would then have the maximum width of possible margin available, i..e., the binder would then trim the book (thus "opening" the pages) to whatever width was suitable for the binding style.
Michael Cole
York
Also:
A. I've been told that a plastic card, like a credit card or membership card (which would be thinner than a credit card) works well.
Suzanne
Boomer's Books
And along the same lines:
A. A nice stiff playing card works well; I have noticed little difference in the efficacy of a face card as opposed to those of lower value.
David Holloway
More information:
A. This is probably a bit pedantic, but I believe the correct term is unopened, not uncut. According to The Book Collector's Fact Book by Margaret Haller, "An unopened book is one which has not as yet had any closed leaves slit open with a sharp instrument such as a paper knife or letter opener, so that the pages might be read. An uncut book, on the other hand, is one which has not been trimmed at the bindery."
Editor's note: According to John Holden's The Bookman's Glossary:
“Uncut edges - Leaves untrimmed by machinery. Not to be confused with 'unopened'.
Unopened - A book with folded edges that have not been sliced open by hand, as with a paper cutter. Not to be confused with 'uncut edges'.”
Michael S. Greenbaum
Q. I am planning to ship a number of books from three different locations back to my home base. Each shipment will contain 300-600 or more books. The last time I did this, I carted them around in my Taurus station wagon and finished up with lots of car damage due to the weight. I have also pulled a U-Haul trailer, but with the amount of time I'll be away it would be a costly solution. In the past I have sent small boxes of books (read about 30-40 books) via USPS using Media Mail. This was a fairly good way to ship. But slightly costly. UPS is apparently more expensive. Does anyone have any good suggestions about shipping methods for boxes of books. And, for that matter, any good ideas for packing such boxes so the books arrive in reading condition and not as saw dust. All suggestions greatly appreciated.
Michael Schneps
A. Many booksellers I know won't buy large quantities of books because they don't want to deal with moving them. Here are a few ideas we've used over the years, updated quickly with a few phone numbers and companies we've used. I'm not endorsing these companies - check for the best rates, and as always ask around locally to find recommendations and best fits for your situation.
1) Move them yourself. Rent a panel truck to minimize the wear on your own vehicles. You can rent by the week or month at more favorable rates. We've used Rent-A-Wreck in the past - cheap rates and working but unattractive (beatup) trucks and cars. Their website is at http://www.rentawreck.com, 1-800-944-7501. Although it's been a while since we've used them, they were no-frills trucks, very little amenities, but lots of space. Many of the major car rental companies (Enterprise, Avis, Hertz, etc) also rent panel trucks that are inexpensive. You can ask if they have any beatup vans for rent at a discount. If you need working AC make sure you ask for it - many of these cheapies don't have it.
2) Send packages via bus. Many bus lines will allow you to send packages economically via their existing bus routes - they're going there anyway, why not make some money moving your books? Don't expect pristine handling, but you can often ship terminal to terminal avoiding the industrial parks of most commercial shippers. For large quantities this isn't the best choice. We've used Greyhound, website at: http://www.greyhound.com. Their service, Greyhound Package Express (GPX) is "an economical way to deliver packages, especially those within a 300-mile radius. Counter-to-counter services is available from most Greyhound terminals and door-to-door service is available in selected areas." Call them at 800-739-5020 for more information.
3) Send packages via UPS. UPS has a standard rate for shipping packages which you can get at any drop-off center. Anyone with daily UPS pickup service can also get what is called their "hundredweight" service, which is a service designed for less than 1000 pounds at substantial discounts over their normal shipping rates. It is a bulk service. If you aren't a daily pickup customer, find a local business who is and piggy-back on their service to get the reduced rates - many businesspeople will help out, and if not, throw in dinner for 2 at a local restaurant of their choice. Their site is at http://www.ups.com. This service is not well publicized, why I don't know. Check the rates though against normal UPS rates - once they quoted a price higher with hundredweight than a normal shipping program. Current url is at: http://www.ups.com/content/us/en/resources/select/sending/options/hundredweight.html
4) Lastly, try a commercial freight company. The ABA (American Bookseller's Association) has bulk purchasing arrangements with various companies to help with shipping large quantities of books. They used to use Freight Management Systems (we had good luck with them, 865-922-7491 for free estimates), but their website now notes a program with Fedex Ground and also PartnerShip (1-800-599-2902, ext. 2462). There are various membership requirements, credit forms, etc but it is worth it if you ship large quantities, even one time. Check ABA's website programs: http://www.bookweb.org/join/affinity/ We've done this 3 times with large lots of books purchased cross country. You can also talk to moving companies, who often have "end of truck" rates where they will fill up a truck going somewhere with your books. Lastly, if you have friends in the local trucker's community check with them - sometimes a trucker can't find a load for a return trip and will take your load to lose less money on the return trip - this method is catch-as-catch-can and I'd make sure I was working with reputable folks.
When packing books for these services, the same rules apply as sending regular books through the mail - most of these bulk services just treat your boxes as heavy stuff, not precious books. Pack books flat (not spine up or you'll break the bindings), spines toward each other, bubble wrap, and at LEAST an inch of packaging between the books and the edge of the box, or every bump to the box will translate to damaged books and lost revenue for you. Then, put glassine tape around the box in all three dimenisions so if the seams happen to burst at least the box stays together. More smaller boxes are better than fewer larger boxes, just because the shock of movement or dropping of the package translates first to the box and then to the books. Insist on this packaging style if you aren't packaging the boxes - I once had 20 boxes sent with no padding at all, save a single sheet of bubble wrap on the top of the box - lots of broken bindings. Pay for it if you have to - you'll end up with lots of usable bubblewrap later for reuse.
If you have the time and ability to do it, package the books, and then place them on a pallet and shrinkwrap it. You'll need a loading dock to get them on and off the truck in that case. You can drop off books at the local freight office, and they can often shrinkwrap the books on a pallet for you. This saves you pickup charges, and saves work for the trucking company, which they appreciate. It also means the books won't shift in shipment, and receive minimal handling. If you don't have a loading dock on the receiving end, $20 and a smile to the trucker will usually get some understanding getting them off the pallet and into the garage. Make sure when asking for quotes on prices that you note if dropoff/pickup is in a residential area - these trucks are often quite large and it affects the pricing as well. When working with the freight companies, remember that they are used to working with well-equipped back docks at manufacturing companies - be sure to check before showing up with a bunch of boxes and expecting them to shrinkwrap for you. When all else fails, smile and look flustered. Most people are human and will help out the poor, confused, courteous bookseller. grin :)
Hope this helps somewhat. If anyone has more ideas I'd love to hear about them.
Sincerely,
John Kuenzig, Bookseller
Thanks to all our contributors, especially John with his in-depth report.
And, as usual, special thanks to Lynn and the Bibliophile List. Please send your book questions to: Booksone@comcast.net and we will try to have them answered for you.
Jean S. McKenna - Books (Editor Q & A)
Chairman Education Committee.
And, an unanswered question that perhaps one of you can help with!
Hi all,
I hope someone can help me with this strange case. I sold a large lot of beautiful Japanese quilting magazines on eBay. They went off to the purchaser in two boxes, both of which arrived on the same day. One box contained the Japanese magazines; the other contained a large lot of second world war magazines. I have never had any second world war
Needless to say, the purchaser is keen to have the magazines she paid for and I am keen not to have to refund her money. She has send me pics of the box and contents and it is definitely my box and wrappings but NOT my contents. I thought perhaps I might locate the buyer of the war magazines in the eBay finished auctions listings but have not yet found a comparable sale. Now, I'm asking for your help and your wisdom. Have you ever heard of such a thing and, if so, what do you suggest I do next? And, have any of you recently sold a batch of magazines including History of the Second World War (Marshall Cavendish) and The Battle Staff - Smart Book. I figure if I can find that sale, I will find the missing Japanese magazines.
With fingers crossed, I am
magazines so this was not a case of my having mixed up mailing labels or some such. The only thing I can figure is that the box was opened at customs and the contents switched (inadvertently, I hope) with those of another box being opened nearby.
Frances Curry
Only the Best Books
fxcurry@sympatico.ca
www.onlythebest.ca
By: Martha Kelly
Gutenberg Books
mkelly03@rochester.rr.com
Graham Holroyd's new price guide for paperbacks, Paperback Prices and Checklist, fills a real need for collectors and booksellers. The initial printing of 5000 copies should sell out in a hurry, since no similar guide exists and the only previous similar work, that by Kevin Hancer, is out of print.
According to Holroyd over 40,000 paperbacks are listed, most published before 1970. The book is easy to use, indexed by publisher, author, and some of the better-known cover artists. Author pseudonyms are listed throughout.
The oversize soft cover book, an impressive 800 pages long, includes 1000 cover scans. The print is a little small, but that's probably an elderly quibble considering the book's overall usefulness and completeness.
The author, an experienced and long-time bookseller in Rochester, NY, specializes in science fiction, fantasy, and vintage paperbacks. The price guide took Holroyd five years to complete and he plans an update in two or three years.
Holroyd published the book himself and copies are available by contacting him at gholroyd@rochester.rr.com. Dealer terms are available. Copies are also available at a number of independent bookstores.
Holroyd, Graham & Jon Warren (intro by Richard Lupoff). Paperback Prices and Checklist. Rochester: Graham Holroyd, 2003. Soft cover. 8 1/2 X 11. $29.95
By: Stan Modjesky
bookmisr@valinet.com
“Book Miser” is a trade name that I purchased in 1993, when I entered the business. In addition to paying for inventory, a lease and furnishings, a significant amount of money was paid for the intangibles-the trade name and “goodwill,” principally. It didn't take six months for me to learn that there was no goodwill (rather a fair amount of ill-will) connected with the business, and that the customer lists and ongoing training promised in my purchase contract would never materialize. Thus, I had paid some thousands of dollars for the right to use the name.
A year later, Interloc was born, and I joined the nascent ranks of online booksellers, using my trade name. Some time shortly thereafter, I registered the domain name “Bookmiser.com.” Nearly a decade later, the name identifies me as a user on Alibris and eBay, and as a member of the Washington Antiquarian Booksellers' Association. My email address incorporates the name, albeit truncated to the allowable maximum 8 characters. I am associated with the name in several activities outside the world of bookselling. And, until recently, I maintained a web site under the domain name Bookmiser.com. But no more.
This past summer, we spent the month of August camping in Maine, with no internet connection. Upon my return, I realized that my web site could not be accessed. Checking with the web hosting service, I found all the files, and was able to bring each of them up directly, but the links from one file to another did not work. A phone call to my ISP revealed that I was no longer listed as the owner of this domain. In fact, the name would not come up at all on a who-is search. Thus, a phone call to Network Solutions was in order. After waiting the customary three-quarters of an hour on hold, I finally reached a live individual. This person helpfully informed me that the domain name had expired, and was now in a sort of cyber-limbo known as the Redemption Period. To bail out the name would cost $150, and if this were not done by a particular deadline, the name would be made publicly available. Since this conversation took place on September 4, and the redemption period expired at the end of the month, it was obvious that the thrifty thing to do would be wait until the first of October, and re-register the name, paying only the $30 or so it would cost then. After all, how much competition could there be for the name “Book Miser?”
As it happened, the first week of October slipped past without my attending to the renewal, and to my horror, I discovered another web site using my old domain name. Worse, they've put up a site that is a portal leading to a number of book-search services, in addition to non book-related links. Still worse, there are dead links, much of the rest of the site is incomprehensible and the site incorporates an "exit" function that opens a new window when you try to leave via the back-button. Worst of all, the new owners posted a copyright notice dated 2002.
I sent an e-mail to the new domain owner, asking that the copyright date be corrected, to remove any inference that I am responsible in any way for the current site. I've also informed the owners that I continue to use the trade name. Weeks later, there was no response, although at last check, the copyright notice is gone altogether. By all appearances, the new dot-com using my trade name is one of many identical sites parked on domain names that someone might find by accident. It's a peculiar way of seeking business, a bit like catching fish with dynamite, in my view. The contact information for the new domain owner is murky, leading only to a couple of company names, rather than individual people.
But the most galling part is that this interloper was able to register the name on September 18, during the period it was allegedly unavailable! Now, the plot thickens.
Checking my files, I learned that Network Solutions never made contact with me about the expired registration. As it happened, the email address they had on file is one that I abandoned a year or more ago. But my mailing address and phone number were valid, and the site itself contained a mail-to link to my current email. An experiment revealed that email sent to the old address resulted in a “bounced mail” message. Under such circumstances, one would think the registrar would have tried some alternate means of reaching me, but there were no phone calls, no emails from the web site, and certainly no postal communication.
Surely, I thought, this oversight could be corrected. A colleague in the Washington Antiquarian Booksellers Association suggested that there were remedies available. A page called www.internic.com/faqs/udrp.html reveals that a process called the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) defines how disputes over domain-name registrations are resolved. This policy includes a procedure described as, “a mandatory, non-binding, low-cost administrative procedure to resolve a certain set of claims - namely, claims of abusive, bad faith registration.” Now, that's pretty murky. If the procedure is mandatory, how can it be non-binding? A few paragraphs later, “domain-name disputes must generally be resolved in the same way as any other conventional dispute: by mutual agreement, court action, or voluntary arbitration. Moreover, without a court order or consent of the registrant, a registrar will not cancel, suspend, or transfer a domain name.” Since the new registrant has not responded to a polite email, that leaves arbitration or a lawsuit. The latter being out of the question, it was time to explore the arbitration process.
Three “approved dispute resolution service providers” exist (incidentally, don't you just love this teetering stack of modifiers?) You can request review by either a single arbiter, or by a three-person panel. Of course, the fees for the three-person review are higher. The very least you would spend to initiate a review under this “low-cost” process would be $1,150. If the other party in the dispute wishes, your request for a single-person review will be shifted to a three-person panel, in which case the fees run as high as $4,500. As a bonus, you, the original complainant, get to pay half of the increased fee. Topping things off, the process can be expected to take several months. All this for non-binding arbitration-an expensive crap-shoot. Being Nobody's Fool, I gave up and registered a new domain name: Bookmiser.US. As a precaution, I am putting META-tag keywords on each page, using “Bookmiser.com” as one of the keywords.
Here are a few things you might do to avoid what happened to me:
Trade name encroachment: Does It Matter?
When, as children, we played at being business-men, the name on the enterprise defined the enterprise itself. Often, the choice of a trade name is the very first step in forming a business. A trade name might reflect pride of family, the nature of the business, or some lofty aspiration (Acme, for example). This holds less true today than a generation ago; the latest crop of trade names may be distinguished by the way they provide no clue to the nature of the business (e.g., eBay, Verizon, Agoura). A former employer of mine opined that a business name ought to reflect the location and nature of the business. Thus, his shop carried not his personal name (which had an excellent reputation), but was called “Towson Foreign Car Service.” He figured, correctly, that his old customers would be motivated to find him, and that the name ought to attract new customers.
My thinking about naming a book business is that the first word of the trade name ought to be “book,” thus leading by the hand those who would turn to the alphabetical section of the telephone directory, rather than to our expensive classified advertising. Still others believe the name ought to position the business at the very beginning or tail end of an alphabetical list. Thus, the Baltimore telephone directory reads alphabetically from AAAA Action Bail Bonds to Zyzyx.
When writing about the names and their misappropriation, the temptation is almost overwhelming to quote Romeo (“What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet”) or Othello (“Who steals my purse steals trash…but he who filches from me my good name robs me of that which not enriches him, and makes me poor indeed.”) Although these quotations have become cliches, they illustrate the visceral attachment of a person to his name.
For some time now, encroachment on trade names has been an ugly fact of life. Stories abound about the crushing of the innocent by some juggernaut, the sad fate of a dissenting family member, or a decision made in haste and regretted at leisure. The number of tales about the Disney and McDonald's companies crushing some innocent local business has reached the proportions of Urban Legend.
One especially outrageous instance happened here in Baltimore a few years ago, when a restaurateur was deprived of the use of her personal name by an electronics company. Sony Motoyama, a Filipino, had for several years run a successful eatery under the name Sony's. When an overreaching staff lawyer at the electronics company got wind of this, the restaurant was forced to change its name, despite the fact that Baltimore's Sony in no way competes with the multi-national corporation. Motoyama faced a choice between spending precious assets to defend a claim to her own name, or moving forward in the hope that her reputation would follow her, whatever might be inscribed on the door.
If you peruse the labels on wines produced by the Bully Hill Vineyard, you'll discover that the proprietor has been forbidden by the courts from using his own name. The vintner is Walter Taylor, a member of the New York wine-making family which sold its identity to a large corporation. As the dissenting member of the family (the only one who wished to continue to pursue the family business), Walter got the short end of the stick.
In the motorcycle industry, Craig Vetter became known as the designer and maker of fiberglass “fairings,” those bits of bodywork that shield a motorcyclist from the elements. In a spectacular bit of hasty judgment, Vetter sold his trade name to a former employee, figuring to retire. A year later, when retirement proved not to be the bed of roses he'd expected, Vetter discovered that he was not only unable to trade upon his considerable reputation, but that if he re-entered the cycle accessory business in any way, he might find himself in breach of his contract of sale.
And perhaps one of the most spectacular trade name cases involved not a name, but handwriting. Chris Coyle, an enterprising independent real estate broker, made quite a splash in the market in Anne Arundel County, Maryland. Enough so that after around five years in business, he received a lucrative buyout offer from one of the large regional firms. Coyle's trademark was his signature, which appeared on all his signs and literature. The buyout included a non-competition clause, which forbade Coyle from again using his name in the business in Maryland. After less than two years, Coyle grew bored with retirement and decided to open a new brokerage in the same area. Since he couldn't use his personal name, he dubbed the enterprise “Champion Realty,” and adopted the trademark comprising the company name, in his easily recognizable script. The paint was hardly dry on the signs before he was sued by the company that had bought him out, claiming trademark infringement, merely because the handwriting was recognizable. Coyle pressed his case and won, but at considerable expense.
In the old-book business, profitability is uncertain in the best of times, and does not permit prolonged and expensive legal battles over trade names. Often, someone borrows a trade name unconsciously, just because it sounds so darned good. A couple of years back, I discovered someone using “Book Miser” on Half.com. Predictably, the company would do nothing to mediate, and my frustration spilled over into a discussion thread online. A week or so later, Terry Laing revealed her identity as the interloper. She'd been reading the discussion with great interest, and to her horror, realized she was at the center of it! We sorted things out and have become fast friends, learning that we live only an hour's drive from each other. Terry is active in WABA, doing business under the name Books and Spirit.
Shirley Bryant reports that she had discovered someone else doing business as “Authors and Artists.” Fortunately, that person agreed to change his ABE and Alibris information to eliminate possible confusion. But we're not always that lucky. Trademark protection is not guaranteed, even by registering the trademark. You must affirmatively defend your trademark against all encroachments, in the hope that when The Big One comes along, you'll succeed. For Disney, Sony and McDonald's, it's a relatively small matter to assign a staff attorney to attend to trademark problems. We booksellers don't have that luxury.
In the long run, perhaps it's easiest to use your own name as your trade name. While the Vetter and Taylor cases show the downside of this, in practice very few booksellers manage to sell their business name. Some of our most venerable booksellers have traded under their own names. Especially online, brand-names don't seem to matter, and developing a brand-name identity in the babble of the Internet seems an exercise in frustration. The key to business longevity has always been repeat customers, and I don't think that is about to change. We are creatures of habit. Our energies are best devoted to a personal relationship with each customer that makes it easy for them to develop the habit of returning to us for another purchase.
By: DeWayne White
dewaynewhite@sbcglobal.net
This article offers some basic suggestions for those who own or plan to open an internet book store. You can also read it just to get a flavor of what is involved in setting up a commercial internet site although the emphasis is on books. It is offered with the hopes that it will help someone get started. It doesn't tell how to sell books (other than maybe making a better web site), it doesn't tell you what the book grades are, and it doesn't discuss the aspects of being a bookseller. You should know these before you even consider opening an internet based bookstore. The article does discuss some aspects of becoming a webmaster apprentice and some of the things you can and should do to create a successful web site. It is a condensation of some of the materials I have read, either in books, interest groups I now or have belonged to in the past or individually in normal conversation.
One note before we continue: I will very much try to explicitly say whether I am affiliated in any way with services/companies mentioned in this article, but I might miss sometimes. Generally, if I don't mention some connection, you can assume that I only have knowledge of their existence. In any case, any suggestions/advice offered is just my opinion.
If you are interested in books, whether just reading, collecting, talking/reading about them or about the book business there are several organizations/forums I think you should be aware of:
Of course there are many more including SIGs and forums dealing with books in general to specific authors. For example, look at http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&group=alt.books or http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&group=rec.arts.books.
In the beginning, there was the name. And the name was good. But the name was taken! You need a URL name for your web site. These can be purchased at a myriad of places on the net. Before we get to where to go to register a name, realize that your first, sometimes second, third, etc. choices may be taken. There are different "kinds" of addresses, i.e. com, net, biz, etc. But, if your name is taken, don't register a SomeName.net name just because the SomeName.com is taken. Register a name as soon as you decide you are serious about opening a business web site - maybe even before that. Do it as soon as you can if you even think you might get serious. Do you get all of the "kinds" of names, Name.com, Name.biz, Name.org, Name.net? Some like to get the main three (com, org, and net) but I think that unless you plan to become a multi-million dollar business, just get the com address. It is generally the one assumed when you say your site is, for example, WhiteUnicornBooks.
At this time, you can pay anywhere from about $9 a year to $30 a year and more. What is the difference in the costs? It isn't quality of service if all you want is the name. The business you buy the name from is just a broker. Sometimes the difference is nothing. Other times, you get some storage space and possibly some bandwidth and maybe a few other perks. Unless you plan to use the extras (like building your own site), don't pay for the extras! If all you want is the name go to someplace like GoDaddy where you can get a name for a single year for $8.95 or for 10 years at $6.95 a year (this was in Oct, 2003). Can you get the extras from the "cheap" places? Generally, yes but you pay more for them. I presently do have a web site registered through GoDaddy but that is my only affiliation. Note that some companies that will set you up on the net will also provide a URL registration. Sometimes it is included in the setup price, sometimes you pay extra for this.
Now you have a name. What do you do? DON'T ADVERTISE. DON'T REGISTER YOUR NAME AT GOOGLE, DMOZ, ETC. You should have a web site up and running for business BEFORE you register your name with any search engines. More about that later. Just park your name at the place you registered. What you should do is read. There are several sites on the web that give advice about how to run a web site and how to build web pages. A few are:
Before you can get your inventory up to a site, you must have a "computerized inventory". How do you get one? Well, any answer to that has to include "with a lot of work". But what inventory program do you use? Happily, almost anyone you want to use. You can generally use any spread sheet program (Excel, Quattro Pro, abs, Gnumeric, …) which will output a tab delimited ASCII file. The same is true for any database which will output a tab delimited ASCII file (Access, Filemaker Pro, FoxPro, etc.). If you use those types of programs, you have to build your own structures. Some prefer this because they have more control over what they can do. Others prefer a special purpose database program. For books there are quite a few out there including the following:
Several of these programs have a forum for new users where advice is offered on the basic (and not so basic) use of the program. The IOBA (see link above) has several articles in their Newsletters that discuss different inventory programs.
It's finally time to open an internet book store! Here are several sites that will set you up with a store front on the web. If you really want to "roll your own" you might look at these sites to get some ideas. Do you know what cgi-bin access and SSL means? You'll need to know if you plan to "roll your own". You will have to contact the people holding your URL registration to have them "point at" your actual site, but that is generally explained in the setup of your site. We personally have a web site hosted by Chrislands with which we are very pleased. I've also "heard good things" about the following sites:
These sites should offer enough bandwidth to operate your store. That is, the set up shop allows for searches of your inventory, ordering, allowing customers to set up a login ID, etc. with a good response time. Some have fixed fees with, possibly, different levels of service. Some have charges depending on how many books you have online (searching a larger inventory requires a larger bandwidth if you want to keep a good response time). Shopping cart integration is provided. In other words, you basically get a turnkey operation. Statistics on your website should be provided. I haven't checked the other sites for statistics, but I think they provide some if not all that Chrislands provides. At Chrislands you can see what pages have been visited, where visitors come from, what search terms they use to reach your site, and more. Statistics are available at daily, weekly, and monthly intervals. Integrated Credit Card processing is generally an option. A further note, SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) is a must for a commercial site, even if you run it as a "hobby". The definition runs to some other computer acronyms but what it boils down to is that transmissions between you and your customer are encrypted and thus things like credit card information is protected. There are various levels of encryption, but anything of 128 bits or higher should be sufficient for at least "temporary" storage of "personal" information (remember that computer technology is improving and this may not be sufficient in the future). If the business which supplies your site offers SSL (and all of those above do), it is very likely adequate and will probably remain so.
Well, you finally have an established book store on the web and all you need to do now is upload your inventory, keep it up to date, take and ship orders, and collect all of that easy money. Right? Wrong! You and umpteen million other people have businesses on the web. Many of them are booksellers, so how are your customers going to find you out of all those other booksellers? BTW: Did I mention that you should still be reading (and reading and …) about web site promotion, etc., from either some of the above sites or ones you have found on your own.] Hopefully your site has, at a minimum, a search capability and a way to order with SSL capability (see above for SSL).
NOW YOU REGISTER! DMOZ, will register your site for free (maybe). Since it is a feed for many of the search engines, it is the first one you should register on. Note the criterion for listing your site. Don't make it a blatant advertisement. Submitting your site to search engines before it's ready is a big no-no. It won't get indexed and it'll either come up as a 404 (error, not found) or it'll index the page where the domain is 'parked'. Then, when you are ready to be indexed, the spiders from Google, AltaVista, et al, will take forever to find your site. Technically, what happens is that when a spider crawls a site, it looks at the IP address of the site. It knows the site by the IP and only refreshes it once in a very long while. If you move the site to a different server (and that is what you are doing when you move from the parked address to your new site), it can take months - like 4-5 months for the spiders to find the new location. Moving a site from one server (or a 'parking place') to another server is a very difficult undertaking.
How about places like "ineedhits" and the like. If it's free, why not? But we've found the "pay for placement" is generally not worth it. For the paid versions, they may send "traffic" and may send you lots of it. BUT, in general, they don't send you qualified traffic. Surfers are simply "forced" onto your page (usually through a pop-up which they close before it even loads - thus the "may send"). In the olden days of the web, this was useful as there were various revenue programs out there that paid you money simply for having someone "view" the ad. These are rare today. In the end, you're better getting one person a day who is interested in "buying books" than 1000 people a day who are there just because you paid for them to be there. The key is "qualified" traffic rather than just any old traffic. Besides, Google, AltaVista, et al, will pick you up in a couple of months especially if you register with DMOZ. If you can afford it, a Yahoo listing (https://ecom.yahoo.com/dir/reference/instructions) doesn't hurt, but it won't kill you if you don't have one (remember, you are getting my opinion, not everyone's). Don't go crazy with those submission services that promise submission to 50,000 search engines. There are really only 5-6 that matter and you can register for free at most of the sites which ineedhits and its ilk gives you for free, including Google, Yahoo, and AltaVista.
Now you have a site, you have been crawled by "everyone" and your site is out there for everyone to see. BUT your site is 103,223 out of 121,376 sites. At 30 sites per page that means you are on page 3441. Not many people look through 3441 pages to find what they want! (Have you been reading?).
The first thing to work on is keywords and descriptions. Go to (almost) any site, put your cursor somewhere on the page and right click. There should be a choice of View Source or something like that. Left click on it. A window will open (typically a Notepad type of window for Windows users) which will contain the HTML source of the page. Near the top, you will see a KEYWORDS section (something like meta NAME="KEYWORDS" CONTENT=…). These "words" are part of what distinguishes your site from other sites. [You can also save this file to get some ideas about HTML coding but ask permission from the site if they have "significant" information you want to use on your own site.] It's amazing how many searches for which your site can be made to show up top five with some tweaking of tags and keywords to meet your own needs once the site is up and running. This stuff is not restricted to the "techie", but does take a little time and thought.
Keywords help and can help a lot, but there are other things you can do to make your site more visible. I'll briefly mention two of them (you probably already know, if you've been reading). The first is links. If you link to a site, say something like http://GlobalBookTown.com, that generally helps that site in their ratings. But, since you probably have a smaller rank than them, it helps them "a little". However, if they link to you then it helps you more than "a little". How much it helps and how much more is more than "a little" is a complicated algorithm depending on the service that does the ranking (Google has depended more on this linking than other services in the past and may still do so). If you can create reciprocal links with a lot of sites, "a little" may add up to "a lot". Do you specialize in Science Fiction/Fantasy? Ask the SF Site (http://www.sfsite.com/depts/small01.htm). A different specialty? You probably know better than me where to look. If your site goes up in the ratings, it helps the sites you link to "a little bit more". When their ratings go up, your ratings are helped. It isn't quite a never-ending circle, but it can certainly help.
The second item is "content". "Content" is, in part, what you are reading right now. It is also the specials or pictures of books you offer on your web site. It is anything on your site that tends to make you different than the other guy. How about putting up an "authors page" where your customers can find out what the next book will be or where the next appearance is scheduled? BTW: Do you also have audio-books, LP's, or book paraphernalia or ephemera to list on your site? It could add a bit of distinction if you "advertise". Content is a page (or several pages) on your site that also help your site. I was talking about linking to sites above. Well, in Google's eyes, each page is a site in that context. There are also some good and bad ways to lay out your site. Since each of your pages has a rank, the good ways have the Google ranking concentrated mainly in one or two pages (usually your home page) and this can push you up in the Google searches. The bad way spreads the total ranking of your pages around all of your pages. This brings down your home page rank and thus pushes you down in the Google search. But, don't "over design" your site to the point where your customers are inconvenienced. For more details, look at http://www.iprcom.com/papers/pagerank.
BTW: We started an "ethical listing sites" page to not only add content to our site but to possibly help our customers. It was a bust. Our email to listing sites started out with "We have found that many of our customers have been deceived by inaccurate descriptions and have been unable to obtain any satisfaction from the dealer in correcting the deception. Because of this we recently thought we would put up a page of links to other sites that have a stated 'good' ethics policy for their booksellers AND that policy is 'findable' by customers of the site AND they enforce the policy." On Insider and Bibliophile, it started out as an Ethical Book Sites thread. Maybe the post was too strong and presented the wrong message (as we considered it) to the people who read it. The purpose boiled down to, as stated in one of the original emails when we started the project, "We are trying to tell people there are sites that have ethical book dealers and are not going to rip off people just for the sake of selling a book or two. We hope it will give online customers more information about online listing places besides the 3A's. Some are not aware of any other sites on which to find books." Anyway, it was a bust. We had three "yes" responses and no "no" responses from the sites we contacted. As a result, we have three sites listed. But our links page still points to the page as a "help for online book buyers" link.
You are finally up and running. You've got regular customers and more and more people are finding you. How do you keep customers once you get them? The same way you do in an open shop. Newsletters make good reminders that you exist, especially if there are some "specials" advertised. But, remember this is the web. At worse, you should only send one newsletter to a customer unless they opt-in. Add an Opt-in Tag on your site. Remember, spam can kill your shop. How about offering discounts for repeat customers? Do the same kind of things you would do in an open shop but apply it to the web. Do you have a customer who has expressed an interest in a particular subject/author? Having kept track of your customers, you can send an email to them about a new book you just got in their area of interest (again, be careful about "spamming").
How about credit card processing, is it necessary? Credit card processing can help your bottom line and, in some cases, help very much. But setting up a merchant account and signing up with a gateway service can be quite expensive. This seems to be a catch 22. Fortunately, this isn't always true. Set up a PayPal account (http://www.paypal.com). Your customers can "email" you money into your online PayPal account using a credit card. (Other services of this type include http://www.2checkout.com, http://www.paysystems.com). Make sure you check out the service before you sign up. There are many people who do not like PayPal (see, for example, http://www.paypalwarning.com). We use PayPal as one option for CC processing and have never had any problems. The cost of the service is paid from your orders with no setup fee.
The major problem with PayPal and its ilk is that your customers also must be members, although PayPal has just announced that this will be changing and buyers will no longer need to register with them to make payments. Many people don't want to join. For these people you need "real" CC processing. For a business in the US (or at least a person with a US Social Security Number), there is ProPay http://www.propay.com. There are several minor fees associated with the account, e.g. a $0.35 fee for a "withdrawal" from your ProPay account to your checking account (note, all costs were as of Oct, 2003 and may not be exact). There is also a $35 yearly fee. The charges are somewhat larger than a regular merchant account, but don't have the monthly statement and gateway fee. The $35 yearly fee is about the same as the setup fee for merchant account and gateway service [which you have to pay in a lump sum] if you amortize that fee over about 5 years. Thus, the difference about boils down to paying a monthly statement and gateway fee (in the neighborhood of $20 or more combined) versus a higher item cost and discount rate through ProPay. The break-even point varies depending on the number of CC sales processed but is in the neighborhood of $1000 to $2000 a month in sales. We have used both the ProPay and merchant account/gateway service. To make a long story short, if you can use ProPay, I would suggest a steady CC processing of at least $1500 a month before looking for a merchant account and gateway provider [you will probably have to put up a deposit if you need to process more than $1000 a month through ProPay]. We became "unhappy" with our merchant account and gateway provider and are back to using ProPay for the present. Also note that there are some who are very dissatisfied with ProPay. However, we have been happy with their service.
Do you first list on other services or, after you have your own site, continue to list on other services? Well, I'll skip the first part of this with just a basic comment. Listing on multi book dealer sites may be the best (and cheapest) way to find out if you really want to be a bookseller. What about the "continuing" part of it? My answer to this is a definite yes, at least until you are making "enough" from your own site. What we do is decide what is a "fair" cost for a listing service. Note: this increases if the site also does your CC processing since CC processing, in this day and age, is a regular business expense.
Before we say anything else, we add another bit of our philosophy. When we do choose to add a listing site, we consider basically one thing. Will we get a "good" return for our money? This return is not always in the form of "direct" book sales, it also includes "advertising value". For example, we know of several repeat customers at our web site who first found us through a particular listing site, but now tend to order from us direct. That site gets some credit for these sales for some length of time. Thus we could have a fixed fee or fixed fee plus commission site that seldom gives us a sale, but we remain with them. Once we chose a site to list on, we tend to stay at least one year in order to give both the site and ourselves a fair trial.
In general, we find out what the cost really is to list on a site and then raise the selling price if that becomes necessary. For example, say we have "a fair return" of $0.90 on the dollar ($1.00 minus a 10% commission). If a site charged us 20% then, if I raised my price by 12.5% for that site, I would get my $0.90. If a site charges 10% or less, just list there (assuming other factors agree).
It's easy for the straight commission sites, but what about those that charge a fee or fee plus (modified) commission or just modified commission. You can assume that the site will pay for itself to start with. But actual results require some analysis - like monthly, cumulative, and trend of sales. Whoever said the book selling business was easy? Look at http://www.pattersonliddle.com/bookstart for a list of multi-dealer listing sites.
We could probably continue "forever" about specific "things to do": Did you get/make some business cards/flyers and post then at you local library (if allowed) or other where? Did you check out http://selfpromotion.com? It's free to try. Do you put duplicate address "labels" inside your packages just in case the outer address gets "wasted"? Are you making your store pay for everything as soon as you can? This may entail waiting a bit for some "improvements", but the faster you are on a supporting basis (at least as far as the store is concerned), the better off you will be.
I hope you have gotten an idea about the process of opening an online book store/business. Maintaining and promoting your online book store is a never ending business but it can become enjoyable to make your site just a little bit better.
If you have any comments, suggestions, or "just for the hell of it" emails, visit us at http://WhiteUnicornBooks.com or drop me a line at DeWayneWhite@sbcglobal.net.
Copyright © 2003 DeWayne White
BookWriter Professional is a new application created by Tom Sawyer, co-founder of Interloc and Alibris, serving as Chief Software Engineer from 1993-2001. His past creations include BookMaster, Record Manager, BookMate, Book Prices Realized, and the UIEE data exchange format. Last year, Tom produced the unique BookWriter Web composer, which effectively positions bookseller's books in search engines. This exclusive IOBA article offers the first public disclosure of BookWriter Professional, the next step in the BookWriter series.
Tom, what's the motivation behind BookWriter Professional?
I really enjoy producing software that's actually useful, and I especially enjoy seeing booksellers make productive use of it. The last few years have offered a glimpse of what's possible, but the technical learning curve is getting longer for many booksellers. Often, they spend more time pointing and clicking than actually doing book work. That's a shame because computers are supposed to be tools, not an end unto themselves.
BwPro is a program I've been wanting to produce for a long time. I believe it takes the bookseller to the next level of productivity. It is a complete bookselling environment, and it manipulates data in ways that are currently very difficult to accomplish, particularly in a single program.
Is BwPro consistent with your previous software?
In some ways it is. It was a big surprise for me to learn how many booksellers are still using BookMaster and Record Manager. Apparently, I did something right. The old software still gets many jobs done satisfactorily, with minimal effort. But those programs are more than a decade old and they're very much out of date.
I tried to code BwPro to carry the same philosophy forward into the Windows and Internet realms. A key design objective was to make BwPro so that a non-technical bookseller could do things with a minimum of trial-and-error. The result is that BwPro has a short learning curve. Most dealers who've tried it so far have jumped right in without having to read a manual. It's as intuitive as I could make it.
Isn't user-friendliness an objective in all software design?
Perhaps, but in my humble opinion it seldom actually happens. It seems like this should be an easy thing for a software designer to do, but it's deceptively difficult. I think it's similar to being a good writer -- it's easy to read and enjoy a finished product and fail to see the amount of work the author put into it. Few books can be enjoyed by young and old alike, be appreciated by both new and veteran readers, satisfy both the publishers and the readers, and yet stand up to the kind of intense scrutiny that accompanies a major work.
Good software is like that. It is REALLY hard to make a program universally workable while keeping complexity low and adaptability high. After nearly 20 years of doing this, I'm still learning and still don't consider myself to be an expert. It takes a long time to do a good job. Every little thing requires constant back-and-forth testing and tweaking to make it right. One minor detail can take all day to resolve. That's one reason it's taken so long to finish.
What are the program's basic features?
Like BookMaster and Record Manager, BwPro focuses on specific core aspects of bookselling. Inventory, Contacts, Wants, Uploading, Importing, Exporting, Composition, and Invoicing/Accounting are all core capabilities. The program also provides Internet-based features such as email, FTP, and the ability to look up specific books in Internet venues.
What features does BwPro provide and how are they presented?
To a great extent, the same factors that were important a decade ago are still important today: Easy, rapid and intuitive data entry is a big one, and BwPro provides a wealth of features to accomplish that. A good data entry system addresses both contemporary and antiquarian books, and I think BwPro does this well.
Booksellers also need to easily manage contacts and wants, upload records to multiple locations, import and export information quickly and easily, to professionally compose information in ways that will help sell books, and manage accounting information. BwPro addresses these things in a single package and tries to group their functionality logically, according to the real-world needs of the booksellers who make use of it. I've put things where I hope people will expect to find them, and provided capabilities that I hope will help booksellers become more productive.
Can you offer some examples of real-world needs BwPro addresses?
Sure. For instance, the Inventory Record dialogue provides the user with everything needed to quickly enter and edit records, but it also provides extensive image association controls. You can associate both on-line and off-line images, even combine them in a single record, and BwPro handles them seamlessly (see image). You can also see an instant preview of what a book record will look like when it is composed.
For those who do their book image scans in batches, BwPro will gather all images in a particular directory and automatically associate the images with records after the fact, based on the naming convention used. Anyone who's ever done this manually knows what a huge timesaver this can be. BwPro can also perform the same operation on a database-wide level, for all records. A bookseller can sit down and scan images for 100 books, then go into BwPro and tell the program to associate all of the images with their corresponding records automatically, in one shot. It even retains the image sequencing specified according to the name suffix used (a, b, c, etc).
Another need is extracting ISBN codes from existing descriptions. Many booksellers have their ISBN data embedded in Comments or some other field. BwPro can scan database records, extract validated ISBN codes, and populate a dedicated ISBN field with the data. This in itself can save a bookseller hundreds of hours of hand-editing.
There are lots of little conveniences. For instance, you can get instant pricing data for any book. You can instantly look up any Zip Code, City or County, even display a map of it. You can load and save Hit Lists to create instant catalogs. There are lots of little goodies like this. Most of these features came about as a direct result of booksellers telling me: "Boy, it sure would be great if your program did such and such." I've tried to accommodate these suggestions wherever possible.
What other problems does BwPro solve for booksellers?
Another big problem for many booksellers today is record format conversion. Frequently, they must convert UIEE to tab-delimited, or vice versa, or import data into a spreadsheet, or into an XML template, or export data in some way to meet the requirements of a particular web site or selling venue. More often than not, this results in data loss, or formatting problems, or incomplete records -- the list of aggravations is long. It's amazing how many hoops booksellers are forced to jump through to meet the requirements of different companies.
BwPro takes a much more down-to-earth approach to this, by providing many different ways to manipulate records. You can set up separate export templates for different sites, and even compose a set of different files and upload each one to a different location, in sequence. There is also a group of stand-alone utilities that do things like convert a UIEE file into a tab-delimited file, read HomeBase database records, read ABE's tagged data upload format, convert old BookMate PRV files into other formats, export to Excel .csv format, etc.
BookWriter Pro basically allows booksellers to do what they want with their data, instead of jumping through hoops or being restricted to what a company will allow -- without having to be a technician or read an instruction manual to figure out how to do it.
Is BwPro compatible with existing BookMaster, Record Manager and BookMate databases?
Yes, existing records can be directly read and users can continue to use their old software if they so choose. But there are a lot of new fields and obviously the old software doesn't know anything about these. Downward compatibility has its limits.
Walking the line between proprietary and generic design is a difficult balancing act. You have to provide a wide range of possibilities, but you have to do it within a recognizable framework. I think my predecessor applications were successful because they did this. I've tried hard to make BwPro do the same thing.
What other capabilities have you included?
Quite a few. There's comprehensive global editing, price adjustment features, invoicing and purchase orders, and a lot of the favorite features of my predecessor software, such as Hit Lists, data entry menus, and an on-screen composer for producing catalogs, quotes, and similar documents. I'm still finalizing the complete feature set.
How does BookWriter Pro help booksellers sell more books?
Aside from serving as an excellent rapid data entry and sales management system, if I had to pick one thing it would be the program's ability to perform rapid and complex manipulation and composition of book data. This serves both dependent sellers who upload records to listing services, and independent sellers who market their books directly to their own customers. Making data compatible with Internet-based requirements is a key design objective.
Do you feel today's bookseller is faced with more obstacles than in the past?
I think there are more challenges and that few booksellers are well-equipped to address them. Most bookseller's fundamental business requirements have really not changed in the past decade. What has changed is the extent to which information must be manipulated to suit different applications, and the compressed timeframe in which this must happen to take advantage of different revenue sources. These days, a successful bookseller's list of requirements almost universally includes Internet sales venues and email.
Yet, there is really very little available to help them take advantage of these venues directly. This is surprising to me -- these are not trivial issues! Most companies seem to either take a one-size-fits-all approach to their software, or they focus on a particular aspect of the business and ignore others. I've looked at quite a bit of 3rd-party software in the past year, and there are some very good programs out there. But few programs I've seen address these issues in ways that are intuitively obvious. They often seem to be logical extensions of a particular business, focusing and relying upon a specific methodology. Seller Engine is a good example of this, in that the program itself is an excellent piece of software, but it relies almost exclusively upon Amazon.com to provide intrinsic value to its users.
So, the short answer to your question is: BwPro makes it possible for a bookseller to overcome more obstacles by making the broadest possible use of their records, with the least amount of effort, in an understandable and comfortable environment. That's a mouthful, but that's how I see it.
What do you foresee in the near future for booksellers?
Today, it's frankly a mess out there. If a bookseller wants to sell books simultaneously on Alibris, ABE, Amazon, eBay, and on their own web site, they must be very technically savvy, or they must utilize a distribution service like Chuck Vilnis' excellent BookRouter system, or they must use multiple applications to do it -- applications that usually don't interact with one another very well, if at all. There's a lot of frustration out there, and it's no surprise. I get calls from dealers all the time wanting help doing one thing or another, and it's usually something that should be simple for them to do, but it isn't because their software didn't provide any way to do it.
So, BwPro tries to make it easy for sellers to get as much work done in one place as possible, without having to jump from one program to another. I think future bookselling applications are going to have to address this if their creators expect merchants to use them. The "Service-Us" approach for client software is not a sustainable model, and companies who continue this approach in their designs will not survive the long haul, even if their programs are free.
In my humble opinion, BwPro positions a bookseller nicely for the next round of business and technological development. Those sellers who can quickly and easily manipulate their data in different ways are going to have distinct business advantages over those who cannot. In particular, the ability to manage the volume of information associated with collectible books on a field-oriented basis will become increasingly important as existing venues expand their infrastructures and data-handling capabilities. Ebay is a good example of this.
What does the software cost?
BookWriter Professional sells for $129.95. The setup has not yet been finalized, but I am accepting advance orders as I've had many inquiries and I need to cut down on my email volume somehow. Current BookWriter Web users will have their entire BwWeb purchase price applied to their BwPro purchase, and any new users who place an order prior to rollout will receive the BookWriter Web software as part of the package. Given the current state of development, I expect to have BwPro ready to launch in 30 days or less.
Tom, thanks again for an interesting interview. Where can dealers go to find more information?
You're most welcome, I appreciate the opportunity to speak with you again! Additional information about the software can be found at http://www.bookwritersoftware.com/bwpro/bwpro.htm.
By: Terisa Green
tgreen@bigrocket.com
Illustrator: Greg James
ISBN: 0743223292
Available From: http://www.simonsays.com, http://www.amazon.com, http://www.barnesandnoble.com
Price: $14.00
Tattoos are raging in popularity today, with no signs that demand for them will be abating any time soon. In 1996, tattooing emerged as the sixth fastest growing industry in the country (behind internet and cell phone companies) and it is estimated that one new tattoo shop opens every day. A 2003 Harris Poll found that while 16% of the population is tattooed, that number blossoms to 36% for people between the ages of 25 and 29. However, for people contemplating their first (or fifth) tattoo, the choice of an image is often a stumbling block. A comprehensive, informative exploration of the colorful world of tattoos, The Tattoo Encyclopedia presents concise descriptions of symbols both common and unusual, and sheds light on their historic, religious, and cultural significance.
Organized in a convenient A-Z format, cross-referenced, indexed, and illustrated with 300 pieces of authentic tattoo line art by world renown tattoo artist Greg James of Sunset Strip Tattoo in Hollywood, it features a stunning array of images from ancient Buddhist and Chinese designs to those sported by twenty-first century bikers. The definition of each symbol (over 800 symbols) includes the widely accepted interpretation based on historical fact and cultural sources, as well as various interpretations that have developed across different cultures and time periods. Whether choosing a personally significant tattoo, wanting to learn more about a symbol, or simply interested in tattoos as a form of art and body decoration, readers will discover the richness of tattoo culture in this fascinating treasury.
"Looking for that perfect gift for your teenage son or daughter - that free-spirited, be-myself, make-a-statement child whose idea of establishing an identity is permanently dying their skin? Voila. It's 'The Tattoo Encyclopedia ... '" -- The St. Louis Dispatch
"Everything you wanted to know about tattoos but were afraid to ask..... the book will not only provide an invaluable tool to artists and collectors alike, it's also a great read for trivia buffs." -- Tattoo Revue magazine
"... delves into the fascinating realm of why people get tattoos and what images they choose." -- Publisher's Weekly
"Guilty pleasure" -- Kansas City Star
Terisa Green, Ph.D., is an archaeologist, writer, and Research Associate with the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at UCLA, with occasional teaching duties there. Her career path, however, was not as straight as one might assume. Armed with a B.S. in physics from UCLA (yes, she is a lifer there it seems), her first career began as a systems engineer in Southern California's active aerospace environment. But, after a glancing and hobby-like encounter with archaeology which eventually grew to an irresistible urge, she left her ten-year engineering career in the dust (so to speak). While archaeology remains a constant interest (and source of work), the writing bug bit in the dissertation process when most researchers want to do anything but sit and write. Terisa ended up being one of those researchers, however, who reveled in the chance to put into words the fascination with a topic that is often the beginning of research. As a result of that writing experience, her first goal upon finishing graduate study was to write a book. Born out of her own personal experience with tattoos and her predilection for massive amounts of research, The Tattoo Encyclopedia is that book. Today she writes constantly on archaeological and tattoo topics, including a column on tattoo symbolism in Skin & Ink magazine, and spends every other spare moment with her husband, with whom she lives in Los Angeles.
By: Michael Zwerdling
zna@nursepostcard.com
Publication Date: 2004 (issued in 2003)
Publisher: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, Philadelphia
Hardbound (cloth) 9" by 12", 640 full color illustrations, 384 pages, $65
Available in stores or from the author at P.O. Box 917, Burtonsville, MD 20866 or from http://www.nursepostcard.com/
Postcards of Nursing: A Worldwide Tribute is an extraordinary book detailing the history of 20th Century nursing through the eyes of artists and photographers using picture postcards. The book gives the reader a unique glimpse into nursing, and acts as a visual history of a profession that is quite unlike any other.
The book offers the symbols of nursing care, and nursing art in general, which have been created on postcards by the industry's greatest artists, e;g. Wain, Mucha, Dudovich, Nanni, Kirchner, Bompard, Fisher, Sager, Schmucker, Gassaway, Drayton, etc. The art styles include art deco, art nouveau, modernism, impressionism, futurism and even anime and manga.
The book also has a very good selection of real photo postcards featuring studio portraits of nursing, nursing establishments, and on site clinical care specialties. There is a comprehensive section, comprising over 20 pages of illustrations, on royalty, which delineates their contributions, including of the funding of medical services, donation of funds to build hospitals and nursing schools and the actual nursing that royalty has done in the past century. Over ten wars are covered, with photos of nurses in action, as well as through the art used as Red Cross recruitment posters, propaganda for the war effort in general (including rare Third Reich Red Cross propaganda), and even hand-drawn postcards of nurses done by patients recovering in hospitals.
Naturally, the nursing profession has changed over the course of the century, and that change is reflected not only in the way the uniforms have changed (the book has a stunning comparative section of black and white uniform styles), but most noticeably in the way nurses have been portrayed in advertising, and on stage and screen. The book traces the development of U.S. advertising, using nurses as the model, from 1893 to 2002, and then illustrates the European varieties over the same period. Performers, likewise, are shown in a chronological sequence, from the silent movie era through Star Trek (the nurse on Star Trek was the wife of Gene Roddenbury, the series' producer) to the modern magna advertisements popular in both Japan and the United States.
Postcards of Nursing is designed so the reader can approach each chapter as if it were a museum or gallery exhibit, each double-page spread representing one wall. If desired, he or she can read the narrative introduction to each exhibit (chapter) or simply walk right in, so to speak, and wander around. Captions offer insights into the pictures. Whenever the reader comes to an image of particular interest to him or her, the endnotes offer more detailed information. A bibliography and an index provide additional support.
At a time when the health-care profession is so clearly in the spotlight it's nice to be able to take a step back and give credit to the men and women who make up the backbone of the profession-with a book that not only entertains but educates. A Worldwide Tribute indeed.
Michael Zwerdling has an undergraduate degree from the University of Vermont, a MA in psychology from Louisiana State University, and an Associate Degree in Nursing from Labouré College in Boston, MA. He has been a clinical psychologist, NYC cab driver, market research study director, elementary school substitute teacher, college instructor, building inspector, postcard dealer, and (for 25 years) a martial arts instructor. For the past 10 years he has worked as a registered nurse with a specialty in Emergency Nursing.
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I am a full time registered nurse, working in the ER of a central city hospital in Washington, D.C. Before I became a nurse, I was a martial arts instructor, and, although it may seem odd, I see nursing as a natural extension of the martial arts, which, after all, is based on the understanding that the opponent and the self are not two.
I have been collecting postcards for over 25 years, and, while a martial arts teacher, was a part time postcard dealer. Since becoming a nurse, and being interested in the historical aspect of the profession as well as the clinical aspect, I had nurtured a desire to contribute in both areas. In particular, I thought it a shame that the images of nursing as found on postcards, the most interesting of all the various graphic genres, were virtually unknown not only to nursing, but to the general public as well. I decided that one day I would find a way to return those images to the nursing heritage, to be enjoyed by both nurses and patients (the difference between the two is very, very slight...just a matter of time) but always had the project on the back burner, so to speak.
Then, one day, while driving home from work, I saw a billboard on the side of a gas station that said “A dream is a goal with no energy behind it.” That struck home, and from there the book took form. Three years later, with the help of hundreds of generous folks, you can now hold my dream in your hands.
By: Ken Fermoyle
(Ed. Note: It is appropriate to take a retrospective look at Thomas Lynch's first non-poetry book, as he is now completing his latest work, a book on Ireland. His collection of essays, The Undertaking-Life Studies from the Dismal Trade, reviewed below, won The Heartland Prize for non-fiction, The American Book Award, and was a Finalist for the National Book Award. It has been translated into seven languages. Ken Fermoyle, who has followed Lynch's work for some years, will review the new book when it is published - and possibly interview the author - for a future Standard issue.
Perhaps it is Thomas Lynch's Irish heritage that shines through and illuminates his views of death. The Michigan mortician certainly has the fabled Irish way with words. He turns a phrase with the best. One of my favorites is: "The poor cousin of fear is anger."
Lynch also exhibits the traditional Irish inclination to find humor even in the deepest throes of sorrow. Ironies abound in this work. His career as an undertaker has made him familiar with death, perhaps too familiar for his liking at times. He can be matter-of-fact about it, but never callous, look on it as a natural part of existence, but still feel the sadness death brings.
The man's writing has some of the qualities of the prototypical Irish wake, at once keening for the loss of friends and neighbors, and celebrating the lives of those left behind.
His scope is broad, in time, subjects and even geography. In the preface, Lynch describes what it was like to be an undertaker's son during the 1950s. "At first I thought it meant he took them under," he reports, adding that what his father did, and how, was of greater importance to his young friends than to him. Later on we learn more about "the dismal trade," what it involves and how it has affected the author's views on life and death.
He writes frankly and with great insight about his father, mother, siblings, and friends. His essays are not confined to Milford, his home in Southern Michigan, but were written in or about Ireland, the West Indies and California. His subjects range widely, too. One, titled Crapper, recounts an incident in Galway, Ireland, during which Lynch and fellow poet Don Paterson get into a discussion about Thomas Crapper, inventor of the flush toilet. The author muses about the similar roles of Crapper's invention and undertakers. "We are embarrassed by [our dead] in the same way we are embarrassed by a toilet that overflows on the night that company comes. We call the plumber." Or the undertaker, as the case may be.
This kind of sardonic humor abounds in Lynch's work. But it is tempered by kindliness, an obvious empathy for people. He may treat life and death with little sentimentality, but never with disrespect.
Those are the qualities that make this little volume (4-3/4 by 7-3/4" pages) such a valuable work. For this reader, at least, it provided a new perspective on death and "the dismal trade" that Lynch practices. It well deserved its spot as Runner-up in the National Book Awards. I recommend it to you.
The Undertaking, by Thomas Lynch; $25; W.W. Norton; 1997; 202 pp.
Ken Fermoyle's career as a writer, editor and journalist spans 56 years. He has written more than 2,500 articles for publications ranging from Playboy and Popular Science to PC World, McCalls and the L.A. Times Book Review. An avid reader since childhood, he has been reviewing books off and on for nearly 50 years.
Reviewed by: Ken Fermoyle
When James Lee Burke sits down to write a Dave Robicheaux novel, the room must fill with swirling morning fog, mangrove trees reflected in coffee-colored bayou waters and the sibilant sounds of critters that populate southern Louisiana swamps--at least in his mind. How else could this author recreate the often dark and moody, yet strangely beautiful, ambiance of the Bayou Teche country that forms the backdrop for the Robicheaux series?
Burke crafted another haunting tour de force with Purple Cane Road, not his latest Dave Robicheaux novel, but one of his best. It is laced with the poetic, evocative imagery and fully fleshed-out characters, often hacked from the seamiest strata of real life, that typify his work. And it sets the New Iberia detective on a driven course to find the true story behind his mother's death.
Was she a whore killed by a Giacana gang member? Robicheaux does not want to believe this version of her death and soon finds hints of a more disturbing possibility: that dirty cops from the New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) killed her.
Complex subplots provide additional twists and turns as Robicheaux gropes his way toward a solution. The mystery haunts him--and stirs up feelings of anger and vengeance so powerful that they threaten to demolish his long-held concepts of morality, justice and his own responsibilities as an officer of the law.
His friends fear that his obsession may destroy him. Even Clete Purcell, Dave's former partner on the NOPD and never known for his restraint or caution, shows concern.
"What you want is God's permission to paint the trees with bad guys. That ain't going to happen, big mon."
His boss, the New Iberia Sheriff, and partner, Helen Soileau, share Clete's view. In the end, however, all three help him solve the mystery and at least partially exorcise his demons.
If you haven't read any of Burke's Robicheaux books before, Purple Cane Road is a good choice to try for openers. If you're already a fan, don't miss this one!
By: Robin Gutterman robin@titlesdirect.com
Database URLs: http://www.MyOwnBookshop.com and http://www.BookTrakker.com
TitlesDirect.com, Inc.
TitlesDirect.com, Inc., the parent company of MyOwnBookshop.com and the developer of BookTrakker Pro, is pleased to report a number of site changes and recent developments. In the forefront is an announcement concerning SmartSearch, new technology that produces accurate booksearch results.
Introducing SmartSearch Technology
TitlesDirect.com has developed new search technology for producing accurate search results. The first implementation of this new technology, coined SmartSearch, is in use on MyOwnBookshop.com's website and supersedes Advanced Search.
In a recent statement, Robin Gutterman of TitlesDirect.com, Inc., commented, “The accuracy percentages using SmartSearch have far surpassed our original goals. We are confident that SmartSearch provides the most accurate Internet booksearch results to date, opening new dimensions for discerning customers and book collectors. SmartSearch produces highly accurate results even using data previously considered unusable, commonly referred to as “dirty data” by those in the trade. The full scope of its accuracy will become more readily apparent over time as dealers reupload their inventories and refinements are made. This is new technology; we are on new ground. Time will tell how far we can go with it; however, we have a good head start on further refinements.”
MyOwnBookshop.com
In other news, MyOwnBookshop.com recently began a new initiative to improve the bottom line for booksellers, streamline book orders, and increase overall site activity. Three significant changes form the base of this altered selling model: the abolishment of fees and commissions on direct orders to dealers; onsite posting of complete bookseller contact information to increase direct orders to dealers; and a new and simple flat fee structure on credit card orders processed by the website.
Fees and commissions on direct-to-dealer orders have been eliminated and website shoppers can view full contact information, as provided, anytime by clicking on Buy From Bookseller. Booksellers lacking their own bookselling websites can take advantage of this opportunity by selling direct to their customers using the MyOwnBookshop.com website.
MyOwnBookshop.com is encouraging booksellers to include their own email addresses, telephone numbers, FAX numbers, and their business website URLs in their onsite contact information.
A simplified fee structure for credit card orders processed by the website became effective November 1, 2003. Briefly stated, the new fee structure, which replaces separate commission and credit card fees, is a flat 16% on site-processed payment with a limit of $50 per order. Chargeback fees on credit card orders processed by MyOwnBookshop.com will not be charged to the bookseller. These cost-cutting measures, coupled with the existing policy of no application and monthly fees, are being implemented to provide an improved and more lucrative selling ground for booksellers.
BookTrakker Pro Automated Internet Bookselling and Inventory Management Software
BookTrakker has entered the late-alpha testing stage for its automated Internet bookselling and inventory management software upgrade, BookTrakker Pro Version 3.0. A number of key features and enhancements will debut in this major upgrade to the software, including a quantity field and a speedy shortcut for multiple sales.
In order to provide more value-added services for the book trade, the company is pursuing development of additional software tools for booksellers and collectors. With ISBN Lookup becoming a critical issue for many online booksellers, a stand-alone ISBN Lookup Tool is at the top of the list. The ISBN Lookup Tool would integrate seamlessly with BookTrakker Pro V3.0, as well as 2.0 and 2.1 and can also be used as a stand-alone tool by users of other database programs.
About MyOwnBookshop.com
MyOwnBookshop.com is an online marketplace for used and rare books, ephemera, and other unique or unusual items discovered by dealers, and caters to booksellers, collectors and the book buying public. The website is owned and operated by TitlesDirect.com, Inc.
About BookTrakker Pro
BookTrakker Pro Software provides automated Internet bookselling and inventory management software for online booksellers, used and rare book dealers and book collectors. BookTrakker offers a no-hassle 30-day Free Trial of the full version of BookTrakker Pro, which provides advanced inventory, wants and contact management and custom catalog creation.
By: Jim Arner
jarnersr@wyomerc.com
As TomFolio.com, the web-site owned/operated by ABookCoOp, enters the fourth year of operation, we wish to announce several recent enhancements to the site.
Sticky Pages - TomFolio members can use the site as a virtual private web-based bookstore. You can provide the customer with a search form that searches only your listings on the TomFolio site. Very useful for those dealers who do not operate their own private websites.
Auto-Category Display - No longer does a TomFolio dealer have to create a list of categories to be displayed on their dealer page. This is now done automatically. Every category that the dealer uses is now displayed at the bottom of the dealer page. Clicking on any category opens up a list of sub-categories; click on any of these brings up a complete listing of all books, for that dealer, in the particular sub-category.
Specialty Category/Sub-Category List - Even though the full cat/sub-cat list is now automatically displayed, a TomFolio member can still create a list of specialties to be displayed on the dealer page. This works in much the same way as the previously, dealer-definable cat/sub-cat display feature.
Specialty Author List - TomFolio members can now add links, on their dealer page, to specific authors. Clicking on any author link opens up a complete listing of all books, for that dealer, for the particular author.
New features, coming soon:
Multiple Categories - In the near future, the TomFolio uploads will allow a dealer to place a book into multiple categories, not just the single selection currently available.
Want Lists - Customers will be able to create want lists and receive email notifications whenever new items are added to the TomFolio website.
Personal Web-Site Pages - TomFolio will soon be able to host individual domain names. Dealers can operate their own private websites, with their own domain name, through the TomFolio service.
It is a year since ChooseBooks.com made its official launch. It has been an exciting, busy year.
During our first year we needed to concentrate on adding features to the site and encouraging booksellers to list their inventory so customers would find items when they search.
We now have over 1,000 booksellers and 7 million items in inventory. As we enter our second year, we can concentrate more of our resources on increasing orders and bringing new customers to http://www.choosebooks.com
One of our several new marketing directions is exploring joint ventures with companies that serve our targeted markets. In October we entered into our first joint venture agreement with Booksforever.com.
Gaylord Bros., a company that has served the library and archival community since 1896, established Booksforever.com in 2003. Their goal is to meet the needs of book collectors and archivists for products to repair, protect and preserve books. Since Booksforever and ChooseBooks are non-competitive and since we both target the book collector and archivist communities, we have agreed to promote each other's services in relevant marketing.
Kate Lindemann
Marketing, ChooseBooks.com
Choosebooks.com - the first book site with a Buyer Rewards program for those who register. http://www.choosebooks.com
By: Lisa Martin
lisa@gbmbooks.com
www.gbmbooks.com
After much debate, we have decided on the fee structure for GBM. The new fee structure took effect on January 1, 2004.
We will be offering secure credit card ordering via the GBM Direct program.
Listing fees will be commission based:
No charge to upload inventory.
Commissions based on sales figures as follows:
During a calendar month the first $25.00 in sales are commission free.
From $25.01 to $500.00 is 10% of the sales total (for $500.00 sales our commission will be $48.00).
For sales total in a month over $500.00 our commission would be 5% (for $1000 sales total our commission would be $73.00).
Some of the other services we will be offering may have additional fees.
Details are available at the website. www.gbmbooks.com Click on the "Dealer's Application" link, which gives you the details.
Questions and Comments: memberservices@gbmbooks.com
By: Ann Brebner & Paul Anderson
marketing@booksandcollectibles.com.au
Books & Collectibles offers all the normal book listing services available on the internet: searching via Bookfinder, Addall and BuyUsed; seamless search facilities via your web site; secure ordering; free database for listing; and promotions.
Books & Collectibles also offers to its dealers the ability to on-sell all the 3 million books listed on our site.
It works like this:
On your home page, Books & Collectibles will supply links to your stock with search and secure order facilities.
If a customer or one of your staff searches your home page for a title and it can't be supplied from your stock then the search continues on and searches all of the 3 million books listed on Books & Collectibles and, if found, the title is displayed with your margin added onto the price.
Your customer can then order this book and you will get an email order for it. Here you can elect to order it yourself directly from the dealer who stocks the book, requesting the usual dealer discount and drop shipping etc. or, if you have a large number of these orders, you can process the order through Books & Collectibles where we can bill you once each month for all your orders (saving you the problem of tracking many cc transactions to many dealers).
We have collectibles now listed on our site. We are still working out the best ways to display the listings, but we are accepting new dealers. We are giving dealers who list their books with us under yearly listing free collectibles listings while we build up our collectibles customer base.
Any questions, please email to: admin@booksandcollectibles.com.au.
Well, here we are…. finally. Sorry this issue is so terribly late-there were a few (well, okay, a whole bunch) of delays in getting our insurance finalized at IOBA and The Standard couldn't go live again till that was accomplished. But we're back with an issue I hope will be interesting and entertaining for you, and The Standard will be on the regular quarterly schedule hereafter.
Ken Fermoyle has had to step aside as my replacement editor. He has had to have some drastic eye surgery to save his vision in one eye-and won't know for some time to what extent that has been accomplished. While Ken will still work all he can on The Standard, as he's done for some time now, he understandably doesn't feel he can take on the whole burden of the editor job with the uncertainty he's facing although, thankfully, his vision is starting to show some improvement.
DeWayne White, of White Unicorn Books, has meanwhile kindly volunteered to take on the editor's job. DeWayne will be The Standard's Editor after this issue, and Ken will have the title of Articles Editor, helping DeWayne where and when he can.
A bit of background on DeWayne for you, though I'm sure many of you are well acquainted with him from various booksellers' lists.
“I've been an avid reader almost all of my life, as was my Mother. I'm still a reader, mostly fiction outside of work and mostly SF&F but also some westerns, mystery, history, philosophy and others. I never really wanted to turn loose of my books and finally, after I could afford to quit trading them in 2 for 1, I started to keep them. This turned into collecting books, mostly used, so I had to learn the lingo and what it meant. This interest finally turned into a B&M with basically only SF&F new books, sometime in the mid 70's. It was run as a business by my wife and I came in at night after work (I was a scientist in the US Civil Service at the time). I talked to the customers, kept the books for the store, and helped out here and there. There was a used bookstore down the street a few miles away that we frequented (I got a large part of my collection of used books from them over time). We started talking one day about us handling used books and they thought it would be a great idea. We had only been handling used books for maybe six months, mostly paperbacks and trades, when I had the opportunity for quite a promotion at my day job. After a family discussion, I decided to take the job. There were a couple of projects that I had to finish up at work. Because of that and other considerations I gave about 4 or 5 months' notice. During that time we half-heartedly looked for a buyer. We finally decided to just close the shop after 5 years. We kept a large part of the hardbacks since we figured they would appreciate in value anyway and we might open up another store someday.
Skip ahead some 25 years. I was still an avid reader but had cut back quite a bit on my collecting, generally just buying those hardcover books which I expect to re-read sometime in the future (or to invest in, I keep telling myself) and paperbacks for the rest. We still had the store inventory we had kept. My wife was working as an insurance consultant for some class action lawsuits for a law firm. They had finished one case with quite a large settlement and the law firm decided to start investigating another "on spec". Enter 9/11 and the following market crash. The law firm now didn't have the funding for the "spec" cases and so, since my wife was working as a full time consultant for them by now, she lost her job. Since I was just a few years from retiring (I'm 64 now) and we had talked about starting an internet bookstore, my wife decided she would like to do that rather than keep working full time "at an office". Since I had been working out of my home for the past six or seven years, I thought it would be great if we could both work at home. We started the White Unicorn Books online bookstore with my collection (maybe five thousand including about 15% paperbacks) and the store inventory we had kept (a few thousand books). Most of my books still aren't online, but my wife has bought several thousand more and they are mostly online. We finally opened our own site. I belong to a few lists [including Biblio, Insider, and IOBA], which I read fairly religiously and sometimes even post. I look around on other places like rec.art.books and the ABE board. I got involved with the creation of Global Book Town and we joined when they finally became an organization. I'm still on the "advisory panel" there.”
And now DeWayne will have a new adventure as The Standard's editor! I'll be around in the background at least through the spring issue, to try to make it a smooth transition. I'm positive that both DeWayne and Ken will do a marvelous job with The Standard, and I look forward to seeing what new directions they move it in.
A special thanks to Deanna Ramsay for her efforts on this issue. Deanna suffered a concussion in falls from her horse in December, 2003, and is still feeling the effects. It has not been easy for her to get this issue together. And I want that special thanks to extend to her work on all the issues of The Standard that we've put out together-I could not at all have done my job without her. Thanks so much, Deanna!
A wonderful 2004 to all of you, and thanks for all the support and help that so many of you have given me in the past!
Shirley Bryant, Editor