Not yet, though.
Bookselling may feel more like a ride on a Tilt-A-Whirl than the cultured, slow-paced trade we used to dream of. We didn’t dream that thousands of new sellers would make good stock more difficult to find and that those thousands would flood the market with common books of ever-sinking prices. Our dream didn’t include so many booksellers wondering how bills would get paid and so many bookselling businesses turning out the lights for the last time.
My point? The Independent Online Booksellers Association offers you some stability in this trade. Every quarter the Standard presents useful information and solutions that you might translate into profit or otherwise employ to make your business a bit less tenuous. The IOBA itself brings like-minded online (and open shop) sellers together to solve common problems and promote the best parts of our chosen trade.
If you find this issue of the Standard useful, tell other booksellers: they might benefit. If you feel something is missing from this issue, suggest it for the next issue: an e-mail to editor@ioba.org will get things started. If you want to promote the stability of our trade through higher bookselling standards, then visit us at www.ioba.org or join us today.
There may not be safety in numbers, but be one of our number and enjoy a bit of stability in difficult times.
Best regards.
Michael Watson,
Editor,