The BookThinker Newsletter ISSN 1547-9501 128, 29 September 2008

BookThink Update
12 October 2008>>>

Update Announcements

BookThink's Top 10 on eBay August 2008 Politics, art, and Alcoholics Anonymous highlighted the August non-fiction Top 10. Obama's Dreams from My Father came in at #10 to supply the political tie. But art made a bigger splash. Three Taschen publications - Peter Beard Collector's Edition, Jeff Koons Collector's Edition and David LaChapelle's Artists and Prostitutes- came in at #1, #4, and #6. Alcoholics Anonymous filled the #2, #3, and #8 slots. Perhaps the most unusual entry in the list was Ralph P. Millard's Cleft Craft: The Evolution of Its Surgery, a 3-volume set. The big winner, though, was in the Antiquarian and Collectible Top 5. A German seller had 4 of the 5 sales. Now that's dominating a category!

QMR Book of the Week John Lennon The Lost Weekend Suppose you and your Significant Other haven't been getting along lately. Suppose also that you're good friends with another woman (or man, as the case may be). Then suppose that, since your SO likes this friend, she suggests that you start dating her because she would rather you be with somebody she knew and trusted than a stranger. Finally, suppose that your SO has every intention of returning to you in time - and can exert the manipulative power to make it happen! This bizarre, true life story is brought to you by none other than John and Yoko - and friend May Pang. here.

Gold Edition Quotation of the Month A Bookseller's Guide to Book Club Editions Part II, Book-of-the-Month Club Issue Points Issue #54 In Part I, by way of jump-starting this series to promote profits for booksellers, I presented a list of 133 book club editions that in VG/VG or better condition (F/F for hypermoderns) will likely sell for $20 and up. This is particularly good news because book club editions were/are typically printed in numbers that far exceeded/exceed their trade counterparts, and many of the titles in my list are therefore common and frequently encountered. In this and a following issue, I'll take on the oldest and perhaps best known book club of the many hundreds that have come and gone since 1926 - Harry Scherman's Book-of-the-Month Club (hereafter referred to as BOMC). here.

From the Editor

An Interview With Nevada Barr BookThink's Author Profile Series A book customer who has become an excellent friend kindly turned me on to award-winning writer Nevada Barr several months ago (Lynn, I can’t thank you enough). Since then, life hasn’t been the same. Talk about page turners - I can’t tell you the sleep I’ve lost leading another life as Ranger Anna Pigeon into the wee hours of the morning! Read more here.

Selling on eBay Changes for Fixed Price Items and the 1,000-Book Challenge As many of you already know, beginning September 16, eBay lowered insertion fees for Fixed Price listings of books and other media to a flat $.15. Prior to this, fees started at $.25 and quickly increased on a graduated scale, depending on starting or reserve prices. This is, therefore, a significant discount. There’s more. An excerpt from eBay’s announcement page reads: “We're also offering 30-day duration for no extra cost - that's 4 times the exposure for about a penny a day!” Read more here.

Buying and Selling Vintage (And Not So Vintage) Magazines Part II: 19th Century Magazines In Part I of this series on the ephemeral appeal of magazines, we examined the collectible magazine cover. Assuming that the cover has served its intended purpose of visually stimulating the consumer to not only pick up the magazine – but also actually purchase it – the magazine’s content then picks up the baton and runs with it. Read more here.

The Accidental Antiquarian Booksellers and Book Fairs Like hundreds, perhaps thousands, of other booksellers, I work out of my home, toiling in relative obscurity. While it’s nice to work from home – I can work around my kids’ schedules and other family demands – it can sometimes feel as if I’m working in a vacuum. I don’t get to meet my customers and find out more about their book interests. I don’t often get the opportunity to develop relationships with other booksellers, something that is crucial for success in the antiquarian book trade. Read more here.

Grammar for Booksellers When Words Are All You Have to Make an Impression ... in this world of internet communication and commerce we have only one way to present ourselves: In writing. In an open store, would we show up for work in dirty, ill-fitting clothes, unbrushed hair and teeth? What impression would that give to customers? Would they want to do business with us? Our use of the language in our mail and listings is the same thing. It is what the customer sees of us. All the customer sees! Why not present ourselves the best we can? Read more here.

Selling on Alternate Venues Success on Barnes & Noble and Additional Options for Sellers After all the failures from last month, I’m feeling pretty good right about now. I have admitted several times that I doubted my decision to leave eBay, but with the latest string of announcements there, I’m very glad I got out when I did. Maybe eBay will shock me further and actually improve over time. I continue to read the eBay boards and find that many sellers are still holding their own with sales there and with adjusting their Store items to meet eBay’s new demands. I also noticed a higher number of sellers expressing the need to find new venues or to build their own websites.

BookFinder's Most Sought After Books And How They're Priced on Amazon BookFinder recently released its annual report of most sought after books. To clarify, these books aren’t this year’s best selling books; they’re the books most searched for on BookFinder. There are ten titles in each of ten categories – making 100 titles in all. Bookseller Dave Robinson prepared an Excel file of these titles linked to Amazon Marketplace catalog entries so you can immediately see what they selling for. Read more here.

BookThink's Quarterly Market Report of Common, Profitable Books Issue #5 Issue #5 of BookThink's Quarterly Market Report of Common, Profitable Books is now available for purchase. Purchase or subscribe now.

Gold Edition #53 133 Book Club Editions That Are Actually Worth Something! Issue #53 Part I: List Among the myths circulated among booksellers, experienced and inexperienced alike, is that book club editions aren't worth bothering with (by "worth something" I mean $20, $30 or more, sometimes $50, $100 or more). And, like many other myths about bookselling, there are exceptions. Purchase now.

Previous BookThink Update >>>>>>>

BookThink Update
14 September 2008>>>

Update Announcements

BookThink's Top 10 on eBay July 2008 July's Top 10 on eBay is here today, and Pamela Palmer notes: "Alcoholics Anonymous monopolized the non-fiction top 10 list in July, filling 8 of the 10 positions. Selling prices ranged from a high of $12,100 to $2,010. One US seller had a winning month on eBay, selling 3 of the copies. In case you wonder, #11 for the month was yet another copy of Alcoholics Anonymous. In addition, it showed up as #5 (tie) on the Antiquarian & Collectible list. The fiction list counted its repeat winners as well. Ian Fleming's James Bond titles came in at #1, #2 and #3. In an unusual twist, the Antiquarian and Collectible category included 4 buy-it-now (BIN) purchases among the 6 listed (tie for #5).

QMR Book of the Week French Style How to Think, Shop, and Dress Like a French Woman If you want to be as fashionable as a French woman, certainly you'll need to dress like a French woman, but the makeover absolutely will not work unless a similar change happens within to support the outer presentation: You have to start thinking like a French woman. Unlike many fashion how-tos, French Style: How to Think, Shop, and Dress Like a French Woman doesn't stop with mere fashion advice but goes deeper, examining the mystery of why fashion does or doesn't work. Read more about this QMR Book of the Month here.

Gold Edition Quotation of the Week 133 Book Club Editions That Are Actually Worth Something! Issue #53 Among the myths circulated among booksellers, experienced and inexperienced alike, is that book club editions aren't worth bothering with (by "worth something" I mean $20, $30 or more, sometimes $50, $100 or more). And, like many other myths about bookselling, there are exceptions. What may come as a surprise to some of you, however, is that exceptions to this particular myth are so numerous that it becomes near foolish to reject book club editions out of hand when scouting. How numerous? There are fully 133 titles in the August Gold Edition. Read more here.

Gold Edition #53 133 Book Club Editions That Are Actually Worth Something! Issue #53 Part I: List Among the myths circulated among booksellers, experienced and inexperienced alike, is that book club editions aren't worth bothering with (by "worth something" I mean $20, $30 or more, sometimes $50, $100 or more). And, like many other myths about bookselling, there are exceptions. Purchase now.