From The Editor by Craig Stark #70, 5 June 2006

There are many ways to increase your bookselling income, and we're forever hunting them down at BookThink. One way is to park your inventory on a venue that offers you a buying audience others don't. Some of us already know how sticky a venue eBay is - how eBay buyers are more inclined than not to shop only at eBay - but this isn't nearly as true for dedicated fixed-price venues. Today, in "More Book Sales in Your Future?" I preview a viable fixed-price venue that indeed does offer you a brand new audience - and is the price ever right. Hint: Your books will be taking long, long journeys. Also, as long as you're adding another venue to your mix, it might be time to get that inventory management system that you've been putting off and stop wasting endless hours doing things manually - and worse, selling books you don't have because you forgot to delete them from your inventory. In the same article, I preview one of the best systems I know of. And cheapest!

In our second article, "First We Kill Off the Parents ... " Children's Books Editor Guusje Moore isn't trying to suggest the unthinkable. Rather, she's pointing to an important value indication in children's books: Stories which feature children with dead or missing parents often are among the most sought after by readers and, in turn, the most valuable. Can you spell "flashpoint"? Guusje, as always, showers us with plenty of examples.

Any Janet Evanovich fans out there? All right, all right, keep it down. You probably already know that there's a new book due this month, but I bet you don't know that there's also a BookThink interview. Look for it soon. And look for her to be, well, predictably unpredictable. Speaking of interviews, we'll be launching a series of them next month with major-venue representatives - beginning with Alibris. If you have any questions that you would like addressed regarding one or all venues, forward them to Media Editor Catherine Petruccione and she'll give them careful consideration.