Update Announcements, #100, 6 August 2007

Here's somebody you don't bump into every day: a colleague with 56 years in the book biz. No, not me. Hardly me. But in the coming months you'll have the pleasure of getting to know the real deal - a living, breathing bookman. I won't so much as attempt a definition of what a bookman is; I'm leaving this entirely to somebody who has the life experience to nail it - Jaime Frontero. You may recall Jaime's recent article, "The Dead Guy Buy," in issue #98 of the BookThinker:

The response to this was so favorable that I invited Jaime to do a regular column for us. In it he will bring some serious depth to our understanding of bookselling, taking us off the much beaten, surfacy path of endless book buying and selling (and almost never standing back to see the bigger picture) - oh, and along the way he'll offer what will essentially add up to an online apprenticeship, something that some of us wouldn't otherwise have the opportunity to experience. Maybe we should be charging for this! In any case, his first article, "Prelude to Apprenticeship: A Walk in the Rubble," appears today, along with - what else? - his first T-shirt contest (my idea).

Also with us today is Contributing Editor Steve Weber, who has, in my opinion, produced one of the most useful articles he's ever done for us. If you're an Amazon seller, this is information that you should print out immediately and keep no more than an arm's length away. Why? Because Steve has compiled a comprehensive selling guide that will help Marketplace sellers solve just about any problem that comes their way. Or at least give them the right tools to tackle it, including important Amazon email addresses, phone numbers, etc., that otherwise aren't posted publicly.

Finally, an anecdote. After last week's issue appeared, BookThink's Links Editor Judy Lanskey informed me that, after reading my "QMR Book of the Week," which featured Peter Reich's Book of Dreams: A Memoir of Wilhelm Reich, she immediately set out to search for under-priced copies online. One popped up at Amazon.ca for CDN $9.89. The only problem is that it bears a publication date of December 12, 2012 - and pre-orders are now being taken! Either E.P. Dutton is an unusually patient, forward looking publisher, or this is one whopper of a catalog error. We're leaning toward the latter.

By the way, if you didn't see this article, there's probably a good reason: You aren't a subscriber to the email version of the BookThinker. This is content that appears only by email, so don't waste your time looking for it on the website. It's free, and subscribing is only a few keystrokes away. Start by clicking here.

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Contact the editor, Craig Stark
editor@bookthink.com