The BookThinker Newsletter ISSN 1547-9501 #123, 16 June 2008

BookThink Update
23 June 2008>>>

Update Announcements

Selling on Amazon Part II: Grading Your Books Unless you sell on other venues, Amazon sellers need only concern themselves with the following definition of "new"- Just like it sounds. A brand-new, unused, unread copy in perfect condition. But suppose a book has been very carefully read, perhaps not even opened at any point to 180-degrees, and it still looks immaculate, crisp and, well, new.

How To Grade Book Bindings Distinguishing New Books from Like New Books Unless you sell on other venues, Amazon sellers need only concern themselves with the following definition of "new"- Just like it sounds. A brand-new, unused, unread copy in perfect condition. But suppose a book has been very carefully read, perhaps not even opened at any point to 180-degrees, and it still looks immaculate, crisp and, well, new.

BookThink's Top 10 on eBay January 2008 Next, Pamela Palmer returns today with BookThink's Top 10 on eBay. Her introduction: "With 20% on the top fiction and nonfiction lists selling as BIN or best offer, seems this may well be a trend to watch with high end books. Otherwise, 2008 started as usual. A blend of King, Rowling, and Lee showed up in the fiction category. Sue Grafton and Cormac McCarthy added variety, along with an 1886 copy of Kidnapped. Narcotics Anonymous and Alcoholics Anonymous led the non-fiction list. Others on the list included Kenojuak: Graphics Masterworks of the Inuit and a pair of 1839 books on early exploration of Australia. Atop the Antiquarian and Collectible category were two Mormon books from the mid-1800s along with 3 volumes from the 1400s. Two were offered by the same German seller

QMR Book of the Week White Fluffy Clouds Found Inspiration Moving Foward So - how do you get your art, poetry, etc., noticed, let alone sold, if you're just a punk kid? Why, you form an alternative rock band, name it after a male demon who rapes sleeping women, crank out some music that achieves both commercial and critical success, get nominated for a Grammy, and otherwise become famous. Then - only at this point - your fans will at least give the other stuff you do a shot, whether it's good or not (and it's usually not). And this is exactly what we're seeing happen to White Fluffy Clouds, a collection of drawings, poetry and short fiction produced by Incubus front man Brandon Boyd.

Gold Edition Quotation of the Week A Bookseller's Guide to Betty Crocker Years ago I recall thinking that it might be possible to make a good part-time income selling nothing but Betty Crocker cookbooks. I'm sure this isn't possible now, given the increased competition and the price erosion of some BC publications, but even today, booksellers who don't know this niche cold are leaving thousands of dollars on the table year-in and year-out.

From the Editor Important announcements for BookThinker readers.

Selling on eBay How to Accumulate Positive Feedback - Fast! Incoming President and CEO John Donahoe promised "aggressive" changes to the eBay platform a few months back, and, based on what's taken place to date, it's clear that he's delivered what he promised. Also, it's safe to say that more changes will be forthcoming. Today, BookThink launches a new monthly column - Selling on eBay - to help eBay booksellers adapt to and hopefully take advantage of some of these changes. Feedback changes are overwhelmingly the cause célèbre du jour (if I may butcher some French), so it's appropriate to start here. My first column offers a method for feedback-challenged booksellers to amass positive feedback fast.

QMR Book of the Week King's Songs of Hawaii A flashpoint for you today - Charles E. King. If you have a background in collecting or selling sheet music, it's highly likely that you've encountered more than a few examples that were either composed by King or feature his lyrics. "Hawaiian Wedding Song" "("Ke Kali Nei Au") and "Song of the Islands" are especially common and exist in more than a few cover art variants, all of which are quintessentially Hawaiian. Subscribe to QMR here.

Gold Edition Quotation of the Week Mastering Bookselling It May Not Be What You Think It Is Issue #43 I've received countless emails from novice booksellers over the years that read something like this: "I was doing so well at first, Craig. Now I can't seem to sell anything. What am I doing wrong?" More often than not, this is somebody who started by selling off a personal library or serendipitously acquired a significant number of quality books for next to nothing - an event that often triggers a move into bookselling in the first place. Read more here.

BookThink Announcement BookThink issues for the past couple of weeks will be online soon. Watch here for a list of newly added articles.

Previous BookThink Update >>>>>>>

BookThink Update
9 June 2008>>>

Update Announcements

Building Value Into Your Inventory Simple Techniques for Quickly Adding Content to Your Descriptions If you haven't been building enhanced value into your book descriptions on a regular basis, I strongly urge that you start. Today's article, aimed primarily at beginning booksellers, suggests some quick and simple techniques for doing this.

Selling on Amazon Part I: Survival on the River, the Basics I'm pleased to welcome a new writer this week. Former Amazon columnist Steve Weber has decided to focus his activities on a publishing venture and will no longer be contributing to BookThink. A lady many of you will recognize as earthmom22 on the Amazon forums will be taking his place, and what better topic to start with than a guide to not getting kicked off Amazon. Underperforming Amazon sellers, it seems, are getting axed with an alarming frequency of late, but rest assured there are specific things you can do to all but ensure that you won't be one of them.