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By Craig Stark If I had to name the two most common assumptions booksellers make that so often lead to underwhelming outcomes, they would be: 1. Either assuming that buyers will already know the importance or value of what you're attempting to sell them or … 2. Failing that, buyers will magically do their own research to see if there is any reason to spend money on what you're selling. In the instance of high demand and/or rare books, booksellers can sometimes get away with making these assumptions and still realize a good outcome. Sadly, more often than not, they don't. And one of the most punitive mistakes a bookseller can make is to, as the saying goes, "just throw it out there and let the market decide what it's worth," conveniently forgetting that the market isn't always sitting in front of it at the right time. There are innumerable venues to sell books in, each with its own audience, admittedly sometimes overlapping, but nevertheless always at least somewhat limited. If you've ever read a catalogue issued by a major auction house offering important books, there are typically detailed textual descriptions of auction lots in them, sometimes excruciatingly detailed, and an exceptionally clear photo of each book, sometimes several photos. If the lots are intuitively grouped by genre, topic, collector, whatever, there is often front matter by way of an essay-length introduction. And of course the catalog itself is professionally bound and printed on high quality paper, with expectations for it hanging around after the auction is history. In other words, a lot of effort has been expended on the sales pitches by known experts in their respective fields. It doesn't stop there. If these experts have been around the block once or twice, many contacts of prospective buyers have been compiled and they are alerted to the upcoming sales. And don't forget that there is often much work accomplished in consigning items in the first place. This adds up to >>> Effort, effort, effort. And the results? Most often the highest possible outcomes. If you haven't already noticed, much of what's happening in today's bookselling arena has a diametrically different approach. You could call it "efficiency," that is, expending as little effort as possible to achieve as much sales velocity and volume as possible. The word "efficiency" has a generally favorable connotation, but it's also a word I'd be hesitant to use in this context. There are words that are perhaps more descriptive and not always as favorably connotative: flipping, book jacking, side-hustling, to name a few. This approach often has much to do with physical effort, scanning tools, etc., not the more traditional hard-won scholarly approach, and if there's one thing that militates against a long-term career in bookselling, it's this - and by far the most common reason for burnout, though fast on its heels would be inventory sourcing drying up. Many stand in line for the appetizers anyway, maybe drink a glass of wine or two, but few sit down at the table for the main course. Today's feature article resumes my "Where Love Has Gone" series with a second case study. If there's enough interest in these case studies, I'll do a few more. Let me know. Finally, a reference package you might be interested in: a complete set of 59 issues of BookThink's Gold Edition. For those of you unfamiliar with this, it's essentially a broad spectrum of articles on bookselling topics that can elevate your success as a bookseller. Here's the list. Gold Edition Table of Contents
1: A Matter of Pride: What's Hot and What's Not in Fraternity and Sorority Books Since this was published over a span of years, at least a portion of its contents could benefit from some updating, but throughout the focus is on the durable principles of bookselling, which never go out of date. It's available in PDF format and will be sent to you as an email attachment for the sale price of $29.99. Buy it here. If you're not sure this is the time to pull the trigger, I'll give you a one time opportunity to select any one of the below chapters as a free sample. Email me directly with the chapter number at editor@bookthink.com, and I'll send it to you as a PDF attachment. This offer will be open until the following newsletter is published. And, as always, is you'd like to purchase the Kitchen Sink (every premium report we've ever published), you can do that here.
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