Special Announcements by Craig Stark 20 June 2026

Open letter to BookThink members, future members and visitors:

As some of you know, BookThink hasn't operated a bookselling forum for a number of years now. One of life's perfect storms swept in, including losing my business partner (which necessitated my learning how to code from knowing little to knowing enough to keep things moving), our forum software expired and, oddly enough, a few health issues popped up. Of course, this also slowed the frequency of issuing newsletters. Anyway, I have greatly missed the interaction the forum provided, not to mention the valuable information that was often shared, and more than a few of you have written me to inquire if it could be rebooted. To make a long story short, the simplest and potentially better traffic-generating move to reactivate things was to launch a Facebook page, which I did two or so weeks ago.

There is no cost of entry, no membership hoops to jump through or subtle, time-wasting tactics to minimize spam (like answering questions about why you're joining, etc.). Also, as our policy has been from BookThink's first days, we never harvest email addresses or any personal information for any purpose other than facilitating our communications with you and improving the performance of BookThink's online footprint, including Facebook. Period.

One more thing: If there is such a thing as a BookThink culture, it has always involved generosity in sharing useful information as kindly as possible. So called "insider information" is typically not jealously guarded as it is in other groups, and any spam or spam-spewing members are, respectively, deleted and/or banned as promptly as we see them. We also welcome alerts from members who have spotted these things before we have. Once in a great while we have taken down posts or banned members on the basis of what the English call, in their characteristically understated manner, unpleasantness. We want everybody to feel safe to create a presence here that won't be subject to ridicule for asking "dumb" questions (just an example). Staying on topic - that is, bookselling - is encouraged but not insisted upon. We're all human, after all, and do not always comfortably fit into boxes. As a personal matter, my appetite for politics is about half the size of a sparrow's, so for now I'll just let this opinion sit and see how things play out.

Finally, consider this a formal invitation to join and encourage others to join, and a huge thank you to all who have helped build BookThink for the last 24 years.

You can join here.