From the Editor by Craig Stark 27 May 2025

By Craig Stark

This newsletter is a test. You may have noticed that BookThink newsletters, once a weekly phenomenon, have lately been appearing with more and more irregularity. Almost coming to a standstill. Life happens, and it happened to me. I won't bore you with the details, but I'd like to know who is still out there and how you're doing. The current subscribers list still numbers many thousands, but I can safely say that no small number of you are done with bookselling or BookThink specifically, some are simply no longer with us in the eternal sense, but some, hopefully, are here or there still and perhaps would be interested in a reboot of the newsletter, if not an overhaul of the site itself. It does need some work. If so, let me know, and I'll crank the engine up. I and other contributors still have much to say.

Meanwhile, I want to throw a thing to two out here. First, we've printed some copies of what I consider to be a minor masterpiece of bookselling how-to, Joseph Maraglino's Basic Cataloguing. Some of you may recall it. It was first published on BookThink many years ago, and over time not a word of it has become irrelevant. To today's bookseller, it might seem somewhat old school, but I can assure you that Joe not once purchased a Gaylord, scanned an ISBN, or otherwise drowned himself in what the technologically driven activity modern bookselling has evolved into. For him, books were alive, in fact, had feelings and deserved to be treated as such. If you're involved in bookselling, this is still the ticket to making it work for you - and work for years to come. This species of bookselling is for the long haul and will ultimately lead to the most treasure. The thrust of today's approach has a shelf life, and the expiration date will come sooner rather than later.

Included with Basic Cataloguing is Joe's supplemental how-to on collation, at times a critical component of describing a book for sale. As much as I'd like to distribute this to you free of charge, there are those pesky expenses involved in producing printed content - materials costs, shipping charges, and in this case ever-increasing costs of server space, thus the $16.99 price. My primary motivation is to prolong the life of something that should not die. We lost Joe himself a few years ago, and this is reverently dedicated to him. His legacy.

To purchase the book referenced above, email me at editor@bookthink.com to request an invoice.

Finally,for the first time in our history, a major sale. Everything - absolutely everything - that appears on our Store page will be 50% off the regular price. This includes our special Kitchen Sink package, which in itself includes everything BookThink has ever put a price to. Example: You'll note that the Kitchen Sink is listed for $179.99. During this sale it will be reduced 50% to $89.99. Also, if you purchase $50 or more of any of our products, you will receive a free copy of Joe's book. To prevent the prodigious coding effort that would be required to change every price on every product, just email me a list of whatever you're interested in purchasing. Go here for the list. Also include your mailing address. I'll send you an invoice ASAP that can be paid with PayPal or any major credit card, and your items will then be sent via PDF attachments within 24 hours of payment.

This sale will start immediately upon the receipt of this newsletter and end at midnight August 31, 2025.