BibliophileBullpen

you never know what you are going to find inside:

Calculating Clara

O’er the rugged mountain’s brow
Clara thew the twins she nursed
and remarked, “I wonder now
which will reach the bottom first?”

from Rebecca Koch

Bookstore Lover

First of all, why a bookseller? Because books are important to me. They have given me solace, led me to adventures I would not otherwise have had and to places I would not otherwise have been. And I want so much to share all these things with others! Books can help one to think and consider ideas one would not otherwise have thought of (either to accept or reject) and in the process broaden one’s horizons. I would like to work with school to encourage kids to read.

Secondly, bricks and mortar versus online: I would ultimately like to do both but my real love is for B&M. I would like to hold literacy classes and encourage children/adults to read. I would like to hold a reading night for children. What better thing to do than share one’s love of reading and uncountable worlds with children and watch their faces as they are led into a new adventure? When children are read to they are more likely to read as adults. My sons were both read to as children and both love to read as adults. To see the face of someone when they pick up a book and start browsing through it. What compares to the smile on someone’s face when they pick up a new book (new to them) or an old friend? Yes, making money and paying the bills is one of the goals but not the only one. I would like to have a storytelling night and also encourage reading that way. Storytelling is an art that can be shared at a B&M store. I would like to have local poets and writers share their work at my B&M and make the store a focal part of the community and a place for people to stop and talk, as well as to buy. These are my goals.

My brain wasn’t working yesterday so I used Sam’s.

Sam Coulbourn wrote:

In academia, a Festschrift (/ˈfɛstˌʃrɪft/; plural, Festschriften, /ˈfɛstˌʃrɪf.tən/) is a book honouring a respected academic presented during their lifetime. The term, borrowed from German, could be translated as celebration publication. A comparable book presented posthumously is called a Gedenkschrift memorial publication.

Thanks Sam.

For those without a calendar it has been spring for a number of days now, but mother nature can be a bitch.

As much as I hate those big box stores, they have done away with all other department stores, so I HAD to go to Target to get a new phone for my mother’s rehab room. Whenever I go in these places I take my camera, you never know what silliness you will find.

I take my camera everywhere, if you are discrete you can images of just about anything. It helps me preshop for things and saves me money. Sometimes an image is just as good as buying the thing.

Everywhere I looked in Target things had been cutied up, I swear I loathe that Hello Kitty bitch. But I admit I was kinda attracted to some plastic picnic plates that looked like monkey faces. Monkeys are my Darwinism totems, I like monkeys.

Regardless I did SEE this piece of furniture, which I am seriously leaning towards. This 2 step stools retail for $24 bucks and the top step is a box, ain’t that darling? We are always racking our brains for gifts for the biblioish, these are UP there. Or basically treat yourself because life is hard enough and being a bookseller makes it harder. Ain’t I the master of rationalization?

Here, I found the stool on their website in White, Blue and Natural - remember my posting it doesn’t condone ‘big business’ or the exploitation of whatever Chinese child prisoners they used to construct these things. See? rationalization master.

Dear Bibliobull -

I’ve been in the business since last August, I was just wondering if any of you would be willing to share what you use as a baseline amount (I know it can go up/down depending on condition/availability/etc.) for purchasing used books from your customers

NooB

---

Dear NooB -

As with all things it depends on the book and they type of store and stock you already have have.

In take em or leave em box lots, $2-$5 for normal trade stock is about right. Of course a few dollars more for ‘better’ books, if you are paying less perhaps the books aren’t worth the shelf room. The better you pay the better books people will bring you. But do your research you can go broke quick overpaying for books you think you can sell, instead of books you KNOW you can sell. If you are very new don’t get overanxious about building up your inventory with slush, don’t worry the books WILL come. You want to build it book by book for quality, not quantity.

Generally for box lots, the customer leaves the boxes for you to examine and research and then comes back to take the offer or the books. If they don’t come back you DO have to store them for 30 days sometimes longer depending on your state, it’s good to have a rock solid policy about that before hand. Sometimes people KNOW their books are shit and just forget about them, until the next time they drive by, then remember and drop in. You will find their books have improved in their memory, if you got rid of them be ready to pay them for their real value, even if it was only $5. Always get their contact info and let them know what you are going to do. If you KEEP the books, send them a check, if you dump them, make a list and take pictures before hand. Remember CYA at all times.

Buying them individually is tricker as it should be a percentage of your shelf price. The longer you think the book will sit on your shelf the lower the percentage you pay. If it is a book you can turn over in a heartbeat, you pay a larger percentage. Remember you are paying for that shelf space every month. If you want to encourage scouts to bring you better books, you pay a little more than anyone else.

If it is a significant book and you recognize it as such, you can’t get away with paying a few dollars for say a 500 dollar book. That’s actually a crime. The law assumes you automatically know more than your customer and are therefore in a position of authority. So, you do some basic research and pay in the ballpark of 30-50% of fair market value. (usually the lowest price you find)

If that is more than you can afford offer to broker it for the customer, you take it and then sell it for them to another dealer or put it on the shelf, then you get to keep 20 to 50% of the sale price. Do up a form letter contract for those deals and take pictures of the items AT intake.

A good bookseller practice is that if you find that a book is valuable after the customer leaves is to contact them and give them a bonus. You don’t have to tell them WHAT it was worth, but just say it was worth more than you had thought.
This engenders trust and will ensure they send you more customers. It also helps one sleep at night.

Biblio Bull-

A couple if things pop up in my in box today that make me suspect that nothing is ever really lost . . . .

Form the New York Times,
• Scientists at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley have converted paper phonautographs from 1860′s Paris into audible sound files. This predates Edison’s wax cylinders by about 20 years. . . . sorry Tommy.

• and someone helpfully loaded a BBC documentary about Hitler’s Private World to Google Video, perhaps just another documentary about the workings of evil, but if you hang in there, you will see how they have put actual words and voice to Eva’s silent home movies. Nothing truly ground breaking but the technology in action is phenominal.

I can just imaging them using Automated Lip Reading to put words to silent films or home movies, now THAT’s scary.

Blog of note: Pulp of the day
Posts a pulp cover every day inviting folks enter captions in their monthly caption contest.

I’m no damn good at captions, I just keep thinking that this would be a good time for this guy’s Viagra to kick in.

from Dennis Mulcahy @ Second Story Books, Springfield

I am selling ideas and the wisdom of the ages. Masterfully constructed tales that can inspire hope and provide solace. I am selling entertainment and humor to lighten the ravaged soul. I am selling exotic theories and the simple universality we all share in being human.

I am selling Voltaire, Twain, Dickens, Vonnegut, Dunning, Erma Bombeck and Orson Scott Card. People come to me when they want to utilize solar energy, or build a canoe, save money for their retirement or delve into the infinite mysteries of the cosmos.

I sell time, hopefully well spent. To children, men, women and the occasional reading bear on the unicycle. Time that heals, and teaches and that fosters dreams. I sell dreams. Think of it.

One chain in the link. Writer, publisher, retailer, wholesaler, thriftstore, dreamseller. I have the power to decide which books will survive into the next decade, the next century, and which will be left unbought and tossed onto the scrapheap of mediocrity forgotten. I have the power to decide which books will survive…..
I sell a friend on a boring bus ride home from work. I sell the miracle of a child at play. I sell an old woman a memory long forgotten that is welcomed back with the blush of coy youth. I sell a man down on his luck the strength to continue, and an idea to better his lot.
I sell the uninitiated, initiation. The unloved, love. The uninspired, inspiration. The collector, the collectible. The unwanted a sense of belonging. And to those who thought they couldn’t ever dance again, I sell Happy Feet.

Sometimes, I give them away, free. And sometimes I make a lotta money from these ideas, these dreams. But most times I make just enough to get by. I am rich in books.

“An unlocked box, filled with leaves, speckled with ink” — Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

That’s what I sell, but I guess it all depends on how you look at it.

If you want to participate in the judging please leave a comment.

scrapbag2
Originally uploaded by jgodsey.

I have a bag fetish. Always have. Lucy had hats, Imelda had shoes, I have bags . . . and backpacks and satchels etc… Last night I stumbled on this little number in a scrap book store. I am still undecided about its overall usefulness. The pockets are shallower then what I would expect, being used to Craftsman tool bags of the same ilk. But then this has a little drawer underneath which I found very nice for pokey things which would be dangerous to have sticking out.
It isn’t that I very much need a completely portable book repair outfit, but I keep clearing things off my work table, stuffing them into the drawers and then having to dig them all out again. Ideally I should have a ‘workbench’ set up with things hanging from the walls, but I have a big ass window instead which I prefer.

Anyway, I will play with it a while and see if it lives up to its potential. ON the side you can’t see there is a lengthwise zippered pouch, which I still haven’t filled. I did leave a message with the manufacturers, I’d like to know how much it would cost to stock them. I just never understood ‘scrapbooking’ as a verb. Most of the hobby involves buying tiny expensive things and pasting them into books that you just give away. Doesn’t seem to be much ‘scrap’ involved.

You know I just posted about it so i could rationalize BUYING it in the first place.