From The Editor by Craig Stark #107, 5 November 2007

A good friend returns today after a lengthy pause - BookThink's Science Fiction Editor Timothy Doyle. Tim recently received an email inquiring about an issue point on Robert Heinlein's The Menace from Earth, and since he'd already been working on another article on this book's publisher, Gnome Press, it presented him a good opportunity to kill two birds with one stone - also a good opportunity to work his answer (and how he found it) into an article on researching issue points. There are lots of great tips search within.

Speaking of issue points, Thomas Lee, author of 20th Century First Edition Fiction: A Price and Identification Guide, is back with his monthly column. Today's topic is grading - specifically, why it's more important to learn how to do it well today than it was in pre-Internet days, a time when most buyers actually handled books before purchasing them. Now, your ability to grade a book, not to mention present it properly, can literally make or break you as a bookseller.

Finally - an announcement. We've run some specials before, but we've never really had a sale at BookThink. Never had a reason to. But I think there's a very good reason now. Lately, everywhere you turn, it seems, somebody is predicting slower sales this holiday season because money is tight. Maybe it's tight for you, and/or maybe your book sales aren't what you'd hoped they'd be either. Maybe you or a bookselling friend on your gift list could use some proven money-making advice to grow your businesses. Well, here's the deal: Buy absolutely any of BookThink's e-publications between now and December 31, 2007, and you'll get a 25% discount. This discount applies to individual back issues, back issues packages (yes, including the complete back issues package), and subscriptions. Here's a list of what's available and how much it'll cost with the discount applied:

Special Subscription Package - Gold Edition + Quarterly Market Report = $44.99 Special Complete Back Issue Package = $112.49
How to Become a Fulltime Bookseller = $22.49
How to Buy Inventory Online = $11.24
Gold Edition Subscription = $22.49
Gold Edition Individual Back Issues = $3.75
Quarterly Market Report Subscription = $37.49
Quarterly Market Report Individual Back Issues = $14.99
50/50 Individual Back Issues #1-#4 = $7.50
50/50 Individual Back Issues #5-#22 = $3.75

I know this question is going to come up: "If I'm already a subscriber to one of the newsletters, may I take advantage of these discounts to extend my subscriptions?" YES. We'll simply advance your subscriptions one year forward from their existing expiration dates. If you currently subscribe to both newsletters, what this means is that you can extend your subscriptions for $5 less than what you would previously have paid for a subscription to QMR alone. Please keep in mind that, since these are major discounts, we're keeping the window of opportunity open for only a short period of time. We hope that this will in some small way make your holiday season brighter, and thank you for your support of BookThink!

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