The BookThinker Newsletter ISSN 1547-9501 129, 3 November 2008

BookThink Update
23 November 2008>>>

Update Announcements

BookThink's Top 10 on eBay October 2008 Modern fiction dominated its top 10 category with all titles published after 1950. In addition to the usual King, Fleming, and Tolkien, there's Meyer, Wallace, Card, and Tales of Suspense #39. BookThink readers likely will recognize the #11 title: The Highland Mole, by Gordon and Williams and signed by both, sold for $726.25. It was a 1st edition hardback, described as 1 of the 500 printed. The non-fiction list ranged from Hemingway's In Our Time at the #1 position to Jerusalem Windows at #10. Listing a book in the "wrong" category isn't uncommon, especially among high end works. Was it an error or a strategy? Only the U.S. seller knows for sure. For those of you tracking the fortunes of the Top 10 Antiquarian frequent seller, he or she shows up 3 times on the October 2008 list.

QMR Book of the Week Five Roses A Guide to Good Cooking First published in 1913 by Lake of the Woods Milling Co. (Canadian millers of Five Roses flour), the Five Roses Cookbook is a compilation of nearly 600 recipes developed and submitted by customers who appreciated the exceptional quality of Five Roses Flour, especially for bread making. For years after its publication, if you sent a stamp, they sent you a cookbook, and, given the high quality of its recipes, it wasn't long before this became the most widely used cookbook in Canada. Needless to say, there are many copies still out there, even in the US, but very early copies in very good condition have at least some collectible value. In 2003, Whitecap Books republished this cookbook as part of their Classic Canadian Cookbook series, and culinary historian Elizabeth Driver contributed an introduction and numerous historical notes - which apparently were rich enough to drive US prices well into QMR territory. Canadian prices are even higher. [Read the complete article here.

Gold Edition Quotation of the Month A Bookseller's Guide to Book Club Editions Part III, Book-of-the-Month Club Issue Points Issue #55 Since issue #55 of the Gold Edition consists almost entirely of lists, I won't offer an excerpt this month but will specify exactly what these lists are. 1. BOMC Firsts (first book offered to members, first book published by the Book-of-the-Month Club, first book of poetry, and so on). 2. BOMC Publications by Nobel Prize Winners. 3. BOMC Publications That Won the Pulitzer Prize. 4. BOMC High Spots (books that will sell for $20 and up in VG/VG condition or better). 5. BOMC Ephemera. 6. BOMC Main Selections, Dividends and Alternates, 1926-1966 (huge list!). [Read the complete article here.]

Gold Edition #55 A Bookseller's Guide to Book Club Editions Issue #55 Part III: The Book-of-the-Month Club High Spots (and Potential High Spots) The following lists of important BOMC titles consist of those offered only during the first forty years of the club's existence - and there are two reasons to stop the lists there. Purchase now.

From the Editor

The Accidental Antiquarian Battening Down the Hatches How to Cut Costs and Improve Business in Tough Times I recently had to make a critical decision about my antiquarian bookselling business. The decision was critical because the consequences of the decision could mean the opportunity to grow my business or the misfortune of putting it in a vulnerable position. About a month ago, I came across a small office space in the downtown/shopping district of my city. It was the perfect size for a business of one - 425 square feet. The location, near a couple of restaurants, antique shops, the main library, and another bookshop seemed perfect. Even more perfect was the inexpensive rent. Because the space was small, it was difficult to rent, so the asking price for the one-year lease seemed more than reasonable.

Your New Scouting Book? The Amazon Kindle Technological developments in recent years have changed the dynamics of bookselling in ways few of us could have anticipated. Thanks to developers like ScoutPal's Dave Anderson, for example, many of us have radically altered our scouting tactics from relying exclusively on instinct and accumulated knowledge to, in effect, carrying "computers" into the field to research books on the spot and dramatically improve buying decisions.

Professor Booknoodle's Scrapbook The Dinosaur We All Ride It had been a difficult couple of months and now, what with a sales slump ended, and various inconveniences of life put behind, I was able to return to writing. I scanned what I had written some weeks ago, and read aloud to myself, just to hear how the words sounded ... ahem and harrumph: "I have to agree that a prodigious amount of good work has been done by various book sellers in attempting to establish a universal book grading system that improves on the traditional AB system. It is very good that people are devoting time to determining the description of imperfections found in books and the subsequent grading of those books. I am going to speak out with a friendly opposite view."

UK Bookselling A book made entirely from Diamonds? You will probably remember last year I wrote about bestselling author G.P. Taylor. Well, it seems like twelve months have flown by and the film rights for his new series, Mariah Mundi, have been sold and the movie is already in pre-production. Plus his self published book, The Tizzle Sisters and Erik, has now been taken on by Tynedale, a major US publisher, in a multi-million dollar deal.

Selling on Alternate Venues Observations on Biblio and Barnes & Noble So many venues, so little time. Life gets in the way of research, and dedication to the task. Listing scads of books can become mind numbing. It takes a concise mind to follow the formula, and a steady demeanor to plug away at it day after day. Not the easiest proposition for lazy me, with my wandering imagination, and desire to throw the lot out and be done with bookselling altogether. Indian Summer never fails to bring about my lackadaisical nature. As one of my professors once mentioned to me many years ago: "I may be first off the blocks on any given day, but my experience has been that of struggling to reach the finish line."

BookThink Special Report What Oprah Means to You as a Bookseller Part I When Oprah Winfrey recently chose The Story of Edgar Sawtelles as selection #62 in her book club series, the value of first edition copies, especially signed copies, shot up overnight. This made us wonder if some of her previous selections might also have value. After eliminating the non-fiction titles and doing some research, I have determined that first editions of the following Oprah selections do indeed have bookselling worth (minimum of $20 current value).

Scanning Solutions for Booksellers Converting an Ordinary Scanner to a Book Scanner To have a book scanned here costs at least 30 Pence a page plus expensive postage. So the idea occurred, how can an ordinary scanner do the trick? First of all, I did a market survey in PC world to find a scanner with the least amount of plastic beyond the bulb or lamp, and the Canon filled the spot - in my case, a Canon Lide 25. My theory was, if it was no good, all I have spent would have been about $50.

BookThink's Quarterly Market Report of Common, Profitable Books Issue #5 Issue #5 of BookThink's Quarterly Market Report of Common, Profitable Books is now available for purchase. Purchase or subscribe now.

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BookThink Update
12 October 2008>>> Update Announcements

BookThink's Top 10 on eBay August 2008 Politics, art, and Alcoholics Anonymous highlighted the August non-fiction Top 10. Obama's Dreams from My Father came in at #10 to supply the political tie. But art made a bigger splash. Three Taschen publications - Peter Beard Collector's Edition, Jeff Koons Collector's Edition and David LaChapelle's Artists and Prostitutes- came in at #1, #4, and #6. Alcoholics Anonymous filled the #2, #3, and #8 slots. Perhaps the most unusual entry in the list was Ralph P. Millard's Cleft Craft: The Evolution of Its Surgery, a 3-volume set. The big winner, though, was in the Antiquarian and Collectible Top 5. A German seller had 4 of the 5 sales. Now that's dominating a category!

QMR Book of the Week John Lennon The Lost Weekend Suppose you and your Significant Other haven't been getting along lately. Suppose also that you're good friends with another woman (or man, as the case may be). Then suppose that, since your SO likes this friend, she suggests that you start dating her because she would rather you be with somebody she knew and trusted than a stranger. Finally, suppose that your SO has every intention of returning to you in time - and can exert the manipulative power to make it happen! This bizarre, true life story is brought to you by none other than John and Yoko - and friend May Pang. here.

Gold Edition Quotation of the Month A Bookseller's Guide to Book Club Editions Part II, Book-of-the-Month Club Issue Points Issue #54 In Part I, by way of jump-starting this series to promote profits for booksellers, I presented a list of 133 book club editions that in VG/VG or better condition (F/F for hypermoderns) will likely sell for $20 and up. This is particularly good news because book club editions were/are typically printed in numbers that far exceeded/exceed their trade counterparts, and many of the titles in my list are therefore common and frequently encountered. In this and a following issue, I'll take on the oldest and perhaps best known book club of the many hundreds that have come and gone since 1926 - Harry Scherman's Book-of-the-Month Club (hereafter referred to as BOMC). here.