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Kevin Johnson, proprietor of Royal Books, became a bookseller in 1997 and specializes in Modern Literature, Cinema, Art, and Photography. In 2007, Oak Knoll Press published his first book The Dark Page, a full-color guide to the first edition sources for American film noir of the 1940s, followed in 2009 by The Dark Page II, a second volume covering 1950-1965. Kevin has been a member of the ABAA since 2002.

BOOKTHINK: I'm forever getting questions from entry-level booksellers on how to get up to speed fast. "How do I start making money now?" My first impulse is to grab them and say, "Slow down." Does the Seminar offer instruction on how to begin a bookselling business from square one? In your opinion, is there a fast (or faster) track?

JOHNSON: There's certainly something to be said for hard work - like working seven days a week as most people in the rare book trade do - but I think a "fast track" approach will ultimately lead to disaster for a person who wants to become a serious rare bookseller. I would compare it to a fine watchmaker who works too quickly. The watchmaker may finish making his watch, but his end product is not going to be something that is desirable to the most serious watch customers, or even appealing to fellow watch dealers. In no time at all, the watchmaker will have a bad reputation, and left to sell his watches at bargain prices.

On the other hand, there's a lot to be said for efficiency. A lot of time can be wasted by not thinking through your most time-consuming processes and making them as lean and effective as possible. Efficiency can be increased in any number of ways: hiring an employee to do your shipping or other tasks, choosing or implementing an effective database, organizing your accounting system, or coming up with an effective pricing and coding system. There are a lot of ways to waste time, and I always emphasize that any increase in efficiency typically means a time investment up front.

BOOKTHINK: Are you a Seminar alumnus? If so, and speaking from the perspective of a past student, what did attending mean to your development as a bookseller?

JOHNSON: I am not, but I would be a lot further along today if I had gone when I first began selling books. I simply did not know about the seminar when I was coming up in the trade.

BOOKTHINK: Speaking from the perspective of a faculty member, what would you say is the most difficult thing for booksellers to grasp about the trade?

JOHNSON: Good question. Typically new sellers have a lot of misconceptions and wrong assumptions, and that's a big part of what we try to dispel. These wrong assumptions don't have anything to do with intelligence or lack of perception - it all comes down to the lack of general information about proper bookselling available to the average person.

What is the most difficult thing to grasp? It would be hard to name the #1 thing, but here are a few: (a) that booksellers have a long-established language, literally a word for every single thing, and use of that language brings the best customers and sellers to your door; (b) that success in the bookselling world is more about relationships than it is about competition; and (c) the relationship of condition, rarity, and demand to pricing.

BOOKTHINK: Finally, I'll ask the same question I asked Dan: With increasing urgency, everybody wants to know where bookselling is headed, and many fear the worst. In a recent interview with Pat Ahearn, she boldly declared that books would become more, not less valuable as we move further into the Digital Age. Do you share this belief? Why or why not? In your opinion, would booksellers do well to focus more on antiquarian books?

JOHNSON: I would agree with Pat that rare books have the potential to become more valuable in the digital age. Common books - the kind of books people used to buy in a shop for $2 or $3 purely for the purpose of reading - may become a non-existent market as the new generation comes along. Currently the world is in a state of infatuation with computers, Kindles, and iPhones; but I think as these things settle down and become commodities, the average person's interest in non-virtual things may well increase. It's very hard to say.

But in terms of what we're trying to accomplish, none of that really matters, as rare books and manuscripts are a different consideration entirely. The Colorado Seminar is not designed to teach new sellers how to move product on eBay; it's designed to provide a basic education on how to find, catalog, and sell rare books, and how to build a business model that supports that enterprise. We're teaching a trade that is just a little bit older than eBay - about 2000 years older. And if you ask me, one that will be around a lot longer.

Jeanne Jarzombek, owner of The Book Prowler, transitioned from her career as a registered nurse to full-time bookseller in 2004. Her specialties continue to evolve, and include modern literature in translation, curious ephemera and poetry. She attended the Seminar in 2006 and 2007, then returned in 2009 as a consultant for the newly formed non-profit Antiquarian Book Seminar Foundation. She now serves on several CABS committees and is dedicated to furthering the seminar's interests, particularly with regard to its internet presence on social and professional networking sites. Jeanne is the moderator for the alumni mailing list and acts as the alumni liaison for both faculty and seminarians.

BOOKTHINK: Of the many topics addressed during your week at the Seminar, which was the most valuable in terms of advancing your bookselling business?

JARZOMBEK: Building a reference library and building a network. Without either, one cannot successfully survive in this business.

BOOKTHINK: Which was the most interesting?

JARZOMBEK: The sense of this vast body of knowledge in one room - all of these booksellers sharing their experiences with us as we sat surrounded by reference books that covered esoteric topics from the 15th century to modern day literature.

BOOKTHINK: One of the more common objections I hear from booksellers about the Seminar is that it isn't cheap - $1195 plus air fare and accommodations for 5 ½ days of classes, and indeed, upwards of $2,000 is a lot of money for somebody attempting to grow a business. On the other hand, I've never heard anybody who attended say (usually emphatically) that it wasn't money very well spent. How would you answer this objection to attending?

JARZOMBEK: It's so much more than "5 1/2 days of classes." There are evening excursions (Monday night picnic, visits to local bookstores), breakfast and lunch with fellow seminarians and faculty at your table. The surety of knowing that my circle of resources expanded exponentially, in reference books, faculty advisors and fellow booksellers, made it worth every penny.

BOOKTHINK: What kind of preparation, if any, would you recommend for incoming students?

JARZOMBEK: Read the biography of each faculty member to get a sense of their focus and specialty. Take a mental assessment of areas you're drawn to or have begun to specialize in. Then, during the presentations, you'll build on your knowledge base, or learn more about an area with which you're completely unfamiliar. Who knows what direction this may take you? Make a list of reference books you own (if any). You'll learn of other complementary reference works to invest in. Familiarize yourself with John Carter's ABC for Book Collectors, which can be found online in PDF form . Plan to make friends. Finally, stock up on sleep and mind power. You're gonna need it.

Brian Cassidy (Alumnus)

BOOKTHINK: Of the many topics addressed during your week at the Seminar, which was the most valuable in terms of advancing your bookselling business?

CASSIDY: Dan De Simone on selling to libraries. 0% of my business before the seminar. 30-50% of my business now. Highlighted an opportunity of which I was largely under-aware and provided the tools and advice needed to take advantage of it.

BOOKTHINK: Which was the most interesting?

CASSIDY: Terry Belanger on bibliography. To make collation riveting is quite an accomplishment, and Terry does it with ease. You will never look at books the same way again.

BOOKTHINK: One of the more common objections I hear from booksellers about the Seminar is that it isn't cheap - $1195 plus air fare and accommodations for 5 ½ days of classes, and indeed, upwards of $2,000is a lot of money for somebody attempting to grow a business. On the other hand, I've never heard anybody who attended say (usually emphatically) that it wasn't money very well spent. How would you answer this objection to attending?

CASSIDY: The year I attended, the faculty said something on the first day to the effect of how you should be able to pay for the seminar doing business with the people sitting in that room. And it's true. Just to put some cold, hard numbers on this ... since I attended in 2006, I have bought and sold over six figures worth of books with people I met and relationships established just at the seminar that year. Most of that total is business I doubt I would have engaged in otherwise. The Seminar is an investment, not an expense. And quite honestly, I can't think of $2000 better spent for most booksellers looking to grow and improve their business. It's a cliché, but it's so true I'll say it anyway: You can't afford not to go.

BOOKTHINK: What kind of preparation, if any, would you recommend for incoming students?

CASSIDY: Come prepared to meet and greet. Booksellers tend to be a rather solitary and introverted lot. But if you just keep to yourself for the whole week, you will miss out on what for me is the most valuable part of the Seminar. So gird your loins for socializing. Make friends. Talk to the faculty. Introduce yourself to strangers. Go out with your fellow attendees after the Seminar lets out for the day. Eat. Drink. Stay up late. Put thoughts of sight-seeing out of your mind. Business books would probably call this "networking," and I suppose thought of crudely it is. Put more accurately, bookselling at its best is a business of colleagues, not competitors. Come to the Seminar open to discovering your colleagues.

[EDITOR'S NOTE: Click the CABS banner at the top of most BookThink pages for more information on attending.]