Category Archives: Bookselling

Bookselling

Where Do You Buy Used Books?

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Do you prefer to buy used books online or at a store?

We have some good used bookstores in Chattanooga, and I took all of the children to the large one nearest to us, which was still a good drive away. (I don’t know why my favorite used bookstore isn’t on that list, but we didn’t go to it because it was much farther away and may have been closed.)

I wanted to trade a DVD and some books and perhaps find an etymological dictionary (see Mr. Smith’s post linked earlier this week). I walked away with the QPB Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins for $4. There were a couple other books which looked good, but I didn’t now how much I would get in trade and the girls wanted to take books too. I got about $15 in trade and walked out with almost $6 left over.

Even though browsing the book-lined aisles can be fun, I usually don’t like it. I can’t remember what I wanted to look for, or worse I can’t find it. Last night, I tried to hunt down something by Frederick Buechner. Where should I look for his non-fiction, memoir-like stuff? I didn’t see a memoir section. Maybe non-fiction essays? Will I find something by that other guy I’ve tried to find before, what was his name–Joseph Epstein?

I’m usually disappointed at this place because I can’t find what I want and after a while everything looks cheap. What about you?

Bookselling, Publishing

The Publisher is Dead! Long Live the Publisher!

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Joel Miller talks about what author Seth Godin gets wrong when he announced his rejection of traditional publishing:

“Trying to sell books to people who don’t like them is hopeless—it’s like hawking lentils the day after Easter. . . . Literature is like running. It’s not for everyone, but for people who love it stopping after four blocks fails to satisfy.”

Bookselling, Publishing

Speaking of the End: Xclusive eBooks

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NEW YORK - MAY 06: Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos holds the new Kindle DX, which he unveiled at a press conference at the Michael Schimmel Center for the Arts at Pace University May 6, 2009 in New York City. Bezos was joined by Arthur Sulzberger, Jr., publisher of The New York Times and chairman of The New York Times Company. The Kindle DX, a new purpose-built reading device, features a larger 9.7-inch electronic paper display, built-in PDF reader, auto-rotate capability, and storage for up to 3,500 books. Amazon has also partnered with select major newspapers to offer readers discounts on the DX in return for long-term subscriptions. The Kindle DX is available for pre-order starting today for $489.00 USD and will ship this summer. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

“Rage, rage against the dying of the light!” Publishers Random House and Macmillan are criticizing an eBook deal by one of America’s leading literary agents.

Home to 700 authors and estates, from Philip Roth to John Updike, Jorge Luis Borges and Saul Bellow, the Wylie Agency shocked the publishing world yesterday when it announced the launch of Odyssey Editions. The new initiative is selling ebook editions of modern classics, including Lolita, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Updike’s Rabbit tetralogy, exclusively via Amazon.com’s Kindle store, leaving conventional publishers out of the picture.

Publishers are citing active contracts on these works and Amazon’s dominance in the market as reasons against this deal. Agent Andrew Wylie doesn’t know how to respond, according to the NY Times.

Bookselling, Publishing

A Novel's Setting Can Be the Key to Its Marketing

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Be sure to scan this interview with a self-published author who has sold many books in the locale in which her novel is set.

As a self-publisher, you’ve sold 50,000 copies of your books. I’m sure every self-published author wants to know your secrets. So, let’s start from the beginning: When your first book was hot off the press, did you have a marketing plan? Did you have an existing platform or readership of any kind?

I had a very simple plan for my first novel. My husband and I were living in Nashville, Tenn., at the time, and when the novel released, we loaded our trunk with books and drove to Sanibel Island, the setting of my book. I sat out in the car with our baby as my husband went in and out of every book and gift shop on the island asking if they’d like to carry the book.

I remember letting out yelps of pure joy and shock every time he returned to the car to tell me, “Yes!” Of course the shops were cautious at first, taking only a couple copies at a time and most did want books on a consignment basis. If they sold, then they would pay us.

Authors, Bookselling

Methods for Book Signing

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Overlook Press comments on an article about how book-signing events go down in New York. It isn’t first come, first serve. From the article:

It’s just that certain branches are simply better for certain types of books. “There are definitely uptown authors and subjects and downtown authors and subjects,” he said. “A lot of it has to do with where a writer has most of his posse. Thus, you’re not going to put the latest Tea Party author at the B&N at 82nd and Broadway,” Mr. Kirschbaum continued, alluding to the store in the heart of the famously liberal Upper West Side.

Bookselling, Fiction

Locus Awards for Sci-fi, New Pratchett Prize

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The winners of the 2010 Locus Awards have been announced. Winner of best fantasy novel is this metaphysical mystery by London author China Miéville:

The best science fiction novel is this steampunk tale called, Boneshaker, by Cherie Priest, who earned her college degrees in my part of the world (I just learned).

Also of note: there’s a new contest for new novelists of the U.K. and Ireland. It’s The Terry Pratchett Anywhere But Here, Anywhen But Now Prize. Wild acclaim and fortune will attend the winners of this soon-to-be prestigious honor.

Bookselling

I Did Not Read It, But You Should

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A new book on marketing called, UnMarketing: Stop Marketing. Start Engaging has these UnTestimonials on the back. I remember something like this on other books. Politically Correct Bedtime Stories: Modern Tales for Our Life & Times comes to mind. It has “quotes” from Hans Christian Andersen, The Brothers Grimm, and Aesop. Does anyone remember mock endorsements from Thomas Jefferson and such men for a book?