The books are our normal problem, correcting the many errors we made when first we started selling them. We loved and collected books but by golly, we didn’t know about selling, pricing or even describing. So we have to go back and have a do-over. That takes a lot of work. But in between times we also sold a few and one was the last copy of my own book, “It takes your breath away”, a Manual on how to cope with COPD. It did well with the fellow sufferers, but nowhere else. That’s because of a damn’ silly Title and a lack Promotional Knowledge. Now I was a Show Promoter in past life. I put on one event, an Air Show, that blocked traffic
Author Archive
Brian W. Webster bwwebster@gmail.com I recently came into possession of a book – “Fathers and Sons” by Turgenev in 1867 – in not very good condition. I have been experimenting with a product called “Absorene”, originally used for house cleaning but also excellent on books. With caution I tried it with this volume, which was pretty grubby although the interior was in great shape. You take a lump of this stuff and squeeze it in your hand for a little until it is malleable. It feels like putty. Wiping on ONE direction it amazed me on how it changed the book, It took up the dirt and grime of years and left a semi-glossy finish. It does not make any changes but revives the original.
Just recently I was offered a batch of books at a good price but – take all or no deal. So we took them all, about 200. Obviously or first step was to sort the into A’s and B’s. A’s are 1st Editions, books we know are good, old paperbacks in good condition and others that tickle our fancy (and how we love that!). So does Fancy. Generally we avoid “like New” recent popular sellers since they sell for almost nothing. The problem with this lot was that some had been stored in a garage and were “stinky” Unless they had a value of over $20.00 and in good condition we dumped them. Of the few we kept we used the two prong approach to
CAN THIS BE THE END? BY Brian W. Webster I can feel the tremor of fear that runs through the book world with the advent of computered books and, to be honest I felt it too. But a thought came to my head from remembering a friend I had in ages past. He owned a very well known Antiques Store on Madison Avenue in New York. I was in his store one day and he had a new collection just delivered and he was one the phone describing parts he needed. “Can you get those parts”, I asked, “these days’? He explained that there was a whole industry turning out table legs, hand pulls, locks, all imitations of the real thing. He took me over