Last weekend we had a booth at the Boston Antiquarian Book &
Ephemera Fair which was part of Boston Antiques weekend.
..It’s funny that a recent post here was about optimism, because no where is the typical
bookseller’s lack of optimism more evident than at a book fair…

Shall I compare thee to an unread text?
Thou art less lovely but more affordable
Rough hands withdraw them not nor their pages vex…

Clicks and bricks, bricks and clicks - people throw these around, and they
are certainly descriptive of a business that operates both real world and
virtual stores, but what they lack in practice is a true synergy between
the businesses. I know for our shop that we’re really just running two
largely parallel businesses out of the same location.

Every time something is going to go terribly wrong, there are foreshadowing missteps that not only make you cringe when you look back, but also provide ample time to anticipate your undoing.

Innovation has been limited (have a look at any of the book sites via the
Internet Archive’s Way Back Machine which archives sections of the internet)- the internet is
still basically an electronic version of a print catalog, with little to
recommend it, particularly bookselling wise.

A Fantastic post on the US economy and how it relates to Bookshops by Tom over at Pazzo Books. If you’re in the Boston area (Roslindale to be more specific) you should check out his shop.
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How ‘Bout that Economy?
I was reading some talk recently - I think on the ABE forum - about the used […]

Here is a terrific view into a Boston area auction from Tom of Pazzo Books.
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October 9th Auction notes - It’s not the Venom, it’s the Bite
There’s a book auction that we frequent perhaps 10 times a year - typically we go to the uncatalogued sales to pick up lots of material that we don’t […]

Another entry from our distinguished writer from Massachusetts Tom Nealon of Pazzo Books

A signed proof of Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls is headed for auction in November at Swann. It has a signed dedication to Martha Gellhorn, Hemingway’s fiancee and is signed to his friend and longtime employee Toby Otto Bruce, as […]

Posted by Tom Nealon of Pazzo Books
Dana’s great story about the Baum that got away reminded me of mistakes in
book selling. I traded stocks for a few years, and the most common mistake
is to get married to your screw-ups. You bought something at 20 that you
were SURE was a winner. It languishes, sits […]

Tom Nealon of Pazzo Books brings us his first post on specialization and how you might want to get your feet wet after first opening a shop. Some good thoughts for veteran sellers as well.
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After the initial madness of setting up a bookstore (be it online or an
open shop), and assuming you’re like most of […]