Book Buying

What books to stock your bookshop with and what books to avoid

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It seems easy enough: find a vacant shop, fill it with bookshelves, fill those shelves with books and start selling books. You’re in business! You’re now a book seller. You also need customers, people willing to buy your books at the price you set. The question arises: what sort of books should I buy and … Read more

Detecting water damage in less than a second

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Once a book gets wet, it’s likely to develop mold.  Even if its now apparently dry, some damage has already been done and you generally want to avoid them all together.  A dousing also is a lot more obvious than a book that’s just been kept somewhere damp for a long time.  When you’re quickly perusing a large pile of books and deciding which to take, you often don’t want to devote the time to individually opening and examining each one in detail. First you want to make a quick cut, then take a second look.

These are tip offs that you should either take a a little closer look at a book or immediately move it to the “no” pile.  Once you’re skilled at this, you may be able to sort books as fast as you can pick them up.  These are tips for when you have hundreds, or even thousands of books to sort through to decide what you want.  Unless it’s something you KNOW is still worth buying even with water damage, these tip offs will general land a book on the reject pile right away.

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Storing & displaying books to keep them in best condition

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Book shelves

Storage and display are the bane of the bookseller’s and book collector’s existence.  The more valuable the book and the better the condition it is to start with, the more likely poor display and storage are to damage the book.  Reading copies are already so far gone in condition, they’ll tolerate less than optimal condition with little hit to value.  But a fine first edition with a fine jacket needs special handling.

Books need to be kept somewhere cool and dry.  If you live somewhere humid and hot, this will be the thing you spend the most time fighting. You’ll need air conditioning.

Conversely, somewhere TOO dry can damage bindings. Books are like Goldilocks, they like it in between.

Heat can also damage books as it can cause mold and bacteria to grow on the item.

Direct sunlight can cause the cover to fade or crack.

Storing books packed too tight against another book can cause it to warp around the other book if its taller.  Or it may stick to the other book.  Standing it open to display can cause the spine to warp. Standing it up without any support may cause it to tilt sideways.

Handling can also wear the top and bottom of the spine and dustjacket (if it has one) just from it being pulled on and off the shelf or even when it’s jostled. Books with raised lettering will also have it rub off if they’re too tightly packed or if jostled against other books.

With so much that can go wrong, how SHOULD you store and display your books?

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Stocking Graphic Novels in Your Bookshop

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This is the first in a multi-part post through which I hope to introduce the reader’s of this blog to the idea of carrying graphic novels in their store.  Space in a retail shop is limited; inventory is expensive, and there needs to be a reason why any product is carried in a store.  Through these next … Read more

How To Increase Bookstore Sales By Selling Online

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By Joe Waynick In today’s economy, independent bookstores are finding it tough to turn a profit. It seems hardly a day goes by without an announcement about another brick and mortar operation going under. That doesn’t have to be your fate. And with a little planning, proper application of off-the-shelf technology, and a bit of … Read more

The Mysterious Workings of an Independent Bookshop

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I’ve been pondering and concentrating upon what I used to do all day as a bookseller. That aside, there was the slight difficulty of deciding which place of employment to remember–there were a few over the years, and each individual shop had its quirks and perks. Foul Play, a small well established mystery bookstore in … Read more

Censorship-Here, There, and Everywhere

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I’ve never heard of someone demanding a bookseller remove an “offensive” book from their store before. I don’t think as a bookseller, I’ve ever encountered it. But some others have, and it begs the question, where does it end? The bookseller in the article questions his ordering practices–wondering if what he decides to purchase and … Read more