When it comes to selling tangible goods, presentation is everything. By showcasing the books you want to sell in an acrylic book display, you ensure that potential customers have the best possible shopping experience.


They can see the books better and they appear to be more accessible than if they were hidden in a deep, wooden bookshelf. There are a lot more points that speak for this kind of bookshop shelving. One is that the customer sees the book so well, due to the transparency of the display, that they only take those books out of the shelf they are most likely to buy. Moreover, books less handled means they look “like new”, longer. Like mentioned before, these kind of showcases are transparent, making the book, and especially its cover, stand out more. In the end, you want to sell books and not shelves, so books are what the customer should see first.

When it comes to durability and ease of care, no other solution beats an acrylic bookshelf. They are easy to clean, look good longer, are incredibly durable and nearly unbreakable. Combine this with their low price and you have an unbeatable combination. To make the most out of them, it is important to never use any abrasive materials or liquids when cleaning them. A bit of warm, soapy water, a microfiber towel or simple window cleaner and an old, but clean, kitchen towel gets the job done without leaving scratches.

There are several possibilities where you can buy acrylic display stands. One obvious place would be at trade shows. Look out for them when you visit the next book fair. However, in my personal opinion, it is often cheaper to buy an acrylic book display online. I would use a trade show to see and handle them, but then would go hunting online for the best price. This way you get the best of two worlds! Acrylic displays are worth every cent you spend on them, but in today’s economy, it is important to keep an eye on your expenditure. Check online sites that offer them carefully for refund policy, warranty and the like and do not fear to compare prices and / or ask for bulk discount when ordering larger numbers. You might even consider a shopping coop with other bookshop owners in your area to take advantage of better bulk rates. No matter where you buy them, it is assured that you will not regret this investment and will benefit from your acrylic display stands for many years to come.

How to Handle Books
Mail order/online bookselling, including ethics and traditions
Acquiring stock
Wrapping and Shipping
Technology for Booksellers
Database Creation and Management
Cataloging
Pricing

from bookthink.com

I read this article with great interest and a lot of envy, I couldn’t help thinking how different the industry in Australia would be if we had a conference of this nature so I did some research online and I found the Australian Booksellers Association have some training and it looks really useful information.  They teach things such as Loss Prevention, Helping Your Team to Help You, How to Set Standards For Your Team and Making Money From Kids (no, not stealing from children but learning about children’s literature), as well as having a whole host of networking opportunities, a Trade Exhibition and so much more.  I did some more research and found nothing for antiquarian and secondhand booksellers and certainly nothing for online booksellers.  All of the information I know about pre-loved books I’ve learnt on-the-job.
When I find a new website the first thing I do after I’ve signed up and had a good look around is to check out the forum and see what people are saying, a busy forum can be a good sign of a good website, or it can be a bad sign if everything is negative.  I generally head straight to any part of the forum that has a vague mention of books, I’m sure there’s a reason but it escapes me just now.  Anyway, this particular website was eBay, a website that needs no advertising from me so I hope our editor won’t link to them.  This is where I got my start with selling books.  I’d sold my old electronic diary through there and got a much higher price than I’d expected so I was wasting a bit of time trawling listings when I found some magazines for sale and I just happened to have them on my shelf.  I looked at them and thought about the money and the magazines and the money and the magazines, eventually the money won and I listed them.  I spent my time selling magazines and reading the forums, eventually finding something I wanted to say.
The books board (as we call it, although it’s supposed to be for books, music and sport, is almost entirely composed of book people) was full of very knowledgable and friendly people who were perfectly happy to share their knowledge and advise about prices and listing tips.  They accepted me as one of their own despite my lack of knowledge and experience and they taught me so much, they also accepted me when the Melbourne people decided to meet up for the lunch for the first time.  It was a lovely afternoon and we spent the entire time talking about eBay and books, we still meet occasionally and most of the conversation is about books and selling online as most of us now have our own websites.

One of the problems with being on a forum such as the eBay one is that the moderation is fairly strict and there are certain areas we’re not able to talk about.  We’re also not able to talk about the price we’ve paid for our books as it’s not good form for the customers to know this kind of information, they tend to get upset if they find out we’ve paid 50c for a book when they’ve just paid us $200 for it, it tends to leave a bitter taste in their mouths.  We’ve had a couple of false starts and thanks to one of our number we now have a forum we can call home where we can talk to our hearts content about the topics that matter, such as pricing, what we’ve paid, websites and all sorts of other things.
I just wonder, though, if it would be a good idea to have a Secondhand Booksellers Bootcamp in Australia.  There are so many things still to learn and while some of them are similar to the things taught by the Australian Booksellers Association, there are tricks of the trade that are not used by those selling new books.  I can’t help wondering how this would change the industry, I’m not going to speculate, but I do ask for comments here.  Do you want a Secondhand Booksellers Bootcamp in Australia?  What would you want to learn at one?  How much would you expect to pay?  There are actually more questions than I have answers for as some of the questions would include whether we also need a roof body similar to the Australian Booksellers Association or whether they’d be able to take on the task of such a bootcamp, or indeed, how do they view online sellers of secondhand books?

[editor's note:  Our friends at Bookthink.com have an excellent article describing the Bookseller's Seminar in Colorado]

–
Suzie Eisfelder
Suz’s Space
Your online home for pre-loved books and part-work magazines
Website:  www.suzs-space.com
Blog:  suzsspace.wordpress.com
Twitter:  twitter.com/SuzsSpace

image from:  Library Preservation

Not a day goes by that I don’t hear the question, “do you have any way to look up what books you have in stock?” And as I look out over 3000 sq ft, nearly 50,000 books, I’m always delighted to be able to say, “why yes of course, we have them all in our database!” We can then quickly look up an item by author, title or subject. I also have the option of telling customers who are visiting from out-of-town that they don’t have to be here to shop here – they can search our database and purchase any item we have from the comfort of their home.
Whether you have a couple hundred books in your basement that you sell online part time while you wait for your ship to come in, or 50,000 books in a large brick and mortar location, I think it’s absolutely imperative to have them databased. We started out with about 3000 books fourteen years ago listed on one online venue. Back then we used Homebase, a really nice, very efficient, easy to use database that ABEbooks put out – best of all, it’s free. If all you need is a wonderful way to track your books, this is perfect and it has all the features you want in a good database – with lightening fast speed, and that ‘free’ part is also a big plus.

As the business grew, the book industry changed, we began to upload the database to more and more online venues. Things got a little complicated and the search for something more efficient began. It was a little like the story of Goldilocks, some were too big, some were too small, most were too expensive! Then I met a really nice man at a book sale in Indiana. He wanted the same things we wanted in a great database. The difference between us, he was an amazing computer programmer! So, I signed on with The Art of Books and thus began my love affair with Rodger & Michelle Castle.
The Art of Books is so much more than just a database – it’s a complete book store operation. The database is virtual, so there are no storage issues or files that have to be uploaded daily. If we add or delete a record the system sends that change to all the online venues within a few minutes. The system processes all our orders from the various venues – Amazon, Alibris, Barnes & Noble, Valore, Biblio, Ebay, Half.com, our business website (www.pagemaster-books.com) and several others. It removes any sold items from all the listings. The system tracks our inventory & sales histories. It’s easy to use, and can be customized to fit any company’s particular needs. One of my favorite features is the link to Endicia – the company we use to print our postage for shipping. It’s a simple click of a button or two and the system creates a file with all the postage specifications – media mail, priority, tracking etc… and zip! ~ beautiful, professional address labels with the postage printed on them are done in seconds.
I feel very strongly that if the small, independent bookstore is going to survive and be profitable we have to sell on the internet as well as having our brick and mortar locations. Companies like The Art of Books, Basil, Filz and several others are making it so much easier for booksellers to be global enterprises from their little towns. The internet is allowing us to maintain that cozy, welcoming, beloved bookstore while still being able to pay the bills.
Judy Riggs
Page Master Used Books
www.pagemaster-books.com
904 John Marshall Hwy
Front Royal, VA 22630
540-635-5353

[editor's note: here is a little review I wrote about The Art of Books, we also recommend Basil software]

This is Judy’s first post with us – first of many we hope…

In Perth this week we have had the worst summer storm in nearly 40 years. Over 150,000 houses lost their power (and 5 days later, there are still many homes without power) and the city has been declared a Natural Disaster Zone.

We, fortunately, did not lose our power for very long. But it occurred to me that if we were still without power how would I manage to keep my business running?

So I thought I had better do some research on what sort of options would be available to me if, highly unlikely as it is, my power supply was interrupted for such a long length of time and I was unable to do my job. I’ve only been doing this for a year – so it obviously hasn’t been very high on my to-do-list, but I think if my power was off for a week my business would suffer.

We recently went away on holiday and I thought I’d be prepared and bought a pre-paid wireless broadband modem. I was really quite proud of myself, thinking that I was finally becoming technologically advanced, but when we got to the campsite I found they had WiFi set up for the campers! My how things have changed.

I knew this was available at our local globally franchised take away food outlet, but had never heard of it being available from a tent! So, I now have this modem available to me – the problem is I haven’t remember to top it up, so if I needed to use it during an outage I would first have to find my mobile phone (and hope it was charged), and then spend ½ hour on hold waiting, waiting for someone to help me. By the time I had topped up my credit the power would probably be back on.

So I decided to see if there was an easier way.

My first stop on my research was to look at UPS, or an uninterruptible power supply, as it would give me a back up option so I wouldn’t lose my work. I then followed that up with a general search for prices. EEEEK! What a variety of prices. They seem to range from $199 all the way up the the $7000’s.

Next stop was Satellite Broadband which sounded very complicated but, on further investigation, really wasn’t. And not nearly as expensive as I thought it would be. The plans I looked at appeared to start from around $10 per month, which is cheap for peace of mind. The only issue I would have with this is that our particular blackouts this week were caused by very heavy rainfall and very large hail. Satellite Broadband, from what I have read really only works if the skies are clear. So maybe this option is good as a backup, but this is dependant on the cause of the power failure?

After an hour or so of searching – these 3 options (including the camping modem) seem to me to be the best.

I would be really interested to hear whether people have backups in place for power outages? I would imagine that some of the Northern winter storms can cause the power to off for quite some time. Do you just use this time as a forced holiday away from the books?

I think I would probably use the down time to catch up on the mighty pile of books that are piling up next to my bed. Although, if there was no power I would have to fight the Other Half for the torch.

Amanda

At the end of January 2010, Steve Jobs announced the highly anticipated Apple iPad, along with a number of iPad accessories at the latest Apple conference. As part of the launch of the iPad, which also functions as a rather stylish eBook reader, Apple announced the launch of the iBook store. Like the iTunes music store that recently passed over 10 billion downloads, it is expected that the iBook store will change the game for readers and publishers alike, but will it have quite the same impact as iTunes has on the music industry? Only time will tell. Let’s examine some of the reasons why the iPad could well be the choice way for people to read and distribute books in the future.

While there is nothing quite like the pleasure of sitting down and reading a good paperback, the process to get it from initial draft to a published book in the readers hands is a long and sometimes torturous one. With the iPad, you can read anything in an electronic format and this means that just like more and more musicians are producing and distributing their music electronically, there could be a whole new generation of novelists and writers finding this whole new route to market with electronic books. eBooks are nothing new. The success of the Amazon Kindle has been nothing short of phenomenal, and it is one of Amazon’s biggest selling products. Sony have followed suit with a nice eReader, as have a number of the usual lower end manufacturers. But why is the iPad different? Well Apple are the masters of seamless integration. Part of the reason of the success of iTunes is the fact that you can very easily purchase a song and have it instantly available on your device. This combined with the now culture that we face, means that when people want something, Apple allows them a direct route to get it very quickly. Combine this with cutting edge design and you have a device in the iPad, combined with a nice iPad case, that is not only functioning as an eBook reader, but so much more. The fact that this device will be in peoples hands for much more than just reading books gives it a massive advantage over the competition in the eBook market.

No matter which device readers use to download their eBooks this has to be embraced as good news by publishers and writers alike. The music industry moguls who did not run with the times have been badly burned as people have changed to listening to music electronically. The opportunities offered by Apple’s iPad, iBook store and electronic reading in general surely are going to herald a new era in writing, publishing and distribution of all kinds of literature.

After we talked business books for a bit, I began to wonder how can we better avoid these kinds of situations. How can we make sure that we are properly stocked when books like Game Change, On the Brink, Wench, or The Last Song take off? Where can we get the heads-up so we can get the thumbs up from our customers?

1. Shelf Awareness

An essential tool for all independent booksellers, and it baffles how many don’t utilize it. With information about the industry ranging from day-to-day bookstore happenings to book reviews to editorials to media alerts, Shelf Awareness is a quick, daily reference sheet even the busiest of booksellers can make time for. SA catches trends, reports early buzz, and is much more handy than searching the ‘net when a customer asks, “Do you know the name of the book that was featured on The Today Show this morning?” Bookstore managers, section leaders, events and marketing coordinators should make reading Shelf Awareness as mandatory as answering the phones and opening the doors.

2. Publisher rep newsletters

Most reps have their own weekly newsletter that highlights upcoming print reviews, media appearances, and pre-publication buzz. Reps make sure we are well-informed when it comes to our stock; while they promote their own books in their individual emails, it is easy to see themes and common topics, pick up on publishing trends, and get even more advanced notice of upcoming media appearances than Shelf Awareness. Reps also know our time is very precious — their newsletters tend to be short, to the point, and formatted for easy reading (bullets, bold typeface, lists). They also focus on the big books and the sleepers; they are a good way to make sure we’re prepared when another book like The Help blows up on bookshelves all across the country.

3. BookPage & the IndieBound White Box

Yes, BookPage is expensive but it is worth it. With a preview for the hot titles for the month, along with reviews, interviews, and advertisements, it is a great way to get basic information. It’s easy to read and even just a quick skim-through will help booksellers recognize the titles reps and Shelf Awareness will highlight on a daily or weekly basis. The IndieBound White Box has more than galleys. Marketing materials, sales sheets, shelftalkers, and bookmarks are only some of the tools packed into this box once a month. IndieBound has done for the independent bookstore what hot fudge did for ice cream; the White Box is like adding sprinkles to the mix. The White Box helps us sell the books our readers should read and want to read. The IndieBound program needs to be a component of everyday bookstore life (but that’s a whole ‘nother post). The white box also lets booksellers know about the mildest sleepers with lots of marketing materials, swag, and talking points. Plus, it includes the upcoming IndieNext picks sheet to help with ordering sometimes two weeks ahead of time. Personally, I get giddy when it comes across my desk.

4. Twitter | The Bookshop Blog on Twitter

The most immediate place for the best up-to-the-minute buzz updates is on Twitter. Reps, authors, publishers, bloggers, and other reviewers update fellow bibliophiles to the latest news in the book world. It’s possible to find out who’s on the morning talk shows without turning on the TV, what book made the front page of the book section on any publication in almost any form of print media, and where touring authors will be on any given day. Twitter also gives bookstores a great heads-up: we doubled our book order for our upcoming event with Rebecca Skloot after she tweeted that she’s sold out of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks at every booksigning she’s had on her tour. Now, we won’t have to worry about bookplates and disappointed customers. (Unfortunately, our event with Skloot was cancelled due to circumstances beyond our control – but we were prepared and we still have enough stock for regular handselling [our booksellers love this book]).

What else helps you stay on top of the buzziest books? What other hidden gems help your book radar?

[editor's note: feel free to include a link in your comment if you feel that you have a source that will really help your friends here at The Bookshop Blog - thanks for sharing]

Image Resource:  From Old Books, for info on the image used and a whole pile more of outstanding images.

A few years ago, one of my local libraries gave me a good deal on a bunch of old library books.  When I got the boxed books home I discovered that the first and last pages were cut out removing traces of the library’s stamps and markings.  Essentially these books besides being badly outdated are all books I cannot seem to sell.  The stigma of pages cut out of the book is all but unbearable for a customer.  Cutting pages out of a book even if only the blank pages inside the covers is simply taboo in the book world.  No one wants a book with missing pages.

On the other hand, the biggest pain of a used book seller’s normal daily routine in dealing with used books is usually found on their covers.  The stickers located on the covers of used books are a bane of my existence as a used book seller.  I often find myself in a quagmire over whether or not to remove these stickers.  Largely this frustration is due to having trouble finding a good product at the local hardware store which will cross over to the book industry.

Two remover products which I have tried are Oops, and Goo Gone. There are good and bad points to both of these products.  I had a nice bottle of Goo Gone with a spray nozzle that I used for a couple of years.  For the most part, the product did its job as advertised and I finished the whole bottle in a few years’ time.  It really lasted quite a while.  One concern while using any remover product is that removers are liquid and you are essentially spraying or pouring liquid onto a paper book cover.  The book cover could soak up the liquid and leave a large blotch permanently altering the condition of the book.  Worse yet, it could soak into the pages and make a terrible whole book stain.

For the most part Goo Gone did a great job.  I sprayed some of the product onto the stickers on the cover of a book, and let it soak in.  Then later I would return to easily remove the stuck sticker.  There were attempts made in which the Goo Gone liquid soaked into the book and left a blotch.  Later I learned to put a rag under the cover to absorb any extra liquid and this often prevented any soak through.  I wanted to try something a little different the next time around for a comparison with attempts to avoid the extra liquid during the sticker soak removal process.

I found Oops.  This product is packaged in a giant container and the large size did not seem necessary for my purposes.  Instead, I located the little sample can with the flip up soaker.  This size container was good enough for a trial run of the product.  Wouldn’t you know it, but my first used sticker on a paperback text, and I had damaged the title and author names printed on the binding of this paperback book.  The printed text on the book’s binding rubbed half off.  Even though that happened to me – I was lucky in that I plan to keep that copy of the book for my own collection.  I was not completely deterred from using Oops as a sticker remover.

Oops is advertised as an office product.  I don’t know the formula, but I believe it must contain some rubbing alcohol because it has an alcohol scent.  The positive for the product is book covers stay in a drier state than with Goo Gone.  There is less chance of the book getting wet with Oops even though Oops is also a liquid.  I have removed several other stubborn stickers with the Oops product and it works fast.  Often with Goo Gone, I had to leave the sticker soaking overnight before I could remove it – increasing the chances of the book cover getting wet.  Both products in the right situation give stickers an easy lift off without any tearing of books or stickers.  This may reflect more on the type of sticker than the products though.  You have to become a good judge of sticker stuckness.

These removers are not the only solution to this sticker dilemma.  I have books sitting around with half of a sticker removed and those books’ back covers look terrible.  This is the reason that I hesitate to even begin the sticker removal process.  You have to gauge a sticker – whether or not you are sure you can remove it.  However, from a matter of principal and considering that book selling is my work, I feel obligated to dress up a book as much as I can.

I also clean my used books as well – I wipe off their covers because I don’t know where they’ve been.  Any suggestions for cleaning book covers would be appreciated as an addendum to this article.

References:

http://img.epinions.com/images/opti/43/33/Goo_Gone_Spray_Gel-resized200.jpg

http://img.epinions.com/images/opti/03/3a/Oops_All-Purpose_Remover-resized200.jpg