Independent Online Booksellers Association

1st August 2010

2010-2011 IOBA membership year begins on August 1, so it is time for our annual renewal process.

members will receive an electronic invoice within the next few days for the $50 membership dues. These emails will be generated and sent to you via PayPal, complete with a handy link to facilitate payment. Please note that you do not need to set up a PayPal account if you don't have one already, as PayPal can securely process your payment by credit card as well. Although we prefer receiving dues through PayPal, payment by mail is acceptable if that is your preference. Just send the check or money order (made out to IOBA) to the following address as soon as possible after receiving the email invoice. Be sure to indicate the name of your bookselling business on the check and include a paper copy printout of the invoice.

Mail to: Caite Stevens, IOBA Treasurer; 17813 Old Baltimore Road; Olney, Maryland 20832

Please make your payment within one week of receiving the email invoice. The entire renewal effort is being conducted by volunteers, and your timely cooperation is greatly appreciated. If you do not receive an email invoice by August 5, please contact membershipinfo@ioba.org right away. For those very recent new members who have already paid their 8/2010-7/2011 dues, you should not be receiving an invoice.

Our strong hope is that all current members will renew and remain with IOBA. If you are planning on leaving, however, please send us an email with notice of same to membershipinfo@ioba.org, as that will save time and effort as we go through the renewal process.

Lastly, all members are encouraged to double-check their IOBA Member Directory entry for accuracy and current information (found at http://www.ioba.org/php/members.php). Any corrections or updates should be sent by email to membershipinfo@ioba.org. (And for our internal records, please provide us with your Business Registration Number such as Tax Resale Number, EIN, local business license, VAT, UTR, GST, etc. if we do not have that on file already.) If you are not currently displaying your Preferred Primary bookselling website, please provide the URL web address for your Member Directory entry, for all to see (and shop).

Thanks for your continuing support. We look forward to another great year for our growing trade association.

Phil Keener and Shawn Purcell, Membership Co-chairs

1st June 2010

On behalf of IOBA, today I sent the following letter of concern re: Amazon.uk’s Price Parity Policy to these government offices and representatives:

• European Commission Directorate-General for Competition
• EU Antitrust and General Registry
• UK Office of Fair Trading
• Germany Fair Trading: Bundeskartellamt
• Graham Watson MEP
• Nick Eaton advisor to Stephen Williams UK MP
• John Thurso MP
• Rob Gibson MSP
• Jim Mather MSP - Scottish Minister for Enterprise, Energy & Tourism
• Mark Prisk MP - UK Minister of State for Business and Enterprise

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am writing to you on behalf of the Independent Online Booksellers’ Association (IOBA) to express our concern about recent moves by Amazon to force independent booksellers to set prices on Amazon’s UK, French and German websites equal to or lower than on any other sites which sellers use to sell their books. The IOBA believes Amazon’s demands for ‘price parity’ to be an anti-competitive measure by the dominant online marketplace for new and used books designed to undermine smaller competitor websites and even independent booksellers’ own websites.

The IOBA is an organization which represents more than 250 independent online booksellers around the world. While the majority of our members are based in the US, we currently have about 20 members based in the UK, France and Germany who are directly affected by Amazon’s latest policy change. The IOBA also runs IOBAbooks – one of the small aggregator websites which are likely to be adversely affected by this move. By way of background, Amazon’s Marketplace is an aggregator website through which thousands of independent businesses (including booksellers) can offer their goods for sale to the general public. In this latest policy change, Amazon have contacted independent sellers using their UK, French and German websites and said that any items they have for sale on Amazon must be sold at the same price or cheaper on Amazon than they are sold on any other website including booksellers’ own websites. This policy change has been backed up with a threat to ban any seller who fails to comply from selling on Amazon’s sites.

Most independent online booksellers sell their books on several different websites to generate sufficient sales. These often include aggregator sites like Amazon, Alibris, Biblio etc and, in many cases, their own independent websites. However, for many sellers, Amazon – as the largest and best known marketplace of its kind – generates a significant proportion of their income.

Aggregator sites usually generate income by charging booksellers commission on any sales generated through their sites and, in some cases, from monthly subscriptions. A typical ‘Pro-Merchant’ subscription to use Amazon’s UK website for instance costs £25 per month plus commission on any sales made.

This means that the costs faced by many booksellers to sell books via Amazon are often higher than on many other websites and often substantially higher than selling books through their own independent websites. However, under Amazon’s new policy, booksellers are forbidden from reflecting those differences in costs by pricing items cheaper on websites on which they are charged less to list their books. In addition, under this policy, booksellers would be forbidden from, for instance, having a 25% off sale on books on their own independent website as this would breach Amazon’s price parity ruling and risk the seller being thrown off Amazon and hence losing a substantial proportion of their income.

It seems to us here at the IOBA that Amazon’s policy of forcing sellers to reflect the higher costs involved in listing items for sale on Amazon across all websites is likely to be bad for book-buyers by generally increasing the cost of books, and is likely to be particularly damaging to smaller, cheaper aggregator site competitors to Amazon’s market dominance.

This policy also removes the freedom from independent booksellers to set the prices that they want for books on their own independent websites and, as highlighted above, to offer sales and other special offers to their own customers on their own websites.

As a result, the IOBA believes that this latest move by Amazon is dangerously anti-competitive, designed to use its market dominance to undermine smaller competitors and independent booksellers and will inevitably lead to a worse deal for book buyers.

Hence the IOBA would like to call on the relevant authorities in the UK, France, Germany and the European Union to examine this latest move by Amazon with a view to ruling on the legitimacy of the site to use its market dominance in this way.

Thank you for taking the time and trouble to read this letter. If you have any further questions then please feel free to contact me at this email address.

Yours faithfully,
Karin Isgur Bergsagel

President, Independent Online Booksellers Association

www.ioba.org

05/27/10

The IOBA Tagline Contest results are in!

We have a winner:

"The books you want...from booksellers you can trust"

The Grand Prize-$250 gift certificate goes to Eric Mayer, http://www.bluebirdbooks.com/

Other creative entrants won the following:

2nd Prize - $100 gift certificate goes to Catherine Petruccione, http://www.oldscrolls.com/

3rd Prize - $50 gift certificate goes to Leigh Holleschau http://www.highcastlebooks.com/

3 Honorable Mention winners will each receive an IOBA mug:

Harvey Bridgers, http://www.rarebargainreaders.com/

Joan White, http://www.whiteunicornbooks.com/

Larry Ewing, http://www.barbarossabooks.com/

The Board wishes to recognize our Contest Czarina, Jan Roulstone of Quibble Books, for organizing a fun and well run event. Thanks also to her colleagues on the PR Committee for their contributions. And to all of you who participated by entering the contest, thank you. We appreciate your continuing support for IOBA.

04/08/10

IOBAbooks.com Joins Marelibri.com

Booklovers and collectors across Europe and throughout the world will have a greater choice of high quality used and antiquarian books than ever before after a historic link-up between the world’s only dedicated online booksellers’ association and the European-based Marelibri.com association.

The Independent Online Booksellers Association (IOBA) has joined forces with Marelibri.com to promote the importance of high quality, professional independent online bookselling.

Most importantly, the link-up means that all the books listed by IOBA members on IOBAbooks.com will now be available through the Marelibri.com portal. This will be facilitated by IOBAbooks.com’s website host, Biblio.com.

The IOBA, founded in 1999, is the only booksellers’ trade association focused solely on independent online sellers of modern, used and antiquarian books. The organisation, which now has over 250 professional bookseller members from North America, Europe, Africa and Australasia, is dedicated to promoting the highest ethical standards of online bookselling among its members.

Marelibri.com was born in 2007 and has quickly become one of the largest European sites for used, antiquarian and modern books with more than 80 million books available from thousands of international independent booksellers.

IOBAbooks.com Committee Chairman Phil Keener said: “This link-up between the IOBA and Marelibri.com gives bookbuyers and collectors, particularly those in Europe, access to a greater choice of high quality used and antiquarian books than ever before.

“Both organisations are totally dedicated to ensuring that the online bookbuying experience is as safe and fulfilling as possible for customers throughout Europe and the rest of the world by promoting trust between customers and booksellers by providing a safe online environment for the sale and purchase of books.”

Marelibri.com President Dr. Sergio Malavasi said: “We are proud to announce that another web site, IOBAbooks.com, has joined the Marelibri platform. IOBA is an independent association that, like our other partners, only offers books from professional booksellers. It is now possible to browse through more than 80 million books from 10 web sites on Marelibri.”

03/29/10

Annual IOBA Scholarship Contest

The Independent Online Booksellers Association is offering two scholarships this year. IOBA awards these scholarships to support the professional development of member booksellers, and to strengthen the greater book trade community. We believe that a well-educated, well-informed, and ethical bookseller is a credit to the trade and to IOBA.

One scholarship is restricted to the 2010 Colorado Antiquarian Book Seminar, to be held in Colorado Springs USA from August 8-13, 2010 (http://www.bookseminars.com/). The second scholarship may be used for CABS 2010, or for one of these other opportunities:

Rare Book School: http://www.rarebookschool.org

California Rare Book School: http://calrbs.org/index.html

In order to allow time for the RBS and CALRBS admissions process, a scholarship awarded to one of these schools is valid until December 31st 2011.

Each IOBA Scholarship is for tuition plus up to $400 for expenses. Non-North American winners will receive an additional $500 travel stipend.

Contest Rules

1. Only open to current IOBA members in good standing, excluding members of the Scholarship Committee and current Officers.
2. Questionnaire:
   
   
   • -What is your business name?
   • -How long have you been selling books?
   • -Please provide correct working URLs to your website and/or to other websites where you are currently selling books. Do you have an open shop, exhibit at book fairs, or sell at other venues? If so, please provide details.
   • -How long have you been a member of IOBA?
   • -Which program do you want to attend? Please let us know if you only wish to be considered for the open scholarship.
3. Write an essay of up to two pages about why you wish to attend and how this might aid your professional development. Since IOBA is a virtual organization, and few of us have met in person, this is your chance to introduce yourself to the Committee. Who are you? Why are you a bookseller? Are you involved in volunteer work in the community or the trade? What are your accomplishments? Your shortcomings? Your dreams? Why should we send you?
4. A letter of recommendation is required; this can be written by any bookseller except IOBA officers and members of the scholarship committee.
5. Email entries must be received no later than June 1, 2010.
6. The winner or winners will be chosen by the IOBA Scholarship Committee and will be notified by telephone and by email no later than June 15, 2010.

Submission by email to scholarshipcontest@ioba.org

03/01/10

Introducing IOBA's 11th Anniversary Membership Contest - the biggest contest membership contest we've ever had (also the first....)!

A bit of background: Back in the old days (1999), when IOBA was first founded, almost all of the members "knew" other IOBA members, many from participating in the various listservs, and IOBA grew by word-of-mouth, as one member recommended IOBA to another bookseller.

However, as the years went by, and IOBA grew in total numbers, the procedures for handling membership didn't keep pace. We had members who never received renewal notices, others who applied and their applications got lost, and more. In the past couple of years, these administrative problems have been dramatically improved. The membership committee is a well oiled machine and ready for more applications!

The bottom line is that if IOBA is truly going to be an influential voice for online booksellers, it needs to grow. We currently have fewer than 250 members: with just 500 (that is, if each existing member just referred ONE new member) we would really be able to be a factor in online selling. Right now the majority of our new applications are coming from newer booksellers who have "heard" about IOBA. But they don't always meet IOBA's standards. Often they need mentoring before being accepted, or they rely too much on automated listing and pricing, or they don't even qualify at all.

ALL of us in IOBA, I am sure, know some "good to great" booksellers whom we would be proud to have as fellow members. So this contest has been devised as a fun and rewarding way to encourage our members to go back to old-fashioned personal recommendations as a recruiting tool for IOBA.

Rules are simple:

1. For each QUALIFIED & ACCEPTED bookseller candidate whom a member "sponsors," the member will earn one point.
2. Earn three points and get next year's dues FREE, six points and get two free years and so on.
3. In addition, there will be a grand prize (minimum of 5 points required) for the bookseller who is responsible for bringing the most new members to IOBA: An award of $750 towards defraying the costs of attending a qualified educational program OR a $500 gift certificate for IOBAbooks.com. If there is a tie, the awards will be split.
4. Plus, each time a member earns one point, his or her name will be entered into a drawing for lots of other prizes (the more new members IOBA gains, the more prizes will be added).
5. To jump start the contest, the first successful applicant will earn DOUBLE points for his/her sponsor, and so will the 11th successful applicant.
6. You will also get DOUBLE points for the first successful bookseller applicant from any state in the US or province in Canada or country where IOBA does not currently have any members.
7. In order to qualify for points, the IOBA member MUST send the name of the bookseller-applicant to membershipcontest@ioba.org
8. The applicant should also include the name of the sponsoring IOBA member(s) on their application. If an applicant identifies two (or more) booksellers as their sponsors, the points will be shared.

All accepted new applicants will get FREE MEMBERSHIP for the balance of this year, so the dues of $50 will cover the rest of this year and the entire 2010-2011 year (that is, through July 31, 2011.)

Please be sure to review the Standards for New Members at http://ioba.org/app.html in order to understand what the Membership Committee looks for in accepting new applicants.

Officers of IOBA are not eligible for any prizes (although we will still participate). Other Board members and members of the Membership Committee are eligible to earn free dues, but not the Grand Prize or other prizes.

Contest starts immediately and ends June 30, 2010 (that is, only applications received by that date will count). This will allow for an additional two weeks to complete processing the applications.

The awards will be announced on or about July 15.

The full rules will be posted on line at http://ioba.org/new.html, and as questions are asked, we can add a list of FAQs as necessary -

I will also start a thread on the discuss list for questions, sharing ideas and more.

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