Toolbox Archive

Despite its utility, in my experience far too few book dealers understand the idea or importance of turnover for their business. Indeed, as I hope to demonstrate, there are few numbers you can know about your business that are as immediately useful and practical as your turnover.
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For those of you who would like to request a dealer discount from a fellow bookseller who you’ve never bought from before, and who is a complete stranger to you.
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Most booksellers when evaluating their business assets will consider the cost and potential market value of their inventory, the cost of computer equipment, and maybe even the replacement cost of their reference library, but it seems that the value of their book-selling database is often overlooked.
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"Is it a first?" "What are the points of...?" "I can't find a price guide for...?" "No copy on the net, and need to know the value of...?" Such are the daily, ubiquitous questions found on the various bookish listservs to which many booksellers & collectors subscribe.
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The type of appraisal this article addresses requires a written report with a lot of research backing it up. This type of appraisal usually gets scrutinized by the IRS or an insurance company.
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A press release has a standard format and should be as brief and to the point as possible. Think of how long it takes you to decide whether to read an e-mail or not. That's about how long an editor will give your press release before deciding what to do with it.
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Anyone who has gone to Boston to look for rare books in this century will have memories of Goodspeed’s Book Shop.
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I recently journeyed to the Charles Matthews Bindery in Los Angeles to participate in a basic book repair class followed by some tips on restoration. It turned out to be a book autopsy, however, followed by major reconstructive surgery. Incredibly informative, very helpful and a lot of fun.
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Hard drive failure: it's never fun.
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I decided a while ago that it was time to reconsider what I was doing with insurance for the company and began collecting information on the various options. One of my first paths was to post a request to the two book listserv groups that I follow the most closely, seeking recommendations (or warnings)...
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(An update by Susan Siegel, co-author and publisher of the Used Book Lover’s Guides, the series of seven regional guides to 8,000 used book dealers in the United States and Canada.) Just as the Internet has dramatically changed the business of buying and selling used books, the computer has also changed the way Book...
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