Welcome to the first all-new issue of The Standard in nearly three years. As I mentioned in our previous issue, The Standard, for a variety of reasons, was on an unfortunate and extended hiatus. But no more. For this Fall issue we present articles we hope will be useful and interesting to the membership, as well as to other booksellers and bibliophiles. From dealer discounts to African bookstores, book reviews to member profiles, business concept to business titans, our hope is that this issue is indicative of the scope and quality of the coverage The Standard will carry going forward.
And I say “we” and “our” intentionally, as the Standard you read and see here was and is very much a group effort. First and foremost, this has been the result of the newly-formed Standard staff, who in addition to penning articles have provided guidance, feedback, proofreading and other much-needed support as we’ve relaunched The Standard. I thank them all for their help and energies, and take this opportunity to introduce them to the readership:
Craig Harris of Bridge of Dreams John Howell of John Howell for Books Chris Lowenstein of Book Hunter’s Holiday Kara McLaughlin Mestre of Little Sages Books Joe Perlman of Mostly Useful Fictions Howard Prouty of Readink William Smith of Hang Fire Books Alice Voith of My Wings Books Justin Woolley of Salopian Books Vic Zoschak of Tavistock Books
My goal, as much as practical, was to gather a staff that could not only write clearly and knowledgeably, but to assemble a group that would also reflect the diversity of the IOBA. And so there are men and women, full and part timers, bookshop owners and online-only, specialists and generalists, relative newcomers and well-established colleagues. I welcome them and look forward to working with them.
But success of The Standard does not rest with the staff or myself alone. There are the members who contribute article, reports, and profiles. There are our readers. There are the many volunteers throughout our organization who in countless small ways support our efforts here. The Standard is the newsletter of the entire IOBA and my hope is that others, ideally many others, will get involved. If you would like to write an article (or even if you just have an idea for an article), if you would like to pen a member profile, or if you think you might even want to be part of the staff, please drop me a line. But getting involved need not entail so large a commitment. Leave a comment on an article. Write a letter to the editor. Link to us on your blog or website. Tell others about The Standard. Or simply keep reading.
Welcome.