Email: texas_republic45@msn.com Website: http://www.trafford.com/robots/01-0542.html Publisher: Trafford Publishing, Suite 6E, 2333 Government Street. Victoria, BC, Canada V8T 4P4 250-383-6864, Toll Free 1-888-232- 4444 (USA and Canada only.) Schools and museums get a 40% discount by ordering directly. Also: Listed on Barnes and Noble, and the E-book (at $10.00) is on Amazon.com/. The Texas Republic July 3rd, 2002. ISBN 1-55369-140-7 Paperback. Texas History, and pioneer life in Texas. $33.95 American. Part One of a trilogy: The Texas Republic, (1835-1846) Texas’ Independence. After the Republic, (1846-1859) The Mexican War to Secession. The End of Life.(1860-1878)The Civil War, and Reconstruction. Written as an early pioneer’s diary (a fictional diary based on historical persons and true events). See the story from the “eye-witness” point-of-view of a new settler to Texas. Andrew was a freed slave who came from Louisiana to Texas to get a land grant. After meeting Sam Houston in Nacogdoches, he gets a land grant with his new wife, Delephine, a life-long friend. Andrew intends to build a cabin near a new fort on the Trinity. He is to report to Nacogdoches for three years in the army. As Andrew makes the trip to start building his cabin, bandits rob him, he is wounded, and his wife is killed. Some Cherokees on a hunting party find Andrew, thinking at first that he is their trading partner, William Goyens, a freedman like Andrew. The Cherokee heal Andrew and take him in as a member of their tribe. Andrew later marries a Cherokee woman named Say-te-Qua (Morning Star), who is the tribe’s dream interpreter, a daughter of Chief Mush of the East Texas Cherokee. Meanwhile, Mexico makes raids on Texan settlements, taking cattle and horses for their use. The settlers are struggling under an already harsh tax burden from a distant Mexico City. Sam Houston, as the head of the Texas Army, asks the Cherokee to scout for them. Andrew again meets Sam Houston to start his time of service as a citizen-soldier. Andrew’s journey takes him through the events that lead to the battle of San Jacinto, and Texas’ Independence, helping the reader to experience the people and times that made Texas the only state to be a republic for close to a decade. Andrew, as the storyteller and main character, learned to read by copying letters from an old Bible that he found. He could draw from an early age. He drew pictures to say what he couldn’t write to show his admiration for those people who influenced him in his life (his mentors, such as Sam Houston and William Goyens, and tormentors such as Lamar). I wrote and illustrated the books from stories I heard as a child and from careful research, such as accounts of true events taken from research from old newspaper articles to get things like records of wheat crops, storms, and events where the settlers clashed with each other, and with the Indians. I tried to draw the characters so the readers can see the real faces of characters important to the story. NOTE: The book contains a copy of an actual letter written by Sam Houston to Caddo Chief Bintah inviting him to the 1843 Great Council. I copied the Sam Houston letter from the University of Oklahoma historical archives, which are quite vast. The letter had been burned in a house fire so I hand copied it to make it presentable and make a good copy of it for the readers to enjoy. I’ve gotten information and backing for my books from several Texas organizations: the Lonesome Dove Church, the first organized church and settlement in the North Texas and the Red River settlements, the Sam Houston History Museum of Huntsville, the Collin County History Museum, and Heard Museum and Wildlife Sanctuary, Inc., both of McKinney. The Boy Scouts of America are additional supporters, since their scouting “Great Council” is fashioned after Sam Houston’s 1843 Great Council. The Grapevine and Farmersville Historical Societies, which have ties to the story, have also offered support. My personal interests range from art, to music, and to restoring antiques. I also have made many of the objects seen in the illustrations in the book. My interest in writing, specifically, has been a life long journey of over 40 years. In my grandfather’s family, the youngest member of the family was trusted with the family’s history. This tradition came from my mother’s family, who were East Texas Cherokees. My mother’s name was Kituwha, or “Green Valley.” She took the name “Kit (with the Christian name Sarah) Green.” I’m the youngest of fraternal twins, so it was my duty and obligation to pass on the family’s history. I wrote many of these stories down as a youth and memorized them. It has been a burden and a joy all at the same time. It is well worth reading these very detailed accounts of early Texas. You will see things from the Black and Native American perspectives, as well as those of the French, German, English, and Irish settlers who came here to farm some of the richest land available. Many of the Indian tribes in Texas were tribes who moved from the northern states. This blend of different cultures made for some interesting situations that the reader will experience ‘first hand.’ There is also a Glossary of Texan Terms for those that don’t speak “Texan” (Spanish and Indian words). All three books were written from an accurate timeline and each year was a folder of events that I arranged chronologically in order to present the stories in the proper place and time frame. When you read the stories you will get a good picture of what life was like for the early pioneers. Read about the people and events that made Texas, and Texans larger than life. Thank you. JLB. The Texas Republic.

URLS : http://www.addall.com (new book search), http://used.addall.com/ (used book search), http://www.amusicarea.com (CDs), http://www.amoviearea.com (DVD & VHS), http://www.amagarea.com(magazine subscriptions) . Email: pr@addall.com Lily, when did AddALL actually start business? And can you tell us who was involved, and how you actually came up with your streamlined format and gathered the personnel talent to start your company? AddALL started business in August 1998. Hup wrote the software. I helped with non-technical issues. Both of us had other jobs till recently so we used to run AddALL in late evenings and on weekends. We worked from the corners of our bedrooms and had “board meetings” at my dining room table. Hup became full-time with AddALL a year ago and I this past July. We didn’t have an office till last November. I have to confess that we didn’t always have this streamlined format. There were a few weeks in AddALL’s early history that we, like almost everybody else then, featured banner ads. However, we soon decided to make AddALL banner ads free because we found banner ads extremely irritating and wanted to spare our users the pain. We have been recruiting mostly among acquaintances. AddALL is an “Internet-ional” company. Our team members have been working and collaborating with each other from all over the world to serve users from all over the world via the internet. Are the original founders of the company all still involved? What role do you personally fill? For instance, do you have a programming manager, a business manager, etc.? Yes. Hup’s still the tech guy; I’m still the biz gal. AddALL is too small for serious business titles. We joked that if we had to call ourselves something more important, Hup would be the CTO—cheap technical officer, and me the CEO—chief errands officer. Where and how did you come up with the idea of the quotes? I love that—always take the time to read them! Did you have to obtain permission to use each? And how many different quotes are there, total? Are they rotated on a random basis? It just hit me one day. I wanted to share something meaningful with AddALL users. I’ve always liked quotes and used to keep a journal of my favorite quotes in different languages. I don’t believe we need to obtain permission since we do not use the quotes for profit. In addition, many quotes are in the public domain. There are hundreds of quotes, all handpicked by AddALL team members. At first we had only Tagore quotes because both Hup and I like Tagore a lot. We like his messages promoting compassion, tolerance, appreciation, and non-violence. After a while, some users complained that “talking trees and birds and bees” drove them crazy. So we took some time and added more variety. Yes, we rotate the quotes on a random basis. How does your fee schedule work that you charge databases being searched by AddALL? We ask an affiliate-to-be to choose one of three options that suits their budget and needs: 1) a monthly flat fee based on volume of books listed on a site; or 2) a per click-through fee based on numbers of queries we direct to their site; or 3) sales commission if a site already has an affiliate program. We also accept or offer traffic exchange in supplement of any of the above-mentioned choices. I really like your “strict” search feature that you’ve added—it does seem to completely cut out paperbacks when you ask for a hardback (though not so accurate if you ask for paperbacks only) and it is still very speedy. I do notice, however, that if you ask for a first edition that book club hardbacks still are in the search results. Do you have any plans for further refining this strict search to only return results mentioning first (or 1st) edition? Or is this an impossible dream, given the many ways booksellers describe their books? Yes it’s technically possible and we do have plans to work on it. We keep improving our site by adding new features and fixing bugs. Hup promised to work on it once he finishes coding for our magazine site (http://www.amagazinearea.com). I notice that you’ve recently added some sister sites, http://www.amusicarea.com/, for music, and http://www.amoviearea.com/, for movies. From a casual look at these, it appears that currently they are only for new items—do you have plans to extend these sites into the used market? And, are these search sites built on the same technology you used for AddALL’s book searches? How are they working out for you? Music and movies are completely new territories for us. There is still a lot we need to learn. We have a backlog of things we want to, need to, and simply must do. We do not plan to enter the used market anytime soon. We borrowed a thing or two from AddALL’s book search, but we are using mostly more advanced and newer technologies that were not available when we wrote the book search program. Do you see AddALL expanding into other markets in the future? If not giving away business plans, are you currently working on any such expansions? Yes. Yes. And no further comments without giving away our business plans. You will see the expansions as they happen. You say on your site that the people involved in AddALL are book readers. Who are some of these people, and what types of book do each of you enjoy? Please see a combined answer below. We’d love to get to know each of you involved in AddALL a bit as people. Could you each tell us a bit about yourselves, i.e., backgrounds, hobbies, etc.? Sure. Following “bios” are either provided by an AddALL member him/herself, or compiled by me with their input and approval. For Hup Born in Malaysia. Went to college in Taiwan. Dual degrees in psychology and information science. Native in the Perl language. Also speaks Mandarin Chinese, Fukienese (a Chinese dialect), and a little Malay. Enjoys badminton, skiing and paintball when his feet, which he injured when practicing Tae Kwon, do not hurt. Lives in Arcadia, California. Besides being partners, Hup and Lily have been close friends for years. Favorite authors: Tagore (as far as I know.) Favorite books: ??? ……. (He gave me a blank look when I asked him this question. He’s been doing so much programming recently for our magazine comparison site (amagarea.com) that all he can recall is computer books and those are NOT his favorites.) (Hup does almost all of the complex programming behind AddALL’s simple looking web sites.) From Lily I came to Los Angeles in 1991 from Shanghai, China. Though I don’t like school and am a frequent drop-out, I’ve always loved to read. I focus so much when I read that I’d tune out completely. As a child, one afternoon when playing hide-and-seek I hid under a desk and read till my father finally found me in the evening. My cousins had given up a long time ago and the adults thought I was missing. Later I was punished for “reading without proper lighting or breaks.” Though my degrees are in Japanese Culture and business, my favorite genres are poems, essays, science, and medical books. The first time I stayed up all night to read a book, it was about quantum physics. However, recently I’ve been reading mostly business and legal titles. My favorite authors include Hugo, Dickens, Twain, Asimov, Jules Verne, Saint-Exupery, Anderson, and O Henry. I also enjoy classical Chinese and Japanese works. I like daydreaming, playing the piano, listening to classic music, taking walks, doing flower arrangements and gardening. I’m also trying to learn to whistle, swim, and ride a bicycle. I hope someday my earning power will match my ambitions in charity, and I’d have more time to read, write, and do volunteer work. (I manage non-technical issues at AddALL.) From Gail I joined AddALL in August, 2000, having known (and appreciated) Lily for several years. I have been an avid reader all my life and actually don’t mind my current bouts with insomnia, as they give me time in the middle of the night for a good, solid read. I have lived long enough to have done all sorts of things, from running an experimental multi-arts theater on St. Mark’s Place in NY (in the 60s) to running a building site that called itself a hotel on the island of Crete (in the 80s). I am a pre-school teacher by profession and for many years most of my favorite friends and acquaintances were under the age of five. I have taught English as a Foreign Language to adults in Poland, China and Egypt and can now say that many of my favorite friends and acquaintances speak English as their second or third language. In addition to my work at AddALL.com, I conduct individualized rare book searches for a local independent bookstore, where AddALL makes me look good. I have been married to Robert Westbrook for 25 years, have two wonderful sons and two grandsons who are, of course, extraordinary in every way. I read more fiction than non-fiction – my favorite author of the moment is Proust (my husband excepted, of course) and favorite poet of the moment is Billy Collins. (Gail answers each and every one of the customer service e-mails, and provides editing services to AddALL .) From Robert Robert has loved books since an early age, both as a reader and a writer. His first book, Journey Behind The Iron Curtain, was published by G.P. Putnam’s when he was seventeen years old, a journal of a high school trip to the Soviet Union. A few years later he published a novel based on his student days at Columbia College in the 1960s, The Magic Garden of Stanley Sweetheart , that was made into an MGM film starring Don Johnson. He has gone on to write 13 books, fiction and non-fiction, including Intimate Lies, a critically-acclaimed account of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s final years in Hollywood, two separate mystery series, and two novels based on screenplays, The Mexican and Insomnia. His most recent mystery, Ancient Enemy, published by Signet, was nominated for a Shamus Award. Robert lives in New Mexico with his wife Gail. He loves to travel, play jazz piano, and ski. He is also particularly fond of sushi. In the past five years, he has been teaching writing at the Taos Institute of Art and on Cape Cod. You can learn more about Robert on his website, robertwestbrook.com (Robert pens the weekly book chats for AddALL.) For Stephen Born in Shanghai, educated in Japan, he now lives in Vancouver, Canada. He is the design guy as well as the peacekeeper at AddALL. He has been Lily’s buddy and make-do shrink for years. His favorite books include: Rich Dad and Poor Dad, Dreams of the Red Chamber (a Chinese classic), and martial arts novels by Jin Yong. Recently he’s been devouring books on entrepreneurship. His dream is to have his own trade or computer company, create jobs and give something back to his adopted motherland of Canada. For hobbies, he likes Karaoke (sing-along), golfing, and making people laugh. He loves life itself and thinks every moment is a wonderful moment. (Stephen brought you the HELP guides.) For Nancy Her friendship with Lily began at age two and has deepened throughout the years. A newly wed, she lives in Shanghai and is expecting (very nervously!) her first baby (or babies, as she hopes). Her favorite things include eating gourmet food (the more cheese and calories in it the better), travel, shopping, counting money and daydreaming of making more money, and writing short stories and essays. Nancy likes reading novels and has published in newspapers. A few of her favorite books are: Gone with the Wind , The Yearling , and The Thorn Birds . Her favorite authors include Mark Twain, Yi Shu, and Aileen Chang. (Nancy brought you the Chinese version of AddALL.) Thank you so much, Lily, for allowing us to interview you! Thank you for inviting AddALL to “meet” your members and let people know us better. Now that both Hup and I have gone fulltime with AddALL, I hope we will do better at improving our existing services and bringing out new ones. #SearchEngines

URL: http://www.abaa.org (EDITOR’S NOTE: PLEASE NOTE THAT ABAA IS A MEMBERS’ ONLY DATABASE, BUT INFORMATION WILL GIVEN AT THE END OF THIS INTERVIEW ABOUT HOW TO JOIN, WHAT THE REQUIREMENTS ARE, AND SOME OF THE BENEFITS OF JOINING.) What is your purpose in starting a online book database (i.e., to help online booksellers, to get a database that does what you think a book database should do, because it’s a good business to be in, all of the above, none of the above, or ????). The Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association of America has been in existence for more than 50 years. Its purpose is to promote interest in antiquarian books for the general public, and to provide a code of ethics and standards for the antiquarian book trade. For more detail, see the Section on the ABAA at the end of this interview. The ABAA has been active in using the internet to support the interests of its members and to provide information of use to the general public, book collectors, librarians, and all members of the bookselling trade. The ABAA website provides information in a variety of areas, including links to other sites of interest to visitors, book fair information, glossary of terms, short essays on literary topics, articles by members of the ABAA, a listing of members with links to their sites, our book search database (more to follow!), member catalog announcements, and more. In addition, there is information about the ABAA itself, including our ethics guidelines, membership requirements, and information about contacting the ABAA. We also provide functions to our members only, such as listserves, which enable our members to communicate rapidly and efficiently with each other about matters of general interest to the membership, as well as specific items. Our committees also make use of these to accomplish their goals. The ABAA online database is a natural extension of the goals and purposes of the ABAA. It provides our members and our site visitors still another way to buy and sell books, and survey the books offered for sale by our members. Is this a long-term commitment on your part? Where do you see yourself and your database in 3 years? 5 years? The ABAA is firmly committed to the internet and our online book search database. We feel that the internet is a major force in the antiquarian book trade, and one that we need to continue to work with as it evolves. We see the ABAA database and website continuing to take advantage of new technology for websites. While it is not always easy to predict where technology will lead us, I think it is safe to say that the ABAA website will offer more capabilities for booksellers to present their books in interesting and innovative ways which will make shopping for books easier and more satisfying. We will also continue to enhance the website to provide more functions for visitors, enabling them to look for book related information as well as books! In addition, the ABAA is affiliated with the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers (ILAB). This organization promotes the same goals and interests as the ABAA, only on an international scale. Its member organizations cover the globe—Europe, Asia, North and South America, and Australia. Earlier this year, the IOBA newsletter featured a review of the ILAB search engine. ILAB and the ABAA share the same webmaster and database. So, when a bookseller lists with the ABAA search engine, his books are also listed on the ILAB data base. We see the international flavor and cooperation represented by our affiliation with ILAB continuing and expanding with time. What inventory programs do you/will you support? The ABAA data base supports all of the commonly used inventory programs, and can accept comma or tab delimited files as well. Inventory programs supported include BookEase Pro, BookMinder, RS BookStore, HomeBase, BookTrakker Pro, and BookMate. In addition, database programs such as Record Manager, MS Access, and File-Maker are supported. Both Windows and Mac files are supported. Members having special requirements for uploading files can often be accommodated. What are your upload procedures? Deletion procedures? Are “wants” listings available? For sale matches? Are any additions/changes planned? The ABAA database accepts six import file types: tilde-delimited, tab-delimited, “Comma Separated Value” (CSV), UIEE, ABE and Alibris PRV files. When a bookseller first uploads, an example file is sent to the Support Desk so they can create the settings for that bookseller. Then the bookseller can upload their files to the website using the “total update”, “additions and changes”, or “deletions” functions provided in the members section of the website. An FTP account is also possible. These uploads are added to the database within 24 hours (usually much faster). Individual listings can also be altered on line. There is a wants service in place and we will soon be implementing the possibility of uploading wants files. Other enhancements are under review, and will be included whenever it is appropriate. We invite suggestions from member booksellers as well as our site visitors. What customer service (for both sellers and buyers) do you/will you have? There is ready access to assistance via the website. Buyers may review information about our members, email questions, and even send messages to our webmaster or to the ABAA headquarters itself. Visitors may send inquiries to a bookseller regarding a book of interest. A shopping cart facility is provided. When a book is not found in our database, the visitor has the option of linking to OCLC to find a copy for reference at a local or nearby library. Our members have access to a members-only section of the site where there is online help information as well as an easy way to send queries to our webmaster. In addition, members may use our listserves to ask the membership for advice on any difficulties. We are working on enhancements to the site, and will be providing FAQs for members. Members may include images with their listings. Members also have the option of incorporating code on their website that will invoke the ABAA search engine and present the results on the members website. Very soon we will be offering members the possibility of having their own homepage which will include the Personal Search Page feature. This will ensure that members will have their own URL, http://www.ilab-lila.com/membersname.htm and their own email address, membersname@ilab-lila.com. Another service is our “highlights” feature. For a small fee dealers will be able to add their books to a “highlights” gallery putting them, as it were, in the shop window. Will you/do you have any quality (i.e., descriptions, shipping, and/or customer service) standards for your listers? If so, what will be/are the consequences of violating those standards? All of our members pledge to adhere to the ethics guidelines of the ABAA and are expected to describe their books and procedures in a professional, consistent manner. Complaints about members are reviewed by the ABAA Ethics Committee, which works with the involved parties to arrive at a solution. Noncompliance with the guidelines may be cause for removal from membership in the ABAA. What are your technical arrangements (in non-technical language, please) to ensure reliability of service? Future growth? Additional services? Our webmaster has a professional staff of over a dozen programmers, all of whom are highly trained in the software packages used to support the site. In addition, he specializes in website design and support for bookshops and booksellers’ organizations such as the ABAA and ILAB. The owner of the company was himself a bookseller for many years. As a result, they are highly responsive to the needs of the bookselling community. From a hardware standpoint, the functions are split across a number of systems, with considerable redundancy built in to provide the best possible availability and security. Industrial-strength software for security is in place. Further, one individual is assigned to the ABAA site to monitor performance, availability, and security, and make the appropriate changes. Will you/do you have the capability of taking credit card info for orders? If so, what can you tell us about the safety procedures you have or will have in place to ensure the security of such info? We offer a secure order form that uses the Verisign technology. The credit card details are sent to the bookseller in two separate emails. Credit card details are not saved on the server. And, of course, customers are always free to contact the bookseller directly. Do you ever plan to process credit card orders through your database (rather than simply passing on the info to the lister) and, if so, will the lister or buyer bear the processing cost, and how long will it take to get payment to the lister? We are considering this. Do you have any plans for programs associated with your database which would involve anything other than direct contact between seller and buyer? No. The ABAA believes that direct contact between the customer and the seller is one of our strengths. Do you have or do you plan to have an “all word search” capability? We have it. What search capabilities does your database have now? What is planned for the future? One can browse a bookseller’s books or catalogues. One may search by: author, title, description, any word/keyword, minimum price, maximum price, when added, publishing date, books of all ILAB members or of a national association (when on the ILAB site), first editions, signed, dust wrappers, hardcover, paperback, type (books, maps and prints, autographs) and we have a special character keyboard in place, which allows for accurate searching using characters unique to a given language. On what will you base your listing fees? What fees do you have now or plan to have? All members have directory listings on the web site. In addition, they may have links to their own sites. They can have new catalogues announced on the website. The directory listings are searchable by name, specialty, and location. Use of the database is optional. The one time fee for setting up the database is $95. The monthly charges for listing books are determined by the number of books listed: Up to 10,000 books $35.00 For each 5,000 books above this (or fraction of 5,000) $5.00 The monthly fee for having the search engine invoked on a bookseller’s own website is $10.00 Do you plan to have or now have your database searched by Addall or Bookfinder or any other mega-search site? Our database is searched by both Addall and Bookfinder. As we learn of new mega-search sites, we evaluate them. Because we are listed as part of the ILAB data base as well as the ABAA data base, we will also be searched by any mega-search site based in Europe or any other part of the globe which searches the ILAB database. How do you plan to advertise your database (both to draw listers and buyers)? Listing books in the ABAA database is a privilege of membership in the ABAA. For buyers, we regularly run adds in major book-related publications, such as Firsts, the New York Times, the FABS (Fellowship of American Bibliophilic Societies) bulletin, the Antiquarian Book Review. In addition, the promotional materials for our annual book fairs (held in New York, Boston, and San Francisco/Los Angeles) also display information about our web site. We publish an annual Members Directory that describes the site, and several of our regional chapters do so as well. What background or experience do you or other people involved with your database have that relates to the online book or online book database business? This can be evaluated on at least two different levels. First, the Internet Committee of the ABAA oversees all internet related activities. Members of this committee all have extensive experience with the internet and using the internet in bookselling. Many have sophisticated websites themselves. Further, many of the officers and directors of the ABAA have extensive internet experience, a number of them being pioneers in using the internet for bookselling. Secondly, our technical staff at our website has previously been described. These are web development professionals in all aspects of web design and maintenance who also deal exclusively with booksellers and booksellers’ organizations. Do you or are you planning to have professional management, bookseller management, or???? We do. See above. What markets (geographical and/or demographic) are you aiming at? The ABAA is based in the United States, and all of its members are booksellers doing business in the U.S. However, our books are also listed on the ILAB database, which draws an international customer base. What services/features does your database have that you feel sets you apart and/or will ensure the success of your database? The ABAA database is managed by the oldest nation-wide American booksellers’ organization, which has a national reputation and stringent ethics standards. The ABAA has about 500 members, including many of the best known and established booksellers in the United States. The ABAA website is an integral part of the ABAA, and will continue to be supported and enhanced. We have a continuing international presence through our relationship with ILAB. Please tell us anything you’d like about yourself and/or your database, or about ABAA, and thank you for participating. I am presently a member of the Board of Governors of the ABAA, chairman of the Internet Committee of the ABAA, and the owner of Four Rivers Books, Ltd., which specializes in fine press books, Limited Editions Club, artists’ books, and books on books. I also write articles on my specialties, and am writing a history of the Limited Editions Club. About the ABAA: This information is extracted from the ABAA website at http://www.abaa.org. Please visit the site for more information. Membership in the ABAA cannot be obtained simply by paying a fee or signing an agreement. Before being considered for membership, booksellers must prove that they are established, knowledgeable, and of excellent reputation. Prospective members must be sponsored by current members, and undergo a rigorous screening process. The average ABAA member has been in the antiquarian book business more than twenty years. Many of our members helped build some of the greatest public and private libraries in the world, and many are recognized experts in their fields, with numerous publications to their credit. ABAA members have always been known for their active roles in the book world, and for setting high standards in bibliography and business practices. For more than fifty years, countless librarians, researchers, and novice and seasoned collectors alike, have found that they can do business in confidence with members of the ABAA. Code of Ethics As the oldest association of professional antiquarian booksellers in America, our members take their Code of Ethics seriously. It is the cornerstone document that makes us who we are: dedicated professionals with established reputations based upon integrity and reliability. It is essential for the reputation of the Association that complaints or disputes involving Association members be resolved in a manner befitting the objectives of the Association. Claims against Association members, or disputes among members, should be made in writing to the Chairperson of the Ethics Committee, at: Chairperson, Ethics Committee c/o ABAA 20 West 44th Street New York, NY 10036-6604 Mission Statement The mission of the ABAA is to promote ethical standards and professionalism in the antiquarian book trade, to encourage the collecting and preservation of antiquarian books and related materials, to support educational programs and research into the study of antiquarian books, and to facilitate collegial relations between booksellers, librarians, scholars, and collectors. More specifically, the objectives of the ABAA are: 1.To encourage and promote interest in and appreciation of fine and antiquarian books and other printed materials, and manuscripts; 2.To establish, maintain and promote professional and ethical standards in the trade; 3.To foster friendly relations among both the membership, and the bookselling community at large; 4.To encourage the advancement of the technical and general knowledge specific to the trade; 5.To sponsor book fairs and otherwise promote bookselling and book collecting for the benefit of the trade; 6.To collect funds to be used for the general purposes of the Association; 7.To act as an association in matters where individual action would be less likely to succeed; 8.To cooperate with similar organizations for the above purposes, in this country and abroad. One very special activity of the ABAA is the maintenance of the Benevolent Fund and distribution of funds to booksellers in need. This fund is intended to assist booksellers, not necessarily members, who are experiencing extreme difficulties, such as illness or accident, financial loss due to fire or other disaster, etc. Applying for membership If you would like to apply for membership in the ABAA, please write the ABAA at: ABAA 20 West 44th Street New York, NY 10036-6604 You may also email abaa@panix.com. #abaa #databases #organization #tradegroup

URL: http://www.bibliophile.net What is [was] your purpose in starting a online book database (i.e., to help online booksellers, to get a database that does what you think a book database should do, because it’s a good business to be in, all of the above, none of the above, or ????). In 1998, when I was first thinking about bibliophile.net as an interesting database project, as far as I knew there were no multi-lingual book databases on-line. I felt there was a need for one and the first incarnation of the multi-lingual site went live in November, 1999. Is this a long-term commitment on your part? Where do you see yourself and your database in 3 years? 5 years? It is a long-term commitment. We now have over 600 dealers and 3.2 million books listed. I foresee bibliophile.net remaining the centerpiece of the bibliophilic services that we will be offering in the next few years. What lister book database inventory programs do you/will you support? We support any consistent data format. We no longer accept word processor documents. What are your upload procedures? Deletion procedures? Are “wants” listings available? For sale matches? Are any additions/changes planned? We encourage our dealers to use our file browse and upload page, but many dealers prefer to FTP directly into the upload server, especially if they are using a book management software that has this facility. BooksellerPro, Booktrakker and Bookhound are three such software programs. We also accept files from the upload service, Bookrouter. Delete files can be sent by the same procedure – the upload page for flagged data such as UIEE is simpler than the page for unflagged data which offers add and delete options. Wants listings are available for both dealers and buyers, and dealers can upload wants files. Listings and wants are compared every 24 hours and users are informed of a match by email. Of course, all of these upload and deletion operations can be carried out at the individual book level from the dealer’s admin page. For sale matches are not offered. What customer service (for both sellers and buyers) do you/will you have? We prefer email enquiries that we respond to within minutes to a few hours, at most. However, we also field phone calls in several languages. Will you/do you have any quality (i.e., descriptions, shipping, and/or customer service) standards for your listers? If so, what will be/are the consequences of violating those standards? We leave this to the dealers and are happy as long as they’re not misleading anyone. However, we don’t relist books that have prices marked-up by intermediaries. We list dealers’ stock at the list price of the dealer. That boast is prominent in our marketing. What are your technical arrangements (in non-technical language, please) to ensure reliability of service? Future growth? Additional services? My company, ammonet, which owns bibliophile.net, is a server collocation and hosting firm, among other things, so we operate our own servers and have no growth limitations in that respect. All of our databases run on server pairs, which minimizes downtime. Indexing and uploads are carried out on a server separate from the one that serves data to the book buyers. Will you/do you have the capability of taking credit card info for orders? If so, what can you tell us about the safety procedures you have or will have in place to ensure the security of such info? As mentioned above, we do take card data on behalf of our dealers. We don’t process the cards; the dealers do that themselves if and when they’re ready to do so. Our programmers are highly knowledgeable in the security field. Data are encrypted while in transit both to and from our secure server, and they remain encrypted on the server, which is itself secured. We upload patches immediately whenever potential security holes are reported, and we periodically attempt to crack our own server. Even with the benefit of inside knowledge of the configuration, we’ve never succeeded in breaking into our secure system. And, needless to say, we encourage our dealers to delete card data from their databases when they’ve processed it. Do you ever plan to process credit card orders through your database (rather than simply passing on the info to the lister) and, if so, will the lister or buyer bear the processing cost, and how long will it take to get payment to the lister? No. Although we’re based in Switzerland, we have no plans to enter the banking sector. I believe the model whereby an intermediary, in addition to the card companies, processes card data is fundamentally flawed. It’s not secure and it’s too expensive for whoever ends up paying for the processing. In an international context, the effects of currency fluctuations are an additional burden, and the problems of returns, chargebacks, fraud, typos, etc., simply make this model untenable. Do you have any plans for programs associated with your database that would involve anything other than direct contact between seller and buyer? No. We believe in letting the dealer and buyer work things out to their mutual satisfaction. We intervene only if a buyer or a dealer feels badly done by. Do you have or do you plan to have an “all word search” capability? This is still difficult to reconcile with display speed when we list three million plus books. However, we have developed our own indexing methodologies that allow huge indexes of this kind to be regenerated in less than 24 hours (which is our index update cycle), so we might do this. We did program exactly this for the smaller database of Bibliopoly. What search capabilities does your database have now? What is planned for the future? On the main search page, we have most of the usual search capabilities – author, title, publisher, etc., and we attempt to allow searches by book language. It’s also possible to search our list of dealers by name or country and consult their stock from their on-the-fly home page – by catalogue or normal search. However, searches depend on the data provided by the dealers, and in many cases the field structure precludes really good searches. I think as database managers, we more or less have to follow the development and acceptance by the dealers of good book management programs. However, we hope to encourage better data formatting with our assisted cataloging system, about which more below. In the near future, we want to introduce display ranking, so that search returns can be ranked by price and so on. We already allow filtering by upload date. On what will you base your listing fees? What fees do you have now or plan to have? At present, listing on our main site is free. We plan to charge on a per order basis for sales generated by AddAll and Bookfinder, basically to cover the costs. Listing on those services will be opt-in and it will be possible to set a lower book price limit for AddAll/Bookfinder listings. Do you plan to have or now have your database searched by Addall or Bookfinder or any other meta-search site? We list on AddAll now and Bookfinder will be next. How do you plan to advertise your database (both to draw listers and buyers)? Good question! Marketing is our main expense and we are constantly testing new possibilities. Google AdWords was productive but became increasingly expensive with their new system. We do print campaigns when special opportunities offer themselves. I suspect that the smaller listing services will have to band together increasingly for marketing purposes. What background or experience do you or other people involved with your database have that relates to the online book or online book database business? Well, I was a research scientist until recently, so I’m able to boast twenty years of database management experience, but I guess forty years of book collecting counts the most. Do you or are you planning to have professional management, bookseller management, or???? We offer several services to our dealers and the number will increase. Currently, any dealer listing on our database can have a custom search interface for the dealer’s own web site. It’s not mandatory to show any kind of link to bibliophile.net, so the search and shopping basket are individual to the dealer. We also offer a secure credit card data transfer system. This is a browser-based system for dealers who already process cards but need a secure way to collect card data from their customers. It works in conjunction with our shopping cart but can be used entirely independently at the same time. We are programming a java-based, cross-platform book management software for another company which will market it as soon as development is complete. What markets (geographical and/or demographic) are you aiming at? With the multiple languages, we aim to bring in book buyers who are perhaps not completely happy buying online using an interface in a language they don’t understand very well. However, our aim is to cover as much of the book-buying population as has access to the internet. What services/features does your database have that you feel sets you apart and/or will ensure the success of your database? Well, our biggest bibliophilic project at present is an assisted cataloguing database which looks like being one of the most comprehensive databases of book records available online in one place. It far exceeds the content of the ISBN-based databases for the obvious reason that ISBNs go back only thirty years or so, while we have records back to the 16th Century. It allows users to search with extreme rapidity on the basis of one or two strings from the author, title, publisher, date and ISBN fields, to save and edit records, and to download them in the format of their choice to their own PCs and/or to the listing services of their choice. I guess the speed of the search was the biggest technological breakthrough in this project. We can search an author name in a database of around 12 million records in a few milliseconds. Our aim is to bring large numbers of hitherto uncatalogued books onto the market by greatly diminishing the labour of data entry, and of course we hope that a certain number of these books will be sold via bibliophile.net. A side effect, but an important one, will be more comprehensive book records which will suit the kind of search mechanism that bibliophile.net uses. #databases

URL: http://www.searchbiblio.com The short of SearchBiblio.com is that it was established in October, 2000 under the name of biblio.com. In October of 2001, the site was moved from biblio.com to SearchBiblio.com, in order to free up the biblio.com address for other plans we have underway. The essential idea was that we could provide a fast and clean alternative to the major engines (our average search weighs in at under 10 seconds). SearchBiblio.com is a service which is run by biblio.com, Inc, of which I am presently president, programmer and janitor. Essentially it is a “one-man” operation, except for those rare times when I may need to bring in an independent contractor to pitch in. The number of sites we search, and the list have been subjected to some change, but at last count, we are searching 13 sites (Half.com, abebooks.com, Alibris, Powells.com, Amazon.com, ElephantBooks, Books-A-Million, BookCloseOuts.com, Bookavenue.com, Antiqbook, ILAB-LILA, Barnes & Noble.com, and Library Book Sales). Currently, our traffic is modest, with about 13,000 visitors a month (a number which I’d like to see grow, naturally). I personally have a background in English literature (almost anything written from 17th century to present, I am currently on a magical-realism kick with some Garcia Marquez and Fred Chappell, with some 13th century Mediterranean history on the side. I had several years as a bookseller (online and brick-and-mortar), and several years as a database and technology consultant for libraries, newspapers, museums, and universities, as well as other businesses. Currently, I work for Gannett Co., Inc., as the online production manager of its Asheville, NC paper (the Asheville Citizen-Times), and live in nearby Waynesville. I am married (Tracy Paige) with two daughters, aged one (Katherine) and three (Sophia). Attached is one of the few photos approved by my wife – of Tracy, Sophia, and myself (c. 2000). #SearchEngines

URL: http://www.wantedbooks.com/ When A. R. (Randy) Backer and James Bryant (Backer-Bryant Academic Library Services) approached web developer, Patty Johnson, about their idea for a new web site in early 2002, they knew they had a new concept for online book databases. They imagined a site where book buyers could post their wanted books “out loud,” for the world to fill. They felt buyers would come to a site where they could advertise for the books they wanted and, while there, would search the books offered. The only thing missing, Backer and Bryant thought, was a database of books for sale to complement their want system. Soon after, they entered into partnership with Johnson, merging 1.5 Million book listings from over 150 booksellers (from the previous bookquarters.com) and wantedbooks.com was born. A. R. (Randy) Backer owns and operates a bricks and mortar bookshop at 7 West Street, Warwick, New York. He has also been selling books online for the past seven years and, during that time, partnered with Bryant to form Backer-Bryant Academic Library Services, purchasing out-of-print books and providing other services for university and college libraries. James Bryant is proprietor of Carpe Diem Fine Books, Monterey, California. Bryant, a member of the Anitiquarian Booksellers Association of America (ABAA), has been an online bookseller since 1995 and partner in Backer-Bryant Academic Library Services since 1999. Patty Johnson is the operations manager, web-developer and database programmer for wantedbooks.com. In business with her husband, Walter (http://www.dreedle.com), she has extensive experience in database management and development as well as website development for online bookselling. On wantedbooks.com, book buyers are able to search the inventories of hundreds of dealers and can publicly post the titles they seek. Anyone – anywhere – may send a quote to fill the need. Buyers and sellers include individuals, collectors, libraries, and dealers. Sellers are starting to fill the wants that are posted and this provides a positive experience for the buyers. Since launching the new wantedbooks.com in early September, 2002, the site has experienced a significant increase in activity; web sessions are up over 20%. In addition to the want system, the site is working on adding features and functionality. “The single most exciting feature I’m working on,” Patty says, “is category browsing. I feel it’s important to offer buyers a selection of titles, rather than forcing them to search for titles by author and subject only. I’m also developing an advanced search function to improve the searchability of the site.” For example, the new category browsing system, now under development, provides browseable subcategories. wantedbooks.com recently ran targeted email and advertising campaigns for the American West and Genealogy subcategories. Each campaign resulted in sales. Having said that, however, sales are not yet where they sustain all of the sellers’ monthly fees; some sellers do better than others. Patty, Randy, and James believe that through the combined effects of promoting the want system and targeted advertising, sales will continue to grow. To reinforce this belief, they state that all revenues in excess of operational expenses will go towards advertising and promotion. They will take no salaries or draws for the foreseeable future. wantedbooks.com sellers are getting involved as well. Sellers contribute content such as a “Mysteries & More” section that contains book reviews, author information, and collecting tips. This section of the site is edited by Ken Fermoyle, writer, editor, journalist and bookseller. It includes Ken’s feature on Tony Hillerman, along with a review of Hillerman’s latest work. Also included are Chris Adam Smith’s interviews with authors Zoe Sharp and Simon Scarrow. Chris Adam Smith is a British book collector, bookseller and author. All sellers on the site are welcome to contribute. On internal seller pages, the site provides content such as Carlos Martinez’s insightful article on some of the issues affecting booksellers today. Carlos is a writer and bookseller, and a member of the Midwest Bookhunters. Regarding the backbone of the site, Patty says: “We chose to outsource our web hosting requirements to MaximumASP.com. They have wonderful technical support. The site reliably operates with 99.9% uptime. No other hosting company offers the same level of reliability and technical expertise.” The site operates on a Windows 2000 server, utilizing Microsoft SQL Server for its database and Active Server Pages technology. Hardware consists of Dual-processor 1.26GHz Dell 1650, 2GB RAM, (3) 73GB 10K SCSI drives, Hardware RAID 5 drive array, Dual load-balanced gigabit NICs, Dual redundant power supplies, Windows 2000 Server SP2. Depending on network traffic and nationwide bottleneck status, their web server traffic is routed down one or more of four DS3 circuits – capable of up to 180Mbps total throughput. These circuits are provided by MCI/UUnet, Sprint, and AT&T. Their data center uses only Cisco routing and switching equipment. Every server is fed into dual Catalyst 2900 high speed switches that channel all server traffic into two Cisco 12000 series routers, using BGP4 routing protocol for complete redundancy. If one router should have an equipment failure, the other one picks up the traffic. This lowers the possibility of network downtime due to an equipment failure. “The last few years have been a tumultuous time for the on-line book world,” according to Bryant. “We’ve seen many sites come and go. Will wantedbooks.com still be here in five years? I can’t answer that question. But, we are committed to making a full effort to make it happen. Obviously, the economics have to make sense for any business to continue. But we are seeing signs of growth, and are basing our business model on building on that growth. Of course, we need booksellers to list with us to make it happen. While we are currently a flat-fee site, if the market dictates, we would go to a commission based model, or make any other changes that make good business sense for us and our sellers.” Randy looks at it a bit differently. “I want to be Excellence First, Success Second driven–not primarily bottom line oriented. Our primary business priorities are Service, Service and Service. We are aiming at anyone who enjoys the world of books (buyers, sellers, collectors, readers)…. wantedbooks.com, is for people who care about books. #databases

URL: http://www.bibliodirect.com Nothing much to report, really; no hype, no adjectives, just a consistent steady growth. At present we have two million books listed on BiblioDirect, from 350 dealers in the United States, Canada, England, Ireland, Israel, South Africa, New Zealand and Australia. BiblioDirect President Lynn DeWeese-Parkinson represented us at the Seattle Book Fair and the Oregon Book Fair, and we have advertisements in the programs of other book fairs around the country. We advertise in various online and print media, and we are nearing completion of our second month of being searched by Bookfinder. The results are exhilarating. Most importantly, we continue to make almost daily improvements to our site as we listen to our dealers and customers and their suggestions. #databases

By: Lisa & Leon Martin Global Book Mart, http://www.gbmbooks.com, is pleased to announce the re-launching of our database. GBM is now accepting dealers to upload inventory. We are not charging listing fees at this time. There is a one-time set-up fee of $20.00. Additional premium services will be added in the next months. While these additions are being implemented to our services, no listing fees will be charged. Details are available at the website. Global Book Mart http://www.gbmbooks.com The Innovative, Independent Book Database Has Returned! #databases

Table of Contents Editor’s Notes the Interview: J. R. McWillians – ABooksearch.com Popshops Offers Merchants a New Deal The Interview: Andy Gutterman – MyOwnBookshop.com ChooseBooks.com Update Rhett Moran – BookAvenue Announcements Author Book Review: Debra L. Winegarten Author Book Review: Kevin Paglia Author Book Review: Jai Sen IOBA Q & A Column Frustrating Image Processing Roundtable Commonly Used Bookseller Abbreviations Book Fair Toolbox How an English Orphan Girl Became a Viscountess and Went to California Ephemeral Assays – The Word Internet Resources for Bibliographic Research: OCLC A Book and an Obsession – the Goldstone’s Out of the Flames The Dickens Reference Shelf. An Annotated List. 2002 Rocky Mountain Antiquarian Book Fair 2002 Colorado Book Seminar Michael Guessford – Oak Knoll Press Jack Allen, author of “Change of Heart”, “An Innocent Among them” Gary Kurtz, author of “Cold Noses at the Pearly Gate” Self-Interview: Sean O’Donoghue, U.K. Bookseller Adam Niswander, Author and Bookseller Ken Fermoyle, Author and Bookseller Marjorie Helms, author of “Not In Front of the Children” Anirvan Chatterjee and Charlie Hsu, BookFinder.com Elephant Skin Tom Sawyer, Creator of Record Manager, BookMaster, BookMate and now BookWriter

Dear Readers, I’m going to discontinue just relisting what is in any particular issue of the newsletter—you have the Index for that. Instead, I’ll touch on themes and what I find exciting in the current issue. We’ve got a lot in this issue about authors and their works. Some first-time authors and some who’ve been around a while. A common theme for them all, though, is promoting their own work, the pitfalls and virtues of self-publishing vs. traditional publishers, and the good, the bad and the ugly news about editors, agents, and publishers. We’re also starting a series about reference books/research materials in this issue, which will be a continuing project for IOBA. This series will include everything book-related we can find, and will have lists and articles written by book people about their specialties and areas of expertise (with some catalog pages in later issues, as illustrations), plus links to excellent book-related sites. After the lists and articles have appeared in the newsletter, they will be archived on the IOBA site in an educational area, as part of an ongoing project for helping to educate newer booksellers and continuing education for those of us who have been around a while. They’ll also serve as a reference area for book buyers and collectors (and, of course, we hope many knowledgeable collectors will contribute to this project). This time we’ve also covered subjects as diverse as Biblical sci-fi and views on pet afterlife to First Amendment rights and what is pornography as opposed to art. And, of course, coverage of current book world events such as book fairs and an upcoming Book Fest, our first coverage of a graphic novel, and various interviews and informational pieces on book-related people/matters. The interviews in this issue pretty much finish up our series on online book databases, whether new or established, for this year (though we’ll always cover any new developments). And last, but certainly not least, we have brought you news from a legendary but very private book world figure about a revolutionary upgrade in the UIEE standard, including a new software program that is the first to utilize this upgrade. Something for every interest, we hope. Enjoy! Shirley Bryant aaabooks@azalea.net

From: J. R. McWilliams Database URL: http://www.abooksearch.com What is your purpose in starting a online book database (i.e., to help online booksellers, to get a database that does what you think a book database should do, because it’s a good business to be in, all of the above, none of the above, or ????). ABooksearch.com was launched as a fee-based book listing service on the Fourth of July, 2002, after a long period of development and a month-long beta test. So we are still in our incunabula period. ABooksearch.com was a response to the desires of many booksellers, ourselves included, to have a book listing site that promoted direct sales between bookseller and customer as its primary purpose. There is no percentage mark-up charged by ABooksearch.com, no discount from the bookseller’s asking price demanded. ABooksearch.com is not a reseller. ABooksearch.com does not interfere in any way in the direct contact and transaction between buyer and seller. We only act as a conduit, bringing customers to the site and thus to the dealer. To that end, we have kept our site purposefully lean and clean, without a lot of bells and whistles to detract from the main business of the site, that is: the selling of books. Is this a long-term commitment on your part? Where do you see yourself and your database in 3 years? 5 years? ABooksearch.com’s intent is to be among the top half dozen book listing sites within three years. Since that would include megasites like ABE and Amazon, we will need to have our bookseller membership base grow exponentially as well as our site traffic. What lister book database inventory programs do you/will you support? Presently, we accept uploads from Homebase1, Homebase2, Booktrakker, Booklist, Bookit, Bookminder and all tab-delimited files (such as Bookhound and Filemaker). If a bookseller has a format that we presently do not support, she/he can send us a sample upload file and we will look at supporting it. What are your upload procedures? Deletion procedures? Are “wants” listings available? For sale matches? Are any additions/changes planned? ABooksearch.com has a web-based file upload feature on the Bookseller Main Page available on log in. Our site recognizes the ‘for sale’ and ‘sold’ fields of such programs as Booktrakker, Booklist (UIEE) and Homebase, Bookit listing codes. Such deletions, adding of new listings and updating of old listings can thus take place automatically within the same upload. Alternately, deletes can be done via the search/browse feature on the Bookseller Main Page. A bookseller can search for and find a specific book and edit or delete that listing. There is also a Purge feature for those who wish to purge their entire listings and reload. There is also a global Price Adjustment feature whereby the bookseller can adjust all the prices on his/her books up or down by a fixed amount or a percentage. Additional features include the ability to modify account information and terms of sale, contact information and password. In the future we will add the ability to upload files via FTP and we will add to the upload formats we support as needed. We will add a bookseller wants feature as well as a want list for the customer side. We will have a listing of member stores searchable for specialty, region, etc. as well. What customer service (for both sellers and buyers) do you/will you have? Booksellers can always reach ABooksearch.com via phone or email and expect a quick, personable response. If there are any questions or suggestions about our site, we stand ready to answer or incorporate them. Many of the features we have added and ‘tweaking’ that has been done to the site were at the behest of member booksellers. Since it is the intention of ABooksearch.com to step out of the way of direct seller to customer interaction, the direction of our buyer side customer service is in providing the simplest, cleanest, most straightforward and intuitive path directly to the bookseller. Will you/do you have any quality (i.e., descriptions, shipping, and/or customer service) standards for your listers? If so, what will be/are the consequences of violating those standards? All Abooksearch.com member booksellers must abide by the Terms & Conditions and the Bookseller Agreement they agree to when they sign up. These include covenants to conduct their sales in a prompt, dignified, professional, courteous manner; to stand by their Terms of Sale including their refund policy; to remove their ‘solds’ in a timely fashion. Book descriptions cannot include any defamatory remarks about/allusions to any person, race, sex, religion, country, business or creed. No pornographic descriptions are allowed, no matter the content of the book. ABooksearch.com reserves the right to ask the bookseller to remove or alter offensive listings or to have them altered. Removal of listings or of the Bookseller’s membership is a possibility, albeit a drastic step. However, repeat violations will not be looked upon kindly or tolerated. What are your technical arrangements (in non-technical language, please) to ensure reliability of service? Future growth? Additional services? Our ISP’s servers sit atop one the main Internet backbone feeds in San Jose (Silicon Valley), and there are back-up feeds if needed. It became evident during beta testing that we needed faster and larger capacity servers, and recently transitioned over to them. The servers are modular and can easily be added to as the need arises for additional RAM, etc. We are contemplating offering booksellers the ability to host their homepage on our site. If we feel this is desirable after consultation with our member booksellers, we will offer it at some point. Will you/do you have the capability of taking credit card info for orders? If so, what can you tell us about the safety procedures you have or will have in place to ensure the security of such info? ABooksearch.com has no plans to have a credit card payment system offered through its site. ABooksearch.com as a listing service is dedicated to direct sales between customer and bookseller. Any credit card transactions are the bailiwick of the bookseller, Do you ever plan to process credit card orders through your database (rather than simply passing on the info to the lister) and, if so, will the lister or buyer bear the processing cost, and how long will it take to get payment to the lister? Please see answer above. Do you have any plans for programs associated with your database which would involve anything other than direct contact between seller and buyer? ABooksearch.com has no plans for reseller programs or the like. Do you have or do you plan to have an “all word search” capability? What is planned for the future? We are planning a full Boolean search. The customer who chooses the advanced search option will have the ability to make his/her own Boolean strings or choose options similar to those on Google advanced search. What search capabilities does your database have now? A customer can search by Author, Title, Keywords, Sort Order (price ascending, price descending), First Edition, Signed, Number of Returns Displayed, or any combination of these. Our Keywords search all fields except for Author and Price. So if you are looking for a specific publisher, year or binding, enter it in the Keywords field. A bookseller can, on the Bookseller Main Page, search his/her own listings by Title or Author, or browse through the listings. We will add the ability to search by book number in the future. On what will you base your listing fees? What fees do you have now or plan to have? ABooksearch.com has special introductory Rates for those who sign up for six month or a year in advance. Sign up for six months and get one month free (six months for the cost of five). Sign up for one year and get three months free (twelve months for the price of nine). Our Rates are very competitive: UP TO 20,000 LISTINGS…………. $20 PER MONTH 20,001 TO 50,000 LISTINGS……..$28 PER MONTH 51,001 TO 75,000 LISTINGS……..$36 PER MONTH 75,001 TO 100,000 LISTINGS…….$40 PER MONTH 100,001 TO 130,000 LISTINGS…..$50 PER MONTH OVER 130,000, PLEASE CALL. Aboksearch.com will not change the basic rates for the foreseeable future, although the introductory rates may change over time. If we ever change our rate structure, members will be notified well in advance, and comments will be solicited. The first fifty or a hundred booksellers who sign-up may always have a better rate if any such changes do occur, as a gesture of our gratitude to those who, in our early days, helped us grow. Do you plan to have or now have your database searched by Addall or Bookfinder or any other mega-search site? One of ABooksearch.com’s top priorities is to have our listings searched by the mega search engines as Addall, SearchBiblio, and Bookfinder. Since there are a good number of book listing services on-line, the mega search engines now generally set a threshold of the number of listings and member booksellers a site must have before consideration of inclusion in their search queues. This is understandable from a financial standpoint, since most of these sites charge a fee or per click-through, and they want some assurance of the listing service’s viability. When ABooksearch.com reaches that threshold, you will see our listings on such sites. How do you plan to advertise your database (both to draw listers and buyers)? It is rather difficult to discuss the specifics of our marketing strategy without giving away our game plan to the competition. Suffice it to say that on-line placements and links will be a major part of our advertising budget, as will targeted print and other media. We also have plans for promotions that will bring a good bit of publicity to our site. Abooksearch.com’s intent is to designate a portion of each bookseller’s fee for advertising. In this way, booksellers will know how their fees are utilized. As the number of member sellers grows, this proportional fund will grow as well. Do you or are you planning to have professional management, bookseller management, or???? ABooksearch.com is owned by professional booksellers with many years experience in bookselling in a brick and mortar store, at book fairs, and on-line. In addition, our principal owner, J. R. McWilliams has management experience, not just in his own bookstore, but also previously as a Museum Director, as an Art Director in Hollywood, and as an owner/operator of an art gallery. What markets (geographical and/or demographic) are you aiming at? We aim for all. Certain language barriers come into play, and we are, at the present time, primarily an English-language site, although we have listings in many languages from many dealers overseas. At some time we wish to have a multi-language site, so that we can reach an even larger book-buying public. What services/features does your database have that you feel sets you apart and/or will ensure the success of your database? Please tell us anything you’d like about yourself and/or your database, and thank you for participating. We are, as stated above, strictly a fee-based service. We do not add a mark-up, or take a percentage of the bookseller’s sale. All sales are directly between the seller and the buyer. Ours is a very straightforward, no-nonsense site dedicated to bringing customers directly to the bookseller. We at ABooksearch.com see ourselves as serving an ever-growing on-line community of old, rare and out-of-print booksellers and collectors. As booksellers ourselves, we feel a kinship with and obligation to that community to supply a direct, unfettered, efficient link between buyer and seller.

The latest version of Popula’s combination auction and fixed-price marketplace boasts great price, simple user interface and irreverent atmosphere. LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – August 1, 2002 Popula Company, Inc. has announced its release of PopShops, the fixed-price annex to its flagship auction product. Merchants on the new and improved Popula will enjoy the ability to reach a wide variety of collectors of rare goods, including rare and out-of-print books and ephemera, and vintage dcor and apparel, selling either at auction or at the fixed-price PopShops. In addition, the automatic PopShops Faade Generator is available to PopShops merchants in order to create a personalized presence on the site, where they may add their own logos and photos, and promote their own websites and other selling venues. Popula auctions are free of listing fees for merchants who list over 100 auctions in a calendar month, and a PopShops account costs $10/month or $100/year, plus 10% commissions on successful sales. “The response has been fantastic so far,” says Maria Bustillos, the company’s co-founder and CEO. “This is really a leap forward for us and for our merchants. Our traffic numbers are just clicking up every single week, and we’re just sky-high. The response proves that we’re right about going back to the ‘old-fashioned’ way of doing business online, where buyers and sellers can connect with a minimum of interference from the site’s operator.” Popula is presently accepting uploads from most database formats for conversion into PopShops. The company’s proprietary Populator system, a free, Access-based product, is also available on the site. “We have a first-rate tech team,” says Oliver Corlett, the company’s President. “In the next few months we’ll be adding a number of useful tools to Popula’s arsenal. These will make our merchants’ businesses still easier to operateand to expand.” The company recently signed an agreement with BookFinder.com, which will be searching the PopShops book inventory, and is in negotiations with several other strategic partners. “We support independent merchants,” says Bustillos, “and are committed to finding partners who approach doing business on the Internet the same way we do. We are building the future of Internet marketplaces.” About Popula Popula is an Internet marketplace for buyers and sellers of rare and collectible goods. The company was founded in 1998. CONTACT: Maria Bustillos, 213.445-7691 maria@popula.com