How I Spent My Summer Vacation: Teaching at the Colorado Antiquarian Book Seminar

How do I even begin to describe what it was like to be on the faculty of the Colorado Antiquarian Book Seminar—the booksellers’ boot camp—for the first time?

Exhilarating, exhausting, exciting—and one of the best weeks I have spent as a bookseller!

But no—it was not a vacation—except in the sense that a vacation is a break from the normal routine that can recharge you and help you to return fresher and more energized. Some of the comments from the Class of 2006 are posted on the seminar website (Colorado Antiquarian Book Seminar), but I will quote one here:

“I am currently implementing many of the practical applications and I am now directed to the areas where I know I need to ‘learn’ more. And this along with a notebook chocked full of real, usable information, contacts, etc. I have attended scores of conferences over the years in several fields, and this coursework was as well organized, classy, attentive to detail and interesting. All of the faculty were ‘characters’ and not shy about straight out talk or tough questions or saying “I don’t know”. I cannot recommend the seminar strongly enough, but it was not for sissies as far as the hours. Your money’s worth??? YOU BET!!”

And a word of warning: if you think it might be enjoyable to see something of Colorado and the Colorado Springs area while you are at the seminar, plan on going early—otherwise Pike’s Peak will remain just a mountain in the distance! There is no “spare time” or “free time” during the week itself—you live, think, and eat bookselling. It is only when you are in the middle of the seminar that you realize how apt the nickname “booksellers’ boot camp” is!

With a wide range of students’ background and experience, and an even wider range of their knowledge of bookselling and hopes for the seminar, the curriculum has to balance the amount of time spent on different areas—it has to include both depth and breadth in discussing books and bookselling and cram that all into one week—and we all know that bookselling is something you can spend a lifetime learning and still not learn everything.

One of the ways that the seminar handles this mission is by long, packed days, careful attention to time and an intensive focus that did not let up even on the “breaks” or at lunchtime (most days, the faculty sat at different tables, so “seminarians” could sit with them and continue discussing books and bookselling). A significant part of the learning was in one-to-one conversations, or small group discussions either with faculty or just among the students themselves.

The curriculum is also evolving to confront the changing realities of today’s bookselling world, but without neglecting the traditional knowledge base that a professional bookseller needs.

Since this was my first year, I have no basis for comparison, but other faculty members commented on what a dynamic group of students were at the seminar. A large part of what makes an experience like this so valuable is not just the information given by the faculty but also that shared by the attendees from their years of experience!

As a (former) teacher, I was dismayed when halfway through the week, a student asked in conversation a very basic question: “what is a trade paperback?” While I was able to answer that specific question then, the reality is that the seminar does not, and cannot in one week, answer every student’s questions. It is easy to assume that dealing with concrete “how to” topics can be more valuable to beginning booksellers—and the seminar addresses many very specific issues, ranging from details on packing for the mail order bookseller to Dan Gregory’s marketing presentation (an hour that contained enough ideas that would in itself justify the expense of the seminar) to the use of reference materials and how to approach librarians (another extremely valuable presentation given by Dan DeSimone, a bookseller for 25 years and now a Curator at the Library of Congress). And even though I am a bookseller who loves scouting and pride myself on being pretty good at it, I picked up several great tips from Michael Ginsberg’s session on scouting!

Although many specific presentations focused on the practical to a large extent, that is not—in my opinion—where the real value of this seminar lies. Rather it is in opening up to booksellers the idea that they do not have to deal in “ordinary” books, but can become involved with the best and most significant and interesting books. It is in creating a sense of limitless possibilities—in telling booksellers that, yes, they can control both their business and how much money they can make—and then in showing them what they need to know to do this.

Almost anyone can teach “how-to” methods, but I think the Colorado seminar is unique in its ability to convey the sense of what bookselling, at its best, can be—and I think that the uniqueness is due to the quality of those booksellers who have kept the seminar going year after year, ranging from Ed Glaser, who has given of his time, energy and knowledge for the entire 28 year history of the seminar, to Michael Ginsburg, Rob Rulon-Miller, and newer participants like Tom Congalton. They present, as booksellers, an example of collegiality, professionalism, and generosity that is unmatched. A recurring theme was that other booksellers are not your competitors; they are your colleagues, that helping other booksellers will help you, and even that booksellers can be your best customers.

It is also important to emphasize that the seminar does not end at the end of the week. Since so much is covered and so quickly, the fat binder both extends the information presented and becomes a resource that can be consulted over and over again as a reminder of what was covered. The students are told that they can call upon anyone on the faculty afterwards for help. A mailing list was started before the actual seminar and it is still going on. More importantly, I am sure that some of those attending have already formed relationships with other seminarians that will survive for years of their bookselling careers.

And finally, the worth of the seminar will be determined by how many of those ideas are put into practice! The ABAA has a clear sense of how significant the seminar can be, and it is reflected in their membership requirements: attendance at the seminar is worth six months of full-time experience as a bookseller.

Chris Volk operates Bookfever along with Shep Iiams out of the Sierra foothills of Amador County, CA and can be contacted at http://www.bookfever.com.

The Boot Camp for Book Dealers

I had been hearing about the Colorado Antiquarian Book Market Seminar, as it is formally termed, for a number of years. Sometime a few years back I started thinking that it might be fun to go. So, with that in mind, I began following the emails and notices that showed up in various chat and news groups online. I gradually became aware of the occasional ads that appeared in book publications such as Fine Books and Collections and Book Source Magazine. This year I attended the 2006 seminar, which was held from August 5th through the 12th. First a little more background on my decision to attend.

In the early days of the Internet book selling was laughably easy. You bought a lot of books, priced them for something or other and sold them relatively quickly. It turned out that even I could do it pretty well. As time went by it seemed that this was becoming apparent to everyone with a computer. So the pressure began. With the price competition began the race to the bottom.

Before the Internet there was no really reliable way to know how many books were out there of a given title. As book prices became more transparent the high prices being realized brought books out of the barns, attics, trunks and bookshelves of America. What was previously thought to be a good book was now found to be a mediocre book and what was thought to be a mediocre book now became fodder for the soon to arrive penny sellers.

I had always admired penny sellers who bought books by the truckload and sold thousands of them every day. They subsisted mainly on the few pennies in shipping profit they gleaned from each book that they often sold for one penny each. They were doing America a great service in spreading literacy and knowledge and making a profit while doing it. But they were driving many booksellers to the wall. I had no desire to be one of those standing resignedly, back to the wall, with a blindfold across his eyes and a cigarette in his mouth.

I had started very modestly, worked hard and gradually built up a decent inventory. It had become clear to me early on that my only salvation was to buy those books that were sufficiently scarce not to decline in value as more and more books were driven to market.

It seems that at some point soon fewer and fewer of the modestly uncommon books will be appearing and even the cheaper books will again turn and head back up a bit. Surely at some point the reserves will become at least partially exhausted. For most of the cheap books, say less than $25 today, it seems unlikely to me that anything will ever save them—not even time. As sources dry up, and long before retail prices began to rise significantly, the cost of acquisition increases. Increased acquisition costs are a direct result of new sellers willing to work for less, a lot less, maybe even nothing. I found it no longer feasible to compete with hobby sellers. The more so because most of them seemed blithely unaware that their business was a hobby.

There was another factor that concerned me as well. I was regularly logging 80 hours or more a week. I knew that it wouldn’t be too many more years before this would begin to lose its attraction. I had been there before in other businesses and wanted to avoid that downward spiral at all costs. It was fun and I wanted it to stay fun.

So with these concerns turning in my mind I felt that I had to get a different perspective on book dealing. Maybe I had to get many different perspectives. Up until now I had done only Internet sales, some being fixed price sales and some auctions. I don’t mean to imply that I wasn’t doing well. Actually I was doing better than I had any right to expect, up 20%+ every year. If I had thought this would go on indefinitely I could have slept peacefully. But I didn’t see this going on forever. I felt I had to find new venues, new philosophies, new perspectives, new sources and new customers. In a word I had to reengineer my business or run the risk of perishing as I continued upon what I felt was a perilous path.

There was another concern which made this cross country jaunt to Colorado almost a perfect fit for me. With recently increasing sales I was badly in need of income tax deductions. You might wonder why I was so concerned if sales were on the uptick. The book business, while not exactly boom and bust, is not a “steady as she goes” business either. It needs careful tending. Ignore your income stream at your peril! I needed just a few more tricks in my basket than I already had if I was going to feel at all secure.

So I called and spoke to Kathy Lindeman several times. She was quite forthcoming about the ins and outs of travel, housing and so forth. I owe her a lot and want to thank her again right here. Her assistance in getting me oriented was invaluable. She held my hand while I decided what the best arrangement would be for me.

I hadn’t been in Colorado for more than 25 years. I had passed through once when I was living in Nevada and had found the people so friendly that I seriously considered moving there. I am happy to say I found them just as helpful this time as I did the first. While I was there I checked the real estate ads as I usually do in a new area. There are many very beautiful homes available much more cheaply than is common elsewhere. It is high desert with low humidity. The elevation is about 6000 feet. Annual snowfall is 33 inches. So far, so good, then I found that low temperatures reached -10 degrees F or so. So I’ll stay in New Jersey a little longer.

I have half a dozen online travel discount sites that I use.

They are farefox.com, cheaptickets.com, air-gorilla.com, allcheapfares.com, travelticker.hotwire.com, and priceline.com. To my surprise I found the best fare by a considerable margin on a site I didn’t care for much, orbitz.com. I made a $350 deposit by Visa over the phone to hold my spot, made arrangements for a place to stay, purchased the airline tickets, and I was in!

I stayed at the Colorado Inn. This is on campus. It was purchased by Colorado College recently and refurbished. It is quite adequate and a cut above college dorms but just barely. There is an Econo Lodge right next door. Most seminarians chose to stay at one of these. There are a few other choices of lodging including a couple of bed and breakfasts and a Sheraton about 2 miles away. But I wanted to be in the heart of things. As it was I was just about 3 ½ blocks from the cafeteria and from most of the classes. So it worked out well for me and I was able to walk almost everywhere.

At the Colorado Inn there are laundry facilities downstairs. Food shopping opportunities are just about non-existent within 2-3 miles. My plan, which is the recommended one, included breakfast and lunch with the students. All but 2 of the dinners were provided by the seminar. In addition there are frequent snacks. So meals are definitely not a problem.

Downtown is about 8 blocks and a pleasant and safe stroll away. There are many bars, restaurants and several book stores. Basically a college town within a town. The city of Colorado Springs itself has 600,000 people and is mainly supported by the two military bases there. Many of the military personnel retire and take another job in the tech or the security industry.

Because of the difficulty in making connections from Atlantic City I flew in a day early and left a day late. I could have flown much cheaper into Denver which is 80 miles away and taken a shuttle. Full details are provided in the registry materials. However the people I talked to who had flown into Denver had not found the arrangement particularly congenial to their needs.

The next morning we began congregating in the cafeteria at about 7. The food was like cafeteria food all around the world but still quite a bit better than I remember it being during my own long distant university days.

We were given full materials for the course including a hefty notebook. The notebook is nicely laid out with sections on everything from where to stay to how to paginate an antiquarian work. This contained invaluable materials compiled from the experiences of the best minds in the business. We also received daily handouts and amplified notes for each class. The whole thing was very carefully thought through and cleanly executed. This is a very valuable resource and one to treasure.

At 8:30 sharp class began. Morning classes ran 3 ½ hours with a 15 minute break. Afternoons about the same. For the most part we ran 6 classes a day. And none of these, and I do mean none, were lightweight fill-ins. One thing that struck me was how often staff members mentioned that they learned a lot every year from attending. There are so many experts from so many areas.

Then came a breathless staccato-like presentation by Dan Gregory on How to Market Your Book Business. Later on he followed up with Technology of the Book Trade. It was almost impossible to take notes because of the speed at which he covered the work. And it was ALL critical material. He generously agreed to email us expanded notes after the seminar. He obviously firmly believed in his message of promoting your business. If people look at your business card, bookmarks or whatever and don’t say “Wow!” then they aren’t good enough. Book selling is story telling. Dan believes that 90% of ABE and Biblio customers are collectors.

I especially liked Dan’s summary of communicating with customers and advertising.

1. Customers don’t think

2. Customers are blind

3. Customers have short attention spans

4. Customers are more valuable than your books

5. NEVER underestimate you customers

Ed Glaser and Dan DeSimone gave a session on Reference Books. The bibliography handout for this talk alone may well be worth the cost of the course. I have since picked up some of these that I never knew existed such as the English Short Title Catalogue. Tom and Heidi Congalton contributed a copy of First Editions of Dr. Seuss Books which I won at their auction later on. I finally have the title of the mysterious and often cited “Wing” and will be picking that up soon.

Angela Scott presented an amazing display of paper making materials including leathers and papers and a discussion of bookbinding. Dan DeSimone presented an illuminating discussion of book illustrations. Then we wrapped up the day with drinks, alcoholic and otherwise, and eats at a gathering from 7 to 9. Day One was pretty much a template for the days that followed.

The average age of the seminarians was a little over 40 and the experience level was from “thinking about it” to “full professional.” The majority had been involved for perhaps a few years and wanted to become more involved. There were also a number of librarians and attendees sponsored by various of the book industries.

In the next 4 days there were two microphones in the aisle between the seats. Those with questions would (ideally) line up at the microphones and ask their questions. Additionally there was a question box available to drop queries in. These boxes were emptied after each break.

I can’t begin to do justice to the material covered. Each topic would require a paper of its own. The best I can do is to skim the subjects to give you the flavor of the sessions and the materials they cover. And perhaps encourage you to find out more for yourself. I have been a long time reader of the works of Kraus, Rosenbach, and other famous dealers. Unfortunately these books are long on stories and short on method. Here are the methods.

After a lifetime of boring and often feckless classes and seminars this whole affair came as the most pleasant of surprises. As I sat in the room gradually the awareness grew on me that I was surrounded by a whole lot of very bright people. I have been to Mensa gatherings that were not half as impressive.

Rob Rulon-Miller was the seminar director. His discussion covered the areas of Catalogue Making, Ethics, and Appraisals. His discussion of catalogues I found particularly useful. There were probably close to 100 different catalogues along a back table in stacks from various dealers, and they were laid out in such a manner that it made choosing the format most suitable for my business much easier. I definitely have a color laser printer on my list of acquisitions for next year. We were free to take what we wanted and there was an open discussion about costs, efficacy, production and problems. Rob also spent a fair amount of time on ethics. Although some might find it restrictive, I thought it simply the best way to run a successful business with as little pain as possible.

Terry Belanger gave an exhaustive and witty talk on Bibliographic Description, Format and Collation. This covered such esoterica as different types of laid paper, watermarks, counter marks and their origins, pagination, and printer’s marks. It was as intensive as it could reasonably be in the short time available. Printed 18th century folio sheets were handed out to the class to help explain various of the printing processes. We were taught how printers numbered sheets so the binders could fold them to form signatures in 8vo, 12mo, 4to and so on. There was a fascinating talk on paper making and how it advanced. Terry said that there was an old saying that the size of the initial sheet of paper was determined by the length of the arms of the papermaker. By the time he finished it was pretty clear why he had been awarded the coveted “MacArthur” in bibliography.

Terry Belanger oversees The Rare Book School at the University of Virginia with auxiliary classes in New York, Baltimore, and Washington DC. These classes are subsidized by the University and the tuition charge is about half of the actual cost. They offer about 30 five day courses each year. Tuition is $845. More information is available at virginia.edu/oldbooks.

There was a faculty directed workshop on how to write book descriptions and two more on book pricing. We spent some time in class on this and then broke up into groups in various rather nice rooms. There we submitted our books and descriptions for criticism. The groups were, as always, small, with one or two faculty members assigned to each.

There was an on-site tutorial on running a used book store by the Ciletti’s, Mary and Jim. The class was split into two groups and bussed to their Hooked On Books book store. There we were treated to talks on running a book store and a packing demonstration. The inventory was also available at standard book dealer’s discounts to us. The class picked up a fair number of books. Half of the class did this on one of two nights while the other half attended Conservation and Preservation by Dan DeSimone and Angela Scott. Angela does antiquarian restoration and book binding at her shop in Washington DC. Dan is the curator of the Lessing J. Rosenwald Collection of rare books and manuscripts at the Library of Congress. They combined their skills to give an invaluable look into the nuts and bolts of antiquarian works. Displayed were many materials not commonly seen such as rare leathers and papers.

Later on Dan DeSimone presented Libraries as Markets for Books. This was a look into a world that is a pole apart from internet bookselling. With this information, and its diligent application, anyone with at least a modicum of talent could gain entry into this area. He covered the area pretty thoroughly including why the library market, identifying potential customers, how to create bibliographical lists and dealing with librarians.

Evaluation and Pricing was taught by Ed Glaser, an internationally known specialist in rare and important books in science, technology and medicine. He noted that the keystone for rare books is 1/3, 1/3, 1/3. He explained this as being 1/3 for acquisition, 1/3 for handling and marketing, and 1/3 for profit. Ed covered auctions, price guides, dealer’s price lists, the Internet and other resources in detail.

Chris Volk discussed Internet Bookselling as well as Buying on the Internet. She went into various websites and their peculiarities as well as the ability to move books. We discussed dealing with customers and their questions. One of the promotions she offers is gift wrapping—certainly essential for any Internet seller. Chris offered some caveats about buying stock from eBay sellers. Various database programs for book dealers were also discussed both in her talks and Dan Gregory’s. The general consensus was that BookTrakker is the best available setup for controlling your books next to having your own proprietary database custom designed.

Mike Ginsberg discussed Book Fairs, Scouting, and gave a session on Auctions. Then he conducted an auction of donated materials, some of which were quite worthwhile and brought good prices. The auction included various reference materials, book related items and a dinner with the faculty. Mike has an interestingly disciplined approach to scouting. He lays out the route ahead to time with specific objectives in mind. His comments on equipment for book fairs was very useful. One tip he gave was, “Always bring a flashlight for the top and bottom shelves that no one can see.”

Tom Congalton is the proprietor of Between the Covers Rare Books. He is also co-owner of Allottabooks.com. Tom made the comment that only 10% of his income came from the Internet. This was a sentiment echoed by many of the faculty. His specialty is modern firsts, however he easily fielded questions in any area that came up. He does a number of major shows each year and is well known there. Currently he is chairman of the ABAA membership committee.

There was a conducted tour of a number of the downtown bookstores which I did not attend.

A CPA, Bradley A. Walberg, conducted a session on taxes and accounting. He specializes in the area of books and maps. The more so as his wife is a book dealer of 20 years standing. I had to skip this talk in order not to miss Dan’s second presentation. I hope that the faculty will address this issue so that future seminarians won’t have to share my disappointment. They were, however, most cooperative in providing substantial outlines of both talks to help us make the decision as to which to attend.

During the whole time the faculty were punctilious in making themselves available to answer all questions and give advice where possible. I tried to pick a different table at lunch each day to get a cross section of their philosophies. Everyone was helpful, everyone was gracious and everyone boasted a wealth of experience.

A word about the staff which included 5 past ABAA presidents. These men and women are the legends of tomorrow and the frontrunners of today in the rare book trade. They are well worth listening to.

Kenny Parolini operates Poor Man’s Books out of Vineland, NJ and can be contacted at http://www.poormansbooks.com.

Joe Perlman of Mostly Useful Fictions

My name is Joe Perlman and I am the proud owner of Mostly Useful Fictions. The name describes my specialty, which I like to think of as “Useful Fiction” (i.e., twentieth century world literature). I sell what I love, mostly serious fiction, including lots of literature in translation.

My journey to becoming a book dealer has been long and meandering. It best described by some lines in a poem called The Waking, by Theodore Roethke:

“I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow. I learn by going where I have to go.”

In college, I majored in Psychology and English, and moved from New England to New York City in 1973 to start graduate school in Educational Psychology. In spite of the heavy work load, I would stop studying around midnight, just as the heat in the apartment building went off, turn on the oven for warmth, and pick up a novel. At the time, I was enchanted by the South American magical realists. Unfortunately, their writing did not lull me to sleep. Rather, I had to fight with myself to put the books down so I could wake up in time for classes. The last vestiges of the Book Row on lower Broadway and 4th Avenue were still in existence at that time, so I spent hours browsing and managed to acquire quite a few books, in spite of my meager student income.

In 1983, married with two children and three rejected doctoral dissertation topics, I dropped out of graduate school, left the not for profit world, and accepted a position on Wall Street as a computer programmer trainee at the infamous Drexel Burnham Lambert. I worked for several firms and progressed from trainee to programmer to programming manager. Eventually I left the technical side and became a business analyst specializing in the relationship between banks and brokerage houses. As my income rose, so did the number of books that I was able to buy.

By 1985, we left Manhattan for the suburbs. We moved to East Northport on Long Island and my commute to Wall Street grew to nearly two hours each way. I was able to buy and read more books than ever. In spite of the fact that the house had a den with wall to wall bookshelves, I still did not have enough shelf space. Every year the number of cartons of books in the attic increased. I collected modern first editions, South American and Eastern European writers in translation, and writers I fell in love with on the train—Yukio Mishima, Naguib Mahfouz, and William Trevor, to name a few.

In the early 1990s I saw an article in Biblio magazine about book collector groups. A Long Island group was mentioned, so I wrote a letter to the secretary asking for information about the group. They sent me an invitation to the next meeting, and I have been a member ever since. The organization, Long Island Book Collectors, meets monthly on Sunday afternoons at Adelphi University. Each meeting is hosted by a member on a rotating basis, and the member either recruits a speaker, or talks about some aspect of their own collections. I spoke several times, and continue to learn a lot from other members.

One of the valuable lessons that I learned about collecting was to focus and collect in depth. While I continue to buy modern firsts, I now seriously collect Jack Kerouac (who lived in Northport, Long Island for several years), James Joyce, particularly Ulysses and books about Ulysses, Anne Frank, and my newest collecting passion Alice Munro. The best part of belonging to a collector group is that you can talk about books with people who love them as much as you do. It is the only place I know where you can lament the fact that the one book you need to complete a collection costs $1,200, and the person next to you will not look shocked that a book could be so expensive, but instead will reply, “Well, you really should get it, you can afford it and you’re entitled to splurge every once in awhile!”

The other important lesson that I learned from the group was that one third of the members were also book dealers. They had formed a separate organization, the Long Island Antiquarian Book Dealers Association (LIABDA), and I was asked to speak to the group a few times about my collecting interests. I became friendly with some of the dealers, attended their twice yearly book fairs, and realized that I should become a dealer myself.

When my eldest child left for college in 1997, I started buying books for resale. I had decided that once I had 1,000 books to sell I would put them on-line. I gleaned through the cartons in the attic, scoured tag sales, library sales and used bookstores and by the fall of 1998 I was ready to start. I went to the county office to register my business name, received a tax ID number, and began to price and catalogue the books. Fortunately, I had a teen-aged daughter at home who was glad to earn some extra spending money by helping to enter the books into the database. I would make notes about the condition and price on a post-it attached to the front of each book. She in her typical teenage fashion would emerge at midnight and type away until dawn. When I awoke there would be a large pile of books without post-its, meaning the data had been entered, and a small pile of books with additional post-it notes with her questions. When the one thousandth book was entered, I uploaded them to Bibliofind, and was open for business. I remember the first order—a first American edition of Iris Murdoch’s The Sea, the Sea.

The orders increased slowly each year. I discovered that in part, it was a numbers game—the more books listed, the more orders. I now have about 8,500 books on-line at any given time, and hope to increase that number to 12,000 over the next year or two. Bibliofind is long gone, but I list on the standards, ABE, Alibris, Amazon, as well as my own website, Mostly Useful Fictions.

Since I always enjoyed writing, I began to write some humor pieces on making the transition from collecting books to selling them. They were published in the now defunct Book Quote magazine. When the editor of the LIABDA newsletter retired, I was quickly recruited, so I have been the corresponding secretary and newsletter editor for that organization for the past four years. Some of the pieces I have written for that newsletter have been reprinted in the Standard, and Book Dealer Monthly. Others are on my website.

Working full-time during the day, commuting two hours each way and trying to build an internet business have kept me pretty busy for several years. As of July, I have cut back on my day job to 21 hours, so that Mostly Useful Fictions could become my primary job.

Awhile back I wrote a piece about bookselling and the lottery. For me, most of the time being a book dealer feels like winning the lottery even without the big check from the State of New York. Mostly Useful Fictions really did start as the saying goes with just “a dollar and a dream.” That was the first time I actually bought a book at a tag sale, not for my own collection, but to start to build up an inventory to put up on the internet. I can even remember the name though it was sold a long time ago—Nick Hornby’s High Fidelity. It is a great book and I still pick up and list copies whenever I run across them.

A dollar here and a dream there, and the books began piling up. I may have chosen a few bad sets along the way, but the dream persists, and grows stronger over time.

I have held many jobs in my various careers. I lasted one night as a cook at McDonald’s back in high school. I have been a car jockey, a psychiatric aide in a drug and alcohol hospital, a supermarket cashier, a research assistant and a grants writer. I have taught early childhood development as an adjunct at a university in New York City. I have designed and developed numerous computer systems for Wall Street firms including money transfer that handle several billion dollars worth of wire transfers every business day. None of these jobs has given me the satisfaction that I get from selling a book that I love to someone eager to read and to own it.

Joe Perlman operates Mostly Useful Fictions out of East Northport, NY and can be contacted at http://www.mostlyusefulfictions.com.