Spring 2003 (Vol. IV, No. 1)

Table of Contents

• President’s Message

• Global Book Town Independent Booksellers

• Trances That Heal: Rites, Rituals and Brain Chemicals

• For Love or Money?

• Mystery Novel Characters: Often Miscast for Films, TV

• Producing Your Own Newsletter

• Pitspopany Press

• Ravings

• Stanford Libraries Create Saroyan Prize for Writers

• The Quiet Revolution: The Expansion of the Used Book Market ©

• Good ethics are good business (but don’t forget your margins)

• Books at Auction

• Constant Change – Columbia Books

• English Teacher Efforts To Interest Teens in Books, Reading

• The Future of Used Bookselling – An Observation

• Never Mind The Book, How’s The Cover?

• Ephemeral Assays – the Paper Trail

• Miami Book Fair International

• The 2002 Oregon Antiquarian Book Fair

• OP MAGAZINE: A New Book Magazine

• Here’s A Clue For Mystery Fans: Left Coast Crime 2003 Opens Feb. 27

• L.A. Festival of Books Set for April 25-27

• Bookseller Monthly

• From the Editor

• Hot Links: Women in the Book Trade

• IOBA Q & A Column

• PDA’s In Bookselling

• A Weighty Subject

• Interview of Robert Westbrook, Author

• Review: Sic Ravings

• secondhandbooks.org: buy and sell books online for FREE!

• Chrislands Online Bookstores

• Biblio.com Announcement

President’s Message

The election is over, and we’re heading into a new year with a something old and something new board of directors.  (If I could figure out how to fit something borrowed and something blue in there, this would all segue nicely with my current theory on how a book business is like a marriage.  But that’s a column for another time.)

Some board members are returning in new roles: Maria Bustillos served as membership/public relations chair last year, and is now Vice President; Greg Williams was finance chair and is now stepping into the role of Treasurer; and Jean McKenna, who served as education chair, is one of our Members-at-Large.  I just adore these folks, and I think they’re all going to be fabulous.

Alyce Cresap is returning as Member-at-Large and Internet Operations chair, much to my great relief.  She’s an incredibly reliable worker, and most important to me, no matter how scatter-brained I get, she manages to poke, prod and nag me back on track.  Honestly, I would never have made it through last year without her help.

In the something new category, I am thrilled to welcome Aimee England, Forrest Proper and Angela Thorpe to the board.

Aimee will be serving as secretary.  You know the old saying, that if you want something done, give it to busy person.  Aimee’s a busy person, active in both her bookstore and her community.  She sometimes shares her schedule, and I get exhausted just reading it, but she’s got the energy to be out there going day in and day out.  I’m just tickled pink that IOBA is getting some of that energy.

And then there’s Forrest.  I used to be so intimidated by Forrest.  First off, he’s got that name: Forest Proper, Joslin Hall Rare Books.  Can anything sound more prim and stuffy and, well, “proper” than that?  Then he’s got that whole ABAA thing and the books to die for and he’s in Concord, Massachusetts, home of Thoreau, Emerson and all those guys I worshipped in college.  The whole thing screamed intimidating.  Fortunately, the truth is Forrest is not a prim and stuffy old academic in an ivory tower.  He is extremely intelligent, knowledgeable and professional, and the big bonus is he’s got a wicked sense of humor.  We’ll need all those qualities this year.

Angela is a “newbie” to IOBA, and I look forward to getting to know her.  I already like her spirit!  It takes guts to jump into something like this, just like it took guts for her to jump into bookselling full-time.  I am sure she will bring energy and derring-do to IOBA.

I think this will be a great board, and I’m very pleased that I get to be a part of it.

I also want to thank our departing board members.  Jerry, David, Sally, Anne and Chris, I am so very grateful for all your contributions.  You managed to put up with a president for whom “organization” is a four-letter word.  You spoke your minds and debated the issues intelligently and civilly.  You gave your time and your energy, and you believed in IOBA and its mission.  Thank you.

Julie Fauble, President

Global Book Town Independent Booksellers

Some time in mid October, 2002 in a chat room far far away, a number of booksellers got a bit tired of always having to deal with the big massive book listing sites and wondered if it was possible to have things a different way.

They started a discussion room of their own which can be found at: http://pub47.ezboard.com/bglobalbooktownindependentbooksellers and decided to try to figure out just exactly what they wanted.

The result is a website that to the best of its ability will feature independent internet booksellers who only have links to other independent internet booksellers and the Global Book Town site itself. Many of the existing member stores list on one or more of the book listing databases separately from their membership in GBT, but none of them directly link back to any of the major listing sites from their connection to GBT.

Our home page brings back memories for some people when it suggests “Have you ever walked through a bookshop neighborhood, dropping in at one store after another looking for that special book? We have recreated that atmosphere here by bringing together bookstores from around the world for your shopping enjoyment. Many of the stores have special offers that you will not find anywhere else. Feel free to peek in at one or more of the bookstores listed here. Each has its own specialty, and they all have an assortment of interesting and wonderful books just waiting for a good home.”

We opened the Global Book Town website in mid December 2002 at http:// www.globalbooktown.com and already have 22 stores listed. Our short-range goals include a specialties / category list, feature bookstore pages, book reviews, and most anything else that someone is willing to add to the picture.

Membership to this point is voluntary and without any dues requirement. All expenses to date have been covered by the founding members of the group and all website work is being done on a voluntary basis by a few of the members.

Access to the discussion room does not require that you be an ezboard supporter, just that you have a user id. If you don’t already have one we suggest that you obtain a ‘global’ user id instead of just a local one as there are a number of other discussion boards related to books within the ezboard system and a global id lets you access all of them.

Our graphic for the site was kindly painted by the daughter of one of the founding members and as such is copyrighted by her, Elizabeth Kern.

We hope and expect to have 200 stores or better listed by the end of 2003 and feel that this will create a very good venue for booksellers with freestanding websites to join and a good site for them to promote in order to retain their independence from any listing site.

Any inquiries may be made thru our discussion board or by email to myself info@kensbookrack.com or info@altairbooks.com.

Ken Dunn

Kensbookrack.com

A proud member of Global Book Town