Biblio Finds Its Way in the Used, Rare, and Out-of-print Book Market

In a world of commoditized physical and online retail offerings, consumers are looking for more diverse shopping experiences. Buyers are again searching for things that meet their needs, and wants, and are favoring quality over price. This is where Biblio.com fits in.

In 2000, the original Biblio.com was launched as metasearch engine for new, used, rare, and out-of-print books: it quickly gained recognition for its speed and simplicity of use. In 2002, the name of this metasearch engine was changed to SearchBiblio.com to prepare the way for the upcoming new listings service.

During this time, development continued on the core product that was later to resemble the Biblio we all know today, with the revenues generated by the metasearch engine helping to provide seed money for the eventual launch of Biblio.

Biblio was ready to launch with its new product in February, 2003, initially with 14 booksellers. One of the hurdles was the difficulty of acquiring adequate inventory in order to attract buyers. At the same time, gaining a sufficient bookseller membership required active customers.

Fortuitously, in early February the listing site Bookopoly.com was offered for sale. Recognizing a unique opportunity for acquiring an existing base of booksellers and customers, and the market exposure which the acquisition would provide, Biblio purchased Bookopoly.com.

One week later, Biblio.com officially launched under its own brand. For the next several months Biblio.com and Bookopoly.com were both run independently. In June 2003 Bookopoly was closed down and its bookseller and customer bases were folded into Biblio.com.

Approaching its second anniversary this February, Biblio.com has grown to become the world’s third-largest site dedicated to used, rare, and out-of-print books, with more than 2,250 independent booksellers from 21 different countries representing an aggregate inventory of over 14 million books.

The little engine that could Biblio differs from its larger competitors in more ways than just size. Built from the beginning with managed growth in mind, Biblio has received no external investment or capital and all shares in the company are privately held by individuals who are actively involved in the daily operations of the company.

Chief Executive Officer and founder Brendan Sherar notes that its larger competitors also have a radically different business strategy than Biblio. Their sales are largely reliant on partnerships with major corporations such as Amazon and Barnes & Noble, whereas Biblio’s primary sales and customer bases are independently cultivated.

Sherar says “This gives us two strategic advantages moving forward in the marketplace. First, our resources are not exhausted in maintaining such demanding partnerships. Instead we are able to focus our attention on building partnerships with our booksellers and relationships with our customers. Second, it clearly stabilizes our position in the market when the bulk of our business is supported across a base of hundreds of thousands of customers.”

“This is not to say that we will not be announcing some key strategic partnerships in 2005. The difference s that we are looking to form mutually-beneficial partnerships with like-minded companies, where it is clear that we have common goals and both hold equal sway in our relationship, and that it is in the best interests of our bookseller members and customers.”

Standing out in the crowd

Biblio is, of course, not the only small company to recognize the opportunity in the market for a company which focuses its attention on its relationships with its booksellers. It is, however, the largest of these.

“While our fundamental philosophy towards our independent booksellers is very similar to most of our smaller competitors, the chief thing that has made Biblio stand out is the sales results we generate for our booksellers. We believe what we do best is to find the balance between sales results and independence for our booksellers, and achieve that equilibrium.”

According to Director of Sales and Marketing, Kevin Donaldson, Biblio currently averages more than one million unique visitors to their site monthly, with millions of page views. With the substantial traffic that Biblio has built up over two years, sales have increased proportionately.

“We often hear reports from booksellers that the sales we generate for them exceed those of the other independent sites they list their inventory on – in some cases, rivaling even the sales of our larger competitors,” says Donaldson. He believes this trend in sales growth will continue, saying, “Our sales numbers in 2004 were up nearly 400 percent over the prior year and we project similar gains in 2005.”

Beyond the numbers

Biblio’s identity as a company extends beyond pursuing the bottom line and profits. Their vision statement reads: Biblio.com Inc. will lead our market through providing exemplary customer service, creating opportunities for our partners, and fostering the growth of the communities we serve.

Allen Singleton, Biblio’s Chief Operations Officer, explains what their vision means; “It has been part of our vision for Biblio to be much more than a traditional corporate entity. In short, we wanted to build a company that, through its operations, through its day-to-day contacts with customers, through the products and services it offers, through its colleagues, and through every aspect of its business, would give expression to the highest ideals of excellence. Additionally, we wanted to make sure we were able to make a difference through charitable work and funding community enriching projects”.

Just recently, Biblio announced the completion of La Biblioteca – Morado K’asa, a joint construction project which Biblio began with the municipal and state governments in Bolivia in August 2004, and through highly successful fundraising contributions from its bookseller members. This library places resources for education and learning in the hands of some 3,000 members of the rural community of Morado K’asa, where before, they did not even have access to books in their elementary or secondary schools (located 30 minutes away).

Biblio plans for the La Biblioteca project to be just one of many similar undertakings as they continue to grow and diversify in the marketplace.

A Customer Focus

“I think there is an untapped market of customers out there that are looking for that book that they loved so dearly from their childhood, or they have gotten the run around from the big box retailers on out-of-print books.” Donaldson says, “There are so many customers out there that want our products, we all have to spend our time and effort letting them know they are out there!”

Biblio’s focus in 2005 and beyond is to enhance the customer experience even further by making Biblio.com a destination for customers. In the works are monthly newsletters for customers, enhanced Want List management, coupons, an improved Rare Book Room, and much more.

“Where our Bookseller Members can help us is in ways that obviously assist us in getting their listings online, but also, and most importantly, enhancing the customer experience. When we are able to successfully connect a customer with a Biblio.com Bookseller Member, we all benefit,” Donaldson says.

Pulling it all together

It is clear that everyone at Biblio is genuinely excited about where their company has come from in such a short time, and the direction they are headed in the future. Market growth, enabling independent businesses to thrive, and taking an active leadership role in communities are the primary business focuses of Biblio.

“I truly enjoy what we do together as a community of people ultimately joined together by the love of books,” Sherar says. “As the saying goes, ‘the whole is greater than the sum of its parts’. I believe this is what we see happening with Biblio, whether one is considering the collective resources we provide to empower our bookseller members to succeed, or the collaboration in building a library for a community in need. Our growing position in the marketplace is enabling us to facilitate positive progress and change.”

Biblio offers used, out-of-print, and rare books, with over 14 million titles offered for sale by over 2200 booksellers and bookstores worldwide. Visit Biblio at http://www.biblio.com

#bibliocom

Is a “Stand-Alone” Signature Better?

This (or a variant of it) is probably the most often asked question I hear. What I’m talking about is, of course, whether it is better to buy a book (or get it autographed by the author) with just a signature alone or whether it is better to have it with a personalized inscription.

With modern books by living authors, the popular wisdom states that it is better to have a “flat” (I hate that term) signed book – that is to say, a “stand-alone” signature, not a book with an inscription to an “unknown” person. For example, if I wrote a book, would you like me to sign it for you: “For (your first name here) – Hope you like it, Barry R. Levin,” or just, “Barry R. Levin.” Many dealers will tell you that it is easier to resell your modern signed books if they are just simply signed. “No one named ‘Bill,'” they will say, “wants a book signed ‘For Bob.'”

Is this bit of popular wisdom true, are simply-signed books better? Well, yes and no.

The very best autograph dealers and authorities will tell you quite candidly that, in many cases, “a stand-alone” (or “flat” – if you must) signature in a modern book can be all but impossible to authenticate. Yes, he or she can rule out most fakes, but still can only tell you most of the time that a modern stand-alone signature “looks good,” not that it is 100% authentic if the piece has no provenance. A signature is almost (and, in some languages, in reality) a pictograph or symbol that represents a person’s name, a stylized form of script often unlike the person’s normal handwriting. It is possible, with practice, to copy that symbol. Yes, it helps if you know something about the mechanics of handwriting – also of pens, inks, papers, etc., but a fair number of people can do a passable job of copying a given person’s signature. It is extremely difficult, however, to copy a person’s script, or handwriting in general. (I am not going to give you a primer here on the whys and wherefores of this for obvious reasons). Take my word for it, that is one of the reasons why the names of the handful of great forgers that have been caught are so well remembered – it is a true (if despicable) art form.

For instance, I talked to an important collector of Stephen King the other day. He told me a very interesting story. He bought a copy of a proof for a new Stephen King novel, over the Internet. The copy was described as being “flat signed” by the author. When the proof came, it was not signed. He e-mailed the seller and the seller told him to send it back and he would send him a signed copy. Suspicious, the collector took a soft lead pencil and put a very small mark on a given page and sent the proof back. A week went by, and a signed copy of the proof was delivered to him. He looked at the signature (one that he is very familiar with) and it “looked good.” He opened the proof to the page on which he had placed his mark on the copy that he had sent back, and lo and behold there was his mark. Now the collector knew that King was on vacation that week, and knew it was not possible for the seller to have gotten this particular copy signed in the time allotted – so even if the signature “looked good” it had to be a forgery.

Another collector sent me a scan of a very popular British author’s stand-alone autograph. Once again, the “signed” book had been purchased on the internet. She wanted to know if the signature was authentic. Now, it is almost impossible to truly authenticate an autograph from a scan and with no provenance, and it is not a free service I normally have time to render. Saying that, I did have time that day to look at the scan, so I did. This author’s signature is one that is a little hard to get in this country, mostly because of the overwhelming demand at the moment. It is also, unfortunately, a particularly easy autograph to forge. I sent the collector an emailed note to that effect, along with an example I had of a signature known to be authentic. My advice was, and is, to only buy autograph material from an expert, one with proper credentials, especially stand-alone examples of signatures.

In the last few years, I have seen a rise in the number of forged autographs of science fiction, fantasy, and horror authors – including Howard Phillips Lovecraft, Stephen King, Edgar Rice Burroughs, and even those of Ray Bradbury, whose signature is the most common authentic autograph in the field.

My point in telling you all of this is simply to point out that the more words on your autographed items, the better! The number of people who can fool an autograph expert drops in direct proportion to the number of words on the page. If you are buying a stand-alone signed book the provenance for the piece can be as important as the honesty and knowledge of the seller.

It is also important to note that it is always a good idea, when having a book signed for you by an author, to have the author date the signature, especially if the book is being signed in the year, or, better yet, the month and year of publication. Books so signed are very desirable to collectors. Also, because the handwriting of authors often change over time, sometimes dramatically, the dating of the signature becomes doubly important. Ray Bradbury and Clark Ashton Smith are two notable examples of striking signature changes that come to mind.

None of us will live forever; no one is immortal. Collectors are one of the greatest conservators of our cultural heritage. The signed books we buy, or have autographed for us today, will one day bear the signature of a deceased author. How will people in the future know for sure that a particular signature is authentic? Some collectors put a note in their signed books (hopefully on acid-free paper) saying that they got the book signed at such and such a time and place. This is harmless and can be used as provenance to a point, but in the future it will be only as good as the reputation of the individual collector who wrote it. If he is not of note, it may prove to be almost as good in the future as a letter of authentication from a dishonest dealer or forger. No, the best measure of an item’s authenticity is that which is integral and internal. Few if any collectors today care if Jules Verne or H. G. Wells inscribed a book to an unknown person. Just the opposite, a long inscription is preferred. Why is that true? Because, of course, these authors are now no longer signing anything and it is easier to authenticate an inscribed and signed copy, so the more words from the master’s hand, the better. Who knows, maybe in a hundred years, Ray Bradbury’s signature may be worth something and a book with a long inscription and maybe one of his drawings-priceless?

At this point, it would be wise to point out that even those collectors who do not like personalized inscriptions in their modern books will eagerly buy the following types of inscribed books:

1. association copy – An inscribed or signed book that once belonged to someone the author knew or to someone very well-known (i.e., another author, a movie star, a former president, etc.).

2. dedication copy (sometimes called, “THE copy”) – The copy inscribed by the author to the person or persons to whom the book is dedicated.

3. presentation copy – A copy of a book given by the author as a gift to the recipient. It is usually inscribed and often dated very near the time of publication. Note: not a copy signed by the author at the request of the autograph’s recipient.

4. inscribed sentiment – A copy of a book that is inscribed without being personalized. An example would be a copy of my imaginary book, inscribed, “This is my favorite of all of my books. Barry R. Levin,” or, “With my warmest regards, Barry R Levin.” My favorite inscription of this type was on a book I once owned, signed by the author with the note, “This is the first copy of this book I ever signed.” The “inscribed sentiment” may be the best of all worlds, for the collector of modern signed first editions by living authors.

So now you know why I have answered the question of “Is a ‘Stand-Alone’ Signature Better?” with the answer, “yes and no.” For the purpose of resale in the lifetime of the author: “yes”, if there is no question of authenticity, And, “no”, because an inscription makes it far easier to authenticate the handwriting of the author, and ipso facto, the signature. Thus, the dictum applies, “the more words from the master’s hand, the better.”

So, how would you like me to sign my next imaginary book for you?

The author is principal of Barry R. Levin Science Fiction & Fantasy Literature, A. B. A. A.; Santa Monica CA, U.S.A. and specializes in rare and first editions of science fiction, fantasy, and horror with a strong emphasis on autographs, manuscripts, literary correspondence, and original art. More information is available at http://www.raresf.com

Selling Books Is Like Fly-fishing

Selling books on the web seems easy.

You get hold of some books (that really is the easy part!) and start listing them like crazy onto a database.

Sure, there are a few technical details to overcome – joining up with various listing sites and mastering the assorted uploading techniques, but nothing that would stall the average 12 year old for more than a few minutes.

Nevertheless, setting up your own virtual bookshop is neither unduly difficult nor particularly expensive in normal commercial terms (although the actual expenses mount up far more than the average tyro realizes).

That is why so many are doing it!

And therein lies the rub – there seems to be an endlessly expanding crowd of newcomers joining the existing hordes, all believing that this the way to say goodbye to the day job and become their own boss.

For most, it is a bad career move.

The harsh fact is that the expansion of ‘bookdealers’ is far outstripping the expansion of the demand for the books, leading to a dilution of orders for everyone.

Some respond by endlessly reducing prices – another bad career move – but I have already covered that in my ‘Penny Selling’ series, so I won’t revisit it here. Suffice to say that if you do not understand the role of gross and net profit margins within business and keep on eroding those margins to create sales, you would be doing yourself a favor to pack in now.

If you reject the above as the ‘way to go’, then this is where fly-fishing comes into it. I hope to guide you towards techniques that will help you sell good books at proper prices and, importantly, at a profit that is good enough to pay all your business expenses and still leave you a reasonable living.

Check your tackle …

Before moving on to the flies and techniques, you need to check your tackle: Your web site, policies, and facilities.

You can get by with a ‘standard’ home page provided by one of the listing sites, but you are putting yourself at a disadvantage.

In an ideal world you would have a unique website properly built by a competent designer, with all the bells and whistles, and plenty of special features that reflects your particular trading position. It’s not a bookselling site, but my current favourite site that combines humor with professionalism is http://www.burtschips.com/ . (Make sure you have the sound switched on!)

But that can be expensive, so the next best option would be to use a specialist book site builder – the most recommended that I have heard of is Chrislands http://www.chrislands.com who construct competent sites for the smaller bookdealer, but if you can afford a totally tailor-made site, so much the better.

The Chrisland built sites are a little bit ‘samey’ but there is still plenty of scope to introduce some of your own individuality and they do include the key features of your own domain name, booksearch, order processing, and encryption.

Work out your store policies carefully – payment, returns policy, shipping, etc., and make sure that they comply with the policies of the major listing and are presented clearly and professionally. A quick trip to the Ethics Code of IOBA or a quality site such as http://abaa.org will soon put you right.

… now check the fly …

The ‘fly’ is your actual listing for each book.

It seems obvious to say so, but the first requirement is that it must be accurate.

We are all guilty of ‘typos’ from time to time, but make a typo in either the title or the author and you have already gone down a peg or two in the eyes of a potential purchaser. I find it amazing that there are currently 256 ‘bookdealers’ on ABE offering various titles by ‘J.R.R. Tolkein’ (and 15 offering ‘The Hobbitt’!) – they do not deserve to ever sell a book. Quite apart from the poor impression it gives the potential buyer (“If this seller is sloppy with the book, what else is he/she sloppy about?), in these days of the diminishing wild card asterisk, the only people who are ever going to find their books are the equally typographically challenged.

Make sure that the condition report is clear and concise. It is sad that sites such as Amazon are eroding a long-established consistency with meaningless terms such as ‘acceptable’ (‘acceptable’ to whom? – what’s wrong with the perfectly clear description of ‘worn’?), but that is no reason for you to join in! Follow the guidelines on http://www.ioba.org/terms.html or any of the other good listing sites and you won’t go far wrong. Condition reports should be a short as possible, but still give a clear and honest impression of the true condition of the book.

Then there is the description of the book itself. This is truly the ‘fly’ – the part of the listing where you can show your skill. You can demonstrate careful collation and research (if the book is of enough value to merit it). Writing out the entire plot of ‘The Hobbit’, or even the dustwrapper blurb, earns you no brownie points whatsoever. A good description should be succinct and relevant. Lengthy descriptions may gain a dubious web visibility, but they tend to put off the average book buyer. Indeed, it is not a bad idea to purposely leave a little unstated, so that the prospective buyer can have a question to ask to ‘break the ice’.

The one absolute ‘no-no’ in the description is plagiarism. Under no circumstances copy/paste another bookdealers’ description into yours. By all means read them and learn from them, but then go away and write your own synopsis. To do anything other than that is (a) lazy, (b) unprofessional, and (c), most importantly, a violation of the Code of Conduct on most reputable sites.

One dealer has recently been taken ‘off the air’ for systematic theft of other peoples descriptions and will remain so until he has cleaned up his catalog – a massive task given that there were over a thousand examples of plagiarism within his database. Don’t let that happen to you.

… and now you are ready to start fly-fishing!

With all the tackle checked and the flies in place, let the fishing begin – the e-mail inquiries.

Some will be straightforward orders. Great – your ‘fly’ has done its work and you have hooked a beauty. All that remains is for you to process the order speedily and efficiently, pack it well, and let the customer know it is on its way with a well worked out ‘template’ e-mail.

But many will be inquiries rather than orders – and of varying quality. Your job is to convert as many of these as possible into sales and this is where the skill of the fly-fisher comes in.

The first job is to assess the quality of the inquiry – if you have hooked an old boot, there is no point in treating it like a 5 lb. trout.

However, you may not immediately know that you have hooked an old boot, so it is important to assume, until you find out otherwise, that there is a fish on the end of the line.

So, unless it is obvious that the inquirer is a waste of time, they should be given the benefit of the doubt and treated with a ‘straight bat’ reply – your very best polite and friendly ‘standard reply template’ tailored to the specific questions asked, but not spending too much time on scans and research until you have found out whether it be boot or fish. You will not have long to wait before the true nature of the inquirer is revealed!

Bear in mind that many inquirers are more interested in finding out what kind of bookdealer you are, rather than the actual question(s) asked. ‘Can I trust this bookseller with my CC details?’; ‘Can I be confident that they know what they are doing?’; ‘Will the descriptions be honest and accurate?’ are often the unstated questions and are more important than whether or not there is foxing on plate 36. Make sure that your reply gives them confidence in your professionalism and probity.

Think before you reply. Put yourself in the shoes of the prospective purchaser and try and work out what sort of extra information might tip the balance in your favor (a scan of an attractive cover or a particularly interesting plate, for instance). If the ‘tweak on the line’ tells you that yes, it’s a fish not a boot, but it is a really tricky one, draft your reply, but then do something else for half an hour. Then come back to the draft and see what you can do to improve it. (And that includes removing typos!).

But remember that this is fly-fishing, not ‘throwing a stick of dynamite into the lake’ – the hard sell rarely works. There are many techniques and nuances needed to ‘land’ each sale – every inquiry will be a little bit different and need subtle changes – but therein lies the challenge and the fun.

Handling discount inquiries is a skill all by itself. You will land more sales by refusing a discount than by just giving in whenever someone asks for it. But how well you explain this is all part of fly-fishing – see‘What’s your Best Price?’ for my previous thoughts on this.

If you have spent some time polishing what you believe is a particularly good reply, save it as a draft – you will soon build up a good library of quality replies that can be tailored for similar inquiries in the future.

As in fishing, you even build up stories about ‘the one that got away’ – learn from them and keep on improving your techniques.

Nothing beats the thrill of landing a particularly difficult ‘catch’, so tremendous enjoyment is to be had from applying your hard-learned skills – and it’s rather good for business too.

Tight Lines!

Stuart Manley is co-owner of Barter Books, Alnwick, Northumberland, England, also online at www.barterbooks.co.uk

Copyright © 2004 Stuart Manley