Ephemeral Assays: Self Listing

When making a large haul, all kinds of things turn up in the net. Even if it’s only books, rather than loads of paper, inscriptions and the things that fall out of books often give you some picture of the previous owner.

While whipping through a load of estate books recently, I nearly threw a newer-looking one in the discard/recycle pile, rather than the price, check, keep for myself, or donate piles. That’s because it was written in. The title was List Your Self: Listmaking as the Way to Self-Discovery, by Ilene Segalove and Paul Bob Velick (Kansas City, MO: Andrews and McMeel, 1996). Now one could goof on this book at length to begin with, as an interactive example of cheesy self-help titles, but the authors kind of make their point in the introduction, and in this case they got results. The owner was moved to record personal facts and thoughts. Most of her personal papers were simply discarded, and although she mentions teen diaries and adult journals several times, it is thought that she either destroyed these or instructed her executor to do so.

There are ten categories: Yourself, Daily Life, Business, Change, Culture, Men and Women, Greater Truths, Health, Growing Up, and Suddenly. Each includes thirty or so topics with a full lined page for responses.

Some of the headings are pretty silly. List all the smells that make you scream. List what’s under your kitchen sink. List what kinds of people should never drive cars. List what’s consistently in your garbage. List all the greetings you’ve used to answer your telephone. List all the warnings you’ve heard about the evils of business. List the dangerous things you have done for money. List those restrictions, from stop signs to gravity, that you can’t stand living with. List the way you feel when a car alarm goes off. List all the things that could happen to you when you park in an underground structure. List what you like to do after sex. List your surefire sexy moves and lines. List the drugs you’ve tried. List what you know about the human body. List all the things you do to stop hiccupping. Suddenly you’ve arrived on Jupiter. List the things you can’t live without.

Many are good though, and some of her responses are recorded as follows.

List the places you go in your mind when you want some peace and quiet.

-Back to our camp on the [X] Pond—many happy memories. -Fishing with [husband] in Quebec, Canada 250 mi. N. West of Montreal. What beautiful country. -Church—when children are quiet & well-behaved. -My easy chair in living room.

List all the names you’ve been called, endearing and not so.

-Bitch -Know it all -Opinionated -Judgmental

List what always makes you laugh.

-Tickling my ribs & feet. Doctors are forewarned! -Children when happy and/or surprised. -A good joke. -At or to myself over some stupid mistake of mine—example, putting mail in fridge.

List the ways you don’t care to die.

-Burn -Auto accident -Drown -Long term cancer

List the animals that really scare you.

-Snakes -Chickens -Feathered creatures -Horses and cows -Rats

List the heroic feats you’ve performed.

Olive says I saved her from drowning. I don’t remember.

List the things you’ve said that you’d like to take back.

Once when I was a wise, know it all teenager, I asked my mom—“Why do you hate me?” She surprised me by breaking into tears. So did I!

List the brand names you buy and swear by.

-Tylenol & Tylenol P.M. -Hannaford tissues -Helmbold’s hot dogs, bologna & liverwurst -Pam -Tide or All -Charmin -Most of Schwan’s products -Breyers ice cream

List all the modes of transportation you’ve taken.

-Horse & buggy -Horse & cutter -Model T, Maxwell, Auburn (cars) -Tricycle, toy auto-bike, 2 seater bike -Bus (school), bus (Greyhound) -El train, N.Y.C. subway, train -Auto -Jet plane -Ferry boat (Alaskan), river boat (nite line on Hudson), outboard motor boat -Dump truck -Snowmobile -Elevator, escalator

List the first thoughts that run through your mind the moment you get up.

-It’s another morning. Thank you God! -Let’s see what the weather is. -Paper here yet? -Where is my list for today’s activities? What am I doing today? -What’s for breakfast?

List the biggest turning points in your life.

-The ultimatum my mother gave me after I graduated from high school. “Get a job or enroll in a college!” After checking over the Help Wanted ads, I enrolled in [X College]—August 1937. -Graduation from [X College]—1941. -1st teaching job—1943, loved it! -My 1st marriage—I now embarked on 2-3 careers—housewife, teacher & secretary of our construction business. I enjoyed # 1 & 2—but soon had to give up #3—I disliked it intensely. -Loss of [husband 1]—moved back home & worked on a Master’s Degree. -When I said “Yes” to [husband 2] after only 2 months courtship. Married Dec. 1963. -Loss of [husband 2]—when I had to go it alone. Never had to stay all alone in my life before. It is scary.

List all the times you’ve gone off the beaten path.

Not too many, but I don’t care to list them.

List how you’ve contributed to the welfare of the planet.

-Teaching 10 yr. olds for 30 years. -Tried to lead a “good” life by helping others in many ways. -Collected & recorded many historical facts—preservation for future.

List all the celebrities you’d like to sock in the face.

No room for all.

List all the celebrities you’d like to have sex with.

None—thank you.

List the ways the government lies to you.

Too many to list. Latest scare tactic by Bush Administration re Social Security, etc.

List all the magazines you subscribe to.

-Guide Posts -Good Old Days -Reminisce—a gift -Ladies Home Journal—going to drop

List the movies you’ve seen that were really worth two hours of your life.

-Gone With the Wind -Mame -South Pacific -Oklahoma

List the cultural spots you’ve visited that move you so much you are speechless.

Am usually not speechless.

List the times you said yes when you wish you had said no.

The times I sold off all the farm lands.

List the times you have consciously endangered your life.

Driving Dad’s Auburn back & forth to [X College]. It could really fly.

List those unanswered questions that have been plaguing you since childhood.

-What is heaven like? -Is there really a hell such as many “olde time” talked about? -Why do people mistreat animals—esp. kittens & puppies?

There are dozens of blank copies of this book available online starting at a dollar, and they had a couple of spin-offs, like List Your Self for Pregnancy, and More List Your Self. A few of these are written in, and there’s even an ex-library copy for sale!

What to do with this biographical book of lists? On the one hand our journalist seemed to want her privacy. On the other, it is a hokey yet poignant repository of late thoughts on a long good life, and better than many listless 1800s diaries I’ve seen that are mainly concerned with things like the weather. I know one of the women she included under “List all the people who love you for who you really are,” and it will go to her.

Shawn Purcell operates Balopticon Books & Ephemera

IOBA Standard, Fall Edition 2007, Volume 8, No. 4.

IOBA Q & A Column

Q. I’ve been looking for ways to supplement the low sales recently. Is there any market for book searches and if so, what kind of fees do you charge? What are the mechanics – i.e. collect fee up front or upon producing results, time spans allowed, et al.? Is it worth it? Any feedback will be appreciated. – Cynthia Putt, Parnassus On Wheels

A. There is still a market for search services, though obviously much smaller than it once was. I don’t pursue them but still get a fair number of requests, so I provide the service for a fee.

People are funny. They tend to feel gouged by a “free” search service that finds them a $10 book for $25, but readily accept the same total cost as reasonable when they understand what they’re paying for–i.e., a service. I explain my charges up front though I don’t charge anything unless the book is found. For run-of-the mill OP searches I charge a flat fee ($10 for the first book, $5 each additional) plus a markup of 20% on the book(s).

For example, the total cost of finding a $10 book might go like this:

• Say the book ($10) plus inbound shipping ($3.50) is $13.50. Mark that total up 20% (dividing by .8) which gives you $16.88. Add the flat search fee of $10 search fee for a total of $26.88. In this example you make $13.38

Used to be that you could confidently have searched books drop-shipped directly from the other bookseller to your customer. I don’t do that anymore unless I know the drop-shipper, so in most cases you will add your regular shipping charge to the above. – Rock, Back Creek Books

Q. Am I supposed to collect/pay sales tax on a book order that comes from ABE and gets shipped to a buyer in my state? If so, is there a place on ABE where I can specify the percentage to add to an order if it originates in my state as can be done on eBay? And I always wondered about drop-shipping – if a book dealer in another state orders and pays for a book and asks for it to be drop-shipped in my state, am I supposed to collect state sales tax on that? – Suzanne Carter, Bookseller

A. We email the customer and tell them what the sales tax is, quoting the final cost, and ask them to acknowledge the extra charge. Dealers often have resale tax id numbers and don’t pay sales tax. They will tell you when you mention the sales tax. – Fran Morris

A. Not that I am aware of. You have to pay it yourself or perhaps you can add it on in the extra shipping field and explain that it is tax. No (regarding drop-shipping). You are wholesaling it to the other dealer. Any sales tax is the responsibility of the latter – that is the party with whom the retail sale has been transacted. – Darrel Griffin

A. Essentially, one should note in terms what taxes will be charged, and use the “extra shipping charges” option to add the sales tax when processing a taxable order. Email will then be sent to the buyer showing the extra charge and reason and the seller will be notified if everything is going through. – Suzanne Carter

Q. I have a court hearing in which I will certainly be grilled on how I determine my beginning of the year inventory value and my ending of the year inventory value.

I spend anywhere from 30,000 to 45,000 a year on books. Most of these come in large lots. I do not assign a value to each book, per se, but generally apply the purchase price to the better books in the lot in the hopes of recovering my money more quickly. Eventually, the lesser material either gets added to inventory or donated to the local library. My computer program has crashed several time in the past 8 years, and the values it gives are questionable. I tend to deduct whatever I spend on books in a year as the cost of goods for that year. Does anyone else do this? If not, how do you do it? – A bookseller

A. I use the purchase price of the books as COGS (cost of goods sold). I don’t have a massive inventory, so I do keep track of the cost for each individual book. When sold, the individual COGS is deducted from the inventory value.

You need a tax-oriented CPA right now. Actually, you needed this a long time ago. $200-300 spent on a CPA’s time will either ease your mind or tell you how much trouble you’re in. Either way, it’s well worth it to know before your hearing: you don’t want to be surprised in there. -Michael Watson, 20ants.com

A. We have been using the cost as a percentage of selling price, and if we see that the ratio between cost and inventory is getting out-of-line, we adjust the percentage upward or downward. This was set up by a professional accountant, and while I’ve been examined by the IRS a few times over the 30 years I’ve been in business, there was never any question about my method of figuring out inventory valuations.

It’s really difficult to keep track of the cost of books that might stay on the shelf for years, were bought individually and in bulk, and, of course, those books we have the choice of eating or donating. – A Bookseller

Q. I need desperate help in trying to combat glare. I’ve got some books that I MUST take pictures of and do it better than my normal mid range thing – the problem is GLARE.

I can’t seem to find a good combination of things to get rid of the glare. I’m using a digital camera and the books have a bit of a sheen anyway, but there has got to be a way to get rid of most of the glare. If anyone has any easy & not expensive (read homemade) ways to do so, please let me know. – Stephanie Howlett-West

A. One solution is to get a polarizing filter for the lens. A good camera store will have one for about $25. You turn the filter until the glare is gone, then snap the picture. Be sure to get one with a circular grid, otherwise the autofocus might not work right. – P. Scott Brown, Bookseller

Q. This is probably a silly question…but why on older books are some of the pages “uncut.” I purchased a set of nice Dickens off of PBA. I was hoping to read them, But no! Every other page is uncut and obviously unread. I find this annoying as I can also presume if one carefully cuts the pages, the so called collector value drops faster than the dotcom bust. I would appreciate some insight on this. Forgive me if its been discussed before as must have missed it. – John Porterfield

Editor’s Note: In this case ‘uncut’ is not the correct term. The pages in question are actually ‘unopened.’ -mw

A. This is not so. unless those PARTICULAR books have a recorded provenance somewhere stating it has uncut pages then no one has ever noticed it but you.

Uncut pages are a manufacturing error, obviously they were meant to be cut open so the pages could be read. They are an erratum such as a misprinted dust jacket, unless you are holding a very rare 1st edition in 1st state, no one really cares. Even if a dealer says they do they don’t.

You can fix the error in an non-destructive manner by sliding a serrated knife such as a steak or tomato knife inside the pages and gently cut outward in a sawing motion. Then may read the pages and no one but you will know they had ever been attached. – Joyce Godsey

Q. I recently purchased a stack (over 2 feet tall) of ‘The Westerners : New York Posse Brand Book’ A number of these were stored, by year, in manila envelopes. Some of these have been subjected to water on one edge, causing not only the pages to adhere to one another, but even multiple issues are stuck together. I think that the text will be basically un-affected, if I can figure out how to separate these without undue damage. The paper is coated, if that makes any difference. How can I go about separating issues and/or pages with the least amount of damage? – G’Jim c):{-

A. Heat: always try heat. Buy a 9 bucks clothes iron with a Teflon surface; start on low, use computer paper to protect the pages from the iron. Get a nylon cake frosting spatula…the thin sharp ones and as you loosen the clay coating with the iron slide the nylon between the pages and wiggle. remember slow and steady. wiggle don’t force it. – Joyce Godsey

Q. I have two inquiries about shipping books abroad. Can you send M-bags to Russia? To Italy? What’s the minimum weight? I couldn’t find the info on the postal service site. Is there another name for them. Do M-bags go air or sea? – Susan Halas, Wailuku, Maui

A. Basic reference is: http://www.usps.com/global/mbags.htm Complete rules: http://pe.usps.gov/text/Imm/immc2_015.html#n1O$w151wats Anywhere is ok for M-bags. No minimum. You pay for 11 pounds min though Go air or sea – surface is much cheaper. Example Books to Italy 11 lbs or less: 9.90 Airmail to Italy : 27.50 – George Cross

Q. What are ‘French wrappers’ ???? The mind produces many possibilities, none of which have ANYTHING to do with books. – G’Jim c):{-

A. French wrappers is a softcover with no dj but dj flaps. The pasted cover extends over the fore-edge the same distance as dj flaps and then they are folded back to resemble them. Think of FRENCH CUFFS on a nice shirt. – Joyce Godsey

Q. Why is it that the word “page” is abbreviated by “pp”? I’ve never understood that. Or is “pp” something else entirely? – Larry Burdick, Book Oasis

A. “Page” is not abbreviated by “pp”, but rather by “p”. “pp” is the abbreviation for two or more pages. It’s the plural of “p”. – Don Lindgren

A. I previously pointed out MS./MSS.; also common is n./nn. for note/notes.

As with p./pp., these abbreviations come from the Latin where there is not a single form of the plural. Latin, of course, used to be the universal scholarly language – and some of us are still hoping for a comeback: http://www.economist.com/diversions/displayStory.cfm?story_id=2281926

The latest edition of The Chicago Manual of Style (15th ed. 2003) indicates that p./pp. are still the standard abbreviations (sect. 17.132). Continuing to use them is also a nod to scholarly universalism. – William M. Klimon

Q. Anyone have any luck with mold and mildew? The live stuff, not the dead stuff. Once it’s dead it’s just a stain and a smell. – Joyce Godsey

A. What seems to work for me in the capitol of Mildewlandia is an application of the purest rubbing alcohol you can buy at the pharmacy (95% or above). Apply liberally with a soft cloth, put clean plastic bags between pages before application. Leave the bags in the book & put a weight on it, leave until dry. The high test alcohol kills ’em dead & with very little water in it doesn’t seem to damage the paper – and dries fast. I would exercise extreme caution with any paper the first time, especially fancy papers that have a bigger chance of waving. Try a teeny bit on an obscure corner. – Lynn

Q. Another question for which I once knew the answer: what is the correct way to catalogue a “junior”?

Specifically Marshall Bond, Jr. – I checked a data base and found: Bond, Marshall, Jr. Bond, Jr., Marshall Bond, Marshall (Jr.) Bond Jr., Marshall Bond, Marshall (not so cleverly avoiding the problem) …and numerous other variations.

What is right and what is your authority for thinking so? – Lynn

A. Chicago Manual of Style, Chapter 18. Subhead 37 (18.37), INDEXES: Persons with same names. Bond, Marshall, Jr. – Joyce Godsey

Q. As a rank amateur am wondering what basis for pricing is used if there are NO copies of a certain volume on any search site , and I have too little experience to hazard what could be a costly guess ?? I suppose I could let eBay set the price , but am trying to do better on my own . Thanks for any input . – Jim Menzel, Second Thoughts Used Books

A. The following answers the above question and elucidates further: As to the poster’s question on NO listings, the first thing would be to double check your typing and spelling. Then maybe search on title but not author; finally try author but not title, to see what the author’s other books are listed at Bookfinder.com, on the other hand, seems a bit more useful for the layman, especially if they are not clear on author/title/spelling, etc. It saves you having to scroll through hundreds of responses. But I normally use AddAll.com.

AddAll allows you to pre-set for hb/pb/all bindings. A problem, however, is that their software defaults to whatever your last search specified. So if you search for hardbacks only, your next search will be preset for hardbacks; you have to remember to change the setting on the next search if you want paperbacks or all bindings. An alternative is to group your searches into batches of hb and pb.

I am not up on eBay or Amazon searches. They are a definite part of the market. eBay will search completed auctions.

Using AddAll.com, you get all the listed copies (or at least lots of them) in one list, regardless of catalogers’ variant title entries. AddAll can be set to sort in descending order by price, thus leaving the dreck (and the sleepers) toward the end of the list. If you wish, you can limit the search to hardbacks, etc. (You can also exclude the Alibris listings, which are mostly duplications. Unfortunately, I know of no reliable way to automatically eliminate ex-library, book club, or jacketless books.) At the bottom of the results page, there are options that can eliminate or limit the findings to certain publishers or other words.

Any sample has limited reliability. (Listed books are a sample of the whole world.) If a book is really scarce, you won’t see enough to use. If it’s really common, you may be wasting your time. In the mid range, the AddAll findings can be quite instructive.

The top of the AddAll report will indicate the total number of books found. The first screen will display only the top 50. Let’s say it finds 40. You can find the median price at No. 20, (or just move the scrollbar up to about halfway; with a little practice you can hit No. 20 most of the time.) Then look for No.10 and No. 30, which define the midrange (remember quartiles from Stat class?).

None of this eliminates the need for judgment, but it surely gives a good picture of the competition. You also need to pay attention to condition descriptions, and of course edition. And needless to say, the existing listings can be quite useful in descriptions of points, various editions or bindings, etc. – Don Ramsey, http://www.AllBooksConsidered.com

A. research. research. research. research. research. research. research. research.

Try American Book Prices Current, auction records, BAL (Bibliography of American Literature) , dealer catalogues, ask around…. – Joyce Godsey

A. All good sources and most should be available in the public library. I’d add bibliographies of all kinds. A lot of additional research can be done on line beyond a check of the data bases.

Sometimes I just Google the author & title. You may find someone like myself who puts items on their own web page before putting them on a data base. (My good stock is usually sold long before any data base ever sees it.) You may find that something you never heard of is actually well known or sought after. You might even find a group of people who are fanatics. Or you may find out that you seem to be the only person who has ever hears of the item. Even negative information helps.

I also always check WorldCat.

Editor’s Note: “WorldCat is a worldwide union catalog created and maintained collectively by more than 9,000 member institutions. With millions of online records built from the bibliographic and ownership information of contributing libraries, it is the largest and most comprehensive database of its kind.

WorldCat is the foundation of many OCLC services that let your library process, manage and share information resources and let your users search for and obtain them.” – Lynn

A. If you sell all or most of your books via the internet, you can’t IGNORE the prices there totally – after all, those books are your direct competition – but sometimes if one looks at the pricing trend objectively, booksellers look like a bunch of sheep – If the first bookseller to list a book goes high, then all of the other booksellers will more or less follow that price.

If the first bookseller goes low, ditto – NEVER MIND THE FACT THAT THIS LOW-PRICED BOOK MIGHT BE HARDER TO FIND AND BETTER than the higher priced one! So…..

#1. It never hurts to leave a little on the table (in other words, to price a book so another dealer can make a profit or so a collector will be happy with a bargain) as long as you have made a decent profit. This is what keeps people coming back. I didn’t make this up: it’s something I learned from another bookseller, back when I first started selling books. Don’t be scared about not getting top dollar – that is a moving target and you can’t keep up with it anyhow.

#2. Use some common sense when researching on the Internet – and broaden your search if necessary.

We recently bought a signed F/F 1st of a nice poetry anthology. I look up the book and all copies on line are exlibs $25 and under. I look up the editor who signed it, and more recent and more common anthologies by this same editor are up to $150 (unsigned). I looked at “signed” books by the author/editor and they are not terrible uncommon, with most in the $25-50 range. So $25 for an exlib is too high, $150 (followed by the next sheep who went for $145, etc.) is ridiculous. A reasonable price is probably $30-40 for our signed copy – and that gives us a good profit, etc….. With luck this book will sell reasonably quickly, since our copy is the only “good” one, and I will write a better description than any of the others…..

I never rely on a price when there are only a few copies listed (unless the price really matches my “gut feeling” when I bought it) – I try and look at other books by the same author, or the same publisher, or on the same topic – or whatever it takes.

#3 – if a book is REALLY worth a lot of money there MUST be a good reason for that. “No other copies on line” is not a good reason. Neither is “only one copy listed and it is an exlib for $250.”

Don’t let greed define your pricing. Let your KNOWLEDGE of books determine how you price a book – that is why bookselling has traditionally been considered a profession!

If you have a book that is a first hand account of exploring xxxx and it seems to be earlier than anything else on the same topic, and you find it absolutely fascinating and there are no other copies on line – then go for the moon in pricing it – and say WHY this is such an incredible book in your description. Read it (or parts of it), research it, research the topic – (even if you never buy a book from them, read Forrest’s and Susan’s descriptions of the books they o ffer for sale)

#4. Assume a knowledgeable buyer – don’t try to get every last penny out of an unwary buyer who wants a copy and thinks just because you priced it at $250 it is really worth that!

At the end of the day – or at the end of your career – you want to feel good about yourself, and you are going to feel a lot better if you sold a few bargains and made people happy, than if you overpriced common dreck just because “you can get a lot of money for these books on Amazon”

We all know that most “booksellers” – that is, those who are selling books because they find them fascinating (as opposed to those who are selling them because they are a commodity easy to find cheap/easy to pack and ship, etc.) – are not motivated solely by money (if we were we’d be doing something else and making more money) – so when you look up a book on the internet, don’t be doing it just for the price – do it as part of researching the book. If the book is a common one, that you are pretty familiar with, there is no need to research it (or look up the price), just stick a reasonable price on it, and be done with it…. – Christine Volk

A. Internet prices can still be quite useful if you are willing to accept them for what they are, and not for what they are not.

Using AddAll.com, you get all the listed copies (or at least lots of them) in one list, regardless of catalogers’ variant title entries. AddAll can be set to sort in descending order by price, thus leaving the dreck (and the sleepers) toward the end of the list. If you wish, you can limit the search to hardbacks, etc. (You can also exclude the Alibris listings, which are mostly duplications. Unfortunately, I know of no reliable way to automatically eliminate ex-library, book club, or jacketless books.) At the bottom of the results page, there are options that can eliminate or limit the findings to certain publishers or other words.

Any sample has limited reliability. (Listed books are a sample of the whole world.) If a book is really scarce, you won’t see enough to use. If it’s really common, you may be wasting your time. In the mid range, the AddAll findings can be quite instructive.

The top of the AddAll report will indicate the total number of books found. The first screen will display only the top 50. Let’s say it finds 40. You can find the median price at No. 20, (or just move the scrollbar up to about halfway; with a little practice you can hit No. 20 most of the time.) Then look for No.10 and No. 30, which define the midrange (remember quartiles from Stat class?).

None of this eliminates the need for judgment, but it surely gives a good picture of the competition. You also need to pay attention to condition descriptions, and of course edition.

And needless to say, the existing listings can be quite useful in descriptions of points, various editions or bindings, etc.

As to the poster’s question on NO listings, the first thing would be to double check your typing and spelling. Then maybe search on title but not author; finally try author but not title, to see what the author’s other books are listed at.

Bookfinder.com, on the other hand, seems a bit more useful for the layman, especially if they are not clear on author/title/spelling, etc. It saves you having to scroll through hundreds of responses. But I normally use AddAll.com.

AddAll allows you to pre-set for hb/pb/all bindings. A problem, however, is that their software defaults to whatever your last search specified. So if you search for hardbacks only, your next search will be preset for hardbacks; you have to remember to change the setting on the next search if you want paperbacks or all bindings. An alternative is to group your searches into batches of hb and pb.

I am not up on eBay or Amazon searches. They are a definite part of the market. eBay will search completed auctions. – Don Ramsey, All Books Considered

A. We recently had a very similar experience. We picked up a recently published (within 25 years) ex-library book on Spanish (gilt) leather, primarily because of the unusual topic.

Initially we saw a copy listed on the net for hundreds. I just couldn’t think that the book was that valuable. I used Google and found out the book is the bible for craftsfolk in that area of work. I priced it at less than a 1/3 of the high price found on the net, even then I made sure I cleaned it up a lot before I listed it. It sold within a month to a gilt worker in Europe.

We also regularly check our more expensive items that are over a year old to see if more copies have appeared on the net. In some cases we have had $100.00 books drop to $40.00 but they usually sell in a timely manner after I adjust the price. Good description can be a great help, as Chris Volk mentioned. Definitely true in the cases I mentioned here. – Gene Alloway, Motte & Bailey Booksellers,www.mottebooks.com

Q&A is compiled by Jean S. McKenna, Education Chairwoman for the Independent Online Booksellers Association (IOBA). Questions and comments may be sent to Jean ateducation@ioba.org. As usual, thanks to all of our contributors, especially Lynn and his

Bibliophile mailing list at http://bibliophilegroup.com/mailman/listinfo/biblio_bibliophilegroup.com

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Advance Look at 2004’s Big Bookselling Story: Amend Section 215 of the Patriot Act

IOBA Standard readers are getting a good look at what should be the big bookselling story of 2004, with a chance to play an important part in this campaign that will help our businesses, our customers, and America as a whole.

This February, retail and online booksellers, coordinated by the ABA, ALA, and PEN, and other concerned groups and organizations, launched a nationwide and on-line petition, backed by large-scale phone and email campaigns. The goal is to generate 1 millions signatures in support the over 150 US Senators and House Members who sponsor important bi-partisan bills to amend Section 215 of the Patriot Act. This on-line petition, phone and email campaign is being reinforced by a nationwide petition campaign at ABA-member bookstores (open to all stores).

Chronology:

February 17th: ABA, ALA, and PEN jointly announce the “Campaign for Reader Privacy”. (See: http://www.readerprivacy.com/?mod[type]=press and scroll down to Press Release.) READERPRIVACY.COM goes live. This site is a simple one-stop resource supporting this campaign for booksellers, bookstore customers and concerned citizens (no commercial use will be made of information collected). ABFFE.COM also has extensive info.

Emails and calling scripts (see below) go out to booksellers. This is a carefully scripted plan to make sure that Congress hears not just random noise, but that an entire industry is demanding action. This is where you can help, by making sure that Congress hears this is an important business issue. This will take less than 10 minutes of your time.

You will be surprised at how receptive your elected representatives are on this issue when you are calling as a business owner (no matter how small).

Late February: The ABA booksellers and organizations petition campaign rolls out in stores and online. This campaign is open to all and still going on; please participate! You can sign the on-line version at http://www.readerprivacy.com, download a printable version to circulate to your customers and friends, or both! If you would like to add your business name as a supporter of legislation amending Section 215 of the Patriot Act, please go to: http://www.readerprivacy.com/?mod[type]=book_community to sign on.

Late Spring: We will begin to present the petitions to members of Congress this spring during meetings in their home districts and in Washington.

Our goal: To restore the protections for customer privacy-something that will help our country and that we can take pride in for the rest of our lives.

If you don’t make an effort, don’t complain.

What is Section 215?

Section 215 “gives the FBI virtually unlimited access to… bookstore and library records” (please see the ABFFE.com home page for more info and links), and has caused tremendous concern among booksellers and bookstore customers, authors, publishers, distributors, librarians and library patrons, as well as many other groups.

Section 215 of the Patriot Act is an issue that has united American retail and online booksellers, large and small, as never before. It has only been recently that efforts by ABFFE (The American Bookseller’s Foundation for Free Expression) have revealed how united we are as an industry in being concerned about Section 215, and thus it is only now that we can collectively realize how much power we have to drive change.

An Industry United

Most, if not all, American retail and online booksellers are concerned about Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act. The firms and associations supporting the two main bi-partisan bills in Congress represent roughly 90% of retail book sales in the US, big market shares of publishers and distributors, as well as the entire library field.

(See:http://www.readerprivacy.com/?mod[type]=learn_more.) Changing this law will repeal the troubling aspects of Section 215 that concern booksellers and our customers.

What does that mean? It means collectively we have the power. It means that if we use this power properly, Congress will hear us. Our customers and staff will no longer be worried by Section 215, and we can get back to serving our customers, growing our businesses, and creating jobs. The uniformity of opinion in our industry regarding Section 215 means that we can address Congress with a clear and simple message: “This law is bad for business and we want it changed now“.

Section 215 – Bipartisan Mistake

The USA Patriot Act was hurriedly crafted and passed after the tragedy of 9/11, a time when Congress clearly felt that the consequences of inaction outweighed the dangers of a bad law. The Patriot Act passed with near-unanimous, bipartisan support, meaning that almost every member of Congress voted in its favor. (Russell Feingold of Wisconsin was the only “no” vote in the Senate. There were 66 opponents in the House.) Most Senators and Representatives will honestly tell you that they did not have a chance to read the bill before voting for it.

In an effort to shore up the increasingly shaky support for the Patriot Act, Attorney General John Ashcroft recently revealed that the Department of Justice has never used Section 215. We should accept him at his word, and conclude that, if Section 215 was not needed in the two years after 9/11, during our Nation’s greatest crisis since Pearl Harbor, then it is clear that the laws that already give the government the power to seek bookstore and library records while protecting against potential abuses of customer privacy are entirely adequate to the task of pursuing terrorists. What this proves is that Section 215 has not made a single American family safer, yet it has upset our customers and cost our industry revenue and our country jobs.

Using Our Muscle

Americans are increasingly concerned about intrusions into their privacy. As a result of this feeling, Congress enacted the “Do Not Call List” which garnered support from over 54 million households in a matter of weeks. As booksellers, we sell a single product category, which means our businesses are extremely vulnerable to changes in consumer behavior. There is evidence that consumers are becoming nervous about making purchases where material is controversial in nature or would be an embarrassment. Any law, such as Section 215, that associates our sole product line with negativity or risk in the mind of the consumer is a threat that must be dealt with.

To my knowledge, there is not a single company in our industry that supports Section 215. A law opposed by our entire industry, which concerns our customers, and has never even been used, is a law without a constituency. A few hundred or thousand phone calls from businesses like ours could make the difference.

Although ABFFE and other Civil Rights and Free Speech groups are currently challenging Section 215 and other aspects of the Patriot Act in court, as businesses we have the ability to get Congress to repeal the part that troubles us, and get results fast.

Get Off the Fence

In my memory of this industry, this sort of unity is rare and unique. I realize that for independent retail and online booksellers continually buffeted by change and brutal competition the very thought that we do in fact have power is an alien concept, but I can assure you that this is in fact the case. So often in our business careers our companies and this nation as a whole are adversely affected by bad laws or circumstances that we feel powerless to change. Section 215 of the Patriot Act is a bad law that we can change.

If you have not considered this issue, or are a fence sitter, I suggest you ask a few random customers the following:

Are you aware that the Federal Government has the right to make us tell them what you read?

If you believed the government would learn what you were buying, are you more likely, less likely or as likely, to buy books in the following subjects:

• firearms & Second Amendment rights

• religion (if you want to be specific pick any one you want)

• depression, anxiety and personal medical issues

• addiction & recovery

• abortion, pro-choice & pro-life issues

• sexuality

And last: As credit card transactions can be traced, ask do you believe your privacy is “better protected” if you pay cash?

The answers will get you off the fence. They will also lead you to understand that there are other, powerful constituencies and special interest groups (all of whom poll extensively), who will shortly realize that Section 215 is impeding their ability to get their message across to future members. And, in the case of the credit card companies, how will they feel about customers shift to cash in bookstore purchases?

Do You Want to Vent – or Win?

For some companies and individuals in our field, opposition to Section 215 is strictly a matter of principle and a patriotic commitment to the freedoms and Constitutional rights bequeathed to us by the Founding Fathers, and sustained by the blood and toil of our forefathers. For others, opposition is strictly based upon business principles and their customers’ increasing discomfort. I believe that most of our colleagues oppose Section 215 on both counts.

It is important to remember that the Patriot Act is not a Republican law, it is a bi-partisan law. Just as Democrats were full partners in creating and passing the Patriot Act, Republicans are playing a leading role in changing Section 215 (and Independents as well, Congressman Bernie Sanders, I, VT is author of the leading bill in the House). Just as with Democrats and liberals, Republicans and the Republican Party are not monolithic, and if we approach this as a bad bi-partisan law – not a bad Republican law – Republican Senators and Representatives will in many cases be receptive.

Just prior to 9/11, we at Arundel Books had our own fight over our customer records with Attorney General Ashcroft, the Justice Department, and the FBI. Yes… we won, with help from ABFFE and other groups across the political spectrum. While I realize that Mr. Ashcroft is a divisive and controversial figure, he alone did not pass Section 215 of the Patriot Act. Democratic and Republican Senators and Representatives did. I personally am opposed to Section 215 regardless of which party is in power, no matter who fills the office of Attorney General.

If we individually and collectively confuse Mr. Ashcroft or the Bush Administration with the problem that Section 215 represents, we will make our ultimate victory more difficult.

So, when I tell you that you can vent, or win, what do I mean? Section 215 presents us with a business problem that needs a businesslike solution. Hundreds if not thousands of business owners like you and I need to pick up the phone and spend a few minutes making calls. If we are businesslike, it will be easier to pick up support. If too many of us use this opportunity to attack Mr. Ashcroft, President Bush, or the Republican Party as a whole, there is a good chance that Republican Senators and Representatives whose votes we needwill circle the wagons to defend Section 215 – which is at the end of the day a law that they oppose in principle and would otherwise happily repeal. We would also lose the support and votes of many Democrats (and possibly Independents) who are interested in results and not posturing. The Senate bill, S-1709 (the Security and Freedom Ensured (SAFE) Act), which we should support, was in fact written and sponsored by a Republican, Senator Larry Craig of Idaho.

If you want to vent, call a talk show, your Mom, or your therapist. If you want to win, take this seriously and treat it like an appointment with your banker. If we take this approach and leave the partisan political rhetoric aside, we will win, our customers will be happy, and America will be better off for our efforts. Our industry is so united that there will be no cost or retaliation and you will feel like you made a difference and achieved something important.

GETTING IT DONE

What to Do?

First of all let me assure you, you are in fact going to enjoy this. It is not like going to the dentist, these people actually want to hear from you and stay in office by being responsive to business owners like us. It is companies like ours that create jobs, pay taxes and make this country work.

If this takes more than 10 minutes, you are a slow dialer.

Get your phone numbers and bill numbers ready, and get your script ready (see below for examples). This will get you to the right person, help you get your point across, respect that person’s time, and leave them time to speak to you. Your ‘script’ should fit on an index card, and you should do one each for the House and the Senate. Feel free to write your own, I have provided a generic model if it helps. Just remember, venting and winning are two different things. Let’s win!

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Congress has Two Houses & Two Bills

Just as there are two houses of Congress, there are two somewhat different bills.

The bill in the US Senate is S-1709 (the Security and Freedom Ensured (SAFE) Act), written and sponsored by a Republican, Senator Larry Craig of Idaho.

Your Senators:

Find your senators’ names and contact info. Go to the following website (you can also check the Government section of your white pages phone book):

http://www.senate.gov Use the pull-down menu to select your state (if you operate or own homes in more than one state, go for broke – call them all).

Write down or print out both of your Senator’s names and phone #’s. Unless you are allergic to long distance, it is best if you call their Washington offices (starts with area code 202).

Have your script ready. Call both of your Senators.

Sample Senate script:

2 Senators, 2 Calls: —————————

How it works:

[ring… Senator Blank’s office]

FIRST – GET THE RIGHT PERSON (hint – it is NOT the Senator but a staff member):

You Ask: Who can I speak with regarding the Senator’s position on S-1709? [If they need more info S-1709 is the Security and Freedom Ensured (SAFE) Act – bi-partisan, sponsored by Larry Craig and Dick Durbin]

[answer will include name and number – write them down; if the person is unavailable you will get voice mail – in which case you say your name and number, and that you are a business owner and constituent calling for info on the Senator’s position on S-1709]

When you get through, here is a sample script:

Hello [name], thank you for taking my call.

I am calling to inquire about the Senator’s position on S-1709 [If they need more info S-1709 is the Security and Freedom Ensured (SAFE) Act – bi-partisan, sponsored by Larry Craig and Dick Durbin].

I am a business owner and a constituent (if you share the Senator’s party affiliation say so). Section 215 of the Patriot Act is causing my customers concern and giving me and my business headaches. Mr. Ashcroft himself has plainly said it has not been used, and I would like the Senator to join in support of S-1709 – a bi-partisan bill, sponsored by Larry Craig and Dick Durbin, that will restore the safeguards for customer privacy without undermining the ability of the government to pursue terrorists. Are you aware that virtually every company in our industry opposes Section 215 and supports S-1709 – from the malls to Main Street – amounting to over 90% of gross retail book industry market share?

Where does the Senator stand on this?

If the Senator is supporting the bill – express your thanks and restate the importance of this issue to you.

If the Senator is not yet on board, it helps to leave your name and number and ask for a follow-up call, and ask: How can I help the Senator to understand the importance of this bill to our industry, our customers, and the Senator’s constituents?

Repeat this phone call to your state’s second Senator. Great job!

——

Calls #3 & 4 – Your US Representatives (unless you live in the same zip code as you work – if you own multiple houses of businesses call all Representatives in your areas)

Go to the following website

http://www.house.gov Enter the zip codes that apply for your home and work, and write down names and phone numbers.

———–

[ring… Representative Blank’s office]

FIRST – GET THE RIGHT PERSON (hint – it is NOT the Representative but a staff member):

You Ask: Who can I speak with regarding the Representative’s position on HR-1157? [If they need more info it is Bernie Sanders’ Freedom to Read Protection Act (H.R. 1157) which has over 140 co-sponsors so there is a good chance they are on board]

[Answer will include name and number – write them down; if the person is unavailable you will get voice mail – in which case you say your name and number, and that you are a business owner and constituent calling for info on the Representative’s position on H.R. 1157]

When you get through, here is a sample script:

Hello [name], thank you for taking my call.

I am calling to inquire about the Representative’s position on H.R. 1157 [If they need more info it is Bernie Sanders’ Freedom to Read Protection Act with over 140 co-sponsors].

I am a business owner and a constituent (if you share party affiliation say so). Section 215 of the Patriot Act is causing my customers concern and giving me and my business headaches. Mr. Ashcroft himself has plainly said it has not been used, and I would like the Representative to join in support of H.R. 1157 – a bi-partisan bill, sponsored by Bernie Sanders, that will restore the safeguards for customer privacy without undermining the ability of the government to pursue terrorists. Are you aware that virtually every company in our industry opposes Section 215 and supports H.R. 1157 – from the malls to Main Street? – amounting to over 90% of gross retail market share?

Where does the representative stand on this?

If he/she is supporting the bill – express your thanks and restate the importance of this issue to you.

If he/she is not yet on board it helps to leave your name and number and ask for a follow-up call, and ask: How can I help you folks to understand the importance of this bill to our industry, our customers, and your constituents?

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Phillip Bevis Arundel Books (206) 624-4442