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As a first-timer at BEA, my initial reaction was: “This is great!” Coming on the heels of the L.A. Times Festival of Books (see Vol. 4, No. 2), held at UCLA a month earlier, it reinforced the feeling that reading and books (and selling them) still matter to a great many people. This euphoria quickly gave way to panic. How on earth could I, even with help from my wife/photographer, cover this huge event in the single day that circumstances allowed? “You can’t,” I told myself,

With all the financial pressures on Internet booksellers, from declining prices to shipping reimbursements which don’t quite cover the actual postage, it’s become more important than ever to be efficient. This is true even if you are a one-person shop, but even more so if you have paid employees. You can’t pay someone for fifteen minutes to ship one ten-dollar book and still make a profit. In my shop, much of the increase in efficiency has revolved around the use of bar codes

The Printer’s Row Book Fair is always an incredible event and, this year, again lived up to its reputation. It’s the Midwest’s largest outdoor book and author festival, which cannot be rivaled. Printer’s Row is great because it brings all the elements of the book world together; there are self-publishers, big name stores (Powell’s, Barnes and Noble, Borders) and the used and antiquarian dealers, as well as amazing authors. As a bookseller with booth space at this event it is

The 9th annual Cooperstown Antiquarian Book Fair was held this past June 28 at the Clark Sports Center in Cooperstown, New York. We had a full house again this year with dealers representing ten states and a multitude of collecting interests. The fair has now become an established yearly event in the final weekend of June in this beautiful and historic Catskill village of upstate New York. The fair was once again sponsored by the New York State Historical Association, which i

A gorgeous California Gold Country day provided the backdrop for the Third Annual GOLD RUSH BOOK FAIR, held on May 17, 2003, at the Nevada County Fairgrounds in Grass Valley California. The single day fair hours were 10am to 5pm. Holding the GRBF at the Nevada County Fairgrounds represented a change of venue, as the 2001 and 2002 Fairs were held at the Miners Foundry cultural Center in Nevada City. The venue change allowed for unlimited free parking, better lighting, better b

The 15th Annual San Diego Booksellers Association Open Air Book Fair was held on June 8th, 2003, with glorious sunny weather and about 7000 people roaming the booths of the 56 new and used booksellers, publishers, authors and literacy groups. Thanks are due to the volunteers from the San Diego Booksellers Association and from the Hillcrest Business Association, for the time they spent making sure the Book Fair went off smoothly. Sponsors of the Fair were Harcourt Trade Publis

Well, at least I think so. The Ann Arbor Antiquarian Booksellers Association was proud to sponsor the 25th Annual Ann Arbor Antiquarian Book Fair, in conjunction with the Clements Library, on Sunday May 18th, 2003. Held in the beautiful wood-paneled Ballroom of the University of Michigan Student Union, the book fair was attended by about 40 dealers from around the Midwest. It’s a long day and a short book fair; the fair opened to the public at 11 am and closed at 4pm. There w

There are two areas of focus when you’ve made that plunge into the life of bookseller; one is “How do I source my stock” and the other is “How can I determine how much of that stock I will sell”. The first area, “How do I source my stock” is the focus for this article, because without having a grasp on what will sell, there is NO way to determine how much of that will actually sell! But before we get to that point, I’d like to start off by imploring you to buy research materi