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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

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; Gre

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 w

Professor Carol Laderman received her Ph.D. in Anthropology, awarded with Distinction, from Columbia University, and has taught at Fordham and is Chair of the Anthropology Department at City College in New York. Professor Laderman’s primary research interests are Southeast Asia, medical anthropology, nutrition, reproduction, and sex roles. Her publications include such volumes as: Wives and Midwives: Childbirth and Nutrition in Rural Malaysia (University of California Press,

Over three years ago my wife, Mary, came up with the idea for a writers mural within our bookshop. The right artist was commissioned (an Oscar nominated animator, no less) and the research and designs began. That the mural would be a wonderful addition to the shop was not in doubt, but my job was to see if it could be justified commercially. The area was large (40′ x 18′), needing special fade-resistant acrylic paints, so cost was going to be considerable – the scaffolding al

The history of casting actors for roles in movies or TV series made from mystery novels includes more misses than hits, but there have been notable exceptions. Basil Rathbone was Sherlock Holmes. And when Hawk showed up on the “Spenser For Hire” TV series my reaction was: “Migawd, that’s him!” It was if my mental image of Spenser’s black sidekick had been transferred intact from my mind to our television screen. Avery Brooks was dead-solid perfect for the part. What started m

As booksellers, we would use the ezine to sell books. Keep that mission in mind. You should be convinced (rightfully so) that email advertising is very profitable. You should know that it has an almost zero outlay in reoccurring expenses, and returns are high and predictable. Even start-up costs are relatively low. If you have a couple thousand addresses of people who have bought books from you in the past it is time to start using this information to your advantage, and to t

By: Yaacov Peterseil, Editor In Chief Pitspopany Press opened its doors in 1993 as a niche publisher of books for Jewish children. The problem at that time, and one that still exists today, was that for a publisher of Jewish books children to be successful he had to cater to one of the three major Jewish denominations: Orthodox, Conservative, or Reform. The dream of publishing quality children’s books in a variety of subjects, and for an entire spectrum of the Jewish market,