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Q: Can you tell us a bit about yourself, and your writing career? And what books of yours have been published? A: I’ve been writing ever since I was in the third grade, when I began writing for my elementary school newspaper. I wrote (and starred in) the sixth-grade play, a comedy. I wrote for, and edited, my high school college newspapers, and wrote for the college magazine. Writing has always been a large part of my life! I intended to be a journalist, and during college I

If your book description is the sign that gets the customer in the door, then your Terms of Sale make up the front desk where you complete the transaction. This is the place that can make or break the deal. Here is the opportunity to make a customer for life. Here is where you can present yourself as a professional, as someone who cares about the customer and who stands behind the merchandise, as someone the buyer can trust. Or you can present yourself as: a) a rank amateur;

Mr. Pine’s Purple House is currently being republished in a new edition by Purple House Press. Q: Can you tell us a bit about yourself, and your writing career? And what books of yours have been published? A: I grew up in Pittsburgh, PA, went into the Army in 1942, and was assigned to the 28 th Infantry Division as a scout and observer—meaning, since I was an artist I was trained to go behind enemy lines, make sketches of enemy positions, and return with the information for o

“The behavior of hoarding”, according to the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health Hoarding Fact Sheet, “is seen in various illnesses.” Online mental-health resources class hoarding variously as a subset of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), of General Anxiety Disorder (GAD), and as a Social Phobia. The latter is the most convincing, if you ask me. I and the many other victims I have met are not so much anxious to keep stuff, as they are to avoid dealing with it .

Q: Jill, you’ve posted several times on book-related lists about starting Purple House Press because of a recognized need in the area of baby-boomers wanting copies of their childhood books and those books being too expensive now for most non-collectors. How did you recognize this need? Were you a seller of children’s books before? A: I sold out of print books for four years, concentrating on hard to find children’s titles. I noticed different people were requesting the sam

So, let’s us make the assumption that commercial value is a driving force in the bookseller community, and that most, if not all, booksellers would prefer to not “undersell” a book, where it is understood that “undersell” is defined by the individual, and the definition of which will run the gamut of the individuals doing the defining. What then confers “commercial value”? The answer, in theory, is easy: nothing more than the forces of Supply & Demand. Determining such for a

Pat : You won the Nero Wolfe award for Booked to Die . How does it feel to be responsible for bringing so many people into book collecting? John : I am still amazed at the life that book has had. In 1990, when I finished it, I was just hoping it would sell to someone— anyone! I was ten years between books and was beginning to think I would never publish again. Then Susanne Kirk at Scribner bought it, and life has never been quite the same since. I think it’s great, to answer

We have fascinating articles on determining the worth of particular books from Vic Zoschak, on the psychology behind acquiring whatever it is you collect (including books) by Maria Bustillos, and on professionalism – which pertains to everyone in any business, as well as those of us in the book trade, by Julie Fauble. In addition, Jean McKenna is now supplying us with a Q&A section on issues pertaining to our businesses and book matters–feel free to contact Jean with question