Anyone who uses LibraryThing will know that it is constantly evolving. Tim Spalding and his team are regularly pushing through new initiatives and the latest one is particularly interesting from the perspective of AbeBooks and secondhand bookstores in general.
LibraryThing’s latest innovation, introduced yesterday, is a ‘local book search’. Basically, when you come across a book on LibraryThing that you would like to purchase from a local bookstore you are presented with a ‘local book search’ tab on that book’s details page. By clicking through, you are presented with a list of your local bookshops and details on whether they have the book or not.
For Unless by Carol Shields, I can see the book is stocked by Grafton Books and Renaissance Books down the road in Victoria (our hometown here on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada) and Beacon Books just up the highway in Sidney among others.
For Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood, I can again see that Grafton has a copy and Beacon Books, and Ten Old Books up the road in Duncan.
LibraryThing lists AbeBooks’ booksellers that have physical bookstores and that’s something we are happy about even though, to some extent, it gives book-buyers the chance to ‘go around the AbeBooks system’ and simply walk into the bookstore and buy the book without using our site (so we miss out on earning commission). We’re very aware Internet searching for local services and products is something everybody does, but we’re also aware LibraryThing’s local book search is another method of exposing AbeBooks’ sellers and their listings to the book-buying public. LibraryThing attracts a community of passionate bibliophiles and bibliophiles are AbeBooks’ target customers – this was something we definitely wanted to be part of.
It’s still early days for this new service on LibraryThing but Tim Spalding is already reporting decent interest. Local book search will improve as more booksellers go to LibraryThing and create a venue for their bookshop. We’ll be encouraging more AbeBooks sellers to create LibraryThing venues. LibraryThing is deeply committed to supporting independent bookstores of all shapes and sizes, and AbeBooks is nothing without the thousands of professional independent sellers who list on our site, so we’re looking forward to seeing how this service develops.
Robert Louis Stevenson was born in Edinburgh but according to experts, the sad reality is that his work has never been fully appreciated in his homeland and a lot of his work hasn’t ever even been seen in Scotland. A new website launched in Edinburgh today hopes to rectify that.
The site features a large collection of Stevenson’s written work including letters and works previously unseen as well as photographs and other personal paraphernalia drawn from collections around the world.
Stevenson is best known for the novels Treasure Island, Kidnappedand Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde but the experts behind the site hope to introduce the world to the author’s larger body of work which encompasses poetry, travel writing, children’s stories, literary essays, and even historical novels.
I know I could learn a lot more about Robert Louis Stevenson. If I was well-versed I would have thought to include him in my Movember Literary Moustaches list!
It is always nice to hear a famous author mentioning in an interview that they buy books from AbeBooks. Today, Philip Roth is interviewed in the Wall Street Journal. Roth’s latest novel is called The Humbling and it is the third book in a quartet after 2006’s Everyman and 2008’s Indignation.
Roth is asked if he is online and he admits to buying groceries and books on the Internet. He purchases from Amazon and buys used books from AbeBooks and also from our friends at Alibris.
It’s wonderful when you want to find something obscure and there it is for $3.98. It’s the greatest book bazaar that has ever existed.
Thank you Mr Roth. He’s 76 and in a unique position as the senior figure of American literature, so I think I should really address him as Mister Roth.
Stuff White People Like refuses to die. Today, the book’s author, Christian Lander, is writing in the UK’s Guardian about the blog, the book and his success. I think it was February 2008 when the bloke sitting behind me said we should all take a look at this very funny blog.
Here is one of Christian’s tips for success…
Be perceived as racist by idiots This will lead to more traffic than you could ever imagine. I would, however, strongly recommend not being perceived as racist by smart people. That will end poorly.
It’s a funny book and should be read by all middle class white people. Here is our interview with Lander from last year.
I see entry #128 is camping. (Of course, I went camping twice over the summer. I also recycle, read books, put my daughter into French immersion etc etc. This book charts out my life as a middle class white person)
In theory camping should be a very inexpensive activity since you are literally sleeping on the ground. But as with everything in white culture, the more simple it appears the more expensive it actually is.
J.K. Rowling is on Twitter (@jk_rowling) but someone needs to give her guidance about how to Tweet. She’s hopeless. She’s also not following a soul and that’s very bad form in Twitterworld. She should at least follow a fellow author. Hasn’t she got ‘people’ to do this for her? C’mon, J.K. - just make someone Tweet for you? Hire a Tweeter. If I was J.K. Rowling, I’d have an entourage of people.
Marketing Week Magazine in the UK analyses the market for secondhand goods - a market that, frankly, is dominated by books. The writer doesn’t truly understand what makes the used book market tick - there is no mention about how secondhand booksellers often supply products (books) that are not available in new condition. To understand the used book business, you need to grasp how books go out-of-print and they are going out of print very quickly these days because publishers are not keen to hold on to ‘backlist’ titles for too long.
If you wanted to go deeper into the secondhand book market, you’d analyse the food chain of booksellers - $1 booksellers with huge warehouses (all online), remainder sellers (online & wholesale), charity sellers (online and bricks and mortar), general used bookstores (who are mostly online too), specialist used bookshops (nearly always online as well), purely online sellers often operating from home and sometimes with a storage facility, and high-end rare and antiquarian sellers with upmarket shops (usually online too). And I’m just skimming over the surface here.
Boe Rushing reports from the Colorado Antiquarian Book Seminar - it’s day four.
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Day four began with me realizing I have been living in a bubble for four days. The dorms where most of us are staying have no TVs and we’ve hardly been in our rooms anyway. It’s all books all the time. The day’s first presentation was by Dan Gregory and concerned rare book photography. If this book thing doesn’t work out for him I think he could make a living on the comedy circuit.
After our break Dan DeSimone gave an excellent talk on selling books to libraries. Over the years I have sat in front of a lot of instructors. At least half of the time I didn’t want to be there and I think the other half of the time the instructor didn’t want to be there. This week is the opposite of that. I, and I am sure many of the others, are eagerly absorbing this information. Likewise the instructors are passionate in their love of books and the trade. In my discussions with Dan, and in his talk today, I have been very impressed with his genuine desire to pass on his knowledge and I am very appreciative.
After lunch Mike Ginsberg, Kevin Johnson and Rob Rulon-Miller each spoke on evaluating and pricing books. There were some technical problems but Rob kept us entertained by describing the various things that were supposed to be displayed on the screen as he spoke. He might be able to open for Dan on the comedy tour. We also spent time going over some of the student’s book descriptions from the day before.
The afternoon ended with Kevin Johnson discussing buying and selling books on the Internet. This talk was filled with great practical tips and was a great way to end the day. But the day wasn’t over yet for myself and half of the class. After dinner we took a bus to Hooked on Books, a very nice local bookstore where Mary Francis Ciletti gave a very interesting presentation on the nuts and bolts of operating a bookstore. Being one of the few present actually considering opening a store (again) I asked lots of questions. Maybe too many. Sorry guys.
So after we all bought some books we returned to the dorms and here I am. I would encourage anyone who has a dream like me to have a succesful career dealing in antiquarian books to attend this seminar. It might just change your life.
Tim Guest, a 34-year-old author from the UK, has been found dead in his bed by his wife after a suspected heart attack. He wrote My Life in Orange about being brought up in communes and Second Lives about virtual communities.
Mezrich defends himself saying, “It’s a non-fiction book. It’s a true story. I am a narrative non-fiction writer in a way that other people don’t write. I’m trying to create my own genre of non- fiction.”
FaceBook’s spokesman counters, “Ben Mezrich clearly aspires to be the Jackie Collins or Danielle Steele of Silicon Valley.”
Mezrich is insistant that he followed standard journalistic practice yet he apparently didn’t interview Mark Zukerberg, the founder of FaceBook. Critics also say thta Mezrich doesn’t properly explain how Zuckerberg transformed from a somewhat anti-social student to a huge internet success.
Ben Mezrich speaks with Bloomberg about The Accidental Billionaires:
Job-seekers interested in working for AbeBooks are invited to attend an open house being staged by our customer support department on Wednesday 29 July.
As I am sure most people know, AbeBooks is an online marketplace for new, used, rare and out-of-print books. We are located in a fantastic office building close to downtown Victoria. From my desk, I can see float planes taking off, the Olympic mountains in Washington State, the Gorge waterway and its kayakers, and much more. This company was founded in 1996 and acquired by Amazon.com, Inc., in December 2008. More than 20 people are currently employed in the customer support section, which helps booksellers to sell books and booklovers to buy books.
Customer support is a vital part of our company and we’re proud of the level of support that we offer to buyers and sellers. Anyone interested in working in this part of AbeBooks requires a deep commitment to providing exceptional customer service, excellent communication skills and the ability to work in a demanding technology-driven environment. A sound knowledge of Internet-related technologies is vital.
Visitors will be given an introduction to the company and learn more about the skills required to work in this department of AbeBooks. There will also be a tour of the facility and the opportunity to meet Human Resources director Judy Hamza and Shaun Jamieson, Director of Sales and Account Management. Visitors are welcome to drop off resumes.
The open house will be staged on Wednesday 29 July from 1pm until 2.30pm. AbeBooks is located in a state-of-the-art office building at Suite 500, 655 Tyee Road, Victoria, BC, V9A 6X5 – just a few minutes from downtown Victoria. Refreshments will be served. Anyone requiring further details should email hr@abebooks.com
One other thing, AbeBooks is filled with people who began their AbeBooks’ career in customer support before transferring to other areas of the company. The marketing, quality assurance, operations, and systems departments all contain people who cut their teeth in customer support.
The Telegraph reports that two American students have been commissioned by Penguin to write a compilation called Twitterature: The World’s Greatest Books, Now Presented in Twenty Tweets or Less.
The book will be made up of classic novels, abridged in the style of Tweets. (For those not familiar with the lingo, Tweets are short messages sent via the social networking site Twitter.)
At this time, it’s not known what literary masterpieces will be dramitically pared down but the book is expected to be released this autumn.
Remember a week or so ago when I lamented the idea of a future with e-readers in place of books? I focused particularly on the olfactory absence:
“The part that devastates me perhaps most of all is the idea of losing that bookstore smell. I don’t believe it will ever come to that entirely, and if it does it is a long way off, but the notion was jarring. The smell of new bookstores is different from used bookstores, is different from libraries, is different from antiquarian collections, but they all have the musty, spicy, underlying smell of paper at their root, and my nose knows nothing better. I have difficulty imagining walking into an e-reader factory, closing my eyes, inhaling and smiling.”
Does your Kindle leave you feeling like there’s something missing from your reading experience?
Have you been avoiding e-books because they just don’t smell right?
If you’ve been hesitant to jump on the e-book bandwagon, you’re not alone. Book lovers everywhere have resisted digital books because they still don’t compare to the experience of reading a good old fashioned paper book.
But all of that is changing thanks to Smell of Books™, a revolutionary new aerosol e-book enhancer.
Now you can finally enjoy reading e-books without giving up the smell you love so much. With Smell of Books™ you can have the best of both worlds, the convenience of an e-book and the smell of your favorite paper book.
Is it real? Or are they kidding? Lord, let them be kidding.
Especially about this bit:
Smell of Books™ is available in five designer aromas. There’s a Smell of Books™ scent for every type of book lover.
New Book Smell
Classic Musty Smell
Scent of Sensibility
Eau You Have Cats
Crunchy Bacon Scent
There’s….not much to say besides the headline, really… almost a year ago, a twitter user made a tongue-in-cheek comment that it would be cool if someone tweeted all of Moby Dick.
A light bulb went off for a twitter user named danco (Dan Coulter), and he endeavored to make it happen, under a separate Twitter account (complete with whale wallpaper, natch). 9 1/2 months and 12,849 updates later - that’s around 45 tweets a day, as twitter updates have a 140 character limit - the book’s last line: “It was the devious-cruising Rachel, that in her retracing search after her missing children, only found another orphan.” was tweeted yesterday, May 13th, at 7:08 a.m.
Danco is quick to assure audiences that it was a bot, not him, doing the day-in, day-out tweeting.
Robert Louis Stevenson
Well…. I can’t say for sure whether or not this is a joke, but for the record, 