Chapter 39 Where and How to Meet Other Booksellers and How to Find a Mentor

I wrote yesterday about my shyness when meeting new people. There is nothing that makes me more anxious than being in a room full of people I don’t know. Strangely, I had little fear of teaching a room full of high school students. I do know that mine is an irrational neurosis, and I usually rise above it and try to behave.

When I started book collecting, I was afraid (yes, afraid — I told you it is an irrational neurosis) to enter the shop of an antiquarian bookseller. I was afraid they’d scoff at my lack of knowledge and my lack of funds for really expensive books. I didn’t know the etiquette. What if I spent a half hour browsing in a shop (especially a quiet, antiquarian shop where I was the lone browser) and didn’t buy anything? I didn’t want to waste a bookseller’s time, but I also didn’t want to have to make an expensive purchase if I couldn’t find anything I wanted buy. What I failed to take into account was that, bibliophile that I am, I am not capable of entering a book shop and finding nothing. My problem is that I find more good things than I can afford to buy in one visit!

One thing you should not hesitate to do if you are a beginner is to meet other booksellers. Other booksellers can provide you with valuable information, valuable advice, and valuable books. Where can you go to meet other booksellers? Here are a few ideas:

1) Make appointments to visit them at their shops. (I was worried about buying books when I first met my mentor, because I had little money to do so at the time. Still, I wanted to show my appreciation. I brought my mentor a small book in his specialty that I found at a library sale. Miraculously, he didn’t already own this book, and though it wasn’t an expensive book, he could see that I had done my homework about his specialty and that I valued his time. I’ve since scouted several other good books for him and he’s since sold several of his books to me.)

2) Go to book fairs. You’ll see 50 or more booksellers in one place. Talk to them. Buy books from them. That’s why they’re there. They want to attract customers, not belittle beginners.

3) Subscribe to email lists where booksellers ask questions, share information, debate issues, and talk about books. Some of my personal favorites are: Bilbiophile Group, Bookfinder Insider, and Ex-Libris. ABAA and ABE also have forums for member booksellers.

4) When you’re ready to learn more, attend the Colorado Antiquarian Book Market Seminar or the Rare Book School at the University of Virginia. You will spend an extended and enjoyable time with other experienced and recent booksellers. You can probably find a good mentor here if you can’t find one elsewhere.

If you are a beginning bookseller, like me, you would be well-served to find a more experienced, reputable seller who is willing to be your mentor, or at the very least a person who you can ask for advice from time to time. Since I had acute fear of booksellers, I took the coward’s way out, and I emailed this letter to the Bibliophile Group when I was just getting started. Fortunately for me, I received about 25 responses to my query about how to become a bookseller. I picked one of the most thoughtful and detailed responses and decided to contact the writer of the post for further information. This bookseller, Mr. Z, is a reputable member of the ABAA who has been in business for many years. He has an open shop about an hour’s drive from my house. I made an appointment to talk with him at his shop about how to become a bookseller. I don’t know whether or not he intended to become my mentor, but the encouragement he gave me at our first meeting led me to ask if I could contact him again as questions arose.

Being the kind and generous person that he is, Mr. Z gave me advice on how to start a simple business (resale numbers, business cards, etc.), allows me to use his substantial reference library when my own references (to which I am slowly adding) don’t suffice, and hired me to work for him during last year’s ABAA fair. He has even written a recommendation letter on my behalf when I applied for a scholarship for the Colorado Antiquarian Book Market Seminar. I am lucky. Mr. Z is good at explaining the book trade while being careful to make sure that I make my own decisions. He sincerely wants me to do well and to learn to be a good bookseller. I can’t thank him enough for his vote of confidence and his willingness to share the benefit of his many years of experience. Without him, I’d still be lurking on email lists just wishing I could be a bookseller.

So, if you want to be a bookseller, go, meet other booksellers. It could change your life.

See you in the stacks!