Chapter 41 What We’re Doing This Weekend

It’s supposed to rain tonight, and the wind and the gray clouds rolling in make it really feel like autumn (even though all of the leaves on all of the trees are still green). Every year about this time, I pick up my old copy of one of my favorite books of all-time — Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House in the Big Woods. It has such wonderful descriptions of the seasons from a child’s viewpoint. I remember when I first read the following passage (I was probably 8 or 9); I fervently wished I could have lived during the late 1800s, when the book takes place.

“The attic was a lovely place to play. The large, round, colored pumpkins made beautiful chairs and tables. The red peppers and the onions dangled overhead. The hams and the venison hung in their paper wrappings, and all the bunches of dried herbs, the spicy herbs for cooking and the bitter herbs for medicine, gave the place a dusty-spicy smell. Often the wind howled outside with a cold and lonesome sound. But in the attic Laura and Mary played house with the squashes and the pumpkins, and everything was snug and cosy.”

I don’t have an attic, and neither of my two sons wants to play house, but I thought I’d show you what we’ll be doing to this weekend (besides soccer games) to make it feel like fall around here:

15 Bean Soup with Bacon for Dinner

I love 15 Bean Soup with Bacon, but I hate chopping vegetables. I probably wouldn’t have made a good pioneer woman after all.

Halloween Decorations. We started collecting the pieces to our miniature Spookytown when Tom was little, getting one new piece a year. This year, Tom and Huck set it up themselves.

Huck planting spring bulbs.

I know what you’re thinking. I haven’t been doing much work on books today. Does it count that I received two more great finds for my Dante catalogue in the mail?

I’ll be back Monday with a post on the nuts and bolts of starting a book business — things like resale numbers, business cards, inventory tracking software, websites, etc.

See you in the stacks!

Chapter 40 Academic Courses for Booksellers

When you’ve got the hang of scouting books and are beginning to develop your stock, you’ve only just begun. In my opinion, the most challenging part of bookselling isn’t finding the books — it’s knowing how and to whom to sell them. To sell books, you need two things in abundance: information about your book that could make it more valuable and information about how to actually sell books.

Should you open a shop or sell on the internet? Both? What internet sources should you use to sell your books? Are images of your books necessary if you sell on the internet? Are print catalogues worthwhile, and if so, how do you go about developing a mailing list? How do you sign up to sell books at a book fair? How do you know which book fairs are right for the kind of books you sell? What kind of computer program is best for keeping track of inventory? What kind of agreement is necessary for accepting books on consignment? How do you appraise books? How do you find out which reference books are the most appropriate for the type of book you sell? How do you develop a network of booksellers who are willing to share information when you need it?

To answer questions like these, you should attend the Colorado Antiquarian Book Market Seminar. Held for about five days in August each year at Colorado College in Colorado Springs, it’s an intensive week-long course that answers all of the questions asked above and more. The faculty are an impressive range of book people that include those with open shops, those who sell on the internet, a Librarian of Congress, a book conservator, and a few ABAA members. The faculty represents a good spectrum of all of the types of antiquarian bookselling, and make it possible for a new bookseller to see where she wants to position her business in that spectrum. Better yet, the Denver Book Fair is held the day before the Seminar begins, so it’s a great place for book hunting, too. What could be more spectacular than to be at a beautiful setting at the foot of Pike’s Peak talking about books all day long with others who love them and want to make a living from them as much as you?

I attended the Seminar in August, and I met collectors, booksellers, librarians, people who volunteered for their local FOL, even people who worked for ABE and Alibris. It was so nice to meet other new booksellers, and I have kept in touch with quite a few since our week in Colorado. The faculty was always interesting and informative, genuinely wants to help new booksellers become professional, and continues to answer seminarians’ bookselling questions to this day. You can get more information on the Colorado Seminar here. Most importantly, there are several scholarships available, which are listed on their website. Bookmark the site for this seminar and make plans to go as soon as you can. You won’t regret it.

Once you’ve learned of the myriad options for selling books at the Colorado Seminar, you’re ready to attend Rare Book School at the University of Virginia. It’s courses like these that can expand your education in fields like History of the Book, History of Bookbinding, and Descriptive Bibliography, to name just a few. Founded by the amazing Terry Belanger, Rare Book School is a rare haven in the United States for teaching those who love antiquarian books all about how books are made, collated, printed, and collected. Rare Book School, too, gives scholarships. So bookmark that site, too, and apply early and often. I recently received a scholarship for Rare Book School,and plan to attend in Summer, 2008 or 2009. So, if a new bookseller like me can do it, you can, too!

One thing I learned during my years as a teacher was that good teachers are lifelong learners. Good booksellers should also continue to build on their education, and the Colorado Antiquarian Book Market Seminar and Rare Book School offer wonderful opportunities for them to do so.

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!

Chapter 38 Don’t Be Afraid to Be Remembered, Or, Meeting Other Booksellers

Meeting other booksellers has been one of the best parts of my life as a bookseller. To have a friend who doesn’t immediately leave the room when you’re discussing the merits of Howes, USiana, Final Edition versus Howes, USiana, Second Edition; to have a colleague who sends good books your way; and to have a compatriot with whom you can commiserate when you’ve made a mistake (and you will make mistakes) is more valuable than any first edition.

I probably don’t sound like it on this blog, but, in person, I am shy upon first meeting someone new. I always have been, and I think my shyness often drove me to books when I was a child, as a way to avoid having to interact with my more socially confident peers. I hate to start conversations, though I do relax once I am actually involved in a conversation. Despite the fact that I have matured enough to be outgoing when called for, this shyness has carried over somewhat into my adulthood.

Last February, I had the privilege of working for my mentor, Mr. Z at the ABAA Fair in San Francisco. Unfortunately, Mr. Z came down with a nasty cold the week of the fair. Feeling awful, he returned home immediately after set-up, to try to rest up for the grueling long days of the fair itself. Before he left, he insisted that I attend the booksellers’ reception that evening, held in the rooftop room at a swanky hotel smack in the middle of Union Square, and try to get to know some other booksellers.

I was petrified. I would have felt much better if I could have been introduced to other booksellers by Mr. Z. Caught offguard by Mr. Z’s unexpected absence, my shyness kicked in, silly thoughts filling my head. Why would any ABAA-level bookseller want to speak to me without an introduction from Mr. Z? What if they just ignored me? How do you start a conversation with someone who is obviously more knowledgeable and experienced than you (and a few of them will be sure to let you know that fact right off the bat)? Worse, how do you start a conversation when all of the other booksellers in the room already know each other and have plenty to talk about without your rookie questions thrown into the mix?

Time for a gut-check. I asked myself how much I really wanted to be an antiquarian bookseller. I was certain that other booksellers never felt intimidated on meeting each other. The answer to my question: I want to be an antiquarian bookseller as much as a collector wants a Gutenberg Bible, even if I look foolish. Stop whining, then, I told myself. I swallowed my shyness and self-consciousness and marched aboard the shuttle bus from the fair to the hotel, where I was seated next to a bookseller from England, from (oh God) Bernard Quaritch.

“What’s the name of your shop?” he asked.

“Book Hunter’s Holiday.”

“I’m not familiar with that one, but” he added generously, “there are so many booksellers here.”

“Oh, I’m just getting started as a bookseller. I have an online shop only right now, and a small one at that. I’m working for Mr. Z for the duration of the fair to gain experience.”

“What do you specialize in?”

“Illustrated editions of Dante’s Divine Comedy.“

“Brilliant! We just did the catalogue for an exhibit of a Dante collection at Cambridge University. It was really nice. If you have a card, I’ll send you the catalogue from it. Will you send me your catalogue?”

I was thinking to myself that while my Dante books are interesting, they are probably not worthy of an exhibition put on by the likes of Bernard Quaritch at such a prestigious University. I wanted to hide under my seat for having the presumptuousness to pick such a high fallutin’ author as Dante. I had no Aldines, no Velutellos, no Blake illustrations. What was I thinking, bragging about a Dante catalogue to a bookseller who could assemble a fantastic one at the snap of his fingers? Was it possible for me to make a great catalogue out of unusual but lesser known editions? I hoped that the man from Bernard Quaritch would quickly forget me and my Dante catalogue.

Off the bus and into the reception, where I met my husband (who is plenty outgoing and who knows a lot of people, but no booksellers). The room was filled with many of the heavy hitters of the antiquarian book industry . . . and me, the former English teacher with a website. I was lucky enough to know one other ABAA bookseller, sort of, Mary and James — we’d met at a reference book workshop the month before. Prior to going home, Mr. Z had asked them to meet me at the reception. They were very kind to talk to Thoughtful Husband and I about book adventures for quite a while. We broke off to get some food, and then I stood in a corner at a cocktail table and ate my food, alone except for poor Thoughtful Non-bookish Husband. I might have looked forlorn in that corner, but I was actually happy just to be surrounded by sellers of such fine and elegant books, a fly on the wall.

Suddenly, I heard, “Chris!” from a few feet away. It was Brian, another bookseller I’d met at the reference workshop, and he was working for Mary and James during the fair. He was with his friend Kent, who works for another ABAA bookseller. They were laughing because Brian had called my name twice and, lost in my happy thoughts of bookseller heaven, I hadn’t heard him, but stood gaping mutely into space. Brian and Kent graciously stepped in to rescue me and Thoughtful Husband from bookseller oblivion, and we talked about all of the great books we saw during set-up and how we thought the fair would be. Suddenly, I noticed, I wasn’t a stranger in the room anymore. Though I wish Mr. Z could have been there, the rest of the evening was most enjoyable. I keep in touch with Brian, Mary and James to this day. I even shared a booth with Mary at a recent book fair.

This August, when I was about to leave for the Colorado Antiquarian Book Market Seminar, Brian, who had attended the year before, gave me some good advice. “Don’t be afraid to be remembered,” he said. “This is a great opportunity to meet other people in the trade, and knowing other people in the trade is crucial.” Meet people. Panic. Gut-check time again: How much do I want to be an antiquarian bookseller? Answer: As much as a collector wants a Gutenberg Bible, even if I look foolish.

I went to Colorado, determined to be outgoing from the start. I even brought a draft of my Dante catalogue to be critiqued, lesser-known editions be damned. I was terrified. However, I had a week so good it was in the realm of a bookseller’s dream come true, and I got to know my fellow seminarians and the faculty, all of whom were without fail friendly and sociable.

Oh, and the bookseller from Bernard Quaritch did, for better or worse, remember me, and sent me the catalogue from that Cambridge Dante exhibition. I was pleasantly surprised to see that I had, on my own, chosen some of the same books that were listed in the catalogue. Maybe I don’t need to be so shy around other booksellers after all.

Do whatever you can to meet your colleagues, and don’t be intimidated unnecessarily by those with more experience and knowledge. Most booksellers are collegial and even friendly. Many are happy to help a new bookseller learn the ins and outs of the trade. I’ll talk about where and how to meet other booksellers tomorrow.

Chapter 37 Finger-Spitzengefuhl: Anything Really Can Be Anywhere

An example of the magic finger that every bookseller needs to find good books

A new book hunter might ask, “How do you know when you’ve found a good book?” The simplicity of the question belies the complexity of its answer. Author, illustrator, title, subject, edition, condition, binding — all these things and less have attracted me to the books I’ve acquired.

The ability to determine whether a book is a good one or not is probably best summed up by two spectacular veteran booksellers, now deceased — Leona Rostenberg and Madeleine Stern. In their memoir, Old Books, Rare Friends, they write:

“As far as we know, the word Finger-Spitzengefuhl never made it to a dictionary. It was originally Herbert Reichner [another bookseller to whom Rostenberg was an apprentice] who passed it on to us. A tingling of the fingertips becomes an electrical current of suspense, excitement, recognition. In an artificially controlled voice, one of us calls to the other, ‘Look! This may be something.’ And two heads look down upon the title page of a discovery. Sometimes the Finger-Spitzengefuhl occurs on the spot as we scan the shelves of a foreign dealer. Sometimes it takes place only after the purchase has been made and we study our finds. Whenever or wherever it occurs, it is an experience that makes the rare book business a hymn to joy.”

A hymn to joy. That is indeed the very feeling of finding the right book in the right condition at the right price. For me, a bookseller, finger-sptizengefuhl is the ability to look at a book and know I can resell it if I can find the right customer. Fingerspitzengefuhl also means sometimes buying a book on a hunch. For instance, when I was just starting to collect books (long before it occurred to me to become a bookseller) I found a good book in a most unlikely place, discovering much later that the book actually had resale value.

Several years ago, when I was just discovering book collecting, my kids were in a tumbling class, and I had 30 minutes “free time” until the class ended. I usually spent this time browsing the various shops on the street. One of the shops sold used furniture from the 1970s. It was primarily a junk store. One day while my kids were in class, I entered the shop to see if they had (what else) bookcases. The shopkeeper had used a few old books in an attempt to adorn the lone shabby bookcase she had for sale. As I examined the bookcase, my eyes scanned the titles decorating its shelves. One title in particular caught my eye, but I wasn’t sure why. I took it off the shelf. It was a small book, with a pretty illustrated paste-down cover. There was something about the title. I knew I had heard it before, but couldn’t remember where or what the story was about. I opened the book. It was printed in 1901. If nothing else, the book was pretty. I decided to buy it and test my new book collector skills by researching whether or not it was a first edition. I purchased the book for four dollars.

After I returned home, I remembered why I felt familiar with that book. The title was a short story that appeared in the anthology of American Literature I had once used to teach my sophomore high school students. I tried to research the book, but information on identifying it in first edition was scarce. I couldn’t find any first edition copies of the book offered for sale online. After sending emails to a couple of booksellers I didn’t even know and to the author Nicholas Basbanes, I knew more about the book but little about whether or not it was a first edition. (Allow me to add how generous with their time and knowledge these booksellers and the author were when they received my email query about the book.) I decided to visit my local university’s library, which I learned had a book on the history of the printing of this book. (If you don’t find something at your public library, try your nearest college library. Their reference works are usually far superior to those of a suburban public library.) Two weeks later (the soonest I could arrange an afternoon without my kids), bursting with curiosity, I visited the library and found out that I had an early printing of this title, which only had about 2,000 copies printed. The book had significant value. I have not sold it, but have kept it as a reminder of my first incident of fingerspitzengefuhl.

My book find that day led me to consider bookselling as a career, and I will always be grateful that, in this case, the fingerspitzegefuhl kicked in at the right moment. In this particular case, my earlier degree in English and my years as an English teacher had informed my choice of book. With other neat finds, it has been a piece of information I have or suspect I can find if I buy the book. Sometimes it is a book that is in some way different from others I have seen before. If you’re new at book hunting, then next time you are out and about, remember that anything can be anywhere and that fingerspitzengefuhl often pops up when you’re least expecting it. Good luck!

Tomorrow: Meeting Other Booksellers

Chapter 36 In the Words of Cadillac Jack, “Anything Can Be Anywhere.” Scouting for and Finding Saleable Books

As booksellers, we have to hunt for books. Indeed, the thrill of the hunt is perhaps the most enjoyable part of the job for some of us. Good books can be found everywhere, but the right books in the right condition at the right price are elusive. Booksellers must buy books with the belief that when they sell the books they will make money. Where, then, to scout for saleable books?

You can start with the ubiquitous estate sales and library sales. You won’t find hundreds of volumes of good material at one time, but these sales are excellent places to start. Library sales give a new bookseller a chance to see books of all editions and all conditions. It was at a library sale that I saw enough book club editions of books that I began to learn how to distinguish most of them from a real first edition. You won’t see any book club editions (at least I hope you won’t) in a true antiquarian bookshop, so it’s hard to learn if that’s the only place you shop. It was also at a library sale that I learned to differentiate a good from a very good, a very good from a near fine, and a near fine from a fine book. Seeing the wide range of conditions on so many books helped me to know to know the difference. A library sale will add volumes to your education as a bookseller, if not to your bookshelves.

Don’t despair that you see a lot of dreck at most library sales (and you will see a lot of dreck). The term book hunter suggests that we must know the dross from the gold. If you are new to book collecting or bookselling, you need first to learn to recognize the dross in order to separate it from the gold. Once you attend the same sale a few months in a row, you will get pretty good at this and no longer feel like you aren’t seeing anything saleable at your library book sale. Also, if you inadvertently purchase some “mistakes”, you won’t have broken the bank to do so. When these mistakes happen to me, I chalk it up to “bookseller’s tuition”. After a few years of attending my local library’s monthly sale, I can now walk past a shelf and tell very quickly whether it holds any books I want to examine more closely. What attracts my attention and merits a closer look? Any number of things — A particular author or illustrator, an unusual or a well-known title, a decorative or a very plain binding. The more time you spend at such sales, the better you’ll learn what attracts you to the good books. You will also need a little something called “fingerspitzengefuhl”, which I’ll discuss in more detail tomorrow.

When you’re confident at a library or an estate sale, start scouting your local historical society. Many of these organizations hold regular sales. Mine even has an open used book shop. I’ve been lucky enough to find books and ephemera donated to the historical society that have the bookplate of a prominent California historian (now deceased), and that added somewhat to their already saleable value. I’ve blogged here about my local historical society and why I like it, if you want to know more.

Another place I shop frequently is the open (and/or online) shop of my fellow booksellers. A very valuable part of my bookselling education has been to get to know other booksellers. Experienced booksellers can help answer your questions and help you discern a first printing from a first state from a first issue. Once you have some basic knowledge, it is worth your time to cultivate a relationship with more experienced sellers. I now know a few well enough that they’ll buy a particular book with me in mind, hoping they can sell it to me. I’ve also been able to supply a couple of booksellers whose likes and dislikes I’ve gotten to know. Most of them are very helpful when I have a question I can’t yet answer on my own.

You know from past posts that I love book fairs. (Look at the sidebar on your right. There’s an entire category of posts on book fairs.) A book fair can offer 50 or more booksellers in one location. Frequently, sellers offer books at fairs that they do not offer online or in their shops. You can also find deals among booksellers looking to sell off books they acquired that aren’t a part of their specialty. They are wonderful places to scout and to meet your fellow booksellers in person. And don’t even get me started about the merits of selling your own books there. This is a post about finding books.

I do go to the occasional book auction, though I don’t often find bargains there. I also buy some books on ebay, but not unless I know a lot about the book I’m about to purchase. There’s nothing worse than a seller purporting to have a first edition and then seeing the actual book and finding out it’s a book club edition. Better to know the points of issue ahead of time and figure out for yourself if the book is actually a first. I’m wary of signed books sold on ebay, too. It’s just too hard to determine authenticity in most situations. Still, when you know what you want and you’ve done your homework, you can find interesting books there.

Purchasing an entire estate of books also leads to some good finds, but take care to research how to evaluate and negotiate such a deal. I’ve purchased such an estate once before and it was a good experience for me and for the seller, but I asked the advice of more experienced booksellers as to the protocol of housecalls before I agreed to look at the customer’s books.

Finally, read Larry McMurtry’s entertaining novel, Cadillac Jack. It’s a fun read and is a great portrayal of the mindsets of collectors and sellers, even though the characters in the book are neither booksellers nor book collectors. The narrator, Cadillac Jack, repeats a mantra when he is looking to buy items he can resell later: “Anything can be anywhere.” In my (albeit limited) experience, I have discovered that, more important than where one hunts for books, is the attitude with which one hunts for books. I have had some of my best book finds when shopping while employing Cadillac Jack’s “anything can be anywhere” motto. Sometimes, the Cadillac Jack attitude combined with a little book knowledge has led me to bag the big game on my book hunting adventures.

Tomorrow: Fingerspitzengefuhl and the Strangest Place I Found a Good Book. Anything Really Can Be Anywhere

Chapter 35 What Next?! Or, Learning to be Grateful for One’s Parents

I’ve written before about the craziness of parenthood. I forgot to mention the craziness of being the child in the relationship. The past 24 hours with my own parents and my mother-in-law have been the kind of day that makes me shake my head in amazement and ask, “What next?!!!”

First, my father was admitted to the hospital yesterday for emergency gall bladder surgery. That was a shock. He is only 62 and is in good health. I spent most of yesterday at the hospital. Fortunately, the surgery went well. My mom is there to help him. He should recover just fine. I am very thankful.

Next, we had an early Halloween scare with my 82 year-old mother-in-law this morning. She’s a widow, she lives nearby and she works for my husband opening the mail and filing things a few days a week. At 82, she is in good health, mentally and physically, and she likes to work and get out of the house every couple of days and keep busy. I should add that she also babysits, she’s a good cook, and she is very kind to me, her daughter-in-law.

Each morning at 8:00 a.m., my mother-in-law is outside waiting for my husband to pick her up and drive her to work. Today, it was raining and she wasn’t outside. My husband went to her door and used his keys to get in. She had the inside latch on the door, however, so he couldn’t gain entry. He knocked on the front door. No answer. Next, he called her from his cell phone. He could hear the phone ringing inside. Again, no answer. He continued knocking and calling for several minutes.

My husband called me. “Can you come over here? I think something has happened to my mom. I just called the police to come and get her door open for me.” He was trying to be brave, but he sounded scared. Since my mother-in-law is 82, we do worry about her health, but have been fortunate so far that she remains independent and without too many serious health issues. I threw on some clothes, jumped in the car, and sped all the way to my mother-in-law’s house, all kinds of morbid scenarios filling my head.

When I got there, I tried to be re-assuring, telling my husband (unconvincingly) that maybe she was just asleep inside. Still, this is not at all like her. She’s a very punctual person. When the police came, they too pounded on the door, shouted her name, and called her phone, all to no avail. At this point, my husband and I were both in tears, assuming my mother-in-law had died of a sudden stroke or heart attack and was lying on the floor of her apartment, all alone.

Suddenly, after what seems like forever, but has actually been about 30 minutes, she opens the door to find her crying son and daughter-in-law and a curious audience of policemen, firemen, and neighbors.

“What?!” she exclaims. “What’s going on?”

Turns out her power had gone off in the night, so her alarm clock didn’t wake her. She had removed her hearing aids at bedtime, and so, sleeping soundly under the gentle pounding of raindrops on the roof, had not heard the telephone or the door.

I wanted to be mad that she gave us such a fright, but truthfully, I’ve never been so happy to see my mother-in-law in all my life! We were all quite embarrassed at the fiasco we caused, but we are so very grateful that we still have her with us. She got dressed and off she went to work with my very relieved husband.

I am home now. My heart is pounding. I simply must calm down. I think I’ll have some tea and chocolate. Then it’s off to the hospital to visit my dad until Tom and Huck get out of school. Such is the life of an adult daughter who still very much wants her parents and mother-in-law in her life.

Once again, I am also thankful that I am selling books and not teaching school. I could never have had the flexibility in my daily schedule to deal with these crises when I was teaching full-time. While I hate to miss even a single day of working with my books, bookselling is something I can put aside when necessary. The only boss I answer to is myself and my bottom line, and I like that. I am thankful to be a bookseller.

That book scouting post keeps getting delayed, but I promise to get to it soon. Sorry to make you wait.

Chapter 34 We Interrupt the Previously Scheduled Post about Book Scouting for Repeat Customers — A Potential Added Benefit of Book Fairs

A few weeks ago, I wrote about my first experience selling books at a book fair. I was lucky enough to be able to hand-sell several items to one customer in particular. Just this week, I received an order in the mail from the same customer for two more books. I would not have had this customer at all if I limited my selling only to the internet. Now, in less than a month, I have sold him four books, each priced between $50 and $100. His purchases alone just about covered the cost of my half-booth at the fair. Exhibiting at a book fair allowed the customer to see the quality of my stock, something that is difficult to do when shopping on internet venues like ABE. It also allowed him to get to know me a little bit. Something about that in-person fair experience enticed him to return and shop my website (where I do have images of some of my books — and I plan to have images of all of them soon).

I want to encourage those of you booksellers who haven’t done a book fair to try to exhibit at one as soon as possible. I realize you may not live anywhere near a book fair, but if you live within a four hour drive of a book fair, I think it worth the trip to pack up your car and go. It will increase your contacts with other booksellers, it will give you a chance to shop for stock from many sellers at one time, and, most importantly, it will give you a chance to hand-sell books and to secure some repeat customers — all for setting up shop for one or two days. If, like me, your finances are limited, start small. Get a half-booth or share booth space with another bookseller.

I’ve been saddened to hear from older booksellers that book fairs in general are in decline. When I think back to the time when I was just beginning to collect books, I remember learning a lot just by attending a book fair and looking at the books offered. Book fairs are great places to introduce book collecting to newcomers. It gives rookies a chance to look at the range of dealers and books without the intimidation factor of walking into a silent antiquarian book shop where no one but the owner is present. Something about that quiet shop environment suggests that only connoisseurs are welcome. It is not conducive to newbie questions like, “So, how do you know these are first editions?” and “Could you explain the range of condition grades to me?” and “How do I start a real collection of books?” Some book fairs even offer informational lectures for new collectors. Book fairs are relaxed, filled with every level of collector, and offer newcomers the chance to ask silly questions without the fear of embarassment, something they need to do in order to learn.

The internet is a great place for those in the know to find their books, but it is not yet a good tool for introducing book collecting to someone who may not have known about it before. I say this because, despite a college degree in English, working for a book publisher, working as an English teacher, and living a bookish life, I was oblivious to the world of antiquarian books until I was 32 years old. Once I read about and learned about book collecting, I went to book fairs. I got a chance to see great books and to ask questions in a welcoming environment. Then I was hooked, and then I began to spend all my money on books, often from booksellers I had seen at book fairs. Wouldn’t you love the chance to gain a customer like that? I would.

Help revive book fairs! Sign up for the one nearest you now! You won’t regret it. You’ll develop new contacts, purchase new stock, and gain new customers. And goodness knows, the antiquarian book business needs new customers. Go! Now.

P.S. I know I owe you a post about finding stock and scouting for books, but I just couldn’t get to it today. I am in the midst of some long-delayed spring cleaning, and it has eaten up my non-book and even some of my book work time. As a famous character from a certain well-known book liked to say, “Tomorrow is another day!” Indeed it is, and I hope to get that post written tomorrow.

Chapter 33 Required Reading for Those New to Antiquarian Books

When my children were very young, I had little time for reading. Between feedings, diaper changes, and regular sleep deprivation, there simply wasn’t time to read anything longer than the local newspaper. During those times when I did manage to read, I often fell asleep by the third or fourth page. Oh, how I missed my books! I now refer to those busy years as the Great Reading Drought of 1998-2002. Fortunately, the reading drought ended in a great deluge of books about books. The first of these I read was A Gentle Madness, by Nicholas Basbanes. I recognized myself in the characteristics of book people profiled by the author. Intrigued, I read as much as I could about books and collecting for two years straight. I read no novels, no magazines, none of the historical tomes of which I am fond. I read only books about books.

Since then, I have continued to read as many books as I can find on book collecting and bookselling, though I do read the occasional novel now and then. I recently culled the section of my bookshelves that house books about books, and I call the books that remain my “required” reading list. These books made enough of an impression that I wanted to keep them, at least. I have re-read quite a few. They provide a good general overview of book collecting and bookselling. I will do a separate post at a later date for good general reference books for booksellers. That’s an entire subject unto itself. These books merely give you a flavor of the literary life of the antiquarian. You can find almost all of these books in used condition for an inexpensive price. And, always remember to scout your local library sale for such titles. If you want fine condition or first edition, you should be able to track most of these titles down, but it will cost you.

There are doubtless many more books I have not listed here. I merely list what I (subjectively) find to have been useful in learning about the trade. Feel free to add any of your own favorite books related to collecting or selling in the Comments section. I am sure there are other titles of which I am not yet aware. And, I know, I should add all of the publisher information for each title. Unfortunately, my time for blogging today is quite limited. Life, in the form of a large cleaning project, intrudes. Most, if not all of these titles, are easy to find by author or title name alone.

An Historical Overview of Books, Libraries, Collectors, and Booksellers:
A Gentle Madness: Bibliophiles, Bibliomanes, and the Eternal Passion for Books, by Nicholas Basbanes
Among the Gently Mad: Strategies and Perspectives for the Book Hunter in the 21st Century, by Nicholas Basbanes
Patience and Fortitude: A Roving Chronicle of Book People, Book Places, and Book Culture, by Nicholas Basbanes
A Splendor of Letters: The Permanence of Books in an Impermanent World, by Nicholas Basbanes
Every Book its Reader: The Power of the Printed Word to Stir the World, by Nicholas Basbanes
Collectible Books: Some New Paths, by Jean Peters

Bibliophiles and Rare Book Lore:
The Book Collecting Game, by A.E. Newton
Parnassus on Wheels, by Christopher Morley
Slightly Chipped: Footnotes in Booklore, by Lawrence and Nancy Goldstone
Warmly Inscribed: The New England Forger and Other Book Tales, by Lawrence and Nancy Goldstone
Used and Rare: Travels in the Book World, by Lawrence and Nancy Goldstone
Tolkien’s Gown and Other Stories of Famous Authors and Rare Books, by Rick Gekoski
Antiquarian Books: An Insider’s Account, by Roy Harley Lewis

Respected Booksellers Who Stood the Test of Time:
A Book Hunter’s Holiday: Adventures in Books and Manuscripts, by A.S.W. Rosenbach
Old and Rare: 40 Years in the Book Business, by Leona Rostenberg and Madeleine Stern
Bookends: Two Women, One Enduring Friendship, by Leona Rostenberg and Madeleine Stern

Nuts and Bolts of Opening a Book Business (both a bit dated but still useful):
Complete Guide to Starting a Used Book Store: Old Books into Gold, by Dale L. Gilbert
Selling Used Books by Mail: A Grass-Roots Guide for the Homeworker, by A.G. Gersdorf

Fiction about Antiquarian Books (you can learn a bit about rare books while being entertained):
Booked to Die, by John Dunning
The Bookman’s Wake, by John Dunning
The Bookman’s Promise, by John Dunning
The Sign of the Book, by John Dunning
The Bookwoman’s Last Fling, by John Dunning

Unsolicited, by Julie Kaewert
Uncatalogued, by Julie Kaewert
Unprintable, by Jule Kaewert
Unbound, by Julie Kaewert
Untitled, by Julie Kaewert
Unsigned, by Julie Kaewert

Almost all of these authors have written other titles than what I have listed here. They are simply to numerous to list them all. I list only those I have read myself.

Anatomy of An Antiquarian Bookseller, from Antiquarian Books: An Insider’s Account, by Roy Harley Lewis

Chapter 32 A Bookseller’s Education

Are you interested in pursuing antiquarian books as a profession? There is, regrettably, no actual college major in antiquarian bookselling, at least not one of which I am aware. The closest thing might be a major in Library Science, but much of that curriculum now focuses for better or worse on the use of technology in research, so it isn’t entirely applicable to antiquarian bookselling. There should be a course of study for booksellers, because, at its best, this trade helps to preserve, pass down, and disseminate artifacts of culture. I’ve said before that had I known about antiquarian bookselling in college, I’d have pursued it immediately rather than becoming a beginner in my 30’s.

Once I discovered book collecting and antiquarian bookselling, I decided that, since there is no academic certificatiton for the career, I wanted to know how one goes about becoming an antiquarian bookseller. I’ve been told by other booksellers that there are as many ways to sell books as there are books, so I can’t claim any thing special about the path I’ve taken. Still, I would have liked to have found something like this blog on the internet — that is, a bookseller who was willing to share step-by-step how he or she started in the business. I’ll be discussing how I got started in the next few days, trying to focus on one of the following aspects at a time:

1) Required reading for beginning antiquarian booksellers and beginning book collectors
2) Finding stock
3) Meeting other booksellers
4) Finding a mentor
5) Academic courses for antiquarian booksellers
6) Nuts and Bolts of Business — licenses, resale numbers, business cards, websites
7) Why book fairs are necessary
Simple tools every bookseller should have

One of my favorite books about books, Patience and Fortitude, by Nicholas Basbanes, inscribed to me at the San Francisco ABAA Fair last February. The first two qualities any bookseller should have are patience and fortitude.