Thanks a bunch for the post Patrick and best of luck.

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A Recipe For Starting A Used Bookstore
Yesterday, I picked up the key for a strip mall storefront that I hope to transform into a
profitable used bookstore. The store, cleverly named Blue Plate Books, aims to serve up a
healthy helping of books at affordable - ‘blue plate special’ - prices. Our byline? “Feeding
Your Need to Read” This bookstore has long resided first in the back, and now more recently
in the very front, of my mind. The key in my hand should convince me that yes, Virginia,
the bookstore is real. So before this dream of a second career transmogrifies into the harsh
reality of a daily job, I thought I’d try to remember how I got here.
I’ve been actively working on making this a reality for almost 2 years. My recipe: Start with
one slightly burned out health care worker. Mine was a detail oriented ophthalmic
photographer (he took pictures of eyes). He’d loved books,
collected many, and had even written a few. He’d always been devoted to his career and to
his patients. But 25 years of going full speed ahead on a daily basis was starting to take its
toll. Suddenly, the stars made a right hand turn, angling toward alignment. His boss
changed positions, and the new boss was not for the better. His two children were just
completing their undergraduate degrees (translation: a respite from college bills). And his
wife was recruited to a better position in a significantly warmer state (Virginia is due south
of New Hampshire). He began to think that his very late 40’s would be a once in a lifetime
opportunity to make a new start. He’d always wanted to run a bookstore…
Back to the recipe: Sprinkle liberally with education. My first plan of attack was reading.
Helen Hanff’s romantic ‘84 Charing Cross Road’ was balanced with the practical ‘Complete
Guide to Starting a Used Bookstore’ by Dale Gilbert. Series of books included three works
each by the Ahearns and the Goldstones. These intriguing reads were balanced by the
always boring database and business software how-to manuals.
Following Frances Bacon’s personal advice (”Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready
man; and writing an exact man.”), I went to summer camp for used booksellers.
While both terrifying and exhilarating, the highlight of
The Colorado Antiquarian Book Seminar was not freewheeling a bicycle down the twisty
summit road of Pike’s Peak the Saturday following the conference.
The highlight was also not (although it suited me
fine) getting up at the crack of dawn each day for an early start to the seminar, then
returning back late (11:00 or so) with your head crammed full of important grand schemes
and minor details you won’t want to forget. For me, the best part of the seminar was
hearing about other bookseller’s experiences. One man shared that he had closed 3
different used bookstores in the last 3 years. He was there to find out what happened so he
wouldn’t be forced to close his next venture quite so quickly. A women talked about what
and how she was selling on the internet; and wondering why she just wasn’t making any
real money. And the instructors generously shared stories about their failures alongside
equally enlightening successes.
For the binder that holds together the above ingredients, I suggest experience. I sought this
out in two ways: via discussion and by procuring a minimum wage job with a daily start
time of 6AM. I asked questions of every bookstore owner I met: what worked? What
suggestions do you have for a newbie? What was your worst mistake? I asked friends and
neighbors: what are you reading? What is the last great book you read? What’s your
favorite book? I queried myself: What do I need to accomplish in order to succeed at this?
What can I do today to move forward - even if just a little bit.
One of the suggestions by the Colorado Antiquarian Book Seminar faculty was to obtain a
job in a local used bookstore. They suggested that it would be a good way to find out how
things really worked. Since that wasn’t possible in my community, I found a position at the
local big-box-bookstore: Borders. My IPT position (Inventory Processing Team) required me
to report before the sun rose and take a 90% pay cut, based on my previous salary. It
meant getting a raise so small that my just-out-of-college daughter laughed at it. At least
being a member of the Inventory Processing Team sounded impressive. Until you learn
what it really means. My job involved swapping out magazines from the newstand,
unloading boxes, and putting books on shelves. But the people I worked with were great.
And it was a very useful learning experience. I saw firsthand which of the books I placed on
the shelf sold, and which got shipped back to the publisher. I learned to relate with
customers and find them books when all they gave me to go on was “I think it had a yellow
cover”. And I learned that the price of a book is really only based upon what someone else
is willing to pay. More than once I witnessed the self-same title sold at list price from
Borders’ shelf while being deeply discounted in their bargain area, and then sold for almost
free at a local garage sale.
To mix with the above ingredients, take one part basement and fill with books. Wait, make
that most of the basement. While I worked at Borders, I also worked at obtaining stock.
Depending on who I asked, a minimum of 4 to 6 to 10 thousand books would be needed to
start my store. So every penny that Borders paid me, along with any funds from various
freelance photography gigs, were channeled into the bookstore fund. Buy books, clean
them, sort and box them. Wait - be sure to leave a path between the boxes so we can still
get to the washing machine. What did we live on? I’ve lucky in that our modest lifestyle of
the last 2 years has allowed us to make ends meet using just my wife’s salary (Thanks
Honey!). Trust me, we are both looking forward to some income from this store.
But that won’t come until we actually open. And that won’t come until after the movers
arrive today to transfer the boxes and the bookshelves to their new home in the strip mall.
As I help them pack their truck, my experience at Borders will come in handy. And then,
once the truck pulls up in front of the storefront, I’ll use my new key to literally open the
door on a new chapter in my life. Wish me luck with Winchester Virginia’s newest
bookstore: Blue Plate Books.

Here’s a comment from the site: “Wow. I downloaded this when it was previously offered(2.71) and I honestly couldn’t speak highly enough of this software. It’s an invaluable resource for any writer. To call it a word processor doesn’t really do it justice.”

The cost of the link is starting at only $4.00 for 30 days.

The benefits include:

• Exposure to the hundreds of book dealers that visit this site each day and the thousands of collectors/customers they represent
• A Google Page Rank 5 link to your site (and many PR3 and PR4 links)
• Your link on over 250 pages (as it will be on the sidebar)
• A chance to make a private sale of a collectible book (no commissions)

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CHILDISH WISHES

I have a theory that our true self emerges at around seven years of age and is buried at around thirteen, possibly never to emerge again. Luckily for me, life threw me in the way of most of my little girl’s dreams. (Be careful what you wish for etc.)

When I was a little girl in the city I liked farms, I grew up and married a farmer, more the grazier type but without as much money.

When I was a little girl I liked playing mothers, I had two girls and two boys.

When I was a little girl I liked growing things, so when the farmer sort greener pastures - so to speak - I went back to school and became a garden designer.

When I was a little girl I liked storybook cottages with lace curtains and flowery gardens, so when, three years ago, I decided to downsize a bit and get rid of the mortgage, I opened the newspaper at the real estate pages - as we call them here in Australia - and there was the cutest cottage, 150 years old, brick, and painted pink with lace curtains at the window! Perfick!

The other thing I /really /liked when I was a little girl was books, so now it’s time for the book shop. I’d love to tell you that I have a delightful little shop with antique shelving and a cozy fire in the winter where customers can sit and read before buying that rare first edition that they’ve searched everywhere for. Alas, the reality is never quite the dream and so my bookshop is confined to cyberspace. But if you have a laptop you could pull a chair up to the fire and browse through my web site http://www.wellerbooks.com.au which has a picture of every book, and /pretend/ you’re in my imaginary shop - couldn’t you?

Christine Stevenson at Weller Cottage Books, Australia

The quest to get ‘Lolita’ published is well known. It is said there were 5000 copies of the first edition. A friend, now a venerable book dealer, worked for Maurice Girodias, the book’s publisher in Paris, during the 1950s. He used to bring them over to the UK to sell for a premium as a filthy, banned book. British Customs officers had been instructed by the Home Office to seize all copies entering the United Kingdom. He recalls trips where he failed to sell all copies and rather than return with them he had to abandon copies in bus stations, phone boxes etc. original article here

Please take a visit, you’ll love it and if you’ve ever wondered ‘How much is a first edition of Lolita‘ is you’ll get your answer.

Today’s segment features some of their favorite books. You can listen by clicking on the little graphic just below (if you are reading this in a feed reader you may have to come to the site first) or by using the link at the end of the post.

The end of every calendar year sees many newspapers, magazines, radio shows etc. choose their best books of the year. If we waited until December, our list would be way too long. Since we’re halfway through the year, we thought we’d pick our faves for the year so far.

The good folks at Books on the Nightstand encourage you to shop for the books mentioned in their podcast at your local bookshop and have Library Thing links to the books mentioned on their site. Click here for details. -> Podcasts about Books

Here is the mp3 file for the above mentioned segment

Coming your way in return would be some front page exposure on the site for a minimum or three days (longer at times). This should get a thousand pairs of eyes on your name at the very least. Of course some links to your site and address etc. will all be included. If interested or if you have any questions send me a note at: editor@bookshopblog.com or use the contact for below.

We English majors, though, we were not usually so definitive in our career plans. Editing the literary magazine or writing for the school paper was not likely to make an employer think you could be the next designer of yet another, smaller computer chip in furtherance of Moore’s Law. While an English major might do well with creative writing, he probably didn’t understand a thing about creative accounting. With a good working knowledge of Medieval Literature and fairly decent writing and analytical skills, we English majors were not really of use in the business world beyond writing advertising copy or technical manuals. No one recruited us.

Well, English majors, I’m here to tell you that although you probably won’t see us coming to recruit you at your local college campus: Antiquarian booksellers want you!

That’s right. There are simply not enough antiquarian booksellers, and antiquarian booksellers under age 40 are about as rare as Gutenberg Bible. That’s because, if you’re like me, you love books, but you simply may not know about the world of antiquarian books. Yes, I was an English major. I worked for a book store, a book publisher, and my university’s library during college, yet I was completely unaware of the existence of antiquarian books, which, let’s face it, are not often on display in publicly accessible places. If you don’t see them, you might not know they exist; or, if you know they exist but you don’t see them, you might not understand what’s so great about old books.

When you get involved with antiquarian books, you get involved with much more than a book. You learn about history, bibliography, and the importance of preserving primary sources. If you’ve seen movies like National Treasure, then you’ll already know that the occasional car chase and explosion will be a part of your career, too.

When I discovered the world of book collecting and antiquarian bookselling some years after college, I wondered why I had never known that antiquarian bookselling existed as a career.

Is antiquarian bookselling right for you? As the bibliophile John Hill Burton once said of antiquarian booksellers, “It is, as you will observe, the general ambition of the class to find value where there seems to be none, and this develops a skill and subtlety, enabling the operator, in the midst of a heap of rubbish, to put his finger on those things which have in them the latent capacity to become valuable and curios.” That description pretty much sums it up.

If you think antiquarian bookselling might be right for you, here are a few questions you might ask yourself: Do you like books? Are you especially in love with the physical beauty of old books? Do you revel in the arcane information to be found in some old tomes? Do you possess at least a few rudimentary business skills? Do you love to learn? Do you love to sell? Do you believe in yourself enough to build your own business even if no corporate recruiters came knocking at your door? Do you prefer autonomous self-direction over instructions handed down from a boss? Can you work alone, content with your books and yourself? Can you deal with the public, your customers? Can you withstand the physical injury of the occasional collapsing bookcase and numerous paper cuts without the benefit of a good workers’ comp program?

Does this describe you? If so, put down your Kindle and check out the world of antiquarian books.

Chris Lowenstein
Book Hunter’s Holiday
3182 Campus Drive #205
San Mateo, CA 94403
(415) 307-1046

chris@bookhuntersholiday.com
http://www.bookhuntersholiday.com
Blog at: http://bookhuntersholiday.wordpress.com

I received a note from Ann Kingman of Books on the Nightstand introducing herself and her blog. I get requests like this from time to time but rarely publish the links as I find many of the sites are either just selling something or they are put together rather carelessly. So when I come across something that I would bookmark myself I can feel good about telling you all about it. You can tell right from the get go that the blog is made for those (and by those) who really love books.

If you also love books, and I’m sure you do otherwise it’s unlikely that you’d be reading this, I encourage you to head over to Books on the Nightstand. A very nice feature of their site are the podcasts; in fact I may ask Ann if we can get a copy to insert on this site.  Thanks for the note Ann (and Michael) - best of luck with the site.

Of course not all the posts need be so detailed. We have had nice stories on Children’s Books, on participating in Antique Fairs and much much more. If you have anything at all you’d like to share, please don’t be shy. You never know where it might lead.

The site has been averaging over 3 500 unique visitors per month, has received a Google Page Rank of 5, has over 230 subscribers. I continue to market the site vigorously and expect these numbers to continue growing; once your article and link(s) to your site are posted they remain within the site for the life of the blog.

We experimented with writing schedules for our contributors but this proved difficult to keep up. We are now going a bit more free-form and will post most good articles that are submitted, as always on books/book collecting and selling books be it online or from an open shop. Please feel free to insert links back to your site within each post and if you can include a few images.

So that’s it in a nutshell. If you like to write, we like to publish. If you need some publicity (or Google Juice), we can provide it. Again, just drop me a line: editor (at) bookshopblog.com