There is no one like Glenn Horowitz. He is the loose cannon of the bookselling world.He is not a member of the most prestigious organization of Antiquarian Booksellers, the ABAA, yet he handles some of the choicest literary material that appears on the market.Rachel Donadio profiles Horowitz in this Sunday's NYT Book Review section.What makes Horowitz so successful?He is a businessman and a bookseller. It is not a question of whether he loves or appreciates books it is the fact that he can negotiate and seal the deal that makes everyone happy. He understands that these days it is simply...
Biblio.com: Less is More?
Last Monday Biblio.com issued a press release stating that the site "has seen a steady decrease in traffic over the last few months...though, the bottom line conversions have increased".I actually like the business model of biblio.com better than the competing aggregators but a release like this is a little troublesome to me. This is not good news and makes me a little suspicious of their intentions.Firstly, I have never heard a company celebrate a decrease in traffic to their website. A declining traffic trend greatly reduces your ability to land new customers who in turn can become repeat customers. You...
Abebooks – They Just Don’t Get It -Part 2
So I blogged yesterday about the OJ thing how out of touch Abebooks is with the booksellers who have put them on the mapThen today I see they sent out a press release on the results from their ridiculous poll about the new OJ book.What a set up! They email their clients (us) and promote the poll on their blog and their website and then in turn take the results and send out a press release about the "revulsion" from the book world regarding the book.Simply blatant self promotion to get in on the hyper-attention the OJ story is getting...
Barnes & Noble – Is the End Near?
A bold thought but are we starting to see at least some withering of this biblio monster?Barnes & Noble reported their 3Q earnings (or should I say loss) today.The first flag is that they called these results preliminary. As you might know, they are being investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission, which is never a good sign. They responded to the investigation by creating a special committee of its board to undertake an internal review of the company's option grant practices. The way I read it is that once they tell the truth one will see a very different...
They Just Don’t Get It
I assume many of you booksellers out there received an email from Abebooks today. They called it the Bookseller Bulletin and this is what it said:Have your say on the new OJ Simpson book It has been announced that OJ Simpson is set to release a new book. AbeBooks.com wants to know what booksellers think: Are you planning to stock the forthcoming OJ Simpson book, If I Did It? Give us Your Opinion(This is not a live link, believe it or not the text at the end of this page's url says DO_NOT_COPY_THIS_LINK)Thank you for participating - watch for the...