Thinking of having a promotion or a sale on your website to help you sell some books? Now think again, for any attempt to promote your own business might cost you one of your deepest revenue streams.Amazon's latest 'our way or the highway' policy involves independent third-party sellers on their European websites. The same stranglehold Amazon has on publishers is now being placed on independent booksellers. Amazon's New Rule:Any book listed on Amazon must be sold at the same price or cheaper than it appears on any other website including the booksellers' own websites.Any bookseller found in violation is subject...
Waterstone’s and Barnes & Noble Tilt Toward the Screen
"In the clash between the conventions of the book and the protocols of the screen, the screen will prevail" -Kevin Kelly, Scan This Book!, and duly noted in David Shields Reality Manifesto (76)Waterstone's, the UK's largest bookseller, has just completed an extreme brand makeover. The centerpiece is a complete reworking of their logo; out with the caps and serifs, in with lowercase and sans. The slogan for the campaign announcing the visual shift is 'feel every word.' While, clearly a cooler, hipper look I would agree with Mark Sinclair's assessment over at the Creative Review blog:"While these inventive takes on the...
Better or Not? Better World Books adds Donation Boxes, A Book Drive for Haiti and a Partnership with Powell’s to the Mix
It has been a couple of years since we profiled Better World Books here at Book Patrol. I thought it a good time touch base with them. I talked with BWB co-founder Xavier Hegelsen about some of their recent initiatives. Though I still have my doubts about whether or not their model is one that is beneficial to the book world at large it is clear that are continuing to increase their footprint on the book universe.Better World Books warehouse in Mishawaka, Ind. Image by Steve Kagan for The New York TimesBook Donation BoxesBook Patrol: I did a story back...
43d California Book Fair and the State of the Trade
Last weekend’s 43d California International Antiquarian Book Fair in Los Angeles, the first major book fair of the year, provided an excellent overview of where the rare book trade now stands and where it may be headed.As reported here at the Fair’s beginning, the market has stabilized; the panic of ‘09 is over. Dealers have lowered posted prices and there is movement, albeit limited. Cash remains tight for collectors as well as dealers but seems to be loosening; collectors are returning to the market but only for fresh material, in certain areas, at certain price points.Trade sales, sluggish at the...
Iranian Used and Rare Book Store Just Like the Old Days – A Mess!
Dewey died trying to decimal this system.Each week, the Daily Telegraph in Great Britain holds a travel Big Picture competition, and last week Alby Ball of Harrow, Middlesex, won a Nikon Coolpix S640 camera, worth £249.99 ($396), for this photograph of a well-stocked bookshop in Shiraz, Iran.Lovers of old book shops in the West will fondly recall this as once being a common sight; now, alas, lost to the Internet. Book lovers of a certain stripe will recognize their living room.