AbeBooks continues to amaze me. They act like a company with a borderline personality, courting the traditional bookselling community at every turn while doing all they can to push these same booksellers away.AbeBooks has recently announced that they are adding a new search feature to their Rare Book Room."We have added a feature to the Rare Book Room search that automatically pre-selects the price range to show only books priced at $10.00 and over."Now their same loose definition of 'bookseller' is being applied to 'rare'.Remember this is the company that still claims that "Rare and antiquarian booksellers make up the...
BookWise: Book Club or Book Cult
Last March I did a piece on a company called BookWise titled BookWise: The Book Worlds First Pyramid Scheme. Out of the 400+ Book Patrol posts in 2007 none garnered the reaction that this one did. The comments received for the post were disproportionate compared to all other posts and they were all negative. Just recently I received this comment on the post:"just by using the phrase "pyramid scheme" proves you really don't know what you are saying some people live free, others live as slaves. I've made my choice"From Wikipedia: A pyramid scheme is a non-sustainable business model that...
Books Thriving: Online and Off
A new study released from Nielsen touts that 41% of all internet purchases worldwide were for books, an increase of 7% in the last two years and the number of people who shop online has grown 40% in the same two years.“Some of the biggest buyers of books on the Internet are from developing countries—China, Brazil, Vietnam and Egypt—indicating massive growth potential for online retailers that can specifically target these fast-growing markets" says Jonathan Carson of Nielsen Online.Here at home books made up 38% of all online purchases.While sales climb online sales at brick and mortar bookstores were up in...
ABA Misguided In Their Support For An Internet Sales Tax
The American Booksellers Association (ABA) is once again calling on its members to contact their governors to support a sales tax on online sales.In the template letter they provide their booksellers to send to their governor they say the "sales tax shortfall will grow worse each year as online shopping grows. The Wall Street Journal reported that online sales this holiday season grew by a remarkable 19 percent. In contrast, retails sales this holiday season only rose 3.6 percent."Wouldn't you rather get in on the "remarkable" growth of online shopping than to try and deter it?I understand that having to...
BookTrust and Nestlé Pull the Plug on Book Award
It was just last month that Sean Taylor, one of the winners of the 2007 Nestlé Children's Book Prize, refused to accept the cash award because of the "questions surrounding Nestlé’s marketing of breast-milk substitutes."Now word comes that after 23 years Booktrust and Nestlé have parted ways.Katherine Solomon, Booktrust's PR person, claims the parting was "mutual and there was no hostility" and that it was a "natural time to conclude."Nestlé says it is "moving its community support towards the company strategy of nutrition, health and wellness," and would like to focus on healthy eating plans for primary schools. I hope...