A little over year ago Brian Cassidy took over the Cannery Row Old Book Co. in Monterey, California and set up shop.
His recent blog post 18 Things I’ve Learned This Year (Or: 2007, A Bookseller’s Year in Review) is packed with little nuggets of bookselling wisdom and is a must read (and comprehend) for anyone who thinks that the bookselling life might be for them.
The Cassidy 18:
1) I will never run out of books. Never. There are always more books to be bought.
2) A corollary: There are always more GOOD books to be bought. If I feel like I’m not getting many of them, I’m not working hard enough.
3) I will never catalog all the books I have. Never.
4) I will always be messy. Always. Piles of books and paper are my destiny.
5) People who haggle over a five dollar book were never going to buy anything anyway.
6) Books ain’t money. Books don’t even make me money. I make me money. My overhead, time, and expertise create value. Please keep that in mind next time you think I’m being unreasonable offering you $100 for a book I’ll sell for $300. If you would like to rent a space and buy a reference library and catalog your book and list it on the internet and drag it to book fairs and wait who-knows-how-long to sell it, please be my guest. But if you want money today, please don’t insult me by suggesting you’re somehow being cheated.
7) Note to self: never give estimates of what you might pay for books over the phone or via email. ALWAYS have the books in hand first. Related: an annoyingly high percentage of people who bring in their books to “sell” only want a free appraisal.
8) “No, you can’t leave the books I don’t want here. Please, I really must insist. Seriously, have you looked behind this counter?” (See #s 1,3, and 5)
9) A first catalog is like falling in love – everything about it seems easy and fun and exciting.
10) A second catalog is more like marriage – a lot more work and a lot less exciting. But done well (fingers crossed), a lot more satisfying.
11) I still get a little thrill at diving into a box of new acquisition. I doubt this will ever go away or get old.
12) Nor, for that matter, will the little pang of dread when I remember I have to catalog most of them.
13) Shelving books is oddly calming – almost meditative.
14) Book fairs are a lot more work than they look like – a friggin’ lot of work. Two days (at least) to pack, a day to set up, two days (usually) to exhibit, then break-down, maybe a couple of days of travel, and then unpacking all those books you brought once you return. Even one-day local fairs require about a full week of work. Even so…
15) I love book fairs. Being in a roomful of dedicated dealers and serious buyers is just about my favorite way to spend a day.
16) I can’t tell you how many people come into the shop and tell me how great it is that I’m here and how much they love bookstores and how awful it is that so many are closing. Then they leave without buying a thing. This happens at least a couple times a week. I will never get this.
17) Related to #1 and 2: More and more I understand this is a business about customers, not books. To a large degree anyone can get books (witness the explosion of people calling themselves “booksellers”). What separates the successful dealer from the one who bitches and moans all the time? One has customers, the other doesn’t. The question is not whether you have books or not, the question is do you have anyone to sell them to.
18) I love my job.