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Before we get started this week, we have several important announcements:
- Last week we launched a new feature on the website, the Bookologist's Bookshelf - a place to buy books that will help you become a better bookseller. Standards will be kept high here. We will include the best books about books we can find and recommend only those we've had the opportunity to review. There's no point wasting time or money on books that are outdated, too basic to be helpful, or simply misguided. As in all other areas of our website, we're committed to providing you with the best and most pertinent information about bookselling we can. Though only twelve titles appear at present, more will be added soon. If there's a book that you'd like to see included, feel free to recommend it to us, and it will be given serious consideration.
- The first stage of our Resources Page makeover will be put into place concurrent with the appearance of the June 25 newsletter. We've begun building entire pages devoted to specific aspects of the bookselling process, and these will, step by step, replace the existing single page of categorized links. These pages will include not only related links but detailed annotations and tips on how to use them as well. The first of these pages will be titled "Where to Buy Books." As the title suggests, this should prove useful in helping you locate good books for resale, either online or - yes, it's possible - in your own hometown.
- Calling all experts! If you've ever wanted to share your knowledge of bookselling with other booksellers, there are now opportunities for writers at the Bookologist. See the article "Write for Us" at the end of the newsletter for more details.
- Finally, can you help? The Bookologist has recently completed its second month of operation, and so far we're very pleased with the reception. Subscriptions to the newsletter have grown to over 2,500; we've attracted enough traffic to be included in (and monitored by) Alexa's top 100,000 websites; traffic in May was over double what it was in April; aspects of both the newsletter and website have gotten significant play in several other book forums, websites and publications; and our own forum, the Bookologist's Library, is growing by leaps and bounds, both in membership and activity.
Still, we'd like to do more - grow faster and provide better content and more of it. We're very much committed to keeping the Bookologist newsletter and other content free of charge, also committed to providing the kind of content that will truly help you become better booksellers. At some point this may include publishing a newsletter every week or even daily updates. It may also include bringing in some of the best and brightest minds in this business to contribute content as well and/or expanding our focus to book collecting as well as bookselling.
In order to do this, the reality is we also have to bring in strong advertisers. Part of our commitment to provide meaningful content to booksellers also applies to advertising - that is, we will only solicit advertising that is pertinent to bookselling. You have our word that there will never be a pop-up ad for casino gambling on this website!
Bringing in strong advertising is easily accomplished if the numbers are good, and that's where our request for help comes in. We would greatly appreciate it if you could spread the word to your fellow booksellers and book lovers, help us grow our numbers at an even more vigorous rate. This is best accomplished by word of mouth but, if you post in other forums, an occasional reference or link to an article on our website is also quite effective in attracting interest. Finally, growing our forum is very important for establishing a sense of community, and your active, non-lurking participation here is strongly encouraged. Remember, we're nice to everybody and welcome the most fundamental questions!
Thanks so much for your participation in what we've done here so far. We look forward to serving you for a long, long time.
Now, back to business. Today's issue will put you on the trail of the $100 book. For those of you who have never sold a $100 book, let us tell you, the thrill doesn't soon wear off. It's something we never get tired of doing. Unfortunately, $100 books don't go door to door looking for somebody to sell them. They can be elusive. They need to be hunted like any other trophy. If you're ready, let's go to the trail head and get started.
Craig Stark, Editor
Email: craig@bookologist.com
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