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One of our bookselling partners, ChrisLands, is having a birthday this month. It has been ten years since they opened up shop as tool for independent booksellers to set up their own e-commerce websites (ie: sites which can take credit card details and sell online).  James, the site's creator, just sent us a note mentioning that as part of their celebration they are having a special offer for booksellers

In their 10 years, ChrisLands established themselves as a well-respected member of the online bookselling community.  Well known for understanding the needs of independent booksellers, they continue developing their base product, updating old features, and adding new features based entirely on booksellers’ needs.

As their birthday gift to you and to celebrate 10 years in business, ChrisLands has a special birthday sign-up offer of 50% off the signup fee for new stores from now until June 30^th, 2011. Don’t miss this opportunity to get your own online bookstore.  Visit ChrisLands.com to learn more about the features and benefits of this company and to see examples of great ChrisLands sites.

At BookFinder.com we think it's great because every time a bookseller opens a ChrisLands account it means that there are more interesting books available online for all of us to find when we need or want them, and remember this is another good way to make your books searchable by BookFinder.com if they are not already.

[Now Reading: Indignation by Philip Roth]

It's Friday, so here is something fun.

Sheppard's Confidential, a really great newsletter for booksellers out of the UK, has taken suggestions for a new collective noun for book dealers. (working off the same concept as a murder of crows or troop of gorillas).  They came up with the following:

A whinge of bookdealers (contributed by someone who wishes to remain anonymous!)
A quire of booksellers (C.S. Griffin, DoolinDinghy Books)
A ream of booksellers (C.S. Griffin, DoolinDinghy Books)
A case of bookdealers (Pierce Roche, Dunphail, Moray, Scotland)
A ring of bookdealers (Pierce Roche, Dunphail, Moray, Scotland)
A commission of bookdealers (Pierce Roche, Dunphail, Moray, Scotland)
A mildew of used booksellers? (Ken Brinnick, New Gloucester, ME USA)
A doze of booksellers (John Underwood - judging by the number fall asleep at fairs!)
A shuffle of bookdealers, (Joanne, Proseworthy Collectable Books, Cape Town)
A chapter of bookdealers, (Joanne, Proseworthy Collectable Books, Cape Town)
An eccentricity of bookdealers (Pierce Roche, Dunphail, Moray, Scotland)
A madness of bookdealers (Pierce Roche, Dunphail, Moray, Scotland)
A reduction of bookdealers (Pierce Roche, Dunphail, Moray, Scotland)

At first I was thinking it should be "a shelf of bookdealers" but after reading this "chapter" is definatly the way to go... "a chapter of bookdealers".

The Bookseller has been reporting that Bloomsbury has removed the recommended retail price from several of its backlist titles, causing a small uproar among indie booksellers who are afraid that in removing the cover price customers will think they are being overcharged by the bookstore.  Because lets face it books can be expensive, and the look even more expensive when the supermarket down the street sells the same book at a deep discount to lure customers in to buy cheese.

Booksellers interviewed in the article explain that the cover price is their last wall of defense when explaining to a customer that their shop is not over charging but that they simply cannot afford to discount as deeply as a chain store because they order less books and receive a smaller discount.  For this I feel for the booksellers.

However I also feel for the publishers.  Books in the mid to backlist can sit for months (years?) before a print run completely sells and publishers say that the costs they face over the lifespan of the edition vary too dramatically to continue posting cover prices.   With inflation projected to increase due to stimulus spending and currency's fluctuating several percent in a month I cannot really blame them for not printing these increasingly variable prices on the jacket covers.

Living in Canada cover prices have been an incredibly sore spot for decades now because we see both the Canadian and US prices listed on our books and it never matches the exchange rate.  At times I have paid  20-30% more than Americans for books even after exchange as been taken into account, and it can be a bitter pill to swallow.  At at time last year the Canadian dollar ended up being worth more than the greenback which forced publishers and retailers to sell books in Canada at the US cover price. These dramatic swings give good reason to eliminate the cover price.

I wonder what percentage of customers realize when an item is being priced as a loss leader, and when it is just a differentiation of markup.

In this whole PR battle it will be interesting to see who ends up facing customer complaints over price, and if any other publishers follow Bloomsburys action.  What do you think?  Let us know if your a bookseller or a customer and tell us if you think this matters?

The Bookseller has been reporting that Bloomsbury has removed the recommended retail price from several of its backlist titles, causing a small uproar among indie booksellers who are afraid that in removing the cover price customers will think they are being overcharged by the bookstore.  Because lets face it books can be expensive, and the look even more expensive when the supermarket down the street sells the same book at a deep discount to lure customers in to buy cheese.

Booksellers interviewed in the article explain that the cover price is their last wall of defense when explaining to a customer that their shop is not over charging but that they simply cannot afford to discount as deeply as a chain store because they order less books and receive a smaller discount.  For this I feel for the booksellers.

However I also feel for the publishers.  Books in the mid to backlist can sit for months (years?) before a print run completely sells and publishers say that the costs they face over the lifespan of the edition vary too dramatically to continue posting cover prices.   With inflation projected to increase due to stimulus spending and currency's fluctuating several percent in a month I cannot really blame them for not printing these increasingly variable prices on the jacket covers.

Living in Canada cover prices have been an incredibly sore spot for decades now because we see both the Canadian and US prices listed on our books and it never matches the exchange rate.  At times I have paid  20-30% more than Americans for books even after exchange as been taken into account, and it can be a bitter pill to swallow.  At at time last year the Canadian dollar ended up being worth more than the greenback which forced publishers and retailers to sell books in Canada at the US cover price. These dramatic swings give good reason to eliminate the cover price.

I wonder what percentage of customers realize when an item is being priced as a loss leader, and when it is just a differentiation of markup.

In this whole PR battle it will be interesting to see who ends up facing customer complaints over price, and if any other publishers follow Bloomsburys action.  What do you think?  Let us know if your a bookseller or a customer and tell us if you think this matters?