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If you’re a teacher or program leader who works with kids in need, let us know what you think. Leave a comment below, or comment on First Book’s Facebook page.

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I love yard sales! My husband says it’s just a good way to exchange junk. But I don’t buy junk; I buy treasures. I think the thing I enjoy most about yard sales is searching for those few treasures--you know, the thrill of the hunt. I browse through a bunch of unwanted, unloved, unappreciated stuff at yard sales. And I buy very few of those things. But, what a celebration when I find some

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During a conversation the other day, a friend said he'd like to read more of my work. He's never purchased one of my books, and announced that he would search online sites to find the cheapest used copy. Can't quite describe how it made me feel. I don't mind people buying used books. I buy used books when I cannot afford the new edition, or it is not available. But I was immensely surprised. My top selling book, at full retail, costs less than a fast-food lunch. The exchange set my thoughts to churning. About writing. About the talent and skill it requires to be a mass market author. About the efforts and creativity involved in presenting a book that causes most readers to want the story to continue. And about that particular friend. Perhaps his comment was ignorance. I wondered how many people realize that a written product is someone's livelihood. When I write a book, and it begins to sell, I receive modest royalties for each new copy sold. The more the book is discounted by a seller, the smaller my royalty. In fact, some discount stores sell the book so cheaply, I receive no royalty at all. That is okay. It's part of a book contract. But royalties are my bread and butter. They allow me to pay bills, stay warm in the winter, buy hats to shade me from summer sun, and occasionally give away copies to fans during holidays or special events. Royalties help me take care of abandoned cats. Royalties help me help others. Without royalties, I could not write books, and I certainly would never be able to bring back popular characters. When people cannot afford my books, I always recommend they ask their library to purchase them. Libraries exist for the patron, and what the patron wants to read is what the library is obligated to buy. And I receive royalties, albeit very small, for each copy a library adds to their collection. It is a simple food chain.

I've thought a lot about this. I would never ask a person to sell me their goods and services at such a discount that they weren't breaking even. I wonder if people consider this. Whether books or music, the same is true. Most artists (author or musician) have day jobs, or have had day jobs. We aren't in the top ten (which is an artificial place created by the publisher/book store industry, not actual popularity, but that's another story). We don't support ourselves entirely off our product royalty. And we don't guest on Oprah. But we are part of the wheel that keeps art alive. We create the stuff that people toss in their carry-on to make flights and travel more enjoyable. We bring you thrills and mysteries, suspenses and dramas, in a tiny package you can take anywhere. Without the small royalty from each item sold new, we are out of business.

Next time you read a book, I hope it changes you, entertains you, brings out emotions you need to experience. I hope you realize the only way that authors can create another book for your enjoyment is through royalty compensation. And, if you really want a surprise, shop at the comparison sites. Most of the time you will discover brand new copies of what you are looking for are available, along with a free shipping coupon, for less than the used book (which never has a free shipping coupon).

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Today is back to school day for our kids. I just watched the youngest get on the bus with some trepidation...on both our parts, since he's a bit sensitive.
It's always an exciting time, tinged with sadness for me as they grow up. It's also a time of new beginnings for me as an artist each year. Today even feels fall-like, with a cooler temp and a few yellow leaves spiraling down.

Does Autumn do that to any of you? It's a time of inspiration for me and hope for new beginnings.

I've been adding a few books to my Amazon.com shop. I have many art related books listed. Amazon makes it easy to sell books. Check it out if you have books around that you've enjoyed, but no longer use.

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A Guest Post by Kim Allen-Niesen, co-founder of Bookstore People

For information on becoming a contributor click here..

********************

When I tell people I write a blog about independent bookstores, the discussion quickly turns to e-books. Aren’t they the death knell for bookstores? Aren’t I beating a dead horse by promoting visiting and shopping at bookstores?

Hardly.

I received a Kindle for Christmas, 2008. I read the New York Times and half a book before putting it away in my bottom drawer. My husband tried it twice. My teenage son tried it once. My son may have used it more, but it’s one thing to lose a book and quite another to lose a $399 Kindle. A Zogby poll just over a year ago showed that 82% of readers preferred a printed book to an e-book. Cuddling up to a screen isn’t inviting to many.

Literary agent Bonnie Nadell said at the LA Times Festival of Books that she prints out material sent to her electronically because reading on a screen converts everything to the same voice. I agree, for me it is a fairly flat voice. Also, I find with screen reading that my concentration level is lower. The researcher Jakob Nielsen proved my point scientifically by testing 232 people on how they read from screens. The research subjects tended to skim. In fact, Mr. Nielsen noticed an “F” pattern. People read the top, then down the side and taper off towards the middle. Just like me.

Booksellers, Allison Reid and John Evans of Diesel, described the difference in reading on a screen and from a printed page. Screen reading is for information. They foresaw a time with the reference section or travel section in bookstores disappeared. Avid booklover that I am, 99% of the words I look up are on dictionary.com. Years ago, I used to research a trip for hours in a bookstore eventually buying three or four travel books. Now I buy one overall book for the area I’m visiting and spend hours researching on the Internet. However, Allison and John said that book reading was necessary for knowledge. In their opinion, and there are studies that back this proposition, the concentration and evaluation needed to truly know a subject and build on it required reading from paper.

I’m not a Pollyanna though. People are reading books on their iPhone, and while just visualizing that gives me a headache, electronic reading is part of the future. I’ve met several people who bought the Kindle and think they would like it if only they could get it away from their kids. In part, this could be an age issue; the younger generation is more comfortable reading from electronics. Either way, e-books are here to stay.

The discussion over which reading is better is a battle booksellers need to be aware of to help direct their customers. But it doesn’t stop there, with the advent of e-publishing, there will be an avalanche of choices for readers. This is exactly where booksellers shine, taking a myriad of choices and winnowing out the best. As Bob Lewis pointed out on this blog in “The Second Renaissance-bigger, better, faster!” these are exciting times, and one of the questions is how do booksellers add value and receive compensation in the e-book world? The answer will require innovation and experimentation. What are your thoughts?

Introduction:

Kim Allen-Niesen is co-founder of Bookstore People, a blog that reviews independent bookstores to encourage people to visit them and shop. In addition, books and various literary topics are discussed.

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Here is a terrific post from a new contributor to The Bookshop Blog - Roberta Nevares

If you have some time take a look at her blog The Poet In You

*****************************************

I am a relative newbie in the world of book selling, my dear friend Nora who encouraged me to travel down this path is not. In fact, book selling is nearly all she has ever known save for a very short stint as a barista with a well-known coffee chain. This brief foray of hers was put to an end with an intervention by loved ones. Nora finally relented to their fervent entreaties to, “be done with this torturous career path”, an occupation that had resulted in a traumatic and recurring nightmare in which she found herself seated opposite the half-rabid coffee swilling author Balzac wagering on the ever popular card game, Piquet. In this dream Balzac could not be restrained from leaping up and shouting, “Carte Blanche!”. Nora would then be obliged to prepare yet another demitasse full of brew by manipulating a very complicated piece of 19th century machinery, glass tubes and metal parts would sputter forth a few pungent and very black drops of a full bodied dark roast for the never sated author. Ah, the stuff nightmares are made of. Intervention behind her, she shrugged off her apron and stepped back into the world of book selling.

This dear woman was my first and primary teacher, a mentor if you would have it so. We’ve lived in different cities now for more than a decade. My “tutelage” has been by phone and email. In the beginning, the only experience I had was as a customer and fan of used bookstores, their decline was a subject we spoke about often. I loved finding an out of print or hard to fine title, even one with a dedication in a flowery script would have me buzzing. As a bookseller, I had no experience. I had a barrage of questions, all of the most obvious ones: what to buy, where to buy it, how to sell it. Five years later the book related calls are fewer and the need for consolation much less. When I feel that I’ve let something get away from me I remember the signed Kerouac that she let go for a song. Now we commiserate more than anything but she is still my go to girl in times of crisis.

There are so many sources of information, the key is to be open to them and to value them especially when they come from the first hand experience of your book selling peers. I know that most booksellers don’t like to give away their hard earned lessons because those lessons, they’ve come at a price.

Book selling blogs have also been a great source of information. Sometimes I will find answers to questions that I didn’t even realize needed answering. One of the blog posts that I am most grateful for having found was right here on this site. It’s Tom Nealon’s post titled, Don’t Get Hung Up On Your Buying Mistakes - Sell And Move On. I swear, I think he wrote it just for me. After reading the article I finally started purging boxes of books. It has made a huge difference, both psychologically (I no longer have those foul books taunting me) and physically, it’s opened up a lot of shelf-space. Also, The Home-Based Bookstore: Start Your Own Business Selling Used Books
has recently made a comeback and has some pertinent posts for booksellers.
Book selling blogs have an appeal that the forums on ABE and Alibris do not. I am looking for and value constructive first hand experience, not doom and gloom.

My sources of motivation aren’t always other booksellers and they are not always online. I sometimes think of a veterinarian I once worked for who ranted when he found a box of product that was not on the shelf. “These aren’t going to sell sitting in this box in the office,” he railed. And he was right. When I see a box of books that I have yet to post I think of him in all of his annoyance. When I really need motivation I think of a Coach Bob Hurley at St. Anthony’s High School in Jersey City, NJ. He challenges his basketball players to give it their all and be their best. When my husband and I first watched this on CBS  I laughed and said, “Can you imagine if I had that guy here coaching me on book selling? WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING WATCHING TV????? POST THOSE BOOKS. POST ‘EM!!!!!”

In my very short history as a bookseller I have found that advice, inspiration and motivation can come from almost anywhere. If I have any advice to give it is to love what you do, do it well, and get those books out of the box and on your shelves!

Roberta Nevares
Bertski Books

The Poet In You

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It is Earth Week this week, and while we should always be working on reducing our environmental impact one should take special consideration this week in particular. 

In grade school they started teaching us about environmentalism with the concept of the three R's: Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle.  (A campaign which made much more grammatical sense to my young mind than the previous three R's I was told to endorse: Reading, (W)riting, and (A)rithmatic).  The idea behind it being that first you reduce your consumption, then reuse items when you cannot reduce, and lastly when the item is no longer of use to you or anyone else you know, recycle it so that it may be turned into something of use once more.

All of us at BookFinder.com do a lot of reading and so we wanted to take a look at what kind of environmental impact our hobby and our industry have on the environment. I take a lot of joy from reading and out of all my activities that are potential harm to the earth it is one of the last that I will cut back on so I was happy to find that I was already doing a small part by mostly reading used books.

We found that the creation of every book produces 8.85lbs of carbon dioxide, and that shipping a book 2,123 miles (or 3,417 Km) by media mail only produces about 1.7lbs of C02 (ie: San Francisco to Chicago).  So even when shipping a used book across North America you are still producing less carbon than if you had bought a new book in your own town.

There are times when I have to buy a book new, sometimes I just can't wait to read a new authors work, or when I was in school I could not always find the textbooks I wanted used; but with used books being both better for the environment and easier on your pocketbook I think it is an easy decision to make.

So get into earth week and read a used book!

You can read our full report, search for used books, and learn to green your reading  with used books here

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IOBA just released the results of a survey on how independent booksellers are faring during the recession.

Based on sales data from 48 participating bookstores, IOBA President Chris Volk reports:

• the average sales drop from 2008 to 2009 was 10.6%
• for sellers with an average sales price between $10-$40, the average sales drop was 7.1%
• for sellers with an average sales price between $40-$100, the median sales drop was 18.7%

See more details...

[Now reading: The Solitude of Emperors by David Davidar]

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I'm slightly brain-dead right now -- yesterday I flew to LA, had a late-afternoon meeting about a movie I'm going to be writing based on one of my books (I don't think I can be more specific until all the contracts are signed or at least I know that I've got an okay to talk about it) which was really good. My producer is a writer, and he and I sat and agreed with each other about what I was going to be doing. The worst thing in writing something for someone else, and I've found this several times over the years, especially in movies, is where you talk to an editor or an executive and you think that you're talking about the same thing. Then you go away and do what you thought you were talking about and hand it in and find that you were quite wrong, and while you were describing (say) a romantic comedy with ghosts in they were buying a scary ghost story with perhaps some love in, and nobody is happy and the project is doomed. Anyway, this one will I think be just fine -- I felt like we were talking about the same book and the same movie.

Then my cell phone rang, and I found myself heading out to an Emergency Room at a hospital to see an embarrassed friend who had just had been admitted to the ER and had no desire to be there. On the whole it wasn't as intense as ER nor as funny as Scrubs but I definitely felt like I had wandered into American TV Fiction Land. Back to the hotel late, and worked on an overdue article on Crossover Fiction for the UK Writers and Artists Yearbook, because they had asked me to write something for them, and because the 1983 edition of the yearbook was the single most important and useful thing I owned when I set out to become a journalist.

A five in the morning wake-up call and off to the airport to fly home. Finished the Yearbook article in the Northwest Lounge. Sent it off. I slept a bit on the plane. I'd heard that "crippling" snow was expected in Minneapolis, but it was actually rain and didn't turn into snow until I had got home safely. And it was vital that I made it back in time because I had to get back home for...

The Sleepover. At which I was going to be The Adult. Starring Maddy and five of her thirteen/fourteen year old friends, at which I get to serve as chauffeur (to cinema and back) adviser ("you could probably put more cheese on those nachos"), placer-of-things-into-oven, and most importantly, because they had all just seen Prom Night and were a bit skittish, offerer of helpful advice ("You'll all want to stick together this evening. It's a big old house after all, and given the people who've died here over the years... well, I've said too much already..."). It's going on as I type this.

...

An article on writers blogging from The Age, in which we learn that this blog has jumped the shark, and is no longer as good as once it was. Probably true, although over seven years I've noticed it tends to go through phases. Still, if I do go on these research expeditions this summer I'll probably take a break from blogging while I'm doing it, and put it all into notebooks.

Lovely article on fantasy in the Daily Telegraph by Mark Chadbourne. For whose book The Fairy Feller's Master Stroke, I once wrote an introduction. I'll see if I can find it and put it up here. It's mostly about Richard Dadd, another of my obsessions.

...

Hi Neil,


I thought you might find this interesting: http://www.thedesignfiles.net/2008/04/interview-nicholas-jones.html


The idea of making such amazing sculptures out of books fascinates me (and makes me cringe a little bit--"no, not the books!"--but still, it's beautiful :)).

They are beautiful, aren't they?

You write great books. In fact, at one time you were my favorite writer, but then I picked up Viriconium by M. John Harrison only because in small black letters, near the bottom of the cover it says "With a Foreword by Neil Gaiman".

Now M. John Harrison is my favorite writer, and Viriconium is my bible. You knocked yourself out of the top spot. Introductions are like small bridges from author to author. Thank you for building so many.

Ironically yours,

Evan


P.S. The introduction is quite good.

You're very welcome. Mike Harrison is one of my favourite writers -- I'm delighted that he's now yours.

just wanted to tell you that your work religiously interrupts my being!!!!!

I hope that's good.

I'm a little forlorn at the moment. I had a wonderful talk with one of my professors today about how much we admire and enjoy your books. But that was following a very tough talk about how I have to rewrite my fiction piece for him. Again. Reason? Because he didn't believe character--due to the profession I labeled her with (Police officer)--think certain thoughts or be worried about things or would ever wish upon a star.

Police officers are humans too, right? They can still be disturbed by a rape case despite the fact that they're a seasoned officer? They still feel emotions?

[sigh] This rant was inspired by the fact that I read on your page that about 95% of what you write in your first draft ends up in your final product. Has that always been the case for you? Was there a time when someone refused your work because they point blank believed what you wrote is unrealistic? Or because you typically write in a magical fantasy world, do they give you certain allowances?

A student who knows her professor reads this page, and therefore remains nameless,

(despite the fact that she gave enough details that her professor will recognize her anyway...)

me.

Let's see. To answer the obvious questions first, was there a time someone turned down something I wrote because it was unrealistic? Probably, although nothing comes to mind. Normally they'd turn things down for just not being good enough.

You never have to convince a reader that Police Officers would wish on a star. You have to convince your readers that that police officer would wish on a star. You have to make someone rounded enough that the reader would half-expect the police officer in question to wish on a star.

Nobody gives you allowances for fantasy, just as nobody gives you allowances for romance or history or even non-fiction. It's called suspension of disbelief, and when you're writing it's what you're doing and what you're building, and it's soap-bubble thin. It pops easily. (I remember once being taken to task by Rachel Pollack for something in a short story I'd written. "But that's the only bit in the story that's true!" I told her. "It doesn't matter if it's true," she said. "What matters is if, in the context of the story, it's believable." And I knew that she was right.)

Incidentally, I've always found the police, in the US and the UK, tremendously helpful to writers, or at least to me. There's nothing like spending a day riding along with a cop, or being walked through a police station and getting to ask nosy questions for giving a writer confidence in what they're writing. And confidence is most of the battle.

The other day I was shopping in a used book store and suddenly realized that I don't know how authors get paid. I understand advances and royalties, etc. (at least well enough) but:

1. Do authors get royalties on new books and used? Sales numbers are only on new books, so...

2. And book clubs - anything from there?


I make enough to buy my books new, but haven't always - I'm not trying to disparage used books shops and libraries. If buying books new means more money for the writers (& illustrators), which leads to more books, then, well, I'll buy them new.


Thanks, looking forward to "The Graveyard Book" (although I wish it were out now to coincide with the dreary spring weather in the upper midwest)


ethan

No, authors don't get paid anything for books in used bookstores -- but then, we've already been paid for them. Someone bought them once, and I'm happy for them to be resold. (As I said in Wired (full reply by me here) and repeated in this journal,

If you buy one of my books (or are sent it to review) it's yours. You bought it (or were given it). You can sell it on. I don't have any more of a problem with Amazon listing the used copies than I do bookstores having used book sections. It's their store.

You can buy a book new, buy it in hardback or wait for the paperback, find it used or as a collectible. I don't mind. What I care about most is that people are reading.

As I said when I discussed this at length in the piece I put up on this journal that was quoted in Wired last month, books don't come with single-end-user licenses, and I think that's a good thing.

And six years on, I've not changed my mind.

Writers do fine from book clubs, too -- the book club isn't paying a royalty on each book. Usually they'll pay a fee to the publisher, which is split with the author, for permission to publish a book (often at a smaller size or on cheaper paper than the original) or they will contract with the publisher to overprint copies for them as part of the original print run (so the Book Club editions of the original Stardust hardcover are just like the DC edition, identical in size and binding and paper, they just ran off a few thousand at the end of the print run with the Book Club logo on).

Hi Neil!

I just read a book by a German author who borrowed some stuff from your novels, especially Neverwhere. The story takes place in (a) London Below and Mr. Croup and Mr. Vandemaar show up as well (with different names), and some other details were terribly familiar.

I was just wondering what you think of somebody else using "your" ideas & characters. Is it something that annoys you? Do you feel honoured? Do you even care?

I hope you haven't answered this question already - if yes, I couldn't find it and would love a hint in the right direction.

Thanks in advance!

L.


There's a saying that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and the truth is that mostly I feel flattered when I hear about things like this. It's classier when the people doing it list you as an influence in interviews or thank you in the acknowledgments or whatever, but it doesn't bother me either way.

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A couple of summers ago, on a weekend ramble through the neighborhood, the ALP and I stumbled on signs directing us to a used book sale at the Methodist Church. We followed them, of course, and found ourselves in a basement full of the best castoffs Park Slope had to offer. The ALP, who has an astounding memory, remembers purchasing Death Ship by B. Travern (author of Treasure of the Sierra Madre), and a hardcover edition of a little-known Victor Hugo novel called 'Ninety-Three; I think I bought an early Joan Silber novel whose title I can't remember (holy cow, get your hands on a galley of her new novel if you can, or reserve it for when it comes out in June), and another find or two.

So I was delighted to get an email from book sale coordinator Nancy letting me know that it's Methodist Book Sale time again! I'm just pasting the whole press release below. If you're a Brooklynite or can make it out here this weekend, it's a great chance not only to find some great treasures, but actually to cull your own book collection. Maybe we'll see you there!

* * *

The fabulous 15th annual BOOK SALE at Park Slope United Methodist Church is almost here!

* SATURDAY, Feb. 23 (8:30am to 4pm)

* SUNDAY, Feb. 24 (afternoon only – 1pm to 4pm)

As always, there will be thousands of new & used books as well as DVDs, CDs, records & tapes. Also a terrific Children’s Corner with books, games, videos & puzzles.

Books will be replenished throughout the day. This year we have a special collection of hundreds of early 20th century German language books (fiction & nonfiction), numerous French books, and lots of first editions of English and American fiction, drama & poetry. A browsers paradise!

Great prices! Cash only.

The church is on 6th Avenue at the corner of 8th Street in Park Slope.

We are still accepting donations (excellent condition only), on the following days:
* Monday, Feb. 18: noon to 7pm (Presidents Day)
* Thurs., Feb. 21: 7pm to 10pm
* Friday, Feb. 22: 10am to 9pm

No magazines or textbooks, please! To arrange a car pickup (Park Slope & vicinity only), please call Rick at 347.538.7604.

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Not the greatest strip I ever did, but one of the most fun. I'm posting it because it's the closest thing to a tribute to Johnny Hart that I have.

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Johnny Hart, creator of the comic strip B.C., passed away on Saturday.

Click here to see the story from Johnny Hart's local newspaper in Binghamton, NY.

In a 1980 interview with Jud Hurd in Cartoonist PROfiles, Johnny said:
"...'cartoony' and 'simplicity' became very important words to me, and I extended them into every phase of what I do..."

And the result was some of the most beautiful linework ever to hit the comics pages. Johnny's work was simply amazing. His linework was sparce, but very expressive.
Simplicity has the illusion of looking easy. It's not. Try drawing a B.C. character with the expressiveness Johnny Hart could achieve with such few lines. It's not easy.

In the above story, Johnny's wife said he died at his drawing board.
There is something bittersweet about that.

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