#Book collector pro versus standard how to#Changes in both technology and the market in recent years has blurred that a little, with internet venues allowing anyone to list books for sale.Ī professional bookseller, either full or part-time, is an individual who has thoroughly studied how to identify books and accurately describe their condition and specific merits. At one time, a professional bookseller might have been defined as someone whose primary occupation was selling books. The difference between someone who sells books and a professional bookseller isn’t a clear line in the sand. Their years of buying and building a large collection of books on their specific area of interest provide them with the inventory, knowledge, and often the personal contacts in that field of collecting. The other traditional way into specialization is the path from collector to bookseller with a dedicated book collector eventually deciding to sell off part or all of their collection. Specialists tend to start out as generalists, taking their time making contacts in the collecting world and acquiring enough inventory in their specialty to be able to transition to that one subject. A bookseller’s specialties often convey their own personal interests in reading and collecting, or they may be informed by their buying audience or location, focusing on what they know they have a customer base for, such as a Florida-based shop keeping a large selection of books about Disney. The majority of used, rare, and antiquarian booksellers fall into the generalist category, but they often have specialties still. Becoming a specialist requires a vast amount of knowledge in a single area and access to a list of collectors in that genre. That focus may be a type of binding, an era of publishing, the works of a particular author or publisher or any other specific niche of the history of publishing. Specialist booksellers tend to focus on a few categories, building a large depth of inventory and knowledge around a narrow focus. While still observing a careful process of selection for quality and content, a generalist focuses their offerings to appeal to a wide range of readers and collectors. A generalist bookseller might run your neighborhood second-hand bookstore, selecting a wide variety of books on varying topics that run the gamut of price and age. Most professional booksellers can either be described as generalists or specialists. Talking to other sellers in person at bookshops and book shows as well as on internet forums can help enormously in learning what has worked for others and avoiding some of the mistakes that others have made. For the self-taught, there are some fantastic books on the finer points of identifying and caring for books, but experience is still the greatest teacher. The internet has allowed for a low-overhead option for both full-time and part-time professional booksellers. While many still follow the traditional path into the business by working in a shop for someone else, recent years have introduced many changes to the business. Working for an experienced bookseller provided a practical apprenticeship in the many disciplines the business encompasses, including identifying rare and valuable books, handling and repairing them, and marketing them to customers along with the daily operations of a business. Aspiring booksellers would work in a bookstore for years to gain experience before starting out on their own. Historically, bookselling was very often a tradition passed down by hand. The rest of those components take years and hard work to acquire. Inventory is often where casual booksellers get started. It’s not entirely different than transitioning from reader to author it seems like a natural transition but it’s much harder than it seems to be successful.īecoming a professional bookseller requires specialized knowledge, access to inventory, access to potential customers, some basic business sense and acumen, and lots of patience. The professional bookseller’s relationship to the book is changed. The view from the other side of the bookstore counter is very different. Many have successfully achieved this, but it’s not an easy course to take. Almost every book lover has at some point pondered the thought that they would love to find a way of turning their passion for books into a livelihood.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |