We did
the The Printer's Row Book Fair this past weekend. It was a long, tiring,
cold, dreary. In spite of all of that it was a successful weekend overall.
The Bug
Hill Books plan which I wrote about in the previous
entry worked out well.
My spouse,
aka Ginkgo Leaf Books, had a quarter of the large booth. Bug Hill had
another quarter of the booth, and the other half of the booth was taken
up by another book dealer acquaintance. Ginkgo had moderately priced
to very expensive books, and Bug Hill had "just good reads" and
some other low end books. All those had a collectible value of none
to marginal, and were mainly useful as reading copies. Some actually
were in perfect condition, and would have even been fine as gift books,
especially as nice copies of particularly favorite older titles one
wanted to share with friends. Some were even very recent titles... you'd
be surprised how quickly best sellers turn up at the garage sale and
thrift stores. Many people commented on what a nice selection we had
for a very reasonable price.
I took
a total of 40 boxes of books and I had only 4 boxes left at the end.
Those will be donated to the Newberry Library benefit sale. I sold everything
from old copies of the "Whole Earth Catalog" reprints, to "Pot
Pies", to "How to Build a Yurt. "That was my favorite...
I mean, really, how can you resist buying a book which details exactly
how to build your own yurt? I had the opportunity to skim it before
I sold it... at least I read enough to know that I did not really need
to own it after all.
It's interesting
to see what people are looking for in order to know what sorts of things
to look out for for next year. Mysteries are hot... Dick Francis,
P.D. James, Sara Paretsky, Sue Grafton... all the biggies are still
biggies in the aftermarket...sci-fi is always hot, and any of Oprah's
book club selections sold. James Michener is surprisingly popular still.
(I really was never a big fan of his.) There's a certain group of buyers
that go in for nostalgia, like Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys and books of that
ilk whether they are the collectible editions or not. There is of course
an endless market for gardening and cookery books, not really news to
anyone I don't think. Though "Stuffed Spuds"did not find a new
home, "Texas Gardening"did.
Some people
just buy books on a whim because they like the titles... like the yurt
book. In another case, a woman bought an old decrepit book called "Jane
Lends a Hand"just for the title. I wonder what she had in mind as
she came back and asked me to inscribe in the books "Sold to Sheila
by (my name) of Bug Hill books 6/3/00." Maybe an art project?
People
also liked my name and the graphics, too. That was good feedback.
The hardest
part was carrying all those books, moving them around and adjusting
them all day, and standing on my feet on the asphalt. My out of shape
arthritic body rebels at the added stress. So the one thing I have to
question is, at 56, is this really so smart to move into a business
which requires so much physical exertion? I really don't have to lift
the book boxes much, but even the little that I do is rough. Oh well,
I could definitely stand to get in shape.
All in
all, I enjoyed the experience of book selling as much as I have enjoyed
selling jewelry. I liked being able to talk about any particular book
I had read... especially if I had liked the author or especially enjoyed
to book. Book buyers are a fairly intelligent lot... dare I say... well
read... and are interesting to chat with in general. You do have a certain
fringe group of nutcases, but that's true in every crowd, even the crafts
aficionados.
Ginkgo
sold a lot of books as well, so together we did pretty well. Well enough
to say that not doing the art fair was an OK move; and well enough that
we decided to go ahead and buy more books throughout this year with
the intention of doing the same next year. In addition we had a couple
of good after sales and a good E-Bay sale of a rarer edition of "Gone
With the Wind", so we're off to a good start this month and for the
summer. On the other hand, Ginkgo Leaf Books bought an expensive 3 volume
set on Chicago History... oh well.
I
think switching to focus more on the book and collectible business is
probably a right decision for now. If and when I do come up with a new
plan for my "art" life, things can be reexamined and readjusted if necessary.
Flexibility is the key.
***
Monday
I intended to write this and get it up here early, but I ended up taking
a little vacation right here at home. I just decided I deserved to cut
myself some slack and made no demands on myself. I relaxed in my back
sun room, read the paper with my cat, Freckles, in my lap. We shared
a cat nap or two while we listened to some nice relaxing classical music
for quite a while. Then some horn ensemble started playing their variation
of J. S. Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor.Aack... that was
annoying! Even the cat thought so, She looked strangely at the radio
and then she decided to attack my hands... I think she wanted me to
turn off the music, which made really good sense to me! So I did.
Eventually,
we went out to a couple of thrift stores and already found a few books
for next year's sale... so I guess we are committed. Then we went to
dinner at one of our favorite Middle Eastern dives, only to find that
they had been written up and now they are going to get popular. I always
fear that the food quality is going to go down when that happens, not
to mention that we're going to be waiting in line... sigh.
Tuesday
afternoon I start the second stage in dental hell. I go back to my regular
dentist to have a temporary tooth made to stick in the space where they
are pulling the bad tooth. I'll have that put in at the same time they
do gum surgery on another iffy molar....aaaaccckkkk....!! I'm scared.
I hate that! Who invented dentists anyhow?