Read the full article here.

The weather is fine and sunny, the fish are biting so our days there are extended. As usual, one day is set aside for buying. A possible special order is found at a charity shop and then just as we are leaving a real gem is put out on sale: a particularly good pop-up book on the Titanic so that gets bought as well. One of the bookshops produced nothing of interest: small & overcrowded and the bookseller reading at his desk.

The second proved elusive. Even the Post Office didn’t know where it was. Eventually we run it to earth in a back alley off one of the main streets just before 4.00 p.m. It looks promising. Well laid out & well lit but as we open the door we are told:  ”I’m closing in a few minutes. You can have a quick look round but don’t think you can stay for half an hour”. How welcoming!

He asks: “What if we’re buying?” as he reaches out to pick a possible special order from the shelf. “No, I’ve got a life” she says so we leave pondering the incomprehensibility (to us) of someone turning away a customer

Coming home, we call in to The Entrance to Richards Old Books. Richard was a very good friend to us as we were starting out in bookselling and we bought vast quantities of books from him at the beginning. Sadly he died some years ago and his wife has kept the shop on but it never seems the same without seeing Richard there. Two books bought: one for a customer & the other a pretty good bet for sales.

-Contributed by Barbara & Bill McLennan (The Book Collector)

http://www.fancygoods.com.au/elly/2011/10/05/why-is-it-cheaper-to-post-a-book-from-overseas-than-within-australia-australia-post-the-royal-mail-and-the-cost-of-shipping-books/#more-4566

-Content suggested by Carol @ Turn The Page Books

This one might bring a tear to the eye…

http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/heartbreaking-borders-photograph_b38202

And if you have ever worked in a bookstore, this one will make you nod in agreement…

http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/borders-employees-vent-frustrations-in-ode-to-a-bookstore-death_b38538

Thanks to Carol @ Turn The Page Books for posting these links!

“Quick, turn here” he said “John Street goes through Cabramatta. There’ll be a post office there” so a quick left turn and off we go into a swirl of one way lanes, dodging pedestrians as we go, until there is the post office but nowhere to park. A little further on, we double park in the station car park and off he goes to send it on its way.

Late that afternoon we set up camp in a park beside the river. He sets up the computer to check on any new orders while she goes for a wander beside the river, meeting the neighbours and photographing the brilliant sunset.

One day is set aside for business. There is a large charity shop just to the south of the nearest large town. The manager there contacted us some eighteen months ago and we spent an afternoon helping him sort his books into those to sell in the shop and those to put up on E-bay or send off to auction. We chose several boxes for our stock, offered him a fair price which he reduced for our help and said he would be back in touch when he had more to offer. Nothing more has been heard so we call in to see what is there and find nothing of interest. Half hour further on, a little place where some gems were found on a previous visit but this time one shop has closed down completely and the other is open very short hours for winter and is closed on the day we are there.

So, back to the big town. Last time we trawled the charity and second hand shops there were several purchases made. This time, she found three books in a series she likes but nothing for stock.

The week has come to an end and it’s back to the city for book fairs at Warriewood and Beecroft and several bags bought at both.

-Contributed by Barbara & Bill McLennan (The Book Collector)

By my reckoning that’s three times in nine months!

It used to go up every year which was on the nose but when it went up on April 4^th  after a big price hike the previous September I thought that would be the end of the increases for at least 12 months. But no, shamelessly they are putting them up again after just three months.

It will soon be cheaper to jump on a plane and take a package to the U.K. then posting it there!

The Book Depository in the U.K.  is given a sizeable discount I believe by the Royal Mail to offer free postage to their customers-but here in Australia all Australia Post do is try their hardest to destroy small traders like us. They take away Economy Air-mail (New Zealand still has it) and then introduce this $9.00 anti terrorist scanning measure for the U.S., does anyone know of any other country that has introduced this?  Then on top of all that we are expected to wear these obscene price increases. Price rises at shorter and shorter intervals.

Australia Post seems to have some kind of death wish. The trouble is that they are making the cost of doing business using the mails here in Australia unsustainable.

The Book Collector

There are many categories of motoring books.  There are the original publications as mentioned, plus many titles have been written on the subject of old cars, or veteran, vintage and classic cars.  Then there is motor sport which includes rallies and trials, both for cars and motorcycles.  As expected the early ones are more collectable.

Histories of marques are readily available, especially the more well known makes such as Rolls-Royce, Jaguar, MG, Porsche, BMW, Ford and Holden, here in Australia.  I am sure other makes are more readily available in their countries of origin.  Some of the larger motor manufacturers publish an in-house magazine.  Ford and Austin, for example, started quite early with pre-World War I copies occasionally turning up.

As well as books, there are brochures, magazines, workshop manuals, handbooks, parts catalogues, motor racing programmes, early advertisements in newspapers and magazines, photographs, postcards, and stamps featuring motor vehicles.  Even road maps and guides fall into the motoring literature section.

Motoring literature also encompasses commercial vehicles and motorcycles, and even farm and road making machinery.  And don’t forget traction engines, as they are classed as motoring for some enthusiasts.  And last but not least of motoring type publication to collect –  model cars.

–From Peter and Caroline of Booksnbits

In what is now firmly established on the Australian  book collector’s  calendar as the premier book event Clunes Booktown once again attracted a large contingent of book dealer’s from all over Australia with books on every subject on offer.

Food & wine stalls and street entertainment added to the occasion and for two days this old goldmining town really came alive.

After what felt like months of searching I had downloaded many bookseller databases including Book Trakker, Home Base, Book Hound and various others which I can’t even remember, (that is how good they were). Most just didn’t do everything that I wanted them to do, and the others that seemed to have the capability were much too complex and hard to use by someone as computer challenged as myself, as I can’t ever use a spreadsheet.

 I then stumbled upon the World Book Market and their WBM-BB, after downloading the trail version, it seemed very complex, too complex for me a complete computer klutz. So I sent an email off to the creator, Guy Weller, aka Mr Pickwick’s Books as I had to all the other databases which I had hoped would work for me, the only difference being Guy emailed back straight away and offered to sit down and have a chat over a cup of coffee. This was a very welcome relief after some of the responses I had gotten from some of the other support services offered by the other databases I had sitting on my desktop. After Guy had given me a quick run through of the capabilities of the WBM-BB on his own computer I was hooked, and this was helped by Guy making it all look very easy, which thankfully it turned out to be.

 As I was coming to the World Book Market without any inventory file to import, apart from my turbo lister file, I just started listing from scratch with the WBM-BB. Although having read through the manual and on the forums about importing files from various sources, the most common being Home base, I am confident even I would be able import a Home base or similar file into the WBM-BB without a hiccup. The best thing being if there are any problems you can be confident that there will be a member of the World Book Market happy to help and will get most problems sorted with a few clicks of a mouse. I so far haven’t encountered any real problems using this database and the few very small hiccups have been solved by reading the manual of searching the forums as most problems have already discovered and solved by another member, and I have gained the wisdom from their experience.  I now use the WBM-BB to list my books and send those listings up to approximately 20 different sites, invoice customers, answer customer inquiries directly through the book listing, and host my photos through the World Book market. I am also now getting my personal website redesigned by the World Book Market so as my listings will go there also. So basically I don’t know why I didn’t do this a lot sooner.

–By Catherine @ RandomBooks