I wish we could put up a sign like that where I work. I’m constantly amazed at the barbarians who think it’s perfectly okay to pick up a book and just leave it on some random shelf anywhere in the store where it might not be found for days. It’s a big store and I know people might have a hard time remembering where they found it (or be too lazy to go all the way back there), but for fuck’s sake, there are employees all over who would gladly take it from them. I’ve even seen people who haven’t moved from the spot where they picked up the book set it back in the wrong place, and found books that had been placed on the shelves backwards or upside-down, as though they don’t even know how books work.
Our customers tend to be very nice people and are a joy to interact with, which makes their inconsiderate behavior a bit mystifying. I’ve always put things back where I found them in stores, even before my retails jobs gave me a perspective from the other side. It’s hard to believe the vast majority of people don’t have even an inkling of that consideration for others, and I don’t blame this guy for being a little bit cranky- I imagine there’s only so many years you can endure this before you feel the urge to call people out on it.
Ebook Romance novels can be found on Amazon for under $5, and many actually free, by the tens of thousands. I tried to sell a few paperback romance novels to Half Price Books a few years ago and they wouldn’t take them. I suspect the reason he gives for not buying romance novels is just to maintain his reputation, and the real reason is that they just don’t sell well enough to justify carrying them.
Agreed totally. Software changes so rapidly that computer books become obsolete practically as soon as they come out. Even programming languages. Most of the Basic languages are dead by now, and most developers* don’t use C++ anymore because of C#. Think about it: if a computer book is in a used book store, it’s because its original owner no longer has a use for it.
I still have books about Windows 3.1 and CGI sitting around somewhere.
I’m not sure I’d want a used romance novel. Regardless, aren’t they all pretty much interchangeable?
What about books in languages other than English? I have many, but no used book store will buy them back.
A sure sign that you are over the hill is when you bring your old college textbooks to a used bookstore and they tell you that they are too out-of-date. One that they rejected from me was The Mabinogian, a book that hasn’t been updated in 800 years.
This is where I get a bit curmudgeonly. I may not read romance novels myself but I’m not gonna look down on those who do, especially since the Romance Writers Of America supports libraries and annually names a Librarian Of The Year.
It’s the who chummy personification with the use of “My” that pisses me off. If it were just “Documents” I’d probably use the d**n folder. But I don’t, for spite of “My”.
I feel like everyone is entitled to run their business however they like, and if they are able to do that and stay in business, then more power to them. But this article did sting a bit, because there is a high likelihood of me using the word “perfect” in a bookshop.
The greatest joy of a used bookshop is finding that book that exactly satisfies your current needs (needs that you didn’t even know you had until you found the book that satisfies them) for just slightly less than the amount of money in your wallet at the time. What other word is there to describe this situation?
I believe that is the reason they finally dropped the “My”
The “MY” was originally put there in a time when windows machines were being networked like never before and it let you know that THIS folder was YOURS on YOUR computer.
Yeah, I was not referring to the overall market for romance. I know that’s strong. I read some myself from time to time. Some are really good. I’m not trashing the genre at all, believe me. But the market is over saturated with new material, so even new books are inexpensive, making the market for second hand books essentially non-profitable.
There are some oddly specific sub-genres, too. Go on Amazon and search for “Amish Romance” under Kindle books. There are thousands of them, and many have a price of $0.00.
Once I committed to ebooks, I tried selling all but the books that had extra sentimental value to me via Amazon. When I started, I managed to make a scant profit, and even managed to sell one or two inexplicably rares for some good money, but the majority weren’t worth the effort of shipping. I really don’t know how anyone makes it worth the effort when they sell a book for a penny, even considering the 3.99 Amazon allocates for shipping. I think I figured that I ended up with a couple of small coins in profit after I calculated the book rate shipping fees, the packaging costs, and Amazon’s cut. I eventually quit and donated the ones I couldn’t sell to charity.
The company behind the giant book “donation” bins that were ubiquitous for a while around here used a massive sorting operation to scan and look up book values, to decide to decide what to do with them
The books collected in the bins are sorted into three groups: about one-quarter are sold through online sites like Amazon, about half are pulped, and the final one-quarter is given to non-profits.
It is a multi-million dollar operation you can’t profitably compete with.
