Writers and Editors

Amazon Ends Affiliate Program in California After Sales Tax Law (Jason Boog, Galley Cat 6-30-11). Amazon amends affiliate agreement to read: “if at any time following your enrollment in the Program you become a resident of California, Colorado, Illinois, North Carolina, Rhode Island, or Connecticut, you will become ineligible to participate in the Program.” This was in 2011. Now, on April 22, 2013, Planet Money (NPR) posts Why Amazon Supports An Online Sales-Tax Bill. Among other things: "For a long time, Amazon kept warehouses out of big states so it could avoid charging sales tax in those states. Brick-and-mortar retailers didn't like this, and started lobbying state governments to push for Amazon to charge sales tax. So Amazon changed its strategy. The company agreed to start paying sales tax in more states — and it started building huge warehouses near major metropolitan areas in those states." The little companies can't compete and Amazon can offer cheap same-day delivery.

Australian Online Bookshop at http:/​/​www.bookworm.com.au/​

Bigwords (buy, rent, or sell textbooks--with focus on lowest price)

Bimbambim (Swapping, Not Shopping)

Bookburro.When looking at a page about a book, this Firefox and Flock browser add-on tells you which online resources, libraries and stores have the same book.

Book Collecting, more info on (RBMS, Rare Books and Manuscripts Section, Association of College and Research Libraries, ALA).

Book Crossing: In This Club, Books Free to a Good Roam (Christina Ianzito, Washington Post, 8-11-09), story about Bookcrossing.com, a catch-and-release program, "leaving a book in a public place to be picked up and read by others, who then do likewise."
From the Post story: "The best BookCrossing journey has to be that of a copy of Nick Hornby's 'High Fidelity,' placed by a Scottish BookCrosser on the summit of a 'wee bittie hill' in the highest village in Scotland six years ago. According to journal entries, it was picked up by someone with the name explorer-21, who wrote, 'hopefully I'll be able to help it on its journey, maybe onto a much bigger hill.' A week later explorer-21 reported having left it on the top of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. The book's last entry is from a German physician, who described receiving it as a gift from a patient while he was working at a Tanzanian hospital. ('Thanks for the book!' the doctor wrote. 'It looks a bit battered but still ok.").'

Book Depository.com and Book Depository UK. Prices differ, but both offer free shipping worldwide.

BookFinder's list of most-sought-after out-of-print books, 2011

BookFinder4U (you give it a title and it scans 130 stores and finds best price for that title; it also rates the stores)

BookMouch.com (exchange used books: earn points for giving a book away; redeem points to get books you want)
The Book of my Enemy Has Been Remaindered. Clive James' classic poem about about literary schadenfreude, as posted by Dwight Garner on the NY Times Paper Cuts blog about books.
BookFinder4U (you give it a title and it scans 130 stores and finds best price for that title; it also rates the stores)

The Book Thing (in Baltimore--"Our mission is to put unwanted books into the hands of those who want them.") Get rid of books you no longer want, or get books donated by others, free. Open Saturdays and Sundays.

Collegebookrenter (rent or buy college textbooks)

Find-a-Book.com, a searchable database of antiquarian books, maps, prints and autographs offered by the world's leading booksellers, affiliates of the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers (ILAB). Website also lists international book fairs of interest to antiquarian book dealers.

Historian Orlando Figes agrees to pay damages for fake reviews on Amazon (Alexandra Topping, Guardian, 7-16-10). Historian to pay damages and costs to two rivals who launched a libel case after he posted reviews "praising his own work and rubbishing that of his rivals."

Indie Bound, a community of independent bookstores. Click here for information on how to link to the site, or be an affiliate (getting a fee for sales that come through your recommendation). Many websites link to Indie Bound as well as (or instead of) Amazon and Barnes & Noble, to give regular brick and mortar bookstores a chance to survive.

Librarians (we love you!). Dave Robicheaux's salute to librarians in Last Car for Elysian Fields by James Lee Burke

Marketing Resources for Web Entrepreneurs (Lisa Angelettie's helpful links)

My life story is written on my bookshelves (Tracey McGillivray, The Globe and Mail, 2-7-12) "Our books show what we’ve cared about, where we’ve visited (or perhaps wished to visit) and the challenges we’ve faced. How could I give that away?"

Paying More to Send U.S. Mail at U.P.S. Stores . Ray Rivera, NYTimes, 12-20-09, investigates wide-ranging markups on U.S. postal service rates at UPS stores. UPS stores charge whatever markup they like, and one Manhattan store suggested prices of $19.90 and $21 on an 8-pound package that cost $8.80 to ship at the post office across the street. Packages sent via UPS and the U.S. postal service both arrived in two days.

Textbooks.org. Check the inventory of popular online bookstores (such as Amazon, Half, and Chegg) and compare prices on all available new, used and rental textbooks.

Used Books for Those in Need (Sondra Forsyth, Family Circle, Feb. 2013) Susan McNeill has made it her mission to put used books in the hands of those who need them, especially children.

Where things are going in book publishing, part 1, Mike Shatzkin's important "What I would have done in London (part 1)" blog entry, a follow-up to his major Stay Ahead of The Shift blog essay. Starts with things "coming right up" and continues with the view of the next 20 to 25 years. Essential reading for booksellers and buyers.

Would you pay $27,500 for book proofs? Emma Mustich, Salon.com, on the high price of pre-publication copies of literary classics, from "1984" to "Harry Potter"

Your Old Books. The Rare Books and Manuscripts Section of the Association of College and Research Libraries answers frequently asked questions about rare and older books and their value. (For example: What makes a book rare? What is the difference between a rare book and a secondhand book? What kinds of books are usually not rare? What is the difference between a first and limited edition? How can I ascertain a fair price? Who might accept my old books as a donation?) You can also download a compact PDF version of same FAQ answers.

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Books about how to buy and sell books

If you purchase anything after connecting to Amazon through one of the following links, this site gets a small commission on the whole sale -- which helps support keeping the site going.

• Internet Bookselling Made Easy! How to Earn a Living Selling Used Books Online by Joe Waynick
• The Home-Based Bookstore: Start Your Own Business Selling Used Books on Amazon, eBay or Your Own Web Site by Steve Weber
• Sell on Amazon: A Guide to Amazon's Marketplace, Seller Central, and Fulfillment by Amazon Programs by Steve Weber (being more specific!)
• How to Sell Books on Amazon: The Stay-at-Home Mom's Secret Guide to Selling Used Books on Amazon by Christine E. Miller
• Amazon Top Seller Secrets: Insider Tips from Amazon's Most Successful Sellers by Brad and Debra Schepp
• Barcode Booty: How I found and sold $2 million of 'junk' on eBay and Amazon, And you can, too, using your phone by Steve Weber (who must have made a fair amount just publishing these books--in this case a book about using cellphone apps to check the value of "finds" at yard sales, retail stores, outlet malls, warehouse clubs, wholesale dealers, bargain basements, and online bulk suppliers)
• Selling Used Books Online: The Complete Guide to Bookselling at Amazon's Marketplace and Other Online Sites by Stephen Windwalker. One reviewer suggests that it needs updating to include services such as Scoutpal, Sellerengine, Aman, Mail Extractor,etc., which allow online sellers to batch-edit large parts of their inventory
• Buying Books Online: Finding Bargains and Saving Money with Booksense Stores, Amazon Marketplace, and Other Online Sites by Steven Windwalker

• The PayPal Wars: Battles with eBay, the Media, the Mafia, and the Rest of Planet Earth by Eric M. Jackson
• The Perfect Store: Inside eBay by Adam Cohen

• ABC for Book Collectors by John Carter and Nicholas Barker
• Book Finds: How to Find, Buy, and Sell Used and Rare Books 3rd edition, by Ian C. Ellis
• Collected Books: The Guide to Identification and Values (4th edition, 2011) by Allen and Patricia Ahearn, authors of Collected Books: The Guide to Values (2002)
• The Official Price Guide to Collecting Books by Marie Tedford
• Pocket Guide to the Identification of First Editions, compiled by Bill McBride
• Used and Rare: Travels in the Book World by Lawrence and Nancy Goldstone

• Among the Gently Mad: Strategies and Perspectives for the Book-Hunter in the 21st Century by Nicholas A. Basbanes (a who's who of booksellers and book collectors, with information on what questions to ask, how to use the Web, why book fairs and book dealers are invaluable--a guide to "gratifying a passion in a sensible way."
• A Gentle Madness: Bibliophiles, Bibliomanes, and the Eternal Passion for Books, also by Nicholas A. Basbanes. A "celebration of books and the people who have revered, gathered, and preserved them over the centuries" -- a history of book collecting that will educate you also about the history of bookmaking.
• Patience and Fortitude: Wherein a Colorful Cast of Determined Book Collectors, Dealers, and Librarians Go About the Quixotic Task of Preserving a Legacy (also by Basbanes).
• The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop: A Memoir, a History by Lewis Buzbee

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Textbooks, new and used
• Bigwords (buy, rent, or sell textbooks--with focus on lowest price)
• DavesCampus.com (compare prices for new and used college, high school, and homeschool textbooks etc.)
• DirectTextbook (enter ISBN, title, author, or keywords and DT searches 200 online bookstores for cheapest used textbook)
• eCampus (buy and sell new and used books and textbooks)
• GetCheapBooks (cheap books and textbooks)
• Get Textbooks
• MyBookBuyer.com (sell used textbooks -- free shipping)
• Textbook Superstore (Half.com), an eBay company

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Great bookseller blogs
(hurrah for brick and mortar stores and the
booksellers that still hand sell books))
• Aaron's Books (Lancaster County, Lititz, PA)
• Barbara's Byline (Politics & Prose, DC)
• Bookdwarf
• Books that sell themselves • • (Boswell and Books)
• BookPeople's blog (Austin, TX)
• Boswell and Books (Milwaukee)
• The Boswellians (Milwaukee)
• Carla Comments Politics & Prose, Washington DC
• Greenlight Bookstore (Brooklyn)
• Inkwell Bookstore Fallmouth, Massa)
• Kash's Book Corner (Boulder Bookstore--check out recommended book lists along left side)
• McNally Jackson (Prince Street, NYC)
• Mr. Micawber Enters the Internets
• Off the Shelf Boulder Book Store
• The Regulator Bookstore (Durham, NC)
• RiverRun Bookstore (Portsmouth, NH)
• Sam Wellers (new, used, out of print)
• Scribbling in San Antonio
• Skylight (Los Feliz neighborhood, Los Angeles)
• The Strand
• There is no gap (Shaman Drum Bookshop in Ann Arbor--closing?)
• Vroman's Bookstore Blog

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Much of the following material was migrated here from the soon-to-be-late website of the late, great Sarah Wernick, by permission of her husband, Willie Lockeretz. Material about the Amazon "sock puppet review" controversy was added, in 2012.

For many of us, Amazon's value lies chiefly in the reviews posted for each title, which gives us a sense of whether to buy the book or not. That value has declined because of controversy about various kinds of "fake book reviews."
• The Best Book Reviews Money Can Buy (David Streitfeld, NY Times, 8-25-12). "Consumer reviews are powerful because, unlike old-style advertising and marketing, they offer the illusion of truth....[Bing Liu] estimates that about one-third of all consumer reviews on the Internet are fake. Yet it is all but impossible to tell when reviews were written by the marketers or retailers (or by the authors themselves under pseudonyms), by customers (who might get a deal from a merchant for giving a good score) or by a hired third-party service." See also In a Race to Out-Rave, 5-Star Web Reviews Go for $5 (Streitfeld, 8-19-11) and Is That Review a Fake?
• RJ Ellory admits posting fake book reviews over past 10 years (Andrew Hough, The Telegraph, UK, 9-4-12). Bestselling British crime writer, exposed for writing fake online reviews lauding himself while criticizing rivals, admits he has engaged in the practice for a decade. Thus begins the "sock puppet review" scandal.
• RJ Ellory: fake book reviews are rife on internet, authors warn Bestselling writers Ian Rankin, Lee Child, Susan Hill, Val McDermid and Helen FitzGerald, who have collectively sold millions of novels, “unreservedly” condemned the “abuse” on websites such as Amazon, where reviews posted under “fake identities” are causing untold damage to the publishing world. Read their letter in full.
• Leading academics in bitter row over anonymous 'poison' book reviews (Alastair Jamieson, The Telegraph, 4-18-10). Orlando Figes, professor of history at Birkbeck College, London, and author of a book on Stalin, has named his wife as the author of comments criticizing books written by other renowned scholars as being "dark and pretentious" and "critically dull."
• Historian Orlando Figes agrees to pay damages for fake reviews on Amazon (Alexandra Topping, Guardian, 7-16-10). Historian to pay damages and costs to two rivals who launched a libel case after he posted reviews "praising his own work and rubbishing that of his rivals."
AMAZON'S REACTION TO THE SOCK PUPPET SCANDAL IS EQUALLY UPSETTING:
• Do Consumer Reviews Have A Future? Why Amazon's Sock Puppet Scandal Is Bigger Than It Appears (David Vinjamuri, Forbes, 9-12-12). A huge controversy has erupted over the use of “Sock Puppets” – fake personas created by authors – to write phony positive reviews of their own work and attack their rivals. The controversy started at the Harrogate Crime Festival in the U.K. in July, when British crime writer Stephen Leather casually acknowledged using sock puppets to generate buzz for his books. Amazon's guidelines for creating reviews include these two rules:
--"Sentiments by or on behalf of a person or company with a financial interest in the product or a directly competing product (including reviews by publishers, manufacturers, or third-party merchants selling the product)"
-- "Reviews written for any form of compensation other than a free copy of the product. This includes reviews that are a part of a paid publicity package"
• Amazon Freaks Out About Sock Puppet Reviews And Deletes A Bunch Of Real Reviews (collateral damage department, TechDirt, 11-2-12). After authors freaked out about the sock puppet reviews, Amazon first revised its rules for review writing. making purchased reviews against the rules, and then deleted a lot of legitimate reviews, making it unlikely readers would post reviews in future.
• Why is Amazon deleting writers' reviews of other authors' books? (Carolyn Kellogg, Jacket Copy, Los Angeles Times, 11-2-12). A writer posting a review of another author's book got this response from Amazon: "We have removed your review from .... We do not allow reviews on behalf of a person or company with a financial interest in the product or a directly competing product. This includes authors, artists, publishers, manufacturers, or third-party merchants selling the product. As a result, we've removed your reviews for this title."
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Amazon.com: Making Changes in Listings and Deciphering the Rankings

If the Amazon.com listing for your book is incorrect; if the page omits features that might improve sales, such as sample content or laudatory reviews – or if a reader review is defamatory or obscene – authors or publishers can request changes. Here's information about updating your listing, as well as links to information about the Amazon sales rankings.

• Correcting mistakes
  
• Adding content
  
• Dealing with inappropriate reviews
  
• Deciphering Amazon's sales rankings
  

Updated January 1, 2007

Correcting Mistakes

What if Amazon has omitted the subtitle of your book or misspelled the name of your co-author? At the bottom of Amazon's page for each individual book is a Feedback box. One of the links is to "Update product information."

Click on the link. This takes you to the Catalog Update Form. You will be asked to log onto Amazon to verify your identity. Once you've done that, you'll be allowed to proceed to the update form, which already has the title of the book and the ISBN filled in. You can correct any of the following by checking the relevant box and following simple prompts:

• Title
  
• Author
  
• Binding
  
• Publication Date
  
• Publisher
  
• Number of Pages
  
• Edition
  
• Format
  
• Language
  

If you experience difficulties or delays (more than a week), send an email to book-typos@​amazon.com with the ISBN and title plus the correction. Indicate that you are the author.

If that doesn't work, try the telephone: 206-266-2992 or 206-266-2335.

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Adding Content

If you want to add descriptive material to the page for your book, you will need to fill out the Books Content Form. Though the form is geared to publishers, authors may use it too. Have your ISBN and the new text ready ahead of time to simplify the procedure.

Here are the types of material you can add with the Book Content Update Form:

• Description
  
• Publisher's comments
  
• Author comments
  
• Author bio(s)
  
• Table of contents
  
• Inside-flap copy
  
• Fair-use citations from reviews (source plus up to 20 words per review)
  
• First chapter or other excerpt
  

After you enter the content, you'll be given the opportunity to edit it. Before you sumbit the material, use your browser's copy function to keep a record of the final version.

Once you've sent your additions, a page will come up saying that the additions should appear within five business days. If you experience difficulties send an email to book-typos@​amazon.com with the ISBN and title plus the additions. If that doesn't work, try calling Amazon: 206-266-2992 or 206-266-2335.

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Dealing with Inappropriate Reviews

Amazon.com allows readers to post reviews – including negative reviews – of books. Most authors would not wish to censor legitimate reviews, even if we disagree with them. However, we do have the right to protect ourselves from reviews that violate Amazon's policy prohibiting content that is illegal, obscene, threatening, defamatory, invasive of privacy, infringing of intellectual property rights, or otherwise injurious or objectionable.

If an objectionable review appears on your page, you can ask to have it removed. For example, a reader posted a "review" of my coauthored book, Strong Women, Strong Bones, which is about osteoporosis, claiming - I assume as a joke - that it contained "wonderfully graphic photographs" showing a gaping hole burnt into the palate of my collaborator from "hooting" calcium. Needless to say, the book contains no such photographs. I drew the review to Amazon's attention and they deleted it.

To deal with an inappropriate review: Send an email to community-help@​amazon.com. Include the title and ISBN of the book, as well as the review to which you're objecting. Identify yourself as the author and explain your objection. You might find it helpful to read and refer to Amazon's "Conditions of Use," which lists forbidden review content.

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Deciphering Amazon's Sales Rankings

Amazon ranks all of the books in its inventory in order of their sales. These rankings provide useful information for authors, from the proposal stage, when the rankings pinpoint our competition, to the post-publication stage when they help us assess the effectiveness of publicity and predict the likely content of our next royalty statement.

For a detailed look at how sales ranks are determined and what they signify, see Surfing the Amazon - Decoding Sales Ranks, by Morris Rosenthal. If you haven't read the article recently, check it again: Rosenthal updates it from time to time. Also check out his blog, which discusses rating-related developments at Amazon and elsewhere.

If you become obsessed with the Amazon rankings of your books (or those of your competitors), you can subscribe to a service offered by Books & Writers, which provides email updates weekly, daily, or even hourly. The cost is $10 per year for a single book, $20 per year for two to ten books, and more for additional books. You can try the service free for a month.

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Updated January 1, 2007

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