After quite a while resting on my more or less laurels (past listings) it's time to get a move on and put up some more listings. My goal is five books every day from now on. This should be achievable, but not according to my past performance.

These books get listed in three places: on Amazon, Biblio, and Half. Books without ISBNs (older books) generally will not be listed on half. My prices might vary between these three places. Amazon and Half tell me competing prices, so I peg mine on them. Thus, if the lowest price for Deadly Percheron is $98 on Amazon, I might peg mine at $95. If it weren't my only copy maybe I'd be more reasonable. In fact, I think my Biblio listing is more reasonable.

Going forward (and possibly backward), links to titles of books will send you to the main Amazon listing. My listing will be somewhere amidst the other maybe 237 listings. This is where my photo of the book can be seen, which will probably be a better one than the one Amazon features. Half doesn't let me attach my own photo—at least I don't think it does. Photos are also at biblio. Lots of older listings still don't have photos. Nor updated prices.

I've been lousy at selling direct via email. Sorry about that, if you've tried me. Listing through the major portals keeps me honest—also prompt and reliable.

Tuesday, March 4, 2003

BOOKCELLAR NOTES (3/4/03 Tues):

CDs played today:
- Purcell SONNATTAS Vols. 2 & 3 (2 CDs)
- Ockeghem MISSA AU TRAVAIL SUIS (ASV Gaudeamus)--makes me feel holier than thou
- THE HARD EDGE OF ALTERNATIVE (a “The Mix” from emusic)--makes me feel unholier than thou
- BURN, BABY, BURN! (another “The Mix” from emusic)--fiery fusion

---Working on inputting of Prime Books that arrived yesterday. Eleven titles (and it looks like a good number more than that on their website). I am trying out copying the URLs for each book-detail listing, to see if it might not be too much trouble to set up links when I do my blogpost tonight. So far linking has gone well enough, but I do not want to be trying to do something so labor-intensive that I end up getting way behind on the things that matter more than setting up links perhaps no one will ever use. I have tried out some of the ones I set up experimentally already and they worked like a charm, so that is kind of slick.

---Another dozen titles from Prime came in the mail today, as well as the new one from Ash-Tree in Canada. A pause for brunch (the last of the leftover split-pea soup), and now back at it. The Prime titles will certainly put my capacity for picayune chores to the test, setting up links to all these book titles. But it will be a good test. I had seen reviews of their books cropping up all over the place and wondered how come I wasn’t getting them. Well, now I am. The invoice has not arrived, so I do not know what discount members of the discount plan will be receiving. Probably 20%. I will apprise if it gets better.

---UPS just dumped a couple boxes on the porch: shipments from Subterranean and Pocket/Baen. I wonder about the chapbooks that I think Subterranean has published lately. I have tried to have a standing order for these, but do not see any in present shipment. The paperbacks from Pocket/Baen mostly consist of restocking sold-out titles and extra copies of special-ordered books (if it seemed like they might sellable). If I check to see what else to get my completist tendencies tend to run too much amok. Or you could say that I had enough books already in my order-file, to make enough of an order. Maybe next time I won’t have so many and I will have to check more carefully on what Baen and Pocket have been publishing lately.
---When I went upstairs I was surprised to see it has started snowing rather heavily. Today is now the third day in a row I have skipped my 5-mile run. The winds were kicking up pretty strongly with temps in the teens when I went to the post office, so that was sortie enough for me.

---Finally got the Prime Books catalogued, sort of:
---Twenty-three titles from Prime Books now in stock. These are POD editions, with only the first title stating First Edition on the copyright page. This one inaugurates my belated standing order:
Bishop, K.J. THE ETCHED CITY, Prime, 2/03, 1st edn, (intricate novel), new 16.95

---Maybe these did too in their initial demand printing:
Castle, Mort NATIONS OF THE LIVING, NATIONS OF THE DEAD, Prime ('02), (Romany stories; "Mort Mythology” by a master of the short story), new 15.00
Di Filippo, Paul BABYLON SISTERS and Other Posthumans, Prime ('02), new 17.95
Fisher, Jack (ed) WHISPERS AND SHADOWS, Prime ('01), (horror stories), new $15
Fox, Derek M. JACKDAW, Prime ('02), (stark evil in every tale), new 15.00
Gonzalez, J.F. OLD GHOSTS and Other Revenants, Prime ('02), new 15.00
Hughes, Rhys NOWHERE NEAR MILKWOOD, Prime ('02), (stories), new 17.95
Lebbon, Tim THE NATURE OF BALANCE, Prime ('02), (apocalyptic visionary), new in dj 29.95
Logan, Simon I-O, Prime ('01), (industrial-style stories; cybergoth SF), new 12.00
Maynard, L.H. & M.P.N. Sims THE HIDDEN LANGUAGE OF DEMONS, Prime ('01), (novella; modern nightmare of riotous colour & white-knuckle action), new $12
--- & ---(eds) DARKNESS RISING 4: Caresses of Nightmare, Prime ('02), new 12.00
--- & ---(eds) DARKNESS RISING 5: Black Shroud of Fear, Prime ('02), new 12.00
O'Neill, Gene THE BURDEN OF INDIGO, Prime ('02), (sf/fantasy/horror tale), new $15
---GHOSTS, SPIRITS, COMPUTERS AND WORLD MACHINES, Prme ('01), (horror stories; introduction by Kim Stanley Robinson), new 15.00
O'Rourke, Monica J. SUFFER THE FLESH, Prime ('02), (horror novel), new 15.00
---(ed DECADENCE ONE, Prime ('02), (erotic horror tales), new 12.95
REDSINE: A Quarterly of Dark Fantasy & Horror #7, 1/02, Prime, (Stableford, VanderMeer; Hand interview) • ---#8, 4/02, (Rhys Hughes; Tim Powers interview), • ---#9, 7/02, (Kim Newman interview) • ---#10, 10/02, (Sallis, etc.; Stableford interview), new each, 6.00
Savory, Brett A. THE DISTANCE TRAVELLED, Prime ('01), (novelette), new 15.00
UNDERWORLDS 1, Prime ('02), (horror/suspense from mentally-ill editor), new 5.99
Waggoner, Tim ALL TOO SURREAL, Prime ('02), (McKiernan intro), new 15.00
---An interesting-looking batch of books, to say the least. Prime Books may have Wildside disease (erstwhile Pulphouse disease), but with this print-on-demand technology, I guess numerous titles can be unleashed with less monetary risk. Even if not sustained, this is already enough stuff for many a publishing career.

---Sent an order for the latest Golden Gryphon books (Waldrop and Shepard), as well as to replenish depleted stock on several of their titles.

---Just added a “new” update to the list of email to be sent next time on-line. It gives information about the big fat Robert McCammon book I think I only have one copy of right now, but would love to get more. I should have mentioned, but I think there was also a limited. As usual, I carry the cheapest edition, but can try to order the limited. What the discount might be, I can’t say. Or if it is even still available.

---I catalogued the Subterraneans that came in:
Bloch, Robert THE LOST BLOCH Vol. Three: CRIMES AND PUNISHMENTS, Subterranean '02, 1st edn, one of 776 copies SIGNED by editor Davud J. Schow and someone whose name I cannot decipher--it doesn’t look like any of the participants I can find; maybe it says on the Subterranean website, (the novella here is Dr. Holmes’ Murder Castle with five otherwise unreprinted short stories; appreciations by Douglas E. Winter and widow Eleanor Bloch), new in dj $40
---more copies; I already had some, but haven’t gotten around to listing it here yet (which hasn’t stopped it from selling anyway).

Brite, Poppy Z. THE VALUE OF X, Subterranean '03, 1st edn, SIGNED, (mature work), new / dj $35

Matheson, Richard OFF BEAT: Uncollected Stories, Subterranean '02, 1st edn, one of 750 SIGNED copies, (includes five originals; William F. Nolan [ed]), new in dj 40.00

---Back in stock:
Lansdale, Joe ZEPPELIN'S WEST, Subterranean, 6/01, 1st edn, one of 1500 SIGNED copies, (a Lansdalean holiday into weirdness and camp), new in dj 40.00

---And here is my listing for the Ash-Tree book which came in today too:
Boston, Noel YESTERDAY KNOCKS, Ash-Tree '03, 1st, (ghost stories), new / dj $45

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