Is There Anything To A Bookseller's Name?

A few days ago, a customer asked me whether or not the name they used for their online bookselling business mattered. Before being asked, I guess I never really gave it much thought. I do know that when I came up with my own bookseller name I opted not to use "Mould Books" for fear that buyers would cringe or be apprehensive just because of the name, even worse, I could have made sure nobody bought from me by using "Mouldy Books." Instead of dooming my business before i even got started, I chose veverkabooks; veverka is the Czech word for squirrel.

Recently, it has become apparent from sales data and orders of my book, placed by other booksellers, that there just might be something to be said for carefully choosing your bookseller name. Catchy and cute names for booksellers seem to be appealing to buyers and it seems to be independent of seller feedback ratings or how the marketplaces present the books offered. These sellers for the most part have similar feedback ratings, and all offer my book at the same price, but those selling the greatest number of copies all have catchy or cute names for their online bookselling business.

There just might be an attraction to buyers associated with catchy and/or cute bookseller names. So when you are considering a name for your bookseller identity, give it some thought. You might even take a look at the names of the booksellers offering a top selling novel and see if you find yourself attracted to one particular bookseller offering the book over others simply owing to name appeal.

Hey, if there is anything to the little data that I have seen that might give one bookseller an advantage over another owing simply to name appeal, it is at least worth considering when you come up with your own bookseller name.

What Do You Get For Your Money?

When it comes to buying "How To" books, all of us at times get wrapped up in marketing hype and lose track of identifying what we really want in the way of information. So, while not wanting to put down any other book or author, and because I am not one to hype things, I will show you what you can expect from my book versus the other most popular books about selling books online, and I will let the numbers tell the story.


I also want to apologize for not being as effective at marketing as some other authors because I know that if you bought one of the more popular books on this subject, you still have questions that my book may have answered for you, if you knew about it and bought it in the first place.


The text statistics come from Amazon.com or are noted below. You can be the judge of which book provides more for your money and which is more popular because it is marketed better.


You might wonder how my book could be only 60 pages longer than the most popular book and have 89% more characters, over 100% more words, 69% more sentences, 36 photos, 37 graphs, charts, illustrations, and diagrams. You can also see similar differences between my book and the second most popular book on the subject with my book having only 54 more pages. Well, the answer is simple, my book is printed in a normal Times New Roman 9 point font instead of a large font that fills pages more quickly and makes a book seem like it has more than it does.

The plain and simple truth is that I am not as good at marketing my book as some other authors, they are masters of marketing. On the other hand, I am very much interested in my reputation and providing all of my customers with the best value for their money. That is why I opted to pack my book with more information, pictures to make what I write about clear, graphs, diagrams, illustrations, and charts to show comparisons, a CD with spreadsheets covering break even analysis, business growth planning, inventory forecasting, and bookkeeping to make taxes easier and the performance tracking of your business clear. I even host a free "customer only" forum where all of my customers can learn from each other and get follow-on questions answered by me and other experienced online booksellers.If you had difficulty before in deciding which book gives you the most information for your money, it should be clear now that with my book, you get:

1) Over twice as many words as the best selling book on this topic, and 90% more than the second best selling book.

2) Many more pictures, graphs, and diagrams than either of the best selling books

3) Free access to a "customer only" forum where you can interact and discuss the business with hundreds of other booksellers that is not offered by either of the best sellers.

4) A free CD included (a $29.99 value alone) that will help you keep your records, prepare your taxes easier, plan your business growth, determine your break-even point, provide you with monthly, quarterly, and annual summary reports, and show you exactly how your business is performing with 55 graphs and charts. Neither of the other books offers anything of the sort.

If all you are looking for is a pamphlet with an outline of the online bookselling business, one of the other books will suffice, but if you are serious about learning the business, the best alternative is Online Bookselling: A Practical Guide with Detailed Explanations and Insightful Tips (ISBN 1427600708).

** There are no available numerical statistics for this book available online. I took my copy, counted words on several pages, and determined the numbers myself. There is a potential margin of error on the order of 5%.

Why Are Scanners Being Banned At Booksales?

A few people have recently asked me why some of the big book sales are banning scanners and it has been a topic of discussion in our forum as well.Some of the reasons I have read include a desire by some to curtail the profiteers (a.k.a. online booksellers) and assure that there are some good books left when the sale opens to the general public. Certainly, this hinders the online bookseller and limits the number of books that he/she is able to check, but I do not think this is the reason.

Another hypothesis I have heard is that booksellers rummaging through the books and scanning them leave the unwanted books in disarray, thus making more work for the volunteers to straighten out the mess, but I do not think this is the reason either.

There are also some that believe the cashiers do not like ringing up hundreds of books for booksellers, but this does not make any sense because it is a lot easier to make one sale of hundreds of books to one buyer than to ring up two books for hundreds of customers, so I do not think this is the reason.

I do not doubt that there a people working the book sales and attending them that are jealous of dealers coming in and buying up the valuable books, and this probably does play into the decision to ban scanners, but I do not think it is the primary reason either.

I believe there is a genuine concern for safety. If you have ever been zapped in the eyes by a careless bookseller with a total disregard for where he/she is pointing their scanner, you know exactly what I mean. You will see spots and/or floaters for a good half hour. If exposed to a direct laser of the intensity of my HP 5P (class II) scanner, I do not doubt that you would suffer some permanent eye damage. I was personally zapped accidentally by someone using their scanner and I couldn't read ISBN's or the screen on my PDA for almost 45 minutes. I believe scanners are being banned from book sales because of liability issues and with our society being so focused on taking someone to court, the book sale organizers do not want to risk being held responsible for the actions of a careless bookseller.
As obnoxious as some of the booksellers I have seen can be, I wouldn't put it past some of them to intentionally zap me if for no other reason than to temporarily give them an edge in buying while my eyes recover.