Here's one way of clearing deadwood: A bonfire
If you've been depressed lately about sagging sales, you're not alone. This three-day weekend has been the slowest period for sales I've ever had.Here's how one Kansas City bookseller dealt with the situation this weekend:
On Sunday, Wayne began burning his books in protest of what he sees as society's diminishing support for the printed word.
posted by Steve Weber at 5/28/2007
11 Comments:
Mr. Wayne has received a great deal of publicity and probably more than a few new customers because of his bonfire, but it would have been kinder to our environment to have taken the books to a recycling center.
Thanks! I needed that. May was a horrible month for my sales. But like any other business, we just have to weather the bad periods, and count our blessings during the good. Here's to sales and solvency! - Bunny
May has been a bad sales month for me as well. I have used this downtime to do more research and stock both my Amazon Marketplace and my eBay Store listings as well as to donate books that have been non-sellers to my local Freecycle group.
Historically, burning books has been symbolic of the suppression of free speech. What does it say when a guy is having a book-burning, using his own books, only to have it interrupted by the fire department?
Kinda makes you wonder if all the hype at the public library about Farenheit 451 is maybe a little overblown.
Wrong message, wrong method. Books that don't sell should go to charity. If the charity can't sell them, at least they will be properly recycled. Also consider donating to groups that send books overseas to poor countries.
NWBookman
m with Wayne...no one would know there was a protest if you donated the books. Burn baby burn!!!! It always makes you feel better ...stress reliever too!!!I
Ouch..what a waste! I'd hate to see books burn--I instinctively want to save them! One can only hope a few microwave cookbooks and books on flower arranging made it into the pyre.
I hope there were a lot of Paul Reiser and "From Here to Maternity"-type books in that stack. I am really tired of scouting around those! JH
....or Readers Digest books
The reaction on Digg and Slashdot was interesting. "Donate them!" was a common thing. The article said he tried and couldn't find any takers. Others said sell them online. Well, duh. But some books won't sell online at any price. My wife and I recently culled a couple hundred books we've had listed for two years that never sold. Their value had fallen to under $1 (in many cases all the way down to a penny) and it just isn't worth it to continue to try to sell them.
I agree, excellent publicity stunt. I know penny-book burnings are a relatively common event, but people actually heard about this one.
I take my slower movers and non-sellers to the open air antique fair I do once a month – I have nice books--the $1 Amazon sellers on the cart for $3 each 2 for $5 – a few really nice - $8 -$20 books – pretty antique books and coffee table that I would loss on shipping. I then have a couple card tables and trunks full of non-mover penny Amazon books for $1 – if you buy a regularly price book off the cart you get to choose a sale book for free. I find the free book delights people and they don’t haggle as much. I usually have a basket of romances 12 for $1, which the ladies from the old folks home eat up. Usually do pretty well if it doesn’t rain.
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