Fair’s Fair “For Book Lovers”

I first heard about blogs only early this year. I became fascinated with the prospect of communicating with others who shared my passion for the book business.
In May an article called “The Stupidity of Bookselling” at http://www.rodcollins.com/wordpress/the-stupidity-of-bookselling stirred me up enough that I just had to respond.

Today - http://www.rodcollins.com/wordpress/the-best-place-to-open-a-bookshop - they have another article called The Best Place to Open a Bookshop which identifies the haven as Riyadh in Saudi Arabia.

My response (in case you do not want to cut and paste to the other site);

19 years in the book business tells me;

If you are going to sell books written in English then you must have access to a constant supply of those books.
Therefore, common sense dictates the best place to open a bookstore is in the centre of a large population in a very visible location. The incoming inventory will quickly go from a trickle to a flood.

Setting up a store in a location where you can sell books but have difficulty replenishing your inventory is okay if you have tons of books and only need another sales outlet or if you were planning to go out of business anyway.

In the long run continued success in the book business (and probably any business) has more to do with constantly improving your knowledge about what sells quickly and thereby limiting your investment in dead stock.

As Dorothy said “There’s no place like home!” and there is a book out there called “Acres of Diamonds” which complements the quotation “The fault lies not in our stars … but in ourselves.”

The monetary end of this business is secondary (as long as you can pay your bills) - it is the lifestyle that is most rewarding. Enjoy!

The helpfulness of other book blog sites cannot be overstated (the tough part is hunting them down) because they open your mind to other perspectives and clarify your own situation.