Musings of an Online Bookseller

Supplementing existing guides, this book approaches the topic of online bookselling from a broad perspective including U. S. demographic changes (the aging of the baby boomers), the "flat world" of Thomas Friedman, and recent technological innovations including ebooks. It focuses particularly on business complexity and online bookseller culture in the context of a rapidly changing world. Aimed primarily at old hands in the business, this book contains only general information about the basics of online bookselling. "Musings" is oriented primarily toward online bookselling on Amazon.com, affectionately referred to among booksellers as "the Big River" or sometimes just "the River." Although there are numerous other venues for online bookselling, Amazon.com enjoys immense and sustained popularity as a sales channel. That's because Amazon.com has some unique aspects as an online bookselling venue, among them "Amazon myopia," the fact that people often forget that there are other places to buy books online! Included is a list of 33 easily overlooked used books that have sold for $100 or more on eBay in the past few years. These are books you might actually encounter at yard sales, etc., as opposed to rare and antiquarian books, which are primarily signed first editions.