As I write this sentence I’m surrounded by old friends. About 1,500 of them. The bulk of my books, stacked on seven tightly packed bookshelves. You can see a few of them in my header.
I’m putting them all up for sale. Well, not all. I’m not willing, like the minions of part time booksellers on Amazon.com, to list thousands of titles priced between $0.01 and $2.00 (my guess, hoping to make a dollar or two on handling and shipping). And there are a few I can’t part with. Yet. So I’ve decided to list the ones that, after painstaking research, appear to be worth at least $10.00, while not so dear to my heart that it would haunt me to see them go.
My rationale is that no one in my family will want them. I have a cinematic vision of the reading of my will, and when the executor says, “And my library of books, I bequeath to…” nervous eyes exchange glances, lips mouthing “please, not me.” So why not monetize the holdings now, most of which were carefully selected from book sales and remainder tables, long before the practiced eye was replaced with a mindless scanner.
If you see something you like above, let me know.
P.S. The Bruce Jay Friedman, Harufs, Kinsellas, and Elmore Leonard are signed.
An extended essay on this top is now available at themillions.com: http://www.themillions.com/2013/08/goodbye-old-friends-on-selling-my-books.html
To visit my bookstore (LTMadison Books) on biblio.com: http://www.biblio.com/bookstore/ltmadison-books-madison
3 replies on “Selling My Books”
What’s the name of your store on biblio.com???
The info has been added to my post — thanks for the reminder!
Wow, that’s a lot of books. When I homeschooled, I would list and sell all of our books at the end of each year. It was a lot of work, but worth the effort. I Hope they sell well for you.