FAQ: Do you buy used books?

Email rec'd:

Dear Chris Drumm books. Do you buy used books? I know I've bought a lot of used books from you in the past, and am hoping you still need some more. Please let me know if you're interested, and any necessary information.

My reply:

I'm not that much in the market for picking up used books now that I no longer send out printed-paper catalogs. I still like to acquire good books, but I presently have way more than I can keep up with in cataloging (though not all necessarily so good). I haven't officially ended my consignment scheme. A few people still get rid of their excess by sending it to me, and I try to do the right thing with it, or at least I want to try -- and I do enjoy receiving (most of) them -- but since my sales of particular titles is so hit or miss -- mostly miss -- I can't in good conscience recommend myself as the best repository.
One idea that might be something to try, if you have a list of what you're wanting to get rid of, I could copy it onto my bookselling blog and see if that excites any interest. But I wouldn't harbor much in the way of expectations.

Haffner order sent

Sent order to Haffner for two 2010 titles, hopefully enabling me to also supply the bonus chapbook add-on for pre-orderers.

email maybe of interest

Email rec'd:

Hi Chris,

I haven’t been checking an old Yahoo mailbox for sometime, and I see I’ve been missing your updates.

my reply:
Good to hear from you. I've stopped sending mass emails, so I'm sure you haven't missed anything. Even though I only sent to people who asked to be on the list, it still felt like spamming when I hit the send button -- probably about the same rate of response too.

discount plan

Email sent that might be of interest to some others:

I've simplified the discount plan: it's 20% off on new small press and 30% on mass-market publishers. New books -- as in recent -- I don't get in much of any more, especially mass-market, but all the items still listed "new" in my listings are susceptible to discount -- with a possible exception or two, like Tartarus (15%). Used or "as new" books are 10% off.

word from Haffner Press

Email rec'd:

Hey everybody!

Below are the details for the limited edition of THE WORLDS OF JACK WILLIAMSON (which includes books signed by three Grand Masters, including Williamson!)

THE WORLDS OF JACK WILLIAMSON
By Jack Williamson
720 page 6.25" x 9.25" Smythe-sewn Archival-quality Hardcover
ISBN: 978-1-893887-29-9
75-copy limited edition: $150.00 (U.S.)

**********
THE WORLDS OF JACK WILLIAMSON
A truly special state of an incredible book (which missed a Hugo nomination by *two* votes)! The 75-copy slipcased edition of The Worlds of Jack Williamson is signed on two limitation sheets (decorated with specially commissioned artwork by Vincent Di Fate) by all living contributors:

Frederik Pohl • James Gunn • Alfred D. Stewart, PhD • Alan C. Elms, PhD • Stephen Haffner • Vincent Di Fate

Contributor Vicky L. Medley signed the heading to her contribution, "Queens of Space," prior to her passing in 2008.

Also housed in the matching teal-green Brillianta cloth-covered slipcase are:

• Opposites--React! An exclusive 150+ page chapbook collecting the never-reprinted two-part serial novel of "seetee" (aka antimatter) adventure, "Opposites--React!" (from Astounding Science-Fiction, Jan & Feb 1943) with an 18-page arc of Williamson's 1950s newspaper comic-strip BEYOND MARS; a 1988 esay by Williamson on antimatter, and an honest-to-god atom-smasher from Fermi Laboratories (and sf-enthusiast) -- William S. Higgins -- provides the introduction documenting the early use of antimatter in speculative fiction. This chapbook is also signed by Mr. Higgins.

• The Man From Somewhere. This 2006 chapbook from Richard Hauptmann's Cacahuete Press reprints Williamson's novella from 2003. 300 copies were produced for sale. Now out-of-print, this chapbook, signed by Jack Williamson, is also included.

THE WORLDS OF JACK WILLIAMSON celebrates the 100th birthday of one of the Grand Masters of science fiction. While Jack Williamson passed away in 2006 at the age of 98, his incredible body of work continues to be enjoyed by legions of fans and admirers. Assembled in this centennial tribute are:

Unpublished stories:
“The Moon Bird”
“The Forbidden Window“
"The Golden Glass"
and a film treatment from 1957, “The Planets are Calling.”

Classics in the Williamson canon:
the original novella-length version of Darker Than You Think
“Minus Sign,” an unreprinted “seetee” story of anti-matter and terraforming
a tale with the first use of “psionics,” “The Man from Outside.”

Contemporary stories include:
“The Hole in the World”
“Afterlife”
“The Luck of the Legion,” the last Legion of Space adventure
"Ghost Town," his last story to appear in Weird Tales (from 2005!)
"A Christmas Carol"

Also included are four essays from academics and scholars who have studied Williamson’s works, as well as Dr. Williamson’s 1957 Master’s Thesis:

Alan C. Elms, PhD
"Darker Than He Thought: The Psychoanalysis of Jack Williamson"

Jack Williamson

"A Study of the Sense of Prophecy in Modern Science Fiction"
"Tricentennial Century"

Alfred D. Stewart, PhD

"Jack Williamson: The Comedy of Cosmic Evolution"

Vicky Medley
"Queens of Space: Women in the work of Jack Williamson"

Richard A. Hauptmann
"Collecting Jack Williamson: Master of Wonder"

****************

Best,

Stephen Haffner
Big Poobah
HAFFNER PRESS

---Anyone wanting this through me, discount would be 10%. Regular discount on Haffner books is 20%. At present I have in hand three Hamilton books needing to be cataloged and a Williamson on order (in the Collected Stories series I somehow neglected to order when it came out last year).

word from Cliff Burns

Email rec'd:

Folks:

That's riiiiight.

I've finally got around to posting the 4 short stories that cost me my entire summer.

Click here to go to my blog.

I think the intro which precedes the tales pretty much sums up my feelings so I'll keep this note short and to the point.

Pop by. Read 'em. Enjoy 'em.

Okay, they're depressing as hell. Maybe not enjoy them. But read 'em.

And, if you think of it, drop me a line with your thoughts. Or leave them in the "Comments" box below the stories.

Take care, one and all. Yer on my mailing list and that means you matter.

Best to you,

Cliff

---Oh, and (ouch) today's my birthday -- the sixtieth.
Here's
me
on
an
earlier --
much
earlier --
birthday.

book cataloging

Having a few relatives over for dinner tomorrow night so Amy's put her foot down on all the stacks of books next to the easy chairs (and behind them and lining every wall). For this reason I spent much of yesterday "processing" a fair number of ones that were closest at hand (not coincidentally the most recent to come in). I enjoy the cataloging process. It is nice to look at the books more closely, find an apt (or howlably inapt) blurb to quote parenthetically. Linking to the photo, listing on biblio or half, and copying the listing for the new arrivals section, plus the time I spend checking out the book, is not the speediest of processes -- but it beats a few other ways to kill time on the Internet, and sometimes it pays off, even if only a little. I've been veering away a bit from the steady diet of SF/F/H books, listing everything I happen to pick up. There's lots of reasons I pick up the books I pick up -- collectibility being possibly the least of them. It could be a book I personally would like to (or wish I could) read, or maybe it's a nice copy of a book I think maybe someone else would like to (or wish they could) read, or maybe the price is right. Too much stuff seems like it might be of interest.
Still, for the couple stacks of books I was able to get through, another several had to go down to the cellar, where I'd like to think I will get to them -- but past history is not very encouraging on that score. Chances are the books coming in will continue to outpace my ability to get them cataloged -- and once cataloged there's the always daunting task of shelving them in such a manner that they can be retrieved when needbe -- only my second least favorite task behind the actually pulling of books. But now I sit here, without a stack of books beside me, for the moment -- so I write this little diatribe.