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About Abebooks

Page history last edited by novelshoppe88@... 15 years, 11 months ago

Abebooks (i.e., ABE or Advanced Book Exchange), one of the first online used book selling databases for independent booksellers and now a world-wide company, has once again reached into our pockets. Give ‘em an inch and they’ll take a mile, they say. And Abe is asking for another inch. But this time they’re asking for a mile and it has many booksellers worldwide outraged and threatening to boycott Abebooks.

 

I was an Abe bookseller when I began selling used books on the internet back in 1996. I paid them $25 a month and they added my books – under my name – to their growing database. They did the advertising and provided a platform from which I could make a profit. All was well as both Abebooks grew and so did my business. In fact, sales from the internet were so good that I, as well as many other booksellers, closed my used book store and moved all my books to my new/old home (a huge old home in another small town) where I could work in my housecoat all day long if I wanted to, only having to dress to go to the post office.

 

Abebooks was not the only database of used books that I belonged to. I also sold through Bibliofind (later bought by Amazon), Bibliocity (later bought by Biblio.com) and eventually through Alibris (originally called Interloc). My sales through each site were healthy, although I wasn’t getting rich by any stretch of the imagination, Abebooks continued to be my best site. But then someone bought Abebooks and the rules started changing. They asked their booksellers (actually their customers) for an inch and we gave it to them. They wanted us to sign an agreement that, in essence, said they had no responsibility and no liability but would hold us booksellers to a code of ethics that THEY dictated.

 

Now, let me say here that I have never known a dishonest bookseller (although there have been a few criminals who pretended to be booksellers dealing in extremely rare books but they were always caught, and there very few of them). Booksellers by and large are people who love books, love people and are as independent and dedicated to their craft as any other professional – and as such, live by an unwritten code of ethics of basic honesty and integrity. And knowing that “we” are ultimately responsible and liable for our sales – and the code of ethics was simply a statement we were already living by, we agreed to Abebooks terms. There were grumbles, of course, as we independent-minded booksellers felt offended that someone else was attempting to dictate what our code of ethics should be. But in the end, they knew intellectually, it was just an agreement – putting in writing what we all knew and agreed to anyway. Abebooks asked for their first inch and got their first mile. A few booksellers got together and decided to organize a bookseller’s cooperative that no one could buy, no one could dictate terms to or from, and no one made a profit off of their backs. And they were successful. But more about ABookCoOp later.

 

The next inch was a small increase in monthly fees. Followed by another increase. Followed by their removing our names from the database so we became somewhat invisible, making the customer with questions have to find some way to ask the question through Abe. It was awkward, inefficient and left a bad taste in the mouths of booksellers who suddenly felt like Abebooks was “stealing” our customers. They were calling our customers their customers. We were being pushed into the category of being a wholesaler – a warehouse, if you will, of books to be shipped to Abebooks’ customers. And in order to do that, they would have to require the customers who wished to pay via credit card, pay Abe rather than the bookseller. This had been an option already for the booksellers who didn’t accept credit cards, but for those booksellers who did accept credit cards, being told they can no longer process their own sales was a devastating blow. Merchant fees would remain the same and our discounts would go up due to less dollar sales being run through our merchant accounts. And it would cost the bookseller 5.5% of the selling price of the book, payable to Abebooks. Most merchant accounts were a lot less than that, so this was a big hit in the pocket. And again, booksellers gave Abe a mile. But this mile was longer.

 

By now Abe was absolutely a mammoth, and allowing hobbyists and fly-by-night sellers to call themselves booksellers in order to sell their garage sale books for very little money, packing them poorly, shipping late and in general giving professional booksellers a bad name. Their database had become overloaded with thousands of fiction novels for virtually pennies, diluting the market so much, soon there weren’t enough sales to cover the monthly fees. After 3 months of losing money, I told Abebooks I was moving out.

 

I had already joined ABookCoOp and added my books to their database – called http://www.TomFolio.com. And I still sell there today. Always will. I always cover expenses but more importantly than that, I always make a profit there. The monthly fee has never increased. It has a webmaster who continually improves the website significantly. I did have to agree to a Code of Ethics but I also am an owner so I get to say what does and what doesn’t happen with my inventory…my books…my business…my customers. And that’s the kind of code of ethics I like.

 

I had also developed my own website through a company that built bookselling websites specifically for booksellers. Many, many other booksellers also got their own websites through http://www.Chrislands.com and the owners of Chrislands set up a group for their users to share information, tips, help and we all continued to grow and prosper under the efficiency of Chrislands and our own camaraderie. I may be walking out on a limb when I say this, but I can’t help believing that Chrislands became successful developing the websites as a direct result of so many independent booksellers becoming disenchanted with Abe’s tyrannical rules.

 

But never missing a heartbeat, Abe bought Chrislands. So now my landlord is once again Abe. We were assured by Chrislands that nothing would change, we could still operate our websites however we wished…that there would even be a benefit in the form of our books were now going to be searched on Bookfinder (which Abe had bought a couple of years ago). Only problem was, when it came down to it, we would have to pay a monthly fee PLUS 8% commission on any and all sales that come through Bookfinder if we wanted to be included in the search. And the 8% is all-inclusive…book, shipping, handling, sales tax – whatever the bottom line is. And it’s on top of the 5.5% credit card fee. And it’s on top of Abe’s monthly fee. And it’s on top of our own website’s monthly fee. If you’re still an Abebooks dealer.

 

But it’s not just Bookfinder. And it’s not just the Chrislands-built sites. Now it’s every single Abe seller who is going to have to pay that 8% commission.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is Abe’s current subscription fee structure:

 

8% Sales Commission

Upon a successful sale via the AbeBooks shopping basket, a sales commission of 8% is charged on the total item amount, consisting of the book price + shipping charges + extra charges. The maximum sales commission is US$40.00 per book, and the minimum commission is US$0.50 per book.

 

Payment Service Fee

Every book on our websites can be purchased using Visa/MasterCard with payment accepted by AbeBooks. A payment service fee of 5.5% of the total item amount is charged for the first $500 ($1-500) and 3.5% on the subsequent value ($501 and beyond). Minimum fees are as follows:

 

 

Ever heard the saying “nickel and dime me to death”?

 

So once again, Abe’s booksellers are outraged. Because there is no way they can justify taking 8% of shipping fees or sales tax. But always they remind us…WE SET OUR OWN PRICES! So I ask you, as a consumer, just how much I could raise my book prices and still remain competitive? And still make it economical for you to buy books on the internet? And still make the profit I need – earn – deserve -- because the commodity is MINE – not Abe’s. The responsibility, the liability, the ethics, the integrity, the customer service, THE BOOKS THEMSELVES, are all mine – not Abe’s. And the sad thing is that they know that. Without us, they are nothing. And they want us to think we are nothing without them. So they keep inching and inching and inching.

 

On a final note, let me say that almost 5 years ago, my housecoat wore out, I got out of the habit of putting on make-up or styling my hair and realized how much I missed helping a customer locate a book in the stacks. So I re-opened my bookstore. I set my own hours (the sign says 11-ish to 6-ish unless I’m gone). I have my desk and my computer so I can still sell books on the internet. And as a TomFolio bookseller, I can categorize my books, price them, and sell them however the hell I want. I will keep my little website for a while longer just to see how things pan out. But since my books are already found on Bookfinder through TomFolio, Biblio, Alibris and Amazon, it would be really stupid of me to give Abe another inch by subscribing to the Bookfinder search. I don’t want to give my hard-earned money to a slum-lord from another country, even if it is Canada.

 

To learn more about the hullabaloo at Abebooks, check out these links:

 

 

Victoria Times News Article: http://tinyurl.com/56mre6

 

Publisher’s Weekly News Article: http://tinyurl.com/552v6v

 

Americana Exchange Article: http://tinyurl.com/5m3vul

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