Collecting Rare Books

Book fairs adapt and survive in the internet age

These days, buying rare books on the internet is commonplace. The net has seized a huge chunk of the market and with good reason. The massively lower overheads of operating from home and dealing electronically makes it the book dealers first option. But this mass migration, has left holes in the more traditional methods, especially book shops, (or stores if you prefer), and also book fairs. This has created a challenge for promoters of these events. If you dont adapt, you may not survive. One example of this book evolution is the Annual Boston Antiquarian Book and Print Fair, who are trying to make their fairs more accessible to the less discerning public. I quote from the Maine Antique Digest:

Show promoters Jerry Oliver and Michael Gannon had sent a letter suggesting that the booksellers bring art-related materials in addition to their usual stock. "Booksellers," they wrote, "if you have artist-produced prints, catalogues raisonnés, artist monographs, exhibition catalogs, pamphlets relating to fine prints or graphic arts, please make an effort to include them in your inventory for the fair." As a result, it was a reinvented and redecorated show with lots of visually rich book jackets prominent on the dealers’ shelves. Lots of modern firsts, i.e.,
recent first editions, were evident too. Some old-school rare book dealers scorn them, but they can be steady sellers. The point is, would-be walk-ins, afraid of antiques, would have found many of the materials accessible and affordable, READ THE WHOLE ARTICLE:

I guess now all they have to do is let the more general public know about it. Maybe a name change would help.. or even, the same name declaring it is incorporating a secondary fair, perhaps resulting in getting a news story out of it..anyway.. Enough of my amateur book fair promoting, I will leave that to the professionals.

posted by Mr Splosh @ 10:42 AM