Storytellersunplugged

by Bill Lindblad

Most authors know writing, but all too few of them know about books.

This is counterintuitive; it is reasonable to assume that authors are knowledgable about books. But after visiting the homes of some authors, and exchanging mailings with many more, I’ve learned that it simply isn’t so.
Authors are familiar with what is contained within the books, but rarely with the containers.

This is important because those containers, if properly maintained, can become a source of revenue in the future, whether for the author, their heirs, or a charity.

There are a few basics which everyone should know. Then there are a few more items which are author-specific. I’ll cover the basics first.

Condition: Avoid damaging your books. That doesn’t mean wearing cotton gloves and turning the pages with specialty tweezers. It simply means that you should use a bookmark instead of dog-earing a page, and that you should try not to toss books around or use them as coasters. Preventing casual damage to your books will generally result in them staying in good condition… typically the lowest grade that a collector will consider buying.

If at all possible, try to stick to higher standards. When you buy your books, check to see if they are first editions (the ways to determine this are many and vary according to publisher, but most US publishers use a number line: if it counts down to 1 underneath the copyright data, it’s usually a first print.) If you have the option of buying a first print or a later print in the same condition at the same price, go with the first. Try to purchase a bookshelf; putting your books on a shelf, spine up, will prevent their spines and corners from getting damaged. Consider picking up some dustjacket covers for your hardbacks, to prevent the jackets from tearing and nicks. Setting books one on top of each other on the floor, in a stack, may evoke nostalgic images of library scenes from old movies, but they also result in damage to the lower books, as the pressing weight slowly slants their spines.

Don’t keep your books in areas of high heat, high moisture, and especially not both. As an example of why not: a prominent author had been published in hardback for years, and had purchased boxes of his old books at discount, before they went to remainder. After years of doing this, he had a breakaway hit novel, which led to more, which led to him being on the bestseller lists consistently. He started selling some of his older novels as people contacted him begging for copies. Unfortunately, many of the books had developed mold spotting on the covers and pages due to their storage, and some of them had to be destroyed. This both cost the author money and depressed some fans. This is not an isolated incident; I know of three authors who have told me they’ve had old stocks of their books get damaged either from mold or silverfish.

While I’m on that: use some sort of insecticide on the perimeter of your house, even if it’s just buying a pet aardvark. Silverfish are the bane of anyone whose home contains paper products.

If you are a smoker, keep your bookshelves away from your ashtray. Sure, it looks cool to have a stack of the magazines and books you’ve helped produce sitting above your keyboard, but unless you need that to give you inspiration all you’re going to do is permeate the pages with smoke, and that scent will linger and greatly diminish the value of those items.

Now, here’s where the split comes in. Because some of the things which most people should never do to their books are things which authors should do to them. And more or less, it comes down to your relative fame.

It doesn’t matter how famous you are; if you are an author or artist who contributed to a book or magazine, you don’t have to fear devaluing the book by signing it.

Normally, signing your name inside a book, thereby reminding everyone it’s your property, automatically tanks the value of the book. Autographing your work, however, increases its desirability (at least in theory.) Don’t be afraid to autograph your own work.

Autographing only goes so far, though. As the creator, you’ll likely have signed a number of copies of your work for other people. If you want to make your own titles worth more, before selling any of them, get yourself a personalized bookstamp or bookplate. Stamps can be purchased at many craft stores, and personalized bookplates aren’t much harder to get. Avoid the mass-produced bookplates found in many bookstores; many authors use them as a way to “send” signatures to fans, and you may wind up doing the same thing some day. Your personal bookplate should be limited to the five or less copies of your own book you’ve kept for yourself. I realize this sounds mercenary, but if you’ve already determined to sell them, you should at least be getting top dollar for your “personal” copies.

Now, fame; fame is seen differently by different people. My rule of thumb is connected to response, because response is at least loosely connected to interest. Do you have at least a couple hundred people constantly checking out your web site? Have you been nominated for a number of awards? Have you had at least five books receive mass distribution, or a few dozen short story appearances in nationally distributed magazines? Do you get invitations to conventions outside of your locality? If you’ve answered yes to at least one of these questions, you’ve probably acheived the minimal level of fame required for the next step.

Association copies. There’s a great story about association copies told by Philip Jose Farmer. In summary, he tells about him and Robert Bloch going into a bookstore, discovering that booksellers charged more for association copies, and the pair of them going back to Bloch’s house and inscribing a bunch of books to each other.

That’s all an association copy is: a book with a connection between two famous people. As long as both people have achieved the minimal requirements above, the value of the book will increase. The more famous the two are, and the deeper their association, the more expensive the book. As an example, at auction recently, a copy of a book by C.L. Moore inscribed to Julius Schwartz went for over four times what a simple signed copy would sell for.

Considering how often authors accrue books from other friendly authors, and how broke many writers are (and the associated lack of living space and need for cash), there is no harm in a full inscription with an eye toward eventual possible resale (after they read the book, of course.)

If you’ve answered yes to at least two of those fame questions, you may also want to take the final step: using your bookstamp or personalized bookplate on books you own, but didn’t help create. At first blush, it seems ridiculous to go around stamping “from the Library of XXXX” in all of your books. If it does, remember: the used pipes of J.R.R. Tolkien each sold for thousands of dollars. You shouldn’t expect to reach a level of fame where you could sell your old clothes and tools for profit (although it’s a nice goal) but you should be willing to take advantage of the additional small monetary bump your fame might provide to an otherwise typical sale item.