Howard's cheap books and Penguicon
Howard's daughter called me again, looking for advice on selling books after Penguicon (a SF/Linux con). Please answer the poll if you read science fiction, whether you go to cons or not.
Poll Psst! Wanna buy a book?
Howard's family dragged books to Lansing not too long ago and swore never again, they just don't enjoy cons like Howard did... Karol mostly wanted my opinion on selling books by posting flyers at Penguicon. She has 50-75 boxes full of cheap science fiction paperbacks and about 20 boxes of book club hardcovers that she'd like to get out of Howard's house, and she'd prefer to let fans have them directly for a reasonable price. Her idea was to say that people could stop by the house Sunday after the con and buy books by the boxfull, hoping that enough people would stop by 5-8pm to get rid of a lot of them.
I told her it would be great to put some flyers out, at least get her phone number and email address out there so people could contact her, and that maybe advertising a weekend after the con might work out... my thought was that most people at Penguicon were local. Am I right in that?
She doesn't want to cause more mess than she had before by people digging through books and leaving ones on the floor that they don't want, or making it completely unmanageable if there are a lot of people... but then again, I worry that not enough people would show up at the house to make it worthwhile... and people might be upset to get 25 copies of War of the Worlds if they went for an unopened grab bag box. You should probably work it so that you get to open and look at the box before spending your money, just don't get to sort through it, pick and choose unless you pay more.
I'd like to get ideas on how to sell 'em, how to communicate, and dates, plus of course can pass along her contact info if anyone wants to get books for sure or help out! The really valuable books and pulps are already moved to the daughters' houses, if people are interested in particular things... I know there's a signed Dune and a signed Psycho they're thinking of selling.