Bookstore Reviews

This review of Borderland Books, a Science Fiction/Fantasy Bookstore in San Francisco is from a new blog site called "No Bookstore Left Behind"

Borderlands

Surprising it took me two and a half years to find a bookstore completely devoted to Science Fiction and Fantasy. Borderlands is located in the sunny mission smack dab in the middle of half a dozen other bookstores (more Mission bookstore reviews to come) and many dozen cafes, coffee shops and restaurants. An entire bookstore devoted to sci-fi…sounds like Eden, right? Except Eden is inhabited by two freaky cats. This aren’t normal cats (assuming they are indeed cats), they’re the hairless, “Sphinx” cats and they are as ugly as sin. Their faces are all shrunk up and wrinkly, their tails are exactly like rat tails. The first time I went in the store they both kept staring at me. The second time one of the cats followed me around meowing (apparently the other was at home, or out haunting the dreams of young children, and she was lonely). When I sat down with some of Ray Bradbury’s short stories, she climbed into my lab and clamored to be petted. Petting a hairless cat is a lot like stroking a bat. But she seemed to like it, she purred loudly for a while before setting in. Several people came by and did the “aaawwwwww….whatta cute kitty” routine. I refrained from asking them what they were smoking but it must have been strong.

Anyway, aside from the disconcerting cats, Borderlands is a great store. There is about a 60-40 distribution of new books to used, plus a smattering of rare editions. There is also plenty of space to sit and read, including a comfy couch.

Market Research and Buying New Stock

The in-print portion of an out of print and collectible book business is the speculative portion. If you can discover the new Harry Potter before everyone else, guess correctly on the next Caledecott or Newbery winner, or develop a mad passion for a new author well before the public discovers them-there is the potential to realize a large profit. Even though you are making a guess, the trick is to make it an educated guess, or you will be paying at or near full retail for stock which may never sell for retail again.

Routinely peruse Publisher's Weekly magazine and see what books are going to be published, (or as is the case with many children's titles, re-published). You can get a good feeling not only for trends but also how much marketing money/buzz a publisher is putting into a title or an author.

Also, for children's books, The Horn Book Review is a great way to identify interesting titles or upcoming authors and illustrators. A dealer specializing in in-print titles, no matter what the genre, should be studying both these publications as well as individual publisher's catalogs. Even for an out of print dealer, these magazines can help you determine which titles are generating buzz, and also ones are going to have a large initial print run and therefore would be wiser, to wait a bit and not pay full retail price.

Catalogs are great, but display is better, so I try to get to the in-print bookstores, chain and independent, at least 2 to 3 times a month. I'm also lucky enough to live close to a remainder warehouse, which I try to visit at least once a month, so I can also see which titles are on the way out of print. In some cases I'm able to purchase books I'm interested in, at a decent price, BEFORE they are attacked by the dreaded black marker.


To be totally honest, some of these recommendations are things that I SHOULD routinely be doing and don't; in part because I don't have the manpower, time, organization, or discipline.

Taylor's Antique Mall

I found this lonely little corner in Taylor's Antique Mall in Old Ellicott City that was crying out for some books, so I put some there!