Book search engines like BookFinder help customers find titles on lesser-known sites. Froogle can find titles on your website.
By Renée Magriel Roberts
Our internet-based company, Rose's Books, has been going without its own website. I know what you're thinking: the shoemaker's kids have no shoes; the plumber's pipes are bursting; and I've been giving everyone advice about using the Internet without having a website of our own. OK, fair enough. But there are plenty of reasons for NOT having a website, as well as reasons for creating one.
Here's how I've been thinking about the problem: When we started our book business I quickly saw that not only did we not need our own website, but that it was simply uneconomical to have one. This is for two reasons -- the big sites like Amazon and ABE dominate hyperspace as customer destinations. Having a site of one's own is kind of like selling books on Pluto (especially given that it is no longer part of our solar system ;-( ). The other reason has to do with time-and-money: a start-up business is better off using someone else's webmaster, someone else's server and even someone else's back office credit card processing system, not to mention someone else's book database software.
If you are only one or two people and don't want to encumber yourself with unnecessary employees or very expensive contractors, the path of least resistance is to use, and to pay for, resources commonly shared by a great many other vendors with similar needs, not to mention taking advantage of software that is free. Free is a good word when you are a start-up.
Of course, the flip-side to this equation is what you pay the sites for the privilege of listing there. Anyone who has read any of my articles on Americana Exchange knows that I am not a big fan of the huge fees currently being charged by the mega-sites like ABE. Because they were and are the destinations of choice for most of the world's book customers, for a long time the choice was their way or the highway.
With the increased use of the book search engines, however, like Google, Froogle, BookFinder, AddAll, and many others, customers now have a way to find you on the secondary sites like Biblio, ChooseBooks/ZVAB, and TomFolio, a very attractive and relatively inexpensive co-op site, as well as on eBay. With the Google family, they can also find you on your own website and paid advertising is available to list your site when certain key words are selected.
I've always maintained a site with little or no commission attached, but now that we have an active customer base and new customers can find their way to our books through the book search engines, I have come to the conclusion that having our own presence is finally cost-effective. Also once we are engaged with customers, it is far better to direct
them to our own site where we can offer the same books as we do on the mega-sites somewhat discounted. Many of the dealers who sell on ABE and who are also members of ILAB or IOBA, for example, sell their books for less money on the organization sites, and still others bend over backwards to direct their customers to buy from their own website.
Heritage, Dec. 15: Jerry Thomas. How to Mix Drinks, or the Bon-Vivant's Companion, Containing Clear and Reliable Directions for Mixing All the Beverages Used in the United States…
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Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Letter Signed ("Martinus Luther") to His Friend the Theologian Gerhard Wiskamp ("Gerardo Xantho Lampadario"). $100,000 - $150,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: An Exceptionally Fine Copy of Austenís Emma: A Novel in Three Volumes. $40,000 - $60,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Presentation Copy of Ernest Hemmingwayís A Farewell to Arms for Edward Titus of the Black Mankin Press. $30,000 - $50,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Manuscript Signed Integrally for "The Songs of Pooh," by Alan Alexander. $30,000 - $50,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Manuscript of "Three Fragments from Gˆtterd‰mmerung" by Richard Wagner. $30,000 - $50,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Original Preliminary Artwork, for the First Edition of Snow Crash. $20,000 - $30,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Letter Signed ("T.R. Malthus") to Economist Nassau Senior on Wealth, Labor and Adam Smith. $20,000 - $30,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides Finely Bound by Michael Wilcox. $20,000 - $30,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: First Edition of Lewis and Clark: Travels to the Source of the Missouri River and Across the American Continent to the Pacific Ocean. $8,000 - $12,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Original Artwork for the First Edition of Neal Stephenson's Groundbreaking Novel Snow Crash. $100,000 - $150,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: A Complete Set Signed Deluxe Editions of King's The Dark Tower Series by Stephen King. $8,000 - $12,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Letter Signed ("John Adams") to James Le Ray de Chaumont During the Crucial Years of the Revolutionary War. $8,000 - $12,000.
Sotheby’s Book Week December 9-17, 2025
Sotheby’s, Dec. 17: Francesco Colonna. Hypnerotomachie, Paris, 1546, Parisian calf by Wotton Binder C for Marcus Fugger. €200,000 to €300,000.
Sotheby’s, Dec. 17: Nausea. De principiis dialectices Gorgias, and other works, Venice, 1523, morocco gilt for Cardinal Campeggio. €3,000 to €4,000.
Sotheby’s, Dec. 17: Billon. Le fort inexpugnable de l'honneur, Paris, 1555, Parisian calf gilt for Peter Ernst, Graf von Mansfeld. €120,000 to €180,000.
Sotheby’s Book Week December 9-17, 2025
Sotheby’s, Dec. 16: Salinger, J.D. The Graham Family archive, including autographed letters, an inscribed Catcher, a rare studio photograph of the author, and more. $120,000 to $180,000.
Sotheby’s, Dec. 16: [Austen, Jane]. A handsome first edition of Sense and Sensibility, the author's first novel. $60,000 to $80,000.
Sotheby’s, Dec. 16: Massachusetts General Court. A powerful precursor to the Declaration of Independence: "every Act of Government … without the Consent of the People, is … Tyranny." $40,000 to $60,000.
![<b>Heritage, Dec. 15:</b> John Donne. <i>Poems, By J. D. With Elegies on the Author's Death.</i> London: M[iles]. F[lesher]. for John Marriot, 1633.](https://ae-files.s3.amazonaws.com/AdvertisementPhotos/8caddaea-4c1f-47a7-9455-62f53af36e3f.jpg "<b>Heritage, Dec. 15:</b> John Donne. <i>Poems, By J. D. With Elegies on the Author's Death.</i> London: M[iles]. F[lesher]. for John Marriot, 1633.")
![<b>Sotheby’s, Dec. 16:</b> [Austen, Jane]. A handsome first edition of <i>Sense and Sensibility,</i> the author's first novel. $60,000 to $80,000.](https://ae-files.s3.amazonaws.com/AdvertisementPhotos/9a74d9ff-42dd-46a1-8bb2-b636c4cec796.png "<b>Sotheby’s, Dec. 16:</b> [Austen, Jane]. A handsome first edition of <i>Sense and Sensibility,</i> the author's first novel. $60,000 to $80,000.")
