An article about ibooknet

You’re buying a book? Why? The reasons will be as many and varied as books themselves. What you want from your book might be entertainment, information, nostalgia, or the satisfaction of adding to a collection, or of owning a beautiful or rare object. Buying rare or second-hand books used to involve browsing in shops but now all of the factors mentioned above can be satisfied at the click of a button on your computer.

Like it or not, browsing, searching and buying online are here to stay, and buying online means buying a book you cannot handle: you cannot check the number of plates, who the translator is, whether there is a chapter on an obscure topic you’re researching, or whether your ancestor is mentioned in the index. Whatever you want from your book, buying from a knowledgeable seller improves your chances of satisfaction.

Many online book selling sites will tell you that the individual sellers are their strength and when they say this they are recognising the need for knowledgeable sellers committed to high standards of customer service. On few sites is the importance of individual sellers as important as on Ibooknet. To sell on Ibooknet you need to not only be running an efficient, knowledgeable and professional business, you need to be committed enough to have bought a share. The sellers on this site own it: it is in all our interests that whoever you buy from on here is highly knowledgeable in their specialist areas. That way you, our customers, will come back again and again because you’re happy.

Buying on Ibooknet means buying from sellers with expertise. This expertise is both gained from their business experience and previous lives: you can buy Rupert Bear books from one of the country’s acknowledged experts, you can buy criticism of the early Gothic novel from someone who has written a Masters thesis on Ann Radcliffe, you can buy children’s books from ex-teachers and ex-librarians, you can buy books on gardening, horse riding, local history or cooking from people who actually have a passion for those pastimes themselves; in short, you can buy with confidence.

So who are the Ibooknet sellers? They are independent, knowledgeable and committed local businesses. Let me introduce you to some of the founder members:

A Book for All Reasons - Mike and Ann Sims
Ann and Michael Sims have been book collectors all their adult lives, selling books to finance their collecting, until the early 1980's when book selling overcame the urge to collect.

Michael took early retirement from the Fire Service in 1983 because of ill health and they ran a guest house in the coastal resort of Lowestoft, in Suffolk, selling books by catalogue in the winter. In 1994 they began trading as 'A Book for all Reasons', the eight guest bedrooms were gradually converted to book rooms until in 1998 they became full-time booksellers.

By 1996 their book selling had become almost entirely via internet. They had their own website and in 1999 they became part of the original discussion group that led to the founding of the Independent Booksellers' Network.

They have a medium general stock but specialise in World War II Naval History and the local history and topography of Suffolk and Norfolk.

Michael says, "In the days of running the guest house we used to provide a lot of local information to visiting tourists, especially book collectors and those investigating family history, and we even produced a guide (long out of print) to the bookshops of Norfolk and Suffolk. Royal Navy connections on both sides of the family as well led us to specialise in books about the Royal Naval Patrol Service (RNPS) and Coastal Forces, both of which had bases at Lowestoft in WW2", (HMS Europa and HMS Mantis respectively).

They also carry a substantial stock of popular fiction of the first half of the 20th century, especially Dornford Yates, in respect of whom they are currently compiling a bibliography of every UK issue to 1958. Michael maintains contact with the veterans of RNPS as an associate member of their Association and is also involved with a local charity providing holiday accommodation for ex-servicemen and woman.

Alba Books - Mike Seton
Mike Seton has been involved with books all his life from a childhood enthusiasm for reading, his student days, and his later professions as teacher and librarian (he is not the only ex-teacher or ex-librarian in Ibooknet), to his own literary endeavours in local history and whisky. Despite all this experience Mike is modest about his knowledge: ‘The more I have to do with books the more I realise how little I know about them. I am continually overawed by the depth of knowledge displayed by the members of Ibooknet’.

Mike's bookselling began in 1997 with a few hundred books, the left over stock from another bookseller: Alba Books' stock is now in excess of 50,000. At the time Alba books was one of only two Scottish online sellers and was the most northerly of the two.

Mike’s business is rural and, as such, cannot support a shop so the internet is a life line. He says, ‘We operate out of a motley collection of buildings - a former net factory near the harbour in Buckie, part of a barn on the edge of a forest, and a garage and summer-house in our back garden. I have other interests, in the voluntary sector in particular a company recycling computers and other IT equipment which is taking up quite some time just now and I’ve just begun researching what I hope will turn out to be my magnum opus - a study of the planned village movement in Scotland.’

On being a member of Ibooknet he says, ‘It does help break down the sense of isolation that you sometimes get living one step from the edge of the civilised world. Ideally, Ibooknet would grow to be as big and as successful as the large sites, but without their tyranny and corporate double-speak.’

Stephen Foster
Another of our founder members, Stephen had a very traditional start to his selling career:

‘I’ve been selling second-hand and rare books for over 20 years now. My father is a bookseller (as is my youngest brother), and he still has a shop in West London after 35 years. I worked in the family business for five years, and then set up my first shop 17 years ago. I moved to my current shop at 95 Bell Street 15 years ago. My father had taken me to the bookshops in Bell Street when I was a small boy, and the fact that book fairies left sixpences in bookshops may have encouraged me to become a bookseller - I actually have a bookcase in the shop that has been in Bell Street over 50 years, and I remember it from when I was 4 or 5 years old!

‘I started selling books on the Internet six years ago. Michael Cole had a UK booklist, and it was there that I made contact again with Graeme at Magpie Books - someone I had been at book fairs with in the 1980’s. I also came into contact with Sean O’Donoghue (O’Donoghue Books) and Mike Sims (A Book For All Reasons). At the time listing on websites was of a negligible cost, but it became apparent that that would not last, and that having a database that was owned by the Booksellers themselves was probably a good idea.

‘So I suppose I’m an ‘old school’ bookseller who has embraced the technology. Seems bizarre to think that my wife had to teach me how to use a mouse 6 years ago, and that the first computer I got was second-hand on a house call!’ And after the founder members? Once A Book for all Reasons, Alba Books, and Stephen Foster, together with other founder businesses Magpie Books, Peakirk Books, Orangeberry Books, O'Donoghue Books and Plurabelle Books, had had the confidence and foresight to start Ibooknet, more members were needed. The co-operative has grown from strength to strength since its modest beginnings with new members joining regularly, increasing the choice of stock available as well as Ibooknet’s collective expertise.

Two of the businesses who joined after the foundation are Stella & Roses Books and An Eye for Books.

Stella & Roses Books
Stella & Rose’s Books is a family-run business, and is in fact two bookshops situated in rural, picturesque Wales. Cliff, Chris and daughters Sonia and Maria together with 10 other staff manage the businesses.

Stella Books stemmed from a hobby of book collecting, initially by Cliff who has always been a book-aholic, and joined by Chris when she became interested in children’s books and especially first editions of Beatrix Potter’s little Tales.

The couple’s daughter, Maria, left college not knowing what she wanted to do for a career. Cliff and Chris suggested she might like to take their embryo of a mail order book business and try to expand it. She agreed and started working from home from one room and thus Stella Books was born.

From the start their business strategy involved computer cataloguing their stock. Chris says, “This stood us in good stead when Internet access was opened up and in 1998 we were able to upload all our (at that time) 37,000 books to the Internet and begin trading globally.”

The family have not looked back. It wasn’t long before elder daughter Sonia joined the company and the business has now grown 60-fold with a world-wide mailing list of 55,000 customers and more than 50,000 books in stock. The company’s objective is to be the best in terms of customer service and in 2003 Stella & Rose’s Books were judged UK winner of the Parcelforce Small Business Award for Outstanding Customer Service.

Chris says, “The success of the company is something we are immensely proud of, and in particular of the contributions made by our two daughters who are both profoundly deaf. With the advent of email, both Sonia and Maria have been able to play a full part in the operation of the business, building up excellent relationships with our customers over the years. And not forgetting Sonia’s Hearing Dog, Abigail, who was voted employee of the month!”

Chris and Cliff found out about Ibooknet from Heather of Peakirk Books. At the time the major listing services were making changes which were not entirely compatible with the objectives of Stella & Rose’s Books and there was, and still is, some concern about the future direction of these large corporate organisations.

Chris says, “As our business was becoming more dependent on internet sales we were not happy to be totally dependent on one or two listing services which displayed no loyalty to us, the booksellers. They seemed to forget that without us they had no business and seemed bent on making decisions detrimental to our businesses. We discovered that Ibooknet is a co-operative of established and independent online booksellers who wish to preserve their independence and provide an excellent service to their customers. As this was entirely in line with our own objectives we decided to join. We have not looked back. The important thing for me is that if you become a full member of Ibooknet you have a say in the future direction of the group. We have found a fantastic group of friends and colleagues, sharing our experiences and learning from each other all the time”.

An Eye for Books
For Cindy, like many fairly new sellers, the advent of the internet has helped her realise a life long ambition.

‘I have worn many hats and lived in many places. For instance I have been the manager of a fast-food restaurant in Milwaukee, a secretary in Pittsburgh, and a professional singer/musician in New York. When I moved to Ireland I added teaching to music and for 30 years joyfully taught and sang. But through all the years and changes there has been one constant ... my love of books. At five my ambition was to "live in a bookshop". People laughed at me. "Nonsense! You can't live in a bookshop", they said. "No-one lives in a bookshop. They live in a house and sell books in a bookshop." And now, 50 years later, I have realised my very first ambition; thanks to the internet, I do live in a bookshop.’

Cindy notes that an online-only business can be a lonely and isolating way to work but, despite feeling in a bit of a wilderness, she felt that it was worth it, in that it helped her get away from life as an employee. Initially, online selling provided this freedom, but it hasn’t lasted. Cindy remarks, ‘One of the major reasons I started selling books was so that I could stop working for "The Man" and I found that increasingly the major listing sites were becoming indistinguishable from "The Man". I realised that bit-by-bit both my independence as a bookseller and my income were being seriously eroded as the listing sites raised their fees and imposed often arbitrary rules and restrictions. I needed a venue where I could regain my independence and began searching for what, I thought then, was the impossible.’

Like many sellers Cindy did not want to be treated as a glorified shelf-stacker for a major selling site. She wanted to make her own way in the business and keep her high standards of cataloguing and customer care without having her standards eroded by a third party.

Cindy found a way to regain control. She notes, ‘In 2003 a colleague mentioned Ibooknet, a Co-Op for sellers in the UK. It sounded like just what I was looking for as membership would allow me remain independent and yet I wouldn't have to go back out into the wilderness to retake control of my business. I decided to join as a full member in June 2003 and I can truthfully say it was one of the best decisions I have ever made on both business and personal levels. I was surprised at how warmly I was welcomed into the fold and how sincerely supportive my Ibooknet colleagues were, both on-list and off. Now I depend upon it. Everything is grist for our discussion mill, and I look forward to daily conversations about points and packaging, about ethics and other listing sites, and about discounts, goats, bookmarks, chickens...what more could anyone ask for! The wilderness is a wilderness no more but a country called Ibooknet inhabited by friends.

‘Membership in Ibooknet has not only provided me with an effective sales outlet but it has given me so much help and guidance; all those other fiercely independent booksellers (many with beards!) who are also the most effective support-group I have found on-line. Together we are working, both individually and in co-op, to build our businesses, own our futures and bid "The Man" a final farewell.’

Ibooknet’s Customers
So when you browse and buy online how does Ibooknet benefit you? Although you’re not members, you are why we’re here. In committing to Ibooknet we are committing to selling you the books you want, in the condition you expect. The collective expertise of Ibooknet sellers with their commitment to books, bookselling, good business ethics, good customer service, their fellow sellers and their customers, gives you real service in a virtual world. Our commitment to removing third party involvement and interference is what is important.

Ibooknet is run by us, for you.

 C. L. Hawley