How To Find Which Library Has The Book You Want!

[Dien Rice]

I just discovered this site... It looks like it could be very useful to find "hard to find" books which may be "hiding" in a library somewhere...

The web site is WorldCat - http://www.worldcatlibraries.org

You can search for any author or title, and put in your location, and it will find the book you want in a library near you! It could save you some money (borrow books instead of buy them), or help you find a book that is impossible to find anyway (great for used and out-of-print books)...

Happy searching and reading...

Cheers,

Dien

P.S. For books which are no longer copyrighted, you might be able to make money too by finding the books, and "republishing" them (either in print form, or as a PDF file)... Of course, do not do this for books that are still copyrighted (at least not without the permission of the copyright owner)...

Dan you told the greatest secret to selling their is, my friend. Darn it. I wanted to be the only one that uses it.

But I will never tell how to get it copied cheap. That is my secret I may take to the grave. You can sit by a scanner and do but it may take a long time. I out source, for peanuts.

[Dien Rice]

Originally Posted by Joetrevison

Dan you told the greatest secret to selling their is, my friend. Darn it. I wanted to be the only one that uses it.

But I will never tell how to get it copied cheap. That is my secret I may take to the grave. You can sit by a scanner and do but it may take a long time. I out source, for peanuts.

Hi Joe,

Thanks for your post!

One great thing is - you're doing something...

By the way, I bought one of Joe's books ("The First Hundred Million" by E. Haldeman-Julius), and I look forward to reading it...

I believe there are plenty of other "riches" there from old books... And not only in the "money-making" area. Other "old books" can have value too, and could appeal to different markets...

Another idea you could use is to take an old book, and "update" the language. That's what one person (Rebecca Fine) did with the 1910 book, "The Science of Getting Rich" by Wallace D. Wattles. She "updated" the "old-fashioned" language... And when you do that, you can put a new copyright it. (Of course, only do this - rewrite a book and copyright it - with original books which are now in the public domain...)

There are plenty of old and valuable books, where the language is a bit "archaic"... That archaic language is stopping people from reading it! You could apply this idea to some of those old books... (You could even hire someone to update the language for you - just make sure you have an agreement that makes it clear that you own the copyright on the new work...)

Here's a quick guide to tell if a book may still be copyrighted or not in the USA... (The laws can vary from country to country.)

http://www.copyright.cornell.edu/tra...lic_Domain.htm

This general idea can also be extended to old audio recordings and films - though copyright law can be less clear in those cases compared to books... However, I know that many of Bruce Lee's films are no longer copyrighted, and the same goes for many of the early films directed by Roger Corman...

Dien

Dien,

I've spent the last two weeks finally getting around to selling/parting with about 100 old books from my family.

It’s a very interesting market.

And if you want to find what your old books might be worth you can do so at http://www.abebooks.com

After a title/author search and your book comes up, click highest price to see what some of these dealers are asking. I don’t know how many books actually SELL for those prices, but it does open your eyes to what could be gathering dust in your attic.

You’ll also see how many of these OLD books for sale are actually BRAND NEW, and how much they are asking for these ON-DEMAND copies.

I started posting and selling mine on eBay and have done well with some, and got clobbered with others. So be cautious and consider putting a reserve price on it to test the market first if you go the eBay route.

On the other hand, my great-grandfather was quite an original thinker and I found two books that I could sell in the $500 range. But I think I’m going try the on-demand route and hold on to them.

Here’s a few other buy-and-sell book sites:

http://www.biblio.com
http://www.alibris.com
http://www.bookfinder.com


And a free course on how to sell old books online:

http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abu/...06/abu0039/s05


Cheers,

Rod

Rod,

Craig Stark is a great resource for book selling but I'd have to say for every rule he's says to do in that article, I Didn't and still Did well.

However like I said earlier he's a great resource of paint by numbers ways to make a buck in print.

Thank you, Garth - I don't agree with, and haven't followed, all the rules he goes by either. But I did pick up some very good tips and feel that it is definately worth a read for anybody interested in selling books online.

Cheers,

Rod