ST> of conventions. Do you ever go to any of them? I am going to Magna Cum
 ST> Murder in October.
Not yet.  I'm starting one.  Southern Mystery Meet in Atlanta, Nov 13-15, 
1998.  I've just missed going to Malice Domestic a couple times.  I'll make 
it next year, along with BoucherCon and ClueFest (FL), plus maybe one or two 
more.  I'm going to Harriette Austin Writers' Conference in July ... not a 
Mystery Con but full of people who go to such.
I've run SF&F cons, off and on, plus gone to zillions, for 30 plus years, 
W.
 IK> What do you do with the piles and piles of page proofs?  (You said
 ST> We often give them to customers after the book 
 ST> comes out. And we do have
 ST> cutstomers review them for us.
 IK> The ones we give to customers are more likely given BEFORE the book
 IK> comes out. They are normally given to customers who spend a LOT of
 IK> money here.  The ones that aren't given to someone, get "shipped"
 IK> "elsewhere."  My basement holds too many of them....
 ST> Yes, if we want a review it goes before it comes out. Let me ask you
 ST> this. Do you give it to someone that normally reads that author, thereby
 ST> possibly losing a sale on the hardcover when it does come out? If not,
Yeah, we give it to customers who read that author or "type" novel, thereby 
possibly losing a sale on the hardcover when it comes out, a few months later 
... or the trade paperback or mass market.  Our bread and butter  are 
well to do (or rich) collectors.  As often as not they'll buy the hard cover 
(or sometimes a lesser edition) anyway.  BUT ... mainly we're just feeding 
sugar to our golden geese.  What's a $24 x .4 sale gross profit compared to 
$1000 to $2000 per year ... x that margin .
And then SOME of these characters ... or the new characters brought in by our 
"friends in the back room" ... will go to what used to be our back room, now 
haunted by a pair of Rare & Out of Print & Collectable dealers.  Walk out 
with a couple $125 or $325 or armload or $25 (British "firsts") books or 
something ... and we get 20%.
H-ll yeah we give these guys page proofs of what they like best, 3 - 6 months 
before the hardcover comes out!
 ST> who DO you give it to and how do you decide?
Our store runs on BookLog (software).  It tracks total $ by customer, last 
time in store, avg. sale, etc.  There's 100 people who make up 40% of our 
business.  There's another 400 who make up the next 40%.  Mark, who actually 
runs the store, remembers them, as he's in the store 50 hours a week, for 
14.75 years, so far.  Even I, who am only there, and usually not behind the 
counter, only a day a week or less, remember some of these people.
We feed our golden geese .
--- Maximus 2.02
---------------