Used, Rare, Out-of-Print Book Marketplace First to Offer Gift Certificates:

(PRWEB) December 7, 2005 — Biblio.com, a used, rare, and out-of-print books selling web site announced today the introduction of “BiblioBucks” Gift Certificates through their online marketplace. Biblio.com is the first site of its kind to allow this type of purchase through the thousands of independent sellers that list more than 30 million books for sale there.

“Our team has been working toward a gift certificate system for well over a year now,” says Kevin Donaldson, Director of Sales and Marketing for Biblio.com. “It would be very simple to provide gift certificates to customers if we controlled the inventory and pricing, but our booksellers do that on their end, so gift certificates, purchase orders and other incentives were impossible until now. We are quite proud of our staff for their diligence in creating this innovative product.”

Biblio.com’s “BiblioBucks” Gift Certificates are unique in that the recipient will receive an email notifying them that someone has purchased a gift for them, and to claim it they must go to Biblio.com. The recipient then accepts the gift, and Biblio then creates a credit to the customers account immediately so that they can use this amount to purchasing books on the site.

Biblio is expecting sales from BiblioBucks Gift Certificates to increase holiday sales exponentially.

“A bit” seems more likely.

“Book lovers and collectors can be very hard to buy gifts for. “

Very true.

“We are hoping that our customers will purchase gift certificates instead of guessing at the best title for a friend or member of the family,” concludes Donaldson.

Works for me.

“We have a number of loyal customers eager to spread the word about our wonderful selling community.”
Biblio.com

Guardian Unlimited Books | News | The Narnia publisher who has worked her own magic with the balance sheet:

profits have doubled. This is partly because the redefinition went with a decision to include the genre known in the trade as the “misery market”, alongside more esoteric self-help manuals.

Barnsley says the misery market, typified by tales such as Dave Pelzer’s A Child Called It - his account of the abuse he suffered as a child at the hands of his mother - has been a peculiarly British phenomenon that seems to have replaced the “saga market”, defined by Catherine Cookson’s tales of grief down the generations.

“People want to read terrible stories about abuse,” she says. “Even celebrity memoirs now usually mention a tough childhood. It’s a weird thing about the English psyche.”

A friend has been sharing bits from “A Child Called It” with me. It’s powerful stuff.

Of course, the “misery market” is not exclusively an English phenomenon. Cheryl and I have watched dozens of “misery market” movies and tv shows over the years. The phrase “misery market” is unfortunate. The reason the genre appeals is because in a world filled with consumerist distractions it’s a necessary reminder that the awful things that happen to real people are of paramount importance.