Graphic Novel Market Vision

March 13, 2015
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Graphic novel sales are outpacing the overall book sales at comics’ stores, bookstores and online booksellers. This trend includes both graphic novels and book-format comic collections. The audience for this type of books has recently expanded to include more women and younger readers as a result of a generational shift powered by the acceptance of […]

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Raymond Carver Short Story Wins on the Big Screen

February 27, 2015
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Bibliophilia rejoice when the Academy Award winner chosen is a film adaptation of a favorite book. It is a very special year when the film that got the Best Picture award is due to receive an extra bonus of publicity and a boost in readership. 2014 is about to become a manifestation of that through the Oscar winning American […]

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Valentine, Caviare, and Bittersweet by Grant Richards

February 11, 2015
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So many people read romance novels these days that it is hard to accept the mediocre performance that the genre exhibited in our rare book index – Rare Book Sales Monitor, over the last year. This trend was recorded primarily through sales of modern romance editions that lag behind the corresponding romance classics. The most sought-after romantic novels […]

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Some Disordered Interior Geometries

January 23, 2015
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American photographer Francesca Woodman started making photographs when she was 13 years old and had a working span of eight and a half years before her death at the age of 22, in 1981. Her suicide came a few days after the release of the only artist’s book to get published during her lifetime – […]

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Rare Book Sale Monitor update – 4th Quarter 2014

January 9, 2015
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Investment experts engaged in discussions on the topic of making money in collectibles are quick to point out that investing in collectibles may not be a good idea. Their argument mainly focuses on the lack of liquidity and efficiency of the marketplace causing such investments to be highly speculative in nature. Rare Books Digest has […]

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Bible Scarcity Reaches the Civil War

December 20, 2014
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Collectors who buy and sell Bibles have pushed the pricing of older editions printed prior to the 1700’s in Europe, and prior to the 1800’s in North America, to unreachable levels for the majority of liturgical buyers. During the second half of the last century, institutional and private collectors have driven these editions of the […]

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Obelisk Scarcity

November 21, 2014
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A mix of censorship and bad novel-writing can provide the right ingredients in bringing about scarcity in rare books. That is exactly what the 1930’s, semi-underground literature publisher Jack Kahane created through his production at Obelisk Press. This is not to say that Obelisk published strictly smutty books since well known writers such as Henry […]

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Valuable Encyclopedias

November 7, 2014
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Stopping at a yard sale a few years back, I picked up a set of The Encyclopedia Britannica 11th edition, produced during the year 1910.  Fascinated by the idea of owning a cross section of the trunk of the tree of knowledge just prior to the First World War, when the publication was at a crossroads with […]

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Happy 75th Anniversary Madeline

October 23, 2014
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“In an old house in Paris that was covered in vines”…… For seventy-five years, Ludwig Bemelman’s iconic words have graced numerous playrooms and nurseries around the globe, as children of all walks in life have snuggled down to hear all about the young girl Madeline’s many adventures. What is extraordinary about Bemelman’s creation is that […]

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Rare Book Sale Monitor update – 3rd Quarter 2014

October 10, 2014
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The Rare Book Sale Monitor (RBSM) analyzes prices of rare books traded at on-line marketplaces, auctions and various book fairs to report valuation trends by genre and author.  The data collection process remained relatively static since the original collection was built back in 2011. The RBSM engine, however, has undergone several improvements in order to […]

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