The International Bookseller's Directory: An important free dealer tool
- by Bruce E. McKinney
An example of a completed form.
By Bruce McKinney
All the talk on the internet is about how powerful it is but the underlying reality has been kind of unpleasant. Yes you can increasingly become listed on the net and even develop a rudimentary website without too much trouble and expense BUT you can not be easily seen. Yes you can build a home, an office building or even a skyscraper on the net but there is no guarantee anyone is going to show up to use it. Getting visibility is the least understood aspect of site creation and one of the hardest jobs to accomplish. The International Booksellers Directory [IBSD] provides booksellers with an important tool for raising visibility. It is created to make you visible.
The IBSD is a complex free listing that becomes searchable by the various internet search engines as well as to visitors to AE as soon as you complete the registration. Using it searchers can quickly determine who does what where and when. With this tool you can be found. For both AE's Database and MatchMaker members and those who purchase an enhanced version of IBSD, their results pages have live links and an inquiry acquisition function. For all existing and new sellers signing up as free members there is a full free searchable page in which to describe your business and be identified by collectors. For $10 you can optionally enhance your listing page with live links: an exceptional value.
To begin to create your IBSD listing file is easy. To the left on AE pages is a menu of services. Listed near the top of the page under free services is the International Bookseller's Directory. Click on it! This is how visitors and members will access this directory on AE. It is easy to find.
To join, if you are already a free member [and you can remember your account ID and password] sign-in. If you are not yet an AE member, click "Become a Member" in the log in box to the left, sign up for a free membership, and log in. Now click again on the International Bookseller's Directory link. Once signed-in you have the option to select I want to join this directory! This will bring up a page in which to create a file about your bookselling activities.
You can create a complex file or a simple one but because we are going to offer complex search capabilities for these listings beginning October 1st the more information you provide the more likely you are to come up in searches. Attached is an image of my sign-up page so you can see how I have done it. It took less than ten minutes and it is quite complete.
After the first fields where you enter your basic information there is a link to your specialties. We permit you to select up to 15 fields to specify as areas of concentration. Members are going to look for dealers using these terms and they are going to learn that you have this material. Select carefully.
Heritage, Dec. 15: Jerry Thomas. How to Mix Drinks, or the Bon-Vivant's Companion, Containing Clear and Reliable Directions for Mixing All the Beverages Used in the United States…
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Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Letter Signed ("Martinus Luther") to His Friend the Theologian Gerhard Wiskamp ("Gerardo Xantho Lampadario"). $100,000 - $150,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: An Exceptionally Fine Copy of Austenís Emma: A Novel in Three Volumes. $40,000 - $60,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Presentation Copy of Ernest Hemmingwayís A Farewell to Arms for Edward Titus of the Black Mankin Press. $30,000 - $50,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Manuscript Signed Integrally for "The Songs of Pooh," by Alan Alexander. $30,000 - $50,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Manuscript of "Three Fragments from Gˆtterd‰mmerung" by Richard Wagner. $30,000 - $50,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Original Preliminary Artwork, for the First Edition of Snow Crash. $20,000 - $30,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Letter Signed ("T.R. Malthus") to Economist Nassau Senior on Wealth, Labor and Adam Smith. $20,000 - $30,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides Finely Bound by Michael Wilcox. $20,000 - $30,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: First Edition of Lewis and Clark: Travels to the Source of the Missouri River and Across the American Continent to the Pacific Ocean. $8,000 - $12,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Original Artwork for the First Edition of Neal Stephenson's Groundbreaking Novel Snow Crash. $100,000 - $150,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: A Complete Set Signed Deluxe Editions of King's The Dark Tower Series by Stephen King. $8,000 - $12,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Letter Signed ("John Adams") to James Le Ray de Chaumont During the Crucial Years of the Revolutionary War. $8,000 - $12,000.
Sotheby’s Book Week December 9-17, 2025
Sotheby’s, Dec. 12: Hooke, Robert. Micrographia: or some Physiological Descriptions of Minute Bodies made by Magnifying Glasses. London: James Allestry for the Royal Society, 1667. $12,000 to $15,000.
Sotheby’s, Dec. 12: Chappuzeau, Samuel. The history of jewels, first edition in English. London: T.N. for Hobart Kemp, 1671. $12,000 to $18,000.
Sotheby’s, Dec. 12: Sowerby, James. Exotic Mineralogy, containing his most realistic mineral depictions, London: Benjamin Meredith, 1811, Arding and Merrett, 1817. $5,000 to $7,000.
![<b>Heritage, Dec. 15:</b> John Donne. <i>Poems, By J. D. With Elegies on the Author's Death.</i> London: M[iles]. F[lesher]. for John Marriot, 1633.](https://ae-files.s3.amazonaws.com/AdvertisementPhotos/8caddaea-4c1f-47a7-9455-62f53af36e3f.jpg "<b>Heritage, Dec. 15:</b> John Donne. <i>Poems, By J. D. With Elegies on the Author's Death.</i> London: M[iles]. F[lesher]. for John Marriot, 1633.")
