Rare Book Monthly
Analysis: Is the Internet Making the Book Fair Obsolete?
New York Book Fair
Looking down each row (numbered from “A” to “E”), I saw perhaps an average of fifteen to twenty people per row, plus dealers. I observed little buying over the two-day period that I attended the fair, though lots of friendly carousing and jostling back and forth. Frankly, there were often more people present at the “Gourmet Lunch Bar” at the rear of the show than there were clustered at the glass display tables themselves. Here, it was possible to hear lots of dealer gossip, such as the various rumors: such and such millionaire was here late on Saturday but bought only one item, a relatively inexpensive and obscure one. The door being down 15% from last year rumor originated here as well, although it was later (unofficially) confirmed for me by a ticket taker who I can’t name for obvious reasons and then officially confirmed by the producer of the show itself. There were lots of comments on this “not being the best fair,” except for the rare dealer or two who were able to maintain their optimism. There was also a noticeable drop off on the fair going population on Sunday versus Saturday, and late in the day versus early. In general the dealers seemed disappointed, although not despondently so.
This is not to say that people were not pleasant, nor that their books and manuscripts displayed were not at times outstanding. This author had some nice conversations with people who didn’t know about AE/AEM and were very interested when I told them about it, and also with others who not only knew about AE but said that they used it all the time, that the database was indispensable to their work. Two others -one a top level dealer, one a noted book history scholar -said “You’re doing a great job with the AE site and with the AEM magazine in particular. Keep on doing what you’re doing, raising issues that have to be raised.” That was nice to hear and worth the price of admission. We were greeted warmly by most dealers, especially the many AE subscribing dealers present: seen and noticed at the fair were the following AE Member/Dealers, in reverse alphabetical order: William Reese Company; Oak Knoll Books; Howard S. Mott; Martayan Lan Rare Books & Maps; Librería De Antaño; David M. Lesser, Fine Antiquarian Books LLC; Helen R. Kahn & Associates; Heritage Book Shop Inc.; Donald Heald Rare Books, Prints & Maps; DeWolfe & Wood; and J. N. Bartfield Books.
It seems logical at this juncture that we try and evaluate what was termed by a majority of dealers with whom I talked a “very slow” or “disappointing” experience and try to isolate the factors responsible for that profound disappointment about slow and low sales that I heard from so many of these dealers. To my mind, there were or are four major factors at work, not necessarily all operating in equal proportion but together forming a confluence of obstacles to a well attended and financially profitable fair. Each of these specific factors, as well, were cited by a great majority of dealers with whom I spoke.
