You like us, you really, really like us...sniff!

Ok, So I'm quoting Sally Fields; inspiration comes from the strangest places.

We've had a flurry of sales in the past week, after an online silence of two weeks. We're hoping things pick up steadily; 7 orders in 4 days is excellent, and it would be great to keep up that pace.

What's interesting is that we have a small selection of used books (just over 500), but the sales to inventory ratio is very high. It indicates that our careful scouting for used sf & f is paying off, and we are tracking down titles people want, which is nice. We are also offering to scout for customers who don't have the time or the resources to find that long-sought after novel. Sure, there's the internet and bookfinder and all that, but believe me when I say that only about 30% of all used bookstores in this country are online. The rest are still mysterious, and dusty, and haphazardly stacked, and full of potential treasures.

I'm looking forward to getting more commissions for odd sf & f; It'd be like being a private eye...

So Fantastic Planet moves ever closer to being a full capacity store. We're close to opening accounts with Ingram and Baker & Taylor, and there's a friendly secure server/database admin company that will set us up with credit card processing and database management once we have our new book inventory started.

We're also designing cool t-shirts that we hope to have in a month or so (always depending on money), but at least we'll have templates up for all to see very soon... Keep your eyes peeled.

On a darker note, I was saddened to hear about Jim Baen and, just today, David Gemmell, Passing On.
While I may have issues with some of the art design issues with Baen books, I was always excited and fascinated with Jim's efforts to dispel the fear of publishing and e-books. I think his vision was (and is) quite brilliant and will eventually be the norm for Big Publishing. I was also impressed with the author support system that brought such writers as Eric Flint and John Ringo to the forefront of the genres.
And Mr. Gemmell was the hardest working fantasy author most American readers didn't know about. His books were finally braking through to a larger audience, Del Rey repackaging of them enhanced their saleability, and it seemed his work was only getting stronger and stronger. I know he had several works in progress, and it's a shame he won't be able to see them to fruition.
They will both be missed.