TomFolio.com Book Dealer Co-op Now in its 13th Year - An Uphill Struggle to Make it Work
- By Susan Halas
Tom Folio President Henry Hain III and board member Bette Feinstein.
TomFolio.com may not be the best known name in the world of bookselling databases, but it is one of the most innovative and unusual. Founded back in 2000, the heady early days of on-line bookselling, it had big plans to wrest control of internet used and out-of-print sales from the bean counters and place it in the hands of the individual dealers with a real knowledge and love of the trade.
TomFolio took its name from a 1710 quote by Joseph Addison describing a ubiquitous bibliophile who seemed to show up everywhere that books were sold. Its cooperative format was loosely adopted from other kinds of ventures such as credit unions and farmers’ organizations where the members were also owners and then paid modest fees to sustain the enterprise.
Today it’s evident that the bean counters are in the lead -- Amazon, Alibris and Abe are filled with penny sellers and mega-listers. They are clearly being run by people whose main focus is financial and technical and whose interest in books is secondary (if in fact that interest exists at all).
Though TomFolio is still struggling to stay afloat, it has outlasted a number of other cooperative ventures, and except for a paid webmaster, it is still an all volunteer organization.
Lee Kirk of The Prints & The Paper, an ephemera specialist in Eugene, Oregon, is a charter member, TF blogger and perhaps semi-official den mother to the clan. She pointed out that the site currently has over 120 member dealers throughout the US and Canada, as well as South Africa, the Netherlands, UK, India and other countries.
“Selling books on TomFolio is not an easy solution,” said Arne Schaefer, a past TF president, who runs Africana Books in Cape Town, South Africa. But, he continued, “If you want to be a bookseller that is in some way different from the soulless big boys and faceless bulk listers, be it because of your choice of subject, your knowledge of a genre, your dedication to giving outstanding service to your clients, your willingness to share knowledge, or being prepared to work just that little bit harder to spread the good word about TomFolio (and yourself, of course) – then you will probably find that your ‘marriage’ with TF is a good one.”
“TomFolio offers its members many services for a small monthly fee,” said Don Gallagher, who with wife Sue runs Gallagher Books in Denver. “Those fees,” he said, “haven’t changed since TF opened and there are no commissions on sales. Customers have been impressed by the category system (an attempt to facilitate browsing). The technological stability of the site has been impressive – very rarely any downtime.” Other site features he noted included author autographs, awards, biographies, and pseudonyms.
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TomFolio.com Book Dealer Co-op Now in its 13th Year - An Uphill Struggle to Make it Work
- By Susan Halas
Membership is international - Arne Schaefer and Zainu Vigis South Africa.
Henry Hain of Henry F. Hain III - Bookseller in Harrisburg, PA is current TomFolio president. In his view one of the “most attractive features of TF is the independence it offers each dealer to operate his/her business within the bounds of our Code of Ethics, and our desire to communicate directly with our customers.”
He went on to give number reasons to join TomFolio: These included:
Your Own Terms: TomFolio is set up to keep you independent. You set your own shipping fees, your own currency conversion rates, your local tax rates, your preferred types of payment, and any other terms and conditions. TF does not interfere with your transactions.
Static Pages: Because Google is currently the primary search engine on the net, and because it and most other search engines are unable to search text inside a database, TF has been programmed to generate static pages on which the entire inventory is listed. These pages, which are automatically updated several times a week, attract Google's indexing utility and thus allow TF data to appear high in Google searches.
No "Content Police": Unlike the corporate websites where your items are suppressed if you use "wrong" words in the descriptions, there are no filters on TomFolio. We also do not cut off long descriptions, so you can feel confident that your painstaking and thorough cataloging efforts will not go to waste.
Category System/ Niches: TomFolio has a two-tiered drill-down category system (easily browsable). Customers appreciate the ease with which they can find, for example, cat mysteries, juvenile series for girls, and other specific types of books.
Your Own Webpage: TomFolio provides a free webpage to each member. There are also several optional features.
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TomFolio.com Book Dealer Co-op Now in its 13th Year - An Uphill Struggle to Make it Work
- By Susan Halas
Don & Sue Gallagher of Gallagher's Books in Denver like the personal websites & specific categories
Not content to state the advantages of the site from the seller’s side he also had many reasons why “shopping on TomFolio is better than shopping on Amazon.” Among the reasons he named were:
Dedicated to Books: TomFolio is for used books, periodicals, paper ephemera and related media. That's what we know and love. We do not sell washing machines, car insurance, scented candles or anything like that.
Talk to a real person before you buy: Our dealers may be contacted by phone, email, or even snail mail. No need to go through a third party to get your questions answered.
Better Value for Buyer: Amazon charges its book dealers commissions, monthly fees, variable closing fees, etc., and many of their vendors raise their prices on that site to compensate. Often you can find the same book listed at TomFolio for a lower price.
No stock photos: TomFolio dealers use actual images of the actual books they offer for sale. … In this way you will always know exactly what you're getting before you buy.
Lee Kirk confirmed that keeping TomFolio alive has been “an uphill struggle,” one she compared to “herding cats,” but she and others were still hopeful that the site will continue to grow and offer a viable alternative, “one that’s better for sellers, buyers, and all who love books.”
Links
TomFolio home page - www.tomfolio.com/default.asp
TomFolio dealer’s list - www.tomfolio.com/bookstores.asp
Membership info & fees - www.tomfolio.com/JoinTomFolio.asp
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Reach writer Susan Halas at wailukusue@gmail.com
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