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<b>Bonhams:</b> MANDELSHTAM, OSIP. 1891-1938. Autograph Manuscript, 2 pp, [Petersburg,] January 1913, entitled

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Sawyer Introducing New BookWriter Software - By Carl Burnham BookWriter entry program By Carl Burnham Recently, I had the opportunity of discussing with Tom Sawyer the UIEE data format he developed and a new software he is designing for booksellers, BookWriter Professional. He is co-founder of Alibris and Interloc, and has developed several software packages for booksellers, including BookWriter Web. BookWriter Web is designed to easily create web pages based on a bookseller's inventory. Tom is working on a soon-to-be-released new software for booksellers called BookWriter Professional, designed to make it easier to list and maintain book inventory on multiple book listing web sites such as ABE, Alibris, Amazon, Biblio, etc. The software will include features such as Inventory Management, Invoicing, Accounting, Composition, Contact Manager, a USPS interface, as well as the ability to check book pricing online and upload to multiple web sites. How did you get started writing software for booksellers? I created the original BookMaster software in 1987 for my mother (a bookseller). Dick Weatherford favorably reviewed BookMaster in AB Bookman's Weekly sometime thereafter and I've been at it ever since. We (Dick and I) got together in 1992 and began laying the groundwork for Interloc. I am also co-founder of Alibris (I was Chief Software Engineer from 1993 to 2001). What are the benefits of the UIEE (which stands for Universal Information Exchange Environment) data format which you developed for booksellers, over other file formats? The main benefit of UIEE is that it is a self-defining data exchange format that does not suffer from proprietary limitations. A great many things can go wrong in delimited formats, and XML is not universally applicable because the field sets vary and the content structure tends to be a proprietary reflection of the source database. UIEE, on the other hand, addresses the core information required in all book-related database applications in a way that is consistent, predictable, and easy to parse.
Sawyer Introducing New BookWriter Software - By Carl Burnham BookWriter listings Another important advantage is that, unlike other formats, UIEE is bi-directional. Data can be imported back into the source database and all of the fields are preserved. This is an important consideration, for example, for a bookseller whose hard drive has failed -- they can recover their data simply by downloading it from a listing service. These were all important design objectives and they have paid off. There is a UIEE update in progress and this will be documented and presented sometime in 2005 (refer to http://www.uiee.com/ for more information). How will Bookwriter Professional be unique in addressing bookseller needs from other software available in the marketplace? In many different ways. BookWriter Professional will be distinctive in the sense that it allows the user a great deal of flexibility, but still provides the total feature set dealers need available to be both competitive and productive. BookWriter Professional is essentially a complete bookselling, business, and compositional environment. I personally believe it is far ahead of any other program of its type, but then again I am too close to it to be objective. Are there any plans to incorporate features such as dynamic price comparison as is done with software such as SellerEngine? Yes, this capability has already been included. However, it does not work like Seller Engine, which bases its pricing on Amazon only and assumes that a book is non-collectible without an ISBN. BookWriter Professional provides pricing information across multiple venues for direct comparison purposes. It also has a separate ISBN-lookup capability. What about for out-of-print books, will there be a method to download information about older books for inclusion in inventory (such as what large libraries are working with Amazon and Google)? Yes, online lookups can be performed using multiple text-based criteria as well. They are not limited to ISBNs.
Sawyer Introducing New BookWriter Software - By Carl Burnham none Will Bookwriter Professional be able to export data to other software such as QuickBooks? Yes. BookWriter Professional's Reporting System is extremely powerful and can export data in just about any format. This is true for all of its record resources including book data, customer/contact data, wants, invoices, and purchase orders. Is the software being beta tested? As a matter of philosophy, I never release "Beta" software because I have found it to be a colossal waste of time. I prefer instead to work with a selected group of users who do nothing but quietly work with the software at their own paces, in their own environments (as opposed to consciously looking for bugs). If a problem is reported, I address the cause(s) instead of adding patches to "get around" core issues. When the software is finally released, it has already gone through multiple layers of testing across all functional areas. This results in a very stable installation and operation. It takes longer, but it's worth it. When will Bookwriter Professional be available? BookWriter Professional is about 90 percent complete. There is a high demand from a lot of dealers, and many have placed advance orders. I'm committed to putting a top-shelf program in their hands as expediently as I am able...and hope to have the rollout by late February 2005. Tom, thank you for the update on BookWriter Professonal. The software you have developed will offer powerful features for booksellers. Advance orders are being accepted for $129.95. To find out more about ordering BookWriter Professional, visit his web site at www.bookwritersoftware.com.

Sawyer Introducing New BookWriter Software

- By Carl Burnham

BookWriter entry program

By Carl Burnham

Recently, I had the opportunity of discussing with Tom Sawyer the UIEE data format he developed and a new software he is designing for booksellers, BookWriter Professional. He is co-founder of Alibris and Interloc, and has developed several software packages for booksellers, including BookWriter Web. BookWriter Web is designed to easily create web pages based on a bookseller's inventory.

Tom is working on a soon-to-be-released new software for booksellers called BookWriter Professional, designed to make it easier to list and maintain book inventory on multiple book listing web sites such as ABE, Alibris, Amazon, Biblio, etc. The software will include features such as Inventory Management, Invoicing, Accounting, Composition, Contact Manager, a USPS interface, as well as the ability to check book pricing online and upload to multiple web sites.

How did you get started writing software for booksellers?

I created the original BookMaster software in 1987 for my mother (a bookseller). Dick Weatherford favorably reviewed BookMaster in AB Bookman's Weekly sometime thereafter and I've been at it ever since. We (Dick and I) got together in 1992 and began laying the groundwork for Interloc. I am also co-founder of Alibris (I was Chief Software Engineer from 1993 to 2001).

What are the benefits of the UIEE (which stands for Universal Information Exchange Environment) data format which you developed for booksellers, over other file formats?

The main benefit of UIEE is that it is a self-defining data exchange format that does not suffer from proprietary limitations. A great many things can go wrong in delimited formats, and XML is not universally applicable because the field sets vary and the content structure tends to be a proprietary reflection of the source database. UIEE, on the other hand, addresses the core information required in all book-related database applications in a way that is consistent, predictable, and easy to parse.

Sawyer Introducing New BookWriter Software

- By Carl Burnham

BookWriter listings

Another important advantage is that, unlike other formats, UIEE is bi-directional. Data can be imported back into the source database and all of the fields are preserved. This is an important consideration, for example, for a bookseller whose hard drive has failed -- they can recover their data simply by downloading it from a listing service. These were all important design objectives and they have paid off.

There is a UIEE update in progress and this will be documented and presented sometime in 2005 (refer to http://www.uiee.com/ for more information).

How will Bookwriter Professional be unique in addressing bookseller needs from other software available in the marketplace?

In many different ways. BookWriter Professional will be distinctive in the sense that it allows the user a great deal of flexibility, but still provides the total feature set dealers need available to be both competitive and productive. BookWriter Professional is essentially a complete bookselling, business, and compositional environment. I personally believe it is far ahead of any other program of its type, but then again I am too close to it to be objective.

Are there any plans to incorporate features such as dynamic price comparison as is done with software such as SellerEngine?

Yes, this capability has already been included. However, it does not work like Seller Engine, which bases its pricing on Amazon only and assumes that a book is non-collectible without an ISBN. BookWriter Professional provides pricing information across multiple venues for direct comparison purposes. It also has a separate ISBN-lookup capability.

What about for out-of-print books, will there be a method to download information about older books for inclusion in inventory (such as what large libraries are working with Amazon and Google)?

Yes, online lookups can be performed using multiple text-based criteria as well. They are not limited to ISBNs.

Sawyer Introducing New BookWriter Software

- By Carl Burnham

none

Will Bookwriter Professional be able to export data to other software such as QuickBooks?

Yes. BookWriter Professional's Reporting System is extremely powerful and can export data in just about any format. This is true for all of its record resources including book data, customer/contact data, wants, invoices, and purchase orders.

Is the software being beta tested?

As a matter of philosophy, I never release "Beta" software because I have found it to be a colossal waste of time. I prefer instead to work with a selected group of users who do nothing but quietly work with the software at their own paces, in their own environments (as opposed to consciously looking for bugs). If a problem is reported, I address the cause(s) instead of adding patches to "get around" core issues. When the software is finally released, it has already gone through multiple layers of testing across all functional areas. This results in a very stable installation and operation. It takes longer, but it's worth it.

When will Bookwriter Professional be available?

BookWriter Professional is about 90 percent complete. There is a high demand from a lot of dealers, and many have placed advance orders. I'm committed to putting a top-shelf program in their hands as expediently as I am able...and hope to have the rollout by late February 2005.

Tom, thank you for the update on BookWriter Professonal. The software you have developed will offer powerful features for booksellers. Advance orders are being accepted for $129.95. To find out more about ordering BookWriter Professional, visit his web site at www.bookwritersoftware.com.