Dear Roger, and Booksharian Friends
Astute observations and questions from you as usual.
First come, first served is my usual practice.
I confess I use my judgment in deciding how many books to send a requestor
based on their track record for actually scanning what I send. I used to send
any amount to all comers but several and I mean a big several, times the
multiples I sent were never scanned and my investment in time and money was a
wash.
You have been a conscientious scanner for years and years so I’d confidently
send you as many books as you asked for. I was about to mention that I had an
Andre Norton you might be interested in but I just noticed that it’s abridged
and my command decision is to not offer abridged books. That’s going straight
to the donations box bypassing PBS as well as Bookshare.
Including Three Stations, I have about 14 books in a box for the next round of
posting Freebeeze, though I’ll talk book requests off list anytime.
For people I don’t know I’m more comfortable sending them 1 or 2 books. I give
them all the time they need but after a year if the books aren’t in the
collection yet I’d be inclined to continue sending them no more than 1 or 2
books per request. Sometimes new scanners give scanning a try and choose not to
continue so I also send new people one book so as not to overwhelm them.
Just in case it never hurts for people to do as you suggest and rank books in
order of their preference. And, if someone only wants 1 book and another person
has requested several containing that one, I’m likely to ask if they’d mind
giving up that one book for the person who had only that one request.
Oh, Roger, sadly there’s not so much demand for the books I post that you’d be
depriving anyone by requesting multiple books. I’m so grateful for any requests
it’s almost pathetic!
I have a friend who used to sell quantities of books on Amazon but E books
have slowed her sales beyond her patience so she brings me boxes of 15 or 20
books more often than I can move them along. She charges $.50 per book. If they
aren’t on Bookshare and they don’t have much bologna going on that causes OCR
problems, I buy them. I also try to swap 2 books from people on PBS to make
their day. Usually one is a book I specifically am looking for for Bookshare.
The next is usually a book Bookshare doesn’t have yet and I swap for it with
the hope of finding a scanner for it. In his wisdom, Evan has convinced me to
avoid library book sales as the house is booked up enough, but they remain a
tempting source of books. Truthfully, I enjoy the company of books whether
reading them, organizing them, passing them on or tracking down titles our
Bookshare doesn’t have yet. I do pass up outdated nonfiction and books I
suspect nobody will clamor to scan.
You are so right that it’s cheaper to mail multiples.
Since today was a fairly busy mailing day you might enjoy some general
statistics.
I mailed about 18 books for $9 to a scanner who scans for individuals but also
puts up over half of the books she scans for anyone. We’ve worked together for
years. She only requested books after it seemed no one else on the list was
going to ask for them. I’m grateful she cleaned out most of this batch. I’d
never have asked but she actually mails the books back to me knowing I’ll put
them on paperback swap to get more books for Bookshare.
If someone who is low on credits or funds asks for a book now and then from PBS
I’ll get it and have it sent directly to them.
I mailed a multiple of 3 books to a scanner for $3.61.
Your single book was $3.12, but it is a chunkster.
A package of 5 books going thousands of miles cost $5.08.
One PBS book was $2.91 and another was $3.61 proving the point you’ve made
before that it isn’t cheap getting books from PBS.
6 itty bitty books for my toddler cousins in Georgia who already love books
cost $3.12
About 40 books out of the house! Yay
Today’s book postage was about $35.00, but a more common average is between 6
and 15 dollars a week.
Obviously Bookshare means the world to me. I love supporting it other than by
proofreading, in any way I can. Well, I could just send them cash, but what fun
would that be and my limited cash wouldn’t last long if I went the straight
cash route. And, to date, I haven’t charged or accepted a cent for distributing
books this way and I never will. Free means free!
Roger, I hope you’re not sorry you asked.
Always with love,
Lissi
From: Roger Loran Bailey (Redacted sender "rogerbailey81" for DMARC)
Sent: Thursday, February 16, 2017 9:47 PM
To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: free books for scanners mailing soon (revised) 2
and 16 claimed(
Lissi, I am not going to request any of these right now because I know that I
already have one on the way and it will be a little while until I can start it
after I get it. That is because a few days ago I just started working on one I
got from Paperback Swap and since I started it I have been beset by
interruptions that have kept me from getting very far into it. However, I
wonder if you could clarify if there are any rules for requesting. I see that
there are some other books in the list that had caught my attention, but that I
did not request because I didn't want to be greedy. It now occurs to me that
you might appreciate multiple requests because it would save on postage. So the
first question is are there any limits on how many books one might request?
Second, whether one is requesting multiple books or not there is a chance that
more than one person might want the same one. I am supposing that you use the
first come first served system, but if a person is requesting only one book the
chances are that someone might be disappointed and possibly if they are
requesting more than one. So would you like requests to be ranked in order of
preference? I mean that, for example, if someone wanted only one and said here
is a list of three in order of preference. Send me the one that is available
and is closest to the top of the list.
