an interview with leonard shoup

JOHNNY: Leonard, you are the owner of www.leonardshoup.com, one of the best internet bookshops I think I have ever come across. The variety of books that you have is truly stunning. What is the history of the website; were you or are you still an actual bookshop?

LEONARD: Well, I think there's a bit of exaggeration there J...one of the best, no...but I'm happy with it.

I am 50+ and have been a full time bookseller for almost 20 years and that's combined with another 5 as a part-time seller (doing book shows and selling locally) as well as another 5+ years as a bookscout. Bookscouts are a different breed of bookselling. Scouting books for other sellers is a good way to acquire books that you desire. Scouts will go out and buy material that they recognize as having value but which they might not care about, which can be sold to other booksellers for cash or trade. That's how I got started...buying stuff I didn't care about so I could get stuff that I coveted. That really helps to offset the dollar outlay, especially when you are young and likely don't have much coin of the realm. Scouting is also a GREAT educator. You learn about books that you never knew about previously (in terms of value). Of course many scouts become booksellers, thinking they know as much as their bookseller buyers.

I had a bricks-and-mortar bookshop in Hamilton, Ontario for about 10 years. We tried to cater to a broad range of buyers from romance readers to collectors of 1st editions and rare books. The shop was well received. In 1997 I (like many others) went online with a few of the book listing sites. That proved to be a very wise move as the demand for books in the early days was monstrous.

A year and a half after going online, I closed the shop to focus on the online aspect of selling. I have been a full time online bookseller for almost 10 years. About 3 years ago, I decided that I should have my own website, so I had my present site constructed. It allowed me to noodle around with it and I finally have it the way I want (much help on the techo stuff from my 18 year old daughter, otherwise who knows what it might look like).

JOHNNY: As a collector myself of short horror stories, I was really pleased to see some really good obscure collections. Where have your books been sourced from? Do you buy people's collections? Are you a charity shop and second hand shop scourer? Or is it simply selling off your massive collection?

LEONARD: Books, literally come from everywhere, as they, literally, are everywhere. I tend not to do many garage sales (boot sales) as they are labour intensive and yield few rewards. Charity shops are OK but are very spotty. A local charity shop recently had a raft of books donated which they doled out over a few weeks...mostly interesting history material...I bought lots and sold quite a bit quickly. Of course the advantage to charity shops is the price. In Canada, the OXFAM philosophy hasn't really hit most of the thrift stores, so books are priced quite inexpensively. But of course, it's always a crap shoot...I can go weeks without buying very much. Collections are rarely offered to me, which is just as well, as most people have inflated ideas about the value of dad's books, or granddad's collection, etc...

Most books are bought at fund raising book sales or other book stores. I am fortunate as this area (say a 200 mile distance) has a plethora of book sales(and book stores), so I am often on the road buying, buying, buying.

LEONARD: My current inventory is around 6000 books online with another thousand or so, that could be added. Adding books to the inventory is extremely labour intensive and as I am a one man operation, books are always piling up waiting to be entered. The turnaround time varies. I still sell books that I listed online in the first year or two, others will sell in days. My inventory turnover is about 100% every 2 to 2.5 years.

LEONARD: Currently my rarest book is a 1st edition copy in the extremely rare dustjacket of Ralph 124c41+ by Hugo Gernsback, although I have a signed H P Lovecarft manuscript / hand written poem that is priced higher.

One of the most expensive items that I have sold is a 1st edition copy of The Shadow Over Innsmouth by Lovecraft. The most expensive book that I have sold is an ex-Boots library 1st edition copy of Gent from Bear Creek by Robert E Howard, creator of Conan the Barbarian. I sold that for $9500.00 Canadian to a guy who didn't even want the book. He needed it as trade bait for some VERY nice early copies of The Shadow pulps from the 1930's - what a business, eh? The copy that I sold was the 9th known copy (at that time).

JOHNNY: And how about your personal collection - what books are you interested in? Do you actually bother collecting as you deal with books day in, day out?

LEONARD: My personal collection is Lovecraft, Arkham House (I have a complete set, with 60+% being signed or "special"), Richard Matheson, Charles Beaumont, but especially William Hope Hodgson. It is a mania...I have been collecting for 30 years but my collecting has gotten narrower and narrower, to the point now, where there is very little for me to buy anymore.

LEONARD: The dynamics of online selling are changing very quickly now. When I went online as a seller, I was about the 1200th dealer...there are now closer to 15,000 online booksellers. Of course, more sellers means more books...more books means more choice...more choice means more competition...more competition means lower prices. It all comes down to supply and demand and right now the supply is greatly outpacing the demand. But, of course, lower prices benefit the buyer, and I'm one of those as well.

The "golden days" are behind online booksellers. It is a tough business now, which is one of the reasons I try to offer the unusual and rare. Sure, some (if not a lot) of my books are relatively common, but by offering the unusual, hopefully people will return to my books.

LEONARD: Domination...no, BIBLIO-DOMINATION, YES!!!!! I'm too old and much too surly now to ever have a different job (thankfully, this rarely feels like a job), so I'll just keep plugging along, doing what I do.