NP new book source

[pynchonoid]

For those of you like small press books and new
authors, and discounts, this sounds interesting, from
today's issue of PW Daily for Booksellers:

Cabobble.com: Disabled Vet Opens Online Bookstore

New online bookstores are rarities these days, but a
few entrepreneurs
are still willing to enter the "Web space" dominated
Amazon.com and
B&N.com. Lonnie Hodge and Geoff Larson, both of
Chicago, have done
just that, launching Cabobble.com, an online
bookstore, in December
2003.

Hodge, who is a poet, a retired U.S. Army bomb
disposal expert and
former owner of Michael's Paperback Bookshop in
Pueblo, Colo., told PW
Daily, "I had so much fun running a bookstore that I
never got it out
of my system."

The word Cabobble, though no longer in common use, is
defined as to
"mystify." The site promotes itself on its home page
as "an
independent, no pop-up/banner ad sanctuary dedicated
to bibliolotrists
and dedicated to recognizing new and emerging writers,
presses, and
publications."

Hodge told PW Daily the idea to open a bookstore to
feature small
presses has stayed with him since he sold Michael's
back in the 1970s.
"One of the things I saw during this period was that
authors weren't
getting readings from smaller bookstores and the small
presses
couldn't sell enough books to keep themselves going."

The store currently displays books from major
publishing houses
alongside its "new author showcase," which features
self-published
authors and print-on-demand titles. "I wanted a place
where an
'emerging artist' could show their work," said Hodge.

Cabobble aims to be highly competitive on price,
selling books at cost
plus 7%. Baker & Taylor is fulfilling orders.

Plans include offering an unorthodox membership
program, where for a
$20 annual fee, customers will be able to buy a code
that allows them
to buy books at cost, plus credit card fees and
shipping. "It
guarantees the store $20 per customer," he commented.

A disabled veteran, Hodge said he's not in it for the
money but to
help raise money for the Veterans Administration
hospital were he
works. Among his plans is to contract out some of the
work--such as
packing and the creation of promotional items--to a
local VA workshop
that offers work to homeless and disabled vets.

"Bush has cut 160,000 people off the waiting lists to
get into VA
hospitals," Hodge argued. "Thirty-three percent of the
homeless
population is veterans, yet Bush diverted $6 billion
from programs to
reintegrate veterans coming out of jail into society
to the Middle
East. The experience for us veterans is so unique. You
come back and
you've done things a) maybe you're not proud of and b)
that exceed the
requirements of any of the jobs you'll do on the
outside, but your
resume doesn't read well enough to get you a job. What
do you do in
the real world when you're trained to shoot howitzers?

"I just want to help people, promote authors and sell
books," said
Hodge. "That's what really charges me."

Lonnie Hodge can be reached at 847-477-6816.--Edward Nawotka

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