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Newsletter #104 December, 2013 — February, 2014

33rd Anniversary Sale

        December 1 marks Uncle Edgar’s 33rd anniversary. Come into Uncle Edgar’s or Uncle Hugo’s and save 10% off everything except discount cards, gift certificates, or merchandise that is already marked 40% off. (Most of the games are already 40% off.) A discount card will save you even more–you’ll get both 10% savings from the discount card and 10% off from the sale. (Sale prices apply to in-store purchases, but not to mail orders.) The 33rd Anniversary Sale runs Friday, November 29 through Sunday, December 8–giving you two weekends to take advantage of the sale.
        We will also be having our annual inventory reduction sale December 26-31, but that will feature deep discounts on things we really, really want to get rid of. It will not be a store-wide sale like the 33rd Anniversary Sale.

Award News

        The Hugo Award for Best Novel went to Redshirts by John Scalzi ($14.99 Trade PB, $14.99 Unabridged Audio CDs performed by Wil Wheaton).

        Many mystery awards were announced at Bouchercon:
        The Anthony Awards included Best Novel to The Beautiful Mystery by Louise Penny ($15.99); Best First Novel to The Expats by Chris Pavone ($15.00); Best Paperback Original to Big Maria by Johnny Shaw ($14.95); and Best Critical/Nonfiction Work to Books to Die For: The World’s Greatest Mystery Writers on the World’s Greatest Mystery Novels edited by John Connolly and Declan Burke ($29.95).
        The Barry Awards included Best Novel to The Blackhouse by Peter May ($24.95); Best First Novel to A Killing in the Hills by Julia Keller ($14.99); Best Paperback Original to Mr. Churchill’s Secretary by Susan Elia McNeal ($15.00); and Best Thriller to The Fallen Angel by Daniel Silva ($9.99).
        The Shamus Awards included Best Hardcover P.I. Novel to Taken by Robert Crais ($26.95 signed hc or $9.99 pb); Best First P.I. Novel to Black Fridays by Michael Sears ($9.99): and Best Original Paperback P.I. Novel to And She Was by Alison Gaylin ($5.99).
        The Macavity Awards included Best Mystery Novel to The Beautiful Mystery by Louise Penny ($15.99); Best First Mystery Novel to Don't Ever Get Old by Daniel Friedman ($14.99) Best Mystery Non-Fiction to Books to Die For: The World's Greatest Mystery Writers on the World's Greatest Mystery Novels edited by John Connolly and Declan Burke ($29.95); and Sue Feder Historical Memorial Award to An Unmarked Grave by Charles Todd ($14.99).

        The British Crime Writers’ Association announced that the CWA Goldsboro Gold Dagger for best crime novel of the year went to Dead Lions by Mick Herron ($25.95); the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger for best thriller of the year went to Ghostman by Roger Hobbs ($14.95); the CWA John Creasey Dagger for best new crime writer of the year went to Derek B. Miller for Norwegian by Night ($26.00); the CWA International Dagger was shared by two French writers, Fred Vargas for Ghost Riders of Ordebec ($15.00) and Pierre Lemaitre for Alex ($24.95); the CWA Ellis Peters Historical Dagger went to The Scent of Death by Andrew Taylor (not currently available in the U.S.); the CWA Diamond Dagger went to Lee Child; and the CWA Non-Fiction Dagger went to Midnight in Peking by Paul French ($16.00).

Holiday Gift Ideas

        
        Our single most popular gift option continues to be our gift certificate. We can issue one for any amount. It can be used at either or both Uncles. It can even be used for mail orders, and it can be purchased over the phone (if you have a Visa, Mastercard, or Discover Card) and we can mail it either to the purchaser or to the recipient, or we can just enter the balance on a credit file here at the store to avoid the risk of the gift certificate being lost.
        Calendars are another popular gift item. The standard wall calendars include Alice in Wonderland ($13.95), Alphonse Mucha ($13.99), Beyond: Visions From Our Solar System ($14.99, astronomical photos), Boris Vallejo & Julie Bell’s Fantasy ($12.99), Buffy the Vampire Slayer ($14.99), Cinema Noir ($13.99), Cult Attack ($13.99, 1 pulp cover and 15 horror movie posters), Dilbert: Stop Making Everything I Say Sound Stupid ($14.99), Ender’s Game ($14.99, from the movie), Dynamite Dames ($13.95, old paperback covers), Edward Gorey ($14.99), Film Posters of the 50s ($13.95), Fractal Creation ($13.99), Game of Thrones ($14.99, stills from the TV show), George R. R. Martin: A Song of Ice and Fire ($17.00, paintings by Gary Gianni), The Hobbit ($14.99, illustrated by Jemima Catlin), Lunar Glow in the Dark ($14.99, photos of the moon), Monty Python’s Flying Circus ($14.99), Rackham’s Fairy Tales ($13.95), The Reading Woman ($13.95, 12 paintings of women reading books), Robots ($14.99, art by Eric Joyner), A Star Is Born: Best of Space Photography ($13.99), Star Trek ($14.99, stills from the original series), Star Trek: Into Darkness ($14.99, stills from the movie), Star Trek: Ships of the Line ($14.99), Steampunk ($13.99), and Worlds of Fiction ($13.99, mix of sf pulp covers and movie posters). The page-a-day style calendars we’ve received are Dilbert: There’s No Kill Switch on Awesome ($14.99), FailBlog ($14.99, sort of like an example of Murphy’s Law each day), I Can Has Cheezburger? ($14.99, humorous cat photos), and Star Trek Daily Calendar ($14.99). The only desktop calendar we’ve received is Star Trek 16-Month Engagement ($14.99). The only mini wall calendar we’ve received is Edward Gorey’s The Evil Garden ($7.99).

How’s Business
by Don Blyly

        Surviving in the book business never seems to get any easier. I read an article a couple of months ago that said that 49% of all science fiction/fantasy book sales are now in e-book form instead of in printed form. A couple of weeks ago I read an article that said that the top 100 sf titles of 2004 sold 2,855,210 print units, while the top 100 sf titles of 2012 sold 1,427,635 print units. So the amount of business available to support bookstores dropped by 50% in 8 years.
        A couple of days ago I read an article from England that said that small publishers were going out of business are a record rate. So many bookstores had gone out of business that the publishers couldn’t sell enough books through the surviving bookstores to cover their overhead. And Amazon demands such a huge discount that the publishers couldn’t afford to do business with Amazon. They couldn’t survive without doing business with Amazon and they couldn’t survive if they did do business with Amazon, so they were closing down.
        When I computerized the Uncles about 13 years ago, I researched the various software systems carefully and decided that Anthology was the best system available for my needs. Since then, Anthology has become the #1 system for independent bookstores. But they recently sent out an e-mail urging everybody to convert to the latest upgrade. After a couple of weeks I found the time to install the upgrade after closing the store Sunday evening. The first problem I found was that they had disconnected the “charge shipping” function for mail orders, so I had to define an inventory item as “shipping” to be able to process mail orders. Elizabeth discovered that they had gotten rid of their excellent “report writer” function. They also moved the “delete” button to the location where the “save” button had always been.
        Popeyes has finally opened, so our long fried chicken famine is now over.
        Metered parking (25 cents for 20 minutes) is available in front of the store. Meters are enforced 8am-6pm Monday through Saturday (except for federal holidays). Note the number on the pole you park by, and pay at the box located between the dental office driveway and Popeyes driveway. The box accepts quarters, dollar coins, and credit cards, and prints a receipt that shows the expiration time. Meter parking for vehicles with Disability License Plates or a Disability Certificate is free. (Rates and hours shown are subject to change without notice - the meters are run by the city, not by us.)
        Free parking is also available in the dental office lot from 5pm-8pm Monday through Thursday, and all day Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
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