Where do you buy regency novels?

[goggles]

Regency romances are becoming increasingly difficult to locate, at least in this remote corner of East Sussex. Secondhand book stores have very few. However, I have been able to find them on eBay.

Where do you buy them?

[Kathryn Kane]

My two favorite online used book sites are:

Biblio

and

ABE Books

Both of these sites are aggregators of online booksellers. So, you are, in effect, searching the inventories of literally hundreds of bookssellers when you do a search on either of these sites. There are a number who sell traditional regencies. They are usually used, but in most cases have only been read once or twice, and are in pretty good shape. Each book listing will describe its condition, so you will know what you are getting.

Traditional regencies typically sell for only a few dollars, or pounds or euros, or whatever currency you might be using. (With the exception of some rare stuff, like Mary Balogh's or Suzanne Enoch's early novels, many of those are now collectors items.) But there are still plenty of traditional regencies at both of these sites. If you use the Advanced Search feature, you will be able to specify the country in which the bookseller is located, so you will only have to pay local shipping. Also, the sites are usually able to determine your location, and will display prices in your local currency.

I have had very good luck purchasing from both of these sites, and have found dozens of books I could not find anywhere else. Plus, this way you have the advantage of only buying the titles you want. I used to buy on eBay myself, but often I had to buy a whole lot of books to get one or two titles I wanted. I am much happier with Biblio and ABE Books.

Hope this will help you expand your regency collection without being dependent on local sellers.

Good Luck!

[Kathryn Kane]

DUH!!!!

It just occurred to me that simply having the links to the book sites won't do you much good if you don't have any author names or titles to use in your searches.

If you are interested in traditional regencies, you can find lists of hundreds of regecies listed by author at the Good Ton website. Just click the link for Tomes of the Ton, in the first block on the left. That will give you a list of hundreds of traditional regencies written over the past couple of decades. Many of the titles will be listed with the name of the publisher, the main characters and a summary of the story. Some even have a rating on the quality of the story. Because these are older books, you probably won't get that information in the books listings at Biblio or ABE Books. The Tomes of the Ton will give you at the very least the author and title for a book, and might also provide some information on the story line so you will know if you want to buy it.

But be prepared, some of these books are classics, and if the seller knows it, they won't come cheap. But you should still be able to find a good number of regencies at reasonable prices on the book sites to fill your bookshelves.

[goggles]

Thank you for the links and additional information, Kathryn Kane. They are new sites to me and prompted me to poke around a little more on the internet. bookfinder.com is another I found in the same vein. Tomes of the Ton is an invaluable resource!

[Kathryn Kane]

I am glad I could help. As you begin looking for regencies online, you will probably find that some booksellers specialize in certain subject matter. I know there are a couple in the US which specialize in romance novels. There may also be some in the UK who do the same. Once you find them, you might be able to deal with them directly, which should reduce your costs since they may not then include the fee they pay to the aggregators.

Even if these specialty sellers are not set up to do business outside of the book aggregators, many of them will have lots of regencies available. You can at least save some money on shipping if you buy multiple titles from the same bookseller at the same time.

Happy Hunting!