How to find value in literature

It is possible to profit from books. There are many factors which influence how much each copy is worth to investors. And it may not be an author signature which adds the most value.

One of the most popular myths associated with book collecting is that the presence of an author's signature will add to a book's value. However, as the Irish poet Seamus Heaney recently quipped, he has signed so many books that the unsigned copies are probably more collectable.

Heaney's remark is important as it illustrates the different factors affecting a book's price. If there is little interest in it, it is not likely to be worth much but this can change. A Dublin woman is still kicking herself almost 50 years after she became a victim of the vagaries of the book market. She swapped a signed first edition of James Joyce's Ulysses for a job in the US embassy back in the 1950s. The market wasn't jumping over itself for a copy at the time, but one recently sold for £100,000.

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