TODAY'S NEWS

Used Titles Drive Book Sales at Hastings
by Jim Milliot
Same store sales of books rose 2.1% at Hastings Entertainment for the year ended January 31, although the increase wasn’t particularly good news for publishers. According to the company, the gains were led by strong sales of used books plus the July release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. In the fourth quarter, book comps were up 0.9% led by sales of used and bargain books, which offset lower sales of new hardcover titles.

Like other multimedia retailers, music sales have plummeted at Hastings, with comp sales off 15.3% in the year. As a result, Hastings said it is reformatting 35 of its stores to reduce the space devoted to music in favor of more popular categories such as trends and children. Read on »

B&N Launches How-To Site Quamut.com
By Lynn Andriani
Barnes & Noble has taken a significant step in the digital publishing sphere with its launch of Quamut.com, a how-to Web site. The site offers free online guides on more than 1,000 topics, including getting out of debt, hanging wallpaper, mastering tai chi, learning Spanish travel phrases and buying a laptop.

Quamut—Latin for “how-to” and pronounced “kwómut”—guides are commissioned by editors, written by experts, fact-checked, copyedited and enhanced with illustrations and photographs. “Quamut.com positions Barnes & Noble as a leader in digital how-to publishing,” said Dan Weiss, publisher and managing director of Quamut.com. The company simultaneously publishes all content in two formats: as HTML content and as downloadable PDFs. In some cases, Weiss said, Quamut guides are also available as a four-to-six page laminated printed charts, available for purchase at Barnes & Noble stores and BN.com. Read on »

Emerging e-Book Market Top Subject at IDPF Conference
The emerging e-book market will be the top subject at the upcoming IDPF Digital Book 2008 conference on May 14. The one-day event, held in New York City at the McGraw-Hill Auditorium, will discuss how the Kindle and Sony Reader's strong market penetration is bumping e-book sales; the conference will also address the adoption of the EPUB digital publication standard. Among the presenters at the event will be Mikio Amaya, president of Japan's largest digital bookstore, Papyless Co. Ltd., and Dawn Bruno, team leader and senior international trade special from the U.S. Deptartment of Commerce Global Publishing Team.

For reservation info go to www.idpf.org/digitalbook08.

Three Answers: R.L. Stine
By Sally Lodge
Three Answers from R.L. Stine, whose new Scholastic series, Goosebumps Horrorland, debuts next month with two titles. Read on »

Web Exclusive Reviews
In this week's Web roundup: culinary tours domestic and international, an improv comedy legend and a comic up-and-comer, the economic realities of global energy crisis and the new world order it's engendered, memoirs from a librarian and a teen with OCD, and a powerful resource for parents facing the death of a child. Plus: an inviting look at Winslow Homer and a novelist's take on Mary, mother of Jesus. Read on »

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AUTHORS ON THE AIR

Authors on the Air: Ben Mezrich’s 21; Walter T. Shaw Jr.; NYC’s Underground , Unwrapped
Today, Oprah talks with Katie Lee Joel about her first cookbook, The Comfort Table (Simon Spotlight Entertainment, $25). Joel (wife of Billy Joel) was the host of the first season of Bravo’s Top Chef and sits on the council of Chefs for Humanity, a group that provides humanitarian aid worldwide. Read on »

PICTURE OF THE DAY

Picturing John Lennon
On March 13 author May Pang was at the Lincoln Triangle Barnes and Noble in Manhattan to discuss her new book, Instamatic Karma: Photographs of John Lennon (St. Martins Press). Pictured at the event (l. to r.) are: B&N events manager Harriet Seltzer; Cynthia Lennon; Pang; and Pang’s editor, Elizabeth Beier.

Photo credit: Derek Meade Submit your pictures here »

JOB OF THE DAY

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