July Store Sales Drop

Bookstore sales fell 7.4% in July, to $1.12 billion, according to estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau. Sales in July 2007 were driven by the record-setting Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. The July decline followed a 7% drop in June sales. For the first seven months of 2008, bookstore sales were up 1.7%, to $8.80 billion. For the entire retail segment, July sales rose 2.9% and year-to-date sales were up 3.2%.

B&N.com Settles with California

Barnes & Noble.com’s tax dispute with the California Board of Equalization has been settled, with B&N.com paying $9 million to the state. The case stems from the BOE’s attempt to collect what it said were back sales taxes of $17.7 million, plus penalties and interest, from B&N.com for its failure to collect California sales tax from November 1999 through March 14, 2004. Under the agreement, the BOE canceled all assessments against B&N.com and all pending litigation was dropped.

Christie Tapes Unearthed

The U.K.-based Chorion is weighing new book projects following discovery of 13.5 hours of unknown audio recordings by Agatha Christie. Chorion oversees the Christie estate; it had been shopping for a new publisher for Christie’s autobiography, published by Penguin but now out of print, before the discovery of the tapes was announced. Chorion will be at the Frankfurt Book Fair gauging interest in the Christie material.

Raincoast Buys AMS Stake

Raincoast Books Distribution of Vancouver has acquired the 25% stake in Raincoast that had been held by the bankrupt AMS. Mindell Holdings, whose president, David Mindell, is one of the current owners of Raincoast, purchased the stake for C$3.5 million. The deal was approved by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court last month and makes Raincoast a 100% Canadian-owned company.

Target Selling Sony Reader

Target has started selling the Sony e-book Reader in all 1,634 of its stores. This represents Sony’s largest rollout of Readers to date, bringing the number of U.S. retailers carrying the device up to roughly 3,000. Target is selling the device for $299.

Roxburgh Resigns from Boyds Mills

Stephen Roxburgh has resigned as publisher at Boyds Mills Press. He was appointed to the position in February 2007, taking over from Kent Brown, who will serve as interim publisher. Roxburgh joined Boyds Mills in 2004 following its acquisition of Front Street Press, which Roxburgh founded in 1994. Additionally, Boyds Mills will close its Asheville, N.C., office, where Front Street had historically been based, and it three employees will not remain with the company on a full-time basis; Front Street will stay a Boyds Mills imprint.

Macadam/Cage Struggles

A cash crunch at Macadam/Cage has forced the San Francisco independent publisher to lay off several staffers and delay new acquisitions. The company continues to print and ship existing books and said it will have a full slate of titles for its 2009 lists.

Correction

In last week’s feature ”Progressive Presses March Forward,” the distributor for Nation Books (an imprint of Basic Books) was misidentified as PGW; its titles are sold by the Perseus Books Group sales force.