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SIBA Kicks Off the Regional Trade Show Season and ABA’s Kobo Road Show
The Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance’s September 7-9 annual meeting held in Naples, Fla., kicked off not only the regional fall trade show season, but the American Booksellers Association’s road show.
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Black Dog & Leventhal Launches Bookseller Contest with ABA
To celebrate the publication of My Bookstore (Nov.), Black Dog & Leventhal is launching a contest in conjunction with the ABA for booksellers on "Why My Bookstore Matters."
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ReKiosk Tries an Indie Online Sales Model
Aziz Isham did not intend to get into retailing. Instead, ReKiosk, the online storefront he cofounded that started up last week—it currently offers only music and books—came out of conversations he had been having with independent publishers. All of them, he said, expressed frustration over the lack of online storefronts where they could sell their titles.
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Prospering with Used Books
A dozen years ago, Bob Ticehurst, then 22, quit his day job as an accountant, moved into his parents’ basement in Arlington, Mass., and became one of the first used-book sellers on Amazon’s Marketplace. Since then “MarineBob,” his original handle, has grown his online used-book business under the Got Books name. Today his offices are located in a 69,000-sq.-ft. warehouse in Wilmington, Mass., and the books he sells no longer come mostly from friends. Instead he gets them through nearly 500 Got Books donation containers in New England, operated in partnership primarily with nonprofit organizations that get paid based on the number of books, CDs, and DVDs they collect. By August 2008, Got Books had collected so many books that it added a sister company, Used Book Superstore, to sell off part of its used-book inventory, along with new and bargain titles. There are now four 13,000-sq.-ft. UBS bookstores within a 20-minute drive of the warehouse. But that’s about to change.
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Ingram to Distribute Kobo eReaders to Indie Bookstores
Just one week after the ABA announced that it will partner with Kobo to sell e-books, the organization said that Ingram Content Group will be the exclusive distributor of Kobo eReaders.
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Northern California Children's Booksellers Group to Merge with NCIBA
More than a quarter century after forming the first children's booksellers organization in the country, the Northern California Children's Booksellers Association will merge with its counterpart, the Northern California Independent Booksellers Association, headquartered in San Francisco.
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Book Industry Foundation Awards $100,000 in Scholarships
When Borders closed, the nonprofit that had been established to offer financial aid to its employees expanded its mission, to assist all booksellers in need.
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Amazon’s Prime Advantage
Just how important Amazon’s Prime shipping offer has been to the online giant’s success can be seen in data recently compiled by the Codex Group. Last Monday, Amazon announced that Prime, which allows customers free two-day shipping for a $79 annual fee, had surpassed its free shipping on orders of $25 or more in terms of use. Codex surveyed book buyers in May about their book purchases the previous month; those who were Prime members without Kindles spent $173 on all general merchandise and services, including books, at Amazon compared to $41 in spending by nonmembers, more than three times as much. Prime members who own a Kindle spent even more, $175.
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This Week's Bestsellers: August 20-26, 2012
Commentary and analysis on this week's PW Bestsellers Lists
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SEAL Book, New Rowling Could Signal a Strong Fall
Over the past decade sales patterns have changed, with fall, or “holiday,” sales picking up later and later—often in the last two weeks of the season. But things could be different this year. With the closing of Borders, many stores saw a significant uptick last November, and for some, like San Francisco–based Books Inc., with 12 locations in California, sales have stayed strong right through the summer. According to president Michael Tucker, the Palo Alto store is up 50%; Alameda, 27%. Overall sales for the indie chain are up 9%. Even stores like the Ivy in Baltimore, Md., whose summer was adversely affected by severe storms, including a tornado, have seen sales rise year over year.
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A Cash Mob Hits Reopened Curious George Store
The World's Only Curious George Store in Harvard Square, Cambridge, Mass., may also hold the distinction of hosting the world's first children's specialty store cash mob last Saturday, or at least the first one in New England.
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B&N Adds More U.K. Retailers to Sell Nook Devices
Following on its deal with the John Lewis retail chain announced earlier this week, Barnes & Noble announced partnerships with three major British book retailers to sell its suite of Nook e-ink digital readers in physical stores and online. Beginning in October, B&N will offer its digital readers for sale through the multi-channel chain retailer Argosy, academic retailer Blackwell’s and independent bookstore chain Foyles.
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More Details Emerge on ABA/Kobo Partnership
Yesterday’s announcement that the ABA found an e-book solution with Kobo replacing Google raised a number of questions, including when the transition will take place.
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ABA to Replace Google With Kobo
ABA to replace Google e-book program with Kobo and sell e-reading devices for the first time.
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B&N Study of College Students Finds TV Ads Effective, QR Codes Not So Much
A Barnes & Noble 2012 College Marketing Report on students’ influences had some surprising results: TV ads continue to be an effective way to reach students.
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Amazon Touts Growth of Prime
Although analysts have sometimes questioned the costs associated with Amazon Prime, the company has maintained that Prime encourages customers to buy more items and today it announced that it ships more items through Prime than its free shipping offer that lets customers receive free shipping on orders over $25.
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NAIBA Names Sargent & Booksellers Legacy Award Winners
In a move reminiscent of Time magazine’s decision to name “you” Person of the Year, NAIBA is recognizing both John Sargent and “all of us” for its Legacy Award.
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B&N Will Rise or Fall with Content
While Barnes & Noble has created lots of buzz and headlines with its Nook e-reading devices, its future profitability lies in the sale of content. That was the message CEO William Lynch delivered to analysts last week in a conference call discussing first-quarter results. Improved gross margins were due to increased sales of higher-margin content, while competition forced B&N to lower the price of its e-reading devices by an average of 23% compared to a year ago, which contributed to a decline in device sales. Lynch said that while B&N needs to be “competitive” in the device space, “hardware is not where margins reside—they reside in digital content.” Digital content sales rose 46% in the first quarter, with sales of apps, magazines, and newspapers growing at a slightly faster pace than e-books, Lynch noted.
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Spotlight on Book-Buying Behavior
Generation Y, readers born between 1979 and 1989, spent the most money on books in 2011, taking over the book-buying leadership from baby boomers, according to Bowker’s just released 2012 U.S. Book Consumer Demographics & Buying Behaviors Annual Review. Generation Y accounted for 30% of book spending in the year, although the age group accounted for only 25% of units purchased. The discrepancy is due to Generation Y spending more money on expensive titles for school or work than other age groups. Generation Y was the only age group whose spending was higher than its proportion of the overall population. The report is available at www.bookconsumer.com, or e-mail MarketResearch@Bowker.com for more information.
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This Week's Bestsellers: Aug. 13-19, 2012
Analysis of and commentary on this week's PW Bestsellers lists.
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