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Chegg Goes Digital
In the latest salvo in the e-textbook wars, Chegg, one of the pioneers in print textbook rental, is going digital, by offering device agnostic e-textbooks for purchase and 180-day rental. Their news follows recent announcements by Inkling, Kno, and Barnes & Noble.
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Twin Cities Literary Community Collaborates on Punch Card Program
Twin Cities publishers, booksellers, and other organizations are collaborating this fall on a punch card rewards program that they hope will both spotlight a thriving literary scene and boost attendance at local author events.
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What's Selling at Northtown Books
Monika Zerzan, children's buyer at Northtown Books in Arcata, Calif., weighs in on what books are selling well at her store this summer.
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Liberty to Invest $204 Million In B&N; Ends Acquisition Talks
Liberty Media’s long courtship of Barnes & Noble ended Thursday afternoon with the company agreeing to invest $204 million in the retailer through newly issued convertible preferred stock.
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BAM Moves Into Another Borders Location
Books-A-Million is taking over a former Borders in Merrillville, Ind.
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Hastings Reports Weak Quarter; Books Fall 9%
Hastings Entertainment had a disappointing second quarter for the period ended July 31 with total sales down 7.2%, to $110.5 million, and a net loss of $4 million compared to earnings of $82,000 in last year’s second quarter. Books were one of the weakest performing categories in the period, with comps down 9.4%.
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Diversity Rules at GABBS Boston
Attendance at last week's Great American Bargain Book Show was down about 8%, something founder Larry May attributed to a weak retail market. Still, the number of exhibitors stayed just about the same at the show, which was held at the Hynes Convention Center in downtown Boston. For Heidi Wells, CEO of TIA in Denver, coming to a slightly smaller GABBS was still worth it. "It'll end up being a good show for us," she said. "Everybody who comes buys."
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Old Bookstores, New Challenges
When iconic bookstores like Politics and Prose Bookstore in Washington, D.C., changed hands earlier this year the new owners quickly learned that relying on long-established systems and having a brand name aren’t always enough to ensure a smooth transition.
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BAM To Open in Fredericksburg
Books-A-Million, which has announced plans to open new stores in four former Borders' location over the last 10 days, said today it will open a new store in Fredericksburg, Vir. at the Spotsylvania Towne Centre, in a spot formerly occupied by Joseph-Beth Booksellers. The Fredericksburg store is tentatively scheduled to open on August 18.
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June Bookstore Sales Down 1.9%
Bookstore sales ended four months of increases in June, falling for the first time since January, according to preliminary estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau. Sales fell 1.9% in the month, to $1.02 billion.
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Points of Sale: August 11
This column grew from first-hand experience that many of the best bookselling ideas come from other booksellers. Each tip offers an inventive way to solve problems that you may not have even been aware of in your store: like making it easier for older teens and twenty-somethings to find books.
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Bookseller Turns Publisher for 'Baby Unplugged' Line
Concerned about children's brain development in an increasingly digitized society, pediatrician John Hutton, owner of Blue Manatee Children's Bookstore in Cincinnati, Ohio, decided to do something about it: this spring he launched Blue Manatee Press, a children's book imprint, out of his bookstore.
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Borders: Everything Must Go
The last of the big pieces of Borders are about to go on the auction block. At Wednesday’s hearing at U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Judge Martin Glenn approved the auction of its leases on August 31 for small-format stores and on September 13 for superstores.
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Sales Down, Loss Up at Indigo
Indigo Books & Music reported a 1.1% drop in revenue, to C$202 million, in the first quarter ended July 2 compared with the same quarter last year.
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Amazon Launches The Kindle Cloud Reader
Amazon.com has launched the Kindle Cloud Reader, an HTML5 reader that will allow consumers to buy and read Amazon titles through the web browsers found on almost any PC or mobile device.
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BAM to Open South Carolina Store in Former Borders Location
Books-A-Million will open a new store in Sumter, S.C., at the Sumter Mall, in a spot formerly occupied by Borders. The Sumter store, Books-A-Million’s 233rd nationwide and 15th in South Carolina, is tentatively scheduled to open on August 25 and is its fourth store to fill in an old Borders location.
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Greenlight Partners with the Other BAM
After announcing in July that it would expand, Greenlight Bookstore in Brooklyn is growing again through a partnership with another neighbor, Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM). In conjunction with BAM’s celebration of its first 150 years, it will open two Greenlight at BAM kiosks and begin selling BAM branded merchandise at its Web site.
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Amazon Unveils Fall Books Preview
Amazon.com has released its Fall Books Preview, a comprehensive listing compiled by Amazon’s book editors that previews the biggest books coming in the fall in literature, science fiction, crime, nonfiction, children’s books and other categories.
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B&N Will Stock Amazon Publishing Titles, With Caveat
As Amazon Publishing gears up for a new fall list that will include titles from its new imprints, booksellers are deciding whether they will carry titles from a company many consider their biggest competitor.
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What Booksellers Want
Much has been made about the importance of bricks-and-mortar bookstores as showrooms, places that will help prevent the book business from going the way of the music industry as the sales of digital books grow. But hundreds of showrooms and thousands of square feet of book retail space are about to go away when Borders closes its remaining stores next month.
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