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St. Mark’s Bookshop Faces Tough Summer—But Staying Open
It may be one of the worst summers ever for New York City indie St. Mark's Bookshop. But despite the news in the twitter-sphere the store expects to stay open.
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North Dakota Bookseller Keeping Doors Open
Main Street Books, a North Dakota independent located only a block and a half outside the flooding evacuation zone in the state, is keeping its doors open, hoping to serve the community’s few remaining residents.
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NAIBA & SIBA Go Clubbing
Club Read, a book club get-away sponsored by Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance and New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association, will hold its inaugural event this fall at the Mariner's Resort and Conference Landing in Huddleston, Va.
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Borders DIP Amendment Reluctantly Approved
Borders’s 11th-hour amendment to its DIP facility to prevent the closing of 50 stores was approved after some hesitation at this morning’s bankruptcy hearing. Judge Martin Glenn called the million-dollar fee that Borders is paying for the extension a bitter pill. “I’ll approve it with reluctance,” he said. “I think you’re getting raped is the best way I can describe it. The other side of the coin is, it’s the only game in town. It’s very close to me saying no.”
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Digital Sales Jump at Barnes & Noble, But Retailer Has $74 Million Loss
A 50% sales increase at BN.com plus a full year’s results from Barnes & Noble College Booksellers offset a decline at Barnes & Noble’s retail trade stores leading to a 20% increase in total revenue to $7 billion in the fiscal year ended April 30.
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Borders Cuts Losses in May to $35 Million
As talks progress about the sale of most of its assets, Borders Group reported that its net loss in the May 1 to May 28 period was $35.4 million, down substantially from the $132.2 million the chain lost in April.
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Borders Headed to July Sale, or Bust
The future of Borders has become much clearer with a motion filed late Friday that asks the court to approve a new motion that will permit it to sell “substantially all of its assets” by July 29. If the motion is not approved, or an agreement to sell the company is not reached, Borders said it will liquidate the bookstore chain as quickly as possible.
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Butterfly Books to Close
Amy Vanden Plas, the owner of Butterfly Books in De Pere, Wisc., announced this past weekend that the children’s bookstore in a Green Bay suburb will close its doors by mid-July, after 20 years in business.
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John Locke Hits 1 Million on the Kindle
Amazon.com announced that John Locke has become the first self-published author to sell over 1 million paid copies in the Kindle Store.
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Making the Web Pay
A Chicago antiquarian bookstore specializing in scholarly history books about President Lincoln, U.S. presidents, and the Civil War is successfully using the Web to enhance in-store author events. In the process, the store is selling a minimum of 50 hardcover books at each event to readers all over the world.
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Borders in Pact to Keep Stores Open
It looks like all Borders Group stores that faced the possibility of being forced to hold closing sales next week will get more time. In a statement filed with the bankruptcy court Wednesday, the company said that it has reached an agreement in principle with its lenders and the creditors committee on an amendment that would alleviate the need to hold store closing sales at outlets where no agreement had been reached to extend lease negotiations.
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Roslindale's Village Books to Close
In an e-mail sent to its customers earlier this week, owners of Village Books in Roslindale, Mass., said they were closing the store after six years in business. “Due to the economic downturn and changing customer buying habits we must close our doors,” wrote Jane Connelley and Lorie Spencer, the sisters who owned the store.
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Borders Knocks More Locations Off the Store Closing List
As promised, Borders continues to whittle away at the number of stores it may need to close because of an inability to reach agreements to extend lease negotiations. From the original list of 51 outlets, the number of stores that face possible closure now stands at 40.
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Creditors Committee Advisors Submit Bill
No one said Chapter 11 is cheap. The two principal advisors for the unsecured creditors committee in the Borders’ case submitted their first interim application for payment for service provided from late February through April 30. Financial advisor BDO USA is seeking $1,197,903.75 in fees plus $32,267.69 in travel and other costs. Lowenstein Sandler, general counsel to the committee, submitted a bill for $853,082.78.
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April Bookstore Sales Rise 1.8%
Bookstore sales rose 1.8% in April, to $887 million, according to preliminary estimates released Tuesday morning by the U.S. Census Bureau. Boosted by a major revision in March sales which changed a 5.8% decline to a 1.1% increase, bookstore sales for the first four months of 2011 were up 0.2%, to $4.98 billion. Sales include the going-out-of business sales conducted by Borders during the spring.
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Borders Cuts New Closing List to 45: New Hearing Set
Borders filed a motion Friday taking six of the 51 stores off the list of outlets that may be closed. Judge Glenn also approved the request to move up the hearing for a motion to give Borders approval to conduct store closing sales at stores where extensions have not been reached.
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Book Machines Near the Tipping Point?
Retailing for $185,000, the Espresso Book Machine, developed by On Demand Books, costs more than the annual revenue of some independent bookstores. But with a new partnership with the American Booksellers Association to help get frontlist and midlist titles from mainstream houses (something that has eluded ODB to date), an agreement with HarperCollins for some backlist titles with the promise of new releases at some point in the future, and more involvement from Xerox, the EBM could be poised to become a bookstore staple.
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Canadian Postal Strike Has E-tailers Seeking Alternatives
Canada Post workers began a rotating strike on June 2, shutting down service in various cities across the country and forcing booksellers to explore other ways to ensure they can deliver books to customers buying online.
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DDG Booksellers Turns 20
Last Friday’s 20th anniversary party for Devaney Doak & Garett Booksellers in Farmington, Maine., was "a wonderful celebration of books, community, and friendship," says Kenny Brechner, who has managed the store and owned it for nearly all of its 20 years.
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The Other Black Friday for Children's Booksellers: Memorial Day
For bookstores in vacation destinations, like Eight Cousins on Cape Cod, the summer can be the equivalent of other stores' holiday selling season. But this summer could be a bit quieter for some booksellers, and not just because of tornadoes or rising gas prices.
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