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Kate Levinson: Bookstore Owner and Author
After being a bookseller and co-owner of Point Reyes Books in Northern California for nine years, Kate Levinson is adding the term “author” to her resume as she embarks on a lengthy tour to promote Emotional Currency: A Woman’s Guide to Building a Healthy Relationship With Money (Ten Speed/Celestial Arts, $14.99).
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In Motion Defending Bonuses, Borders Sees $1.5 Billion Company
In a motion defending its decision to recommend as much as $8.3 million in bonuses and other payouts to top and key Borders Group executives, a partner with the compensation services firm Mercer said that when Borders emerges from bankruptcy it expects to have annual revenue of $1.5 billion. The projection was used to justify the awards package, with Mercer saying that the cost of the package as a percentage of post-bankruptcy sales for Borders is .56%, just slightly above the median of .47% of comparable companies that have gone through the bankruptcy process.
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Freese Leaves NBN
Friday was the last day for Rich Freese as president of National Book Network. "It's an amicable parting," said Jed Lyons, CEO of NBN and president and CEO of its sister company, the Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group. Lyons has no plans to replace Freese. John Groton will continue to handles sales; Jeanne Kramer will run client management.
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Watching and Waiting in California
Because California is losing more Borders stores than any other state in the country, the region's booksellers are uniquely poised to find ways to turn the ramifications of the bankruptcy proceedings to their advantage. "In the long run, the indies will benefit because there will be fewer outlets selling books," says Hut Landon, executive director of the Northern California Independent Booksellers Association, referring to the possible exodus by former Borders customers from the bankrupt chain to NCIBA member indie stores.
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Taschen to Set Up Shop Inside Chicago Art Institute
Representatives of the Chicago Art Institute and Taschen Publishing confirmed Thursday that they are involved in negotiations to provide the publisher of illustrated art, architecture, design, and lifestyle books with a dedicated retail space within one of the Art Institute’s two museum shops. But contrary to what commissioned publishers’ rep Bruce Miller of Miller Trade, a Chicago-based rep group, wrote Thursday on his blog, they say details have not been worked out.
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All About the Books! NEIBA’s Spring Gathering
There’s only one thing on booksellers’ minds this season: e-books. Or so it seemed from much of the conversation at Wednesday’s day-long All About the Books! author event with educational programming sponsored by the New England Independent Booksellers Association at Springstep in Medford, Mass. After a morning of readings and talks by 10 New England writers, ranging from Melissa Coleman, author of the memoir This Life Is in Your Hands (Harper), to Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Geraldine Brooks, author of Caleb’s Crossing (Penguin), a hundred booksellers got down to e-business with a panel moderated by American Booksellers Association COO Len Vlahos on How to Sell E-Books.
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Trade Terms Authorized at Borders Hearing;Trustee Opposes Bonuses
There were few surprises at Thursday's omnibus hearing at U.S. District Court in New York for the Borders bankruptcy, except possibly a ballpark figure for unsecured creditors claims: in excess of $500 million, according to Creditors' Committee attorney Bruce Buechler with Lowenstein Sandler.
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Borders Leaves Publishers Unimpressed, Pushes for Better Terms
As reported in PW Daily, yesterday, Borders was facing a skeptical publisher audience Wednesday when it presented its reorganization plan and by most accounts publishers came away unimpressed. One publisher said the restructuring plan is "filled with very optimistic assumptions. Very."
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Indigo Adds New Program, Discusses Product Mix
Indigo Books and Music, Canada's largest book retail chain, unveiled a new customer rewards and loyalty program yesterday, as an important piece of its strategy for surviving changes in the bookselling landscape. CEO Heather Reisman was on hand for the announcement, and discussed other ways the retailer is changing its mix to remain a healthy physical bookstore.
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Borders to Pitch Skeptical Publishers
At a meeting with publishers set for Wednesday morning, Borders Group will unveil its long-awaited restructuring plan, but unless it contains substantial new information, publishers are likely to remain skeptical about its chances for success.
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Scheer Associates Rep Group Disbands After a Half-Century
The George Scheer Group, a commission rep organization formed in the late 1950s, is disbanding at the end of the current selling season in June 2011 after serving booksellers and publishers continuously for more than half a century. Tom Murphy and Wayne Donnell bought the business from Scheer on his retirement in 1992.
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Lessons from Powell's Books
Just one week before Borders filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, Powell's Books in Portland, Ore., laid off 31 employees, or 7% of its workforce, a move that followed downsizing the staff through attrition in 2010. While the situation at Powell's is not dire, unlike that of the nation's #2 bookstore chain, many of the same economic factors are forcing all bricks-and-mortar booksellers to make tough decisions regarding staffing, inventory, marketing, benefits, and in some cases, closings.
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Borders Wants to Accelerate Lease Negotiations
The most important filing made by Borders Group Thursday involved its ongoing efforts to reduce its rent. As part of its motion asking the bankruptcy court to authorize the company to renegotiate leases, Borders said it is accelerating its pre-bankruptcy program to identify underperforming and unprofitable stores, not to necessarily close those stores but to get concessions from the landlords to keep the stores open.
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Tax Fairness Getting Closer, Teicher Says, But More Needs to Be Done
Oren Teicher, president of the American Booksellers Association, presided over a discussion of the renewed effort to create a sales tax fairness law in California yesterday at the spring meeting of the Southern California Independent Booksellers Association at the Marriot Hotel in Manhattan Beach. "We're getting there," Teicher told a packed room of booksellers. "We're at the point where the battle has been tipped over to our side."
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Busboys & Poets Grows Stores and Publishing Program
When Modern Times Bookstore Collective in San Francisco sent out an e-mail in the middle of March about losing its lease and needing a temporary location until it could move in with Busboys & Poets, the restaurant/gathering place, that was the first word that many people had about Busboys's intention to go West. The restaurant will open with a bookstore in Denver next year and with Modern Times in San Francisco in 2013. This month it will publish two volumes of poetry under the Busboys & Poet imprint of PM Press.
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After A Slow 2010 Comics Retailers Look to 2011 For Growth
Despite the slow economic recovery, owners and managers of comics shops contacted for our annual, informal survey of comics retailers said they are generally optimistic about the comics market, citing a good holiday season and healthier sales in January and February. But retailers also emphasized cited the need to adjust to new consumer buying patterns.
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New Owners for Politics & Prose
After a nine-month search, Politics & Prose has selected new owners, according to an announcement on its Web site. Former Washington Post journalists, husband and wife Bradley Graham and Lissa Muscatine will purchase the Washington, D.C. bookstore later this spring.
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PW Select: Booksellers Reveal Secrets to Self-Published Success
If there was ever a stigma about selling self-published books, independent booksellers in the Midwest and Rocky Mountain states have long since gotten over it. Self-published books sell well at most of the stores in the region contacted by PW. The Bookworm in Omaha, Neb., disclosed that two self-published books—Pleased but Not Satisfied by Berkshire Hathaway executive David Sokol, and Five Minute Talks on Life, Love, and Faith by Fr. James Schwertley, a retired Catholic priest—currently are their top-selling titles.
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Chicagoland After Borders
Chicagoland has been hit hard by Borders's financial troubles. The company closed its Chicago flagship store in January, leaving a trilevel, 48,881-sq.-ft. empty retail space on a street corner in the heart of the high-rent Magnificent Mile. As part of its bankruptcy reorganization, Borders initially announced that 15 of its 31 Chicago area stores would close this spring, later adding a 16th store to the list.
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Borders Watch: Distribution Center Switch, Exec Incentives, New Terms Sought
In its second turnabout within a week, Borders will close its Northeast distribution center in Carlisle, Pa., but keep the warehouse in LaVergne, Tenn., open for the foreseeable future, according to the Nashville Business Journal.
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