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Barnes & Noble Reorganizes Buying, Merch Operations
Barnes & Noble has confirmed what it is calling "a small number of organizational changes" that the retailer said were "designed to better align our resources with our business."
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Study Finds E-book Opportunity for Indie Booksellers
Independent booksellers may be getting into the e-book market a little late, but a study conducted by Verso Digital and Digital Book World found that consumers are willing to buy e-books from indies. According to the report, nearly 81% of book buyers said they would buy an e-book from an independent bookstore if the titles are competitively priced.
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More College Stores Renting Textbooks
There was a huge jump from last year in the number of college bookstores offering book rental programs to students. According to OnCampus Research, a division of the National Association of College Stores, in fall 2010 2,200 college stores reported having rental programs, compared with only 300 in 2009. Through the rental programs, students usually pay between 33% and 55% of the full price of a textbook.
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More Cuts at Borders
The downsizing of Borders continued yesterday with the news that it laid off 45 employees--40 at corporate headquarters and five in its distribution centers. According to employee message boards, Borders CEO Michael Edwards is expected to make an announcement Wednesday, although a company spokesperson said nothing is scheduled.
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Time to Change Co-op?
After several stark years in which stores like Cody's in San Francisco and Davis-Kidd Booksellers in Nashville closed and the nation's second largest chain is teetering more than ever, publishers and booksellers are looking for new ways to work together.
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Bookstore Sales Up in November
Bookstore sales posted their first monthly increase since January in November, with the U.S. Census Bureau reporting that preliminary November sales rose 5.3%, to $1.09 billion. Results include all sales reported by bookstores and November numbers could reflect the increase in digital reading devices sold by bookstores, especially at Barnes & Noble. The numbers also reinforce reports that the Thanksgiving weekend was a good one for many bookstores, including independents. For the first 11 months of 2010, bookstore sales were still down 1.9%, to $14.41 billion. For the retail segment in general, November sales were up 9.0% and year-to-date sales ahead 6.5%.
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Weightless Books: An e-Bookstore for Indie Presses
"How do publishers survive if Barnes & Noble cuts half its stores, Borders closes, and more independent bookstores close?," asks Gavin Grant, publisher of Small Beer Press in Easthampton, Mass. "It worries me.” And that was before Borders revealed the depth of its financial woes. In order to insure that there would still be a home for small press books and literary journals, Grant and Michael J. DeLuca started Weightless Books (www.weightlessbooks.com), an e-store devoted to e-books and e-subscriptions for independent presses.
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Customer Support Stops The Book Tavern Book Burning
Most people would agree that book burning is a bad thing, invoking as it does a legacy of intolerance, oppression, and irreplaceable loss. And yet, they can generate some spectacular publicity—just ask Terry Jones, the Florida pastor who sparked an international firestorm when he proposed burning the Quran last September. Or you could ask the owners of The Book Tavern in Augusta, Ga., who enjoyed their biggest revenue-generating day ever thanks to their plan--ultimately unrealized--to burn books in front of the store this past Saturday, in what owner David Hutchison called "David's Inferno."
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Publishers Weigh Proposal as Borders Trims Field Managers
Following Thursday's meeting between publishers and Borders, publishers went back to crunch numbers to see if accepting Borders' offer is better than allowing the retailer to slip into Chapter 11. Also on Thursday, Borders confirmed that it eliminated 15 field manager positions.
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Diamond Halts Shipments to Borders
Diamond Book Distributors, the book trade division of Diamond Comics Distributors, is suspending book shipments to Borders.
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New Children's Bookstore Opens in Lexington, Mass.
Children's bookstores seem to be having a resurgence, at least in the Greater Boston area. Two weeks after Wit & Whimsy opened on December 4 in Marblehead, Mass., the Elephant's Trunk Children's Bookshop in Lexington, Mass., had a soft opening the week before Christmas to celebrate the arrival of the store's bookshelves. Owner Danielle Kreger, age 28, is planning a grand opening in early February, when the 1,000-square-foot store is fully up and running, and the latest blizzard to hit New England is more of a memory.
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Borders Meeting Set For Thursday; Warehouse to Be Closed
The meeting that could shape the immediate future of Borders Group is scheduled for Thursday afternoon. Publishers, according to sources, will largely be represented by lawyers and finance executives who hope to hear more about the retailer’s new finance and turnaround plan from the Borders' team.
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The Mystery Bookstore to Close
The Mystery Bookstore, long a favorite of Los Angeles readers of whodunits and crime novels, will close on January 31, according to a statement released yesterday by owners Kirk Pasich and Pamela Woods. The store opened in 1987 as the west coast branch of Otto Penzler’s Mysterious Bookshop and remained at its West Hollywood location for 13 years. Penzler sold the store to a consortium of investors in 2000, who moved the store to Westwood near the campus of UCLA and concurrently changed its name to the Mystery Bookstore.
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Worst-Case Scenarios: Contemplating Life After Borders
Although Borders has been struggling financially for years, for the first time the book industry is openly, and in many cases actively, planning for what business will be like without the nation's second largest bookstore chain.
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Chaucer's Reigns in Santa Barbara
When Mahri Kerley opened Chaucer's Bookstore in 1974, she had no idea that the store's survival would be threatened by the arrival of chains like B. Dalton, Crown Books, Waldenbooks, Barnes & Noble, and Borders, but more than 36 years later her competitors in Santa Barbara have all closed, and Chaucer's reigns securely as the upscale beach community's only remaining bookstore.
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Publishers Unimpressed with Borders Proposal
Publishers seemed unimpressed with Borders proposals that seek new financing and payment terms. According to sources familiar with negotiations, Borders offered few details beyond what has already been reported in the press. One publisher said the proposal, as it stands now, "is not going to fly."
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Barnes & Noble Reports Big Online, Store Holiday Gains
After giving a preliminary report earlier this week about strong holiday gains, this morning Barnes & Noble gave a more detailed presentation, citing huge increases at Barnes & Noble.com and solid gains at its trade bookstores.
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Children's Holiday Roundup: Strong Ending to a Flat Year
Neither torrential rains in Southern California nor snows in the Midwest dampened shoppers this holiday season, particularly those looking for children's books. Malaprop's Bookstore/Cafe in Asheville, N.C., saw a steady increase in sales for the entire month of December. But "the last week was giant," says general manager Linda Barrett-Knopp. "Every day was the equivalent of three or four days during the year. It was great."
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Publishers Eyeing Borders Discussions Warily
Publishers appear willing to adopt a tough stance in negotiations with Borders this week regarding the chain’s need for new payment and finance terms. While Borders is meeting separately with the major New York houses, there appears to be sentiment among some of the publishers to use a mediator to negotiate on their behalf.
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MPiBA Leadership Transition Complete
Mountains & Plains Independent Booksellers Association (MPiBA) announced to its membership over the holiday weekend that the transition between outgoing executive director Lisa D. Knudsen and incoming executive director Laura P. Ayrey has been completed, and that, as of January 4, 2011, MPiBA's headquarters are located in Park City, Utah.
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