Two Borders Execs Resign; B&N Issues Statement On 'Special Terms'

Borders' share price continued to drop as the troubled retailer announced that two senior executives, chief information officer D. Scott Laverty and general counsel Thomas D. Carney, resigned from the company. Borders did not offer reasons for their departure.

Three New Clients to IPS

Ingram Publisher Services, an Ingram Content Group company, is starting the year with three new distribution clients—ArtsMemphis, The Cooking Lab, and Tharpa Publications—including one that only recently launched. The Cooking Lab, which was founded last year, struck the deal in time for the March release of its first publication, Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking, by Nathan Myhrvold, Chris Young, and Maxime Bilet. The six-volume set contains more than a thousand recipes and over 3,500 photographs and illustrations.

Borders To Offer New Financing Plan; Publishers Suspend Book Shipments

In the wake of the Borders Group announcement that it is suspending payments to some publishers, at least one major New York City house has suspended shipping titles to the retail chain. While it has been reported that academic publisher Rowman and Littlefield has also stopped making shipments to the retailer, the house is distributed by the National Book Network, which has suspended shipments to Borders for all of its distribution clients. While it is unclear how many publishers have suspended shipments to the troubled retail chain, the situation remains fluid. PW has learned that Borders has located a new source of financing and a group of Borders executives will be in New York City this week to present the plan to publishers.

Strong Finish to a Flat Year

Neither torrential rains in Southern California nor snows in the Midwest kept shoppers away from bookstores this holiday season, especially during the all-important final week.

Points of Sale: Tips for Children’s Booksellers

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 getting more mileage out of writing contests and giving old spinner racks another spin with different books.

Aletheia Cuts Barnes & Noble Stake

Aletheia Research and Management, which at one point owned 15.1% of Barnes & Noble stock, has reduced its stake to 12.7%, the firm said in a filing made with the Securities & Exchange Commission Wednesday. Aletheia now owns 7.67 million shares worth approximately $108 million; it said it had paid $149.8 million for the shares.

Self-Published Title Bookworm's Top Seller

A self-published business management book written by an Omaha native and longtime Bookworm customer that's offered exclusively through that bookstore since 2008 has been its topselling book for more than two years. Approximately 8,000 copies of Pleased But Not Satisfied by David Sokol have been sold to date--many of them to customers from all over the world through the store's Web site.

Northern Lights Are Going Out In January

Northeastern Minnesota soon will become a little darker ,as Anita Zager, owner of Northern Lights Books & Gifts in Duluth, confirmed this weekend that she has given up hope that she’ll find a buyer for the store she founded in 1993. The lights at Northern Lights will be officially extinguished on Jan. 15, 2011.

East View Takes Map Link Name & Business

Now that the final piece in Map Link's dissolution is complete—the sale of its 50% stake in Benchmark Maps for $240,000 to Map Link founder Bill Hunt—East View Cartographic in Minneapolis has emerged as the winner from the liquidation of what had once been a $12 million company, the largest single-source wholesaler of maps in the United States. EVC purchased the Map Link name and its assets for $150,000 in October and expects to ramp up East View Map Link to full capacity by the middle of next month.

Bookselling Strategies for the Other 12 Days of Christmas

The advent of plastic gift cards has turned the two weeks after Christmas into one of bookselling's strongest seasons. "That's an increasingly busy period," said Willard Williams, owner of three Toadstool Bookshops in Keene, Milford, and Peterborough, N.H. "Kids are home from school; colleges are on extended Christmas breaks.

New 'Crush' Law Raises Concerns for ABFFE

The American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression issued a statement yesterday saying it was concerned about a newly passed law banning so-called “crush” videos. President Obama signed the bill last week and it replaces a law that had been overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court on grounds that it violated the First Amendment. ABFFE and other media groups filed friend of the court briefs the supported striking down the old law. "Booksellers are unlikely to carry any material that runs afoul of the law, but it could still cause free speech problems," ABFFE president Chris Finan said.

October Bookstore Sales Drop 2.5%

Bookstore sales fell 2.5% in October to an even $1 billion, according to estimates released by the U.S. Census Bureau. The decline was less severe than the declines in August and September when bookstore sales fell by more than 6% in both months.

Chicklet Books Begins Liquidation

Despite an outpouring of support from a small but select group of customers, Chicklet Books, "the fun and funky book boutique" in the Princeton Shopping Center in Princeton, N.J., will close at the end of the year. In August, owner Deb Hunter closed Chicklet's sister store, Glen Echo used bookstore on Nassau Street, and moved it into the 10,000 sq. ft. shopping center space. "I would have done it the other way around if I had known I would lose my lease," said Hunter in an e-mail.

Colorado Booksellers Add to Their Numbers

There's good news coming out of Colorado this week concerning independent bookstores. A new bookstore, Innisfree Poetry Bookstore & Café opened December 10 in Boulder, while 342 miles southwest, in Telluride, 36-year-old Between the Covers & Espresso Bar has just gained two new owners.

Making the Web Pay

Internet forums and the fall regional shows have been buzzing about how independent bookstores can capture part of the burgeoning e-book market on the Web. But what's often overlooked is how few are selling physical books on their sites.

The On-Sale Calendar Is Up!

Children's Booksellers Share Early Buzz About Spring 2011

While scrambling to keep up with December's harried pace, children's booksellers are already thinking ahead to the next selling season. Four of them took a break from the holiday hoopla to share their thoughts on—and enthusiasm for—publishers' forthcoming offerings.

Reading Unbound: Indie Booksellers Offering Google eBooks

The second week of December during the holiday season may not seem like an ideal time for Google to launch its cloud-based e-book alternative to Apple and Amazon, but many independent booksellers, like Cathy Langer, head buyer at Tattered Cover in Denver, Colo., were happy to have it. "We haven’t really been in the game until now," she says.

Sellers Goes with F+W Media International for U.K. & Europe

After focusing primarily on North America, where its sales have increased 20% or more through each of the last five years, Sellers Publishing in South Portland, Maine, is looking overseas for more growth. It began by working with Publishers Group UK a year ago, but in January Sellers is moving to F+W International, the U.K. subsidiary of F+W Media for book sales and distribution in the U.K., Europe, and Scandinavia.

Ackman Preparing Bid for Barnes & Noble

In a filing made with the Securities & Exchange Commission this morning, William Ackman said he was prepared to back a $16 per share offer by Borders to buy Barnes & Noble. Ackman and his Pershing Square Capital Management firm have held a significant stake in Borders for over a year, but in recent months Ackman has taken a back seat to Bennett LeBow. In the filing however, Ackman disclosed that he has upped his stake in Borders to 37% from 31.5% in the spring. B&N had no comment on the report. In an interview with PW before Ackman's bid was disclosed, B&N chairman Len Riggio—PW's Person of the Year—said he hoped the strategic review being conducted by B&N would be completed in the first quarter of 2011.