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NBN Launches New Division
National Book Network will introduce a new professional, academic, and reference division at this year's Frankfurt Book Fair. Aimed at helping publishers increase their penetration into the U.S. library market, the division comes after a year of planning, according to NBN senior management.
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July Bookstore Sales Dip
The downward trend of bookstore sales continued in July with sales declining 2.3%, to $1.08 billion, according to preliminary estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau. Through the first seven months of 2010, bookstore sales were down 0.7%, to just under $8.5 billion.
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Obituary: David Thompson
Veteran bookseller David Thompson, 38, assistant manager of Murder by the Book in Houston, Tex., passed away suddenly on Monday, Sept. 13. Thompson, who’d been an employee of Murder by the Book for 20 years when his wife McKenna Jordan bought the bookstore in Jan. 2009, was also publisher of Busted Flush Press, which specialized in publishing mystery novels and anthologies, as well as reissuing out-of-print thrillers and crime fiction. Thompson launched Busted Flush Press in 2005.
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NAIBA Announces Award to Honor Carla Cohen
The New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association has long planned to honor Politics and Prose owners Carla Cohen and Barbara Mead at this year’s trade show in Atlantic City for their impact on the organization and on Washington bookselling. Now, in addition, to mark Cohen’s contributions to NAIBA, the organization is launching an ongoing children’s book award in her name, the NAIBA Carla Cohen Free Speech Award.
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Manga Rules at Kinokuniya
When Kinokuniya opened its first U.S. store in San Francisco in 1969, the company intended to provide Japanese people living abroad with books and magazines and to introduce Japanese culture to the American market. No one could have predicted that Japanese manga would eventually take on the rock star popularity that the genre enjoys today at Kinokuniya.
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PGW Adds Seven
Berkeley, Calif., distributor Publishers Group West is adding seven presses this fall and winter, ranging from Bone creator Jeff Smith's Cartoon Books in Columbus, Oh., to Wise Parenting Press, a new book and audio publisher in Oakland, Calif.
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B&N Reccomends Paperbacks
Starting this month Barnes & Noble is extending its B&N Recommends program (www.bn.com/recommends), which it launched four years ago for bestselling hardcovers like Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows's Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, to include trade paperbacks.
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Taking the 'Book' Out of Bookstores
Borders CEO Mike Edwards said in an interview with PW that the decline in print trade titles was likely due to continued weak discretionary spending by consumers, migration of print sales to digital, and consumers "trading down" to bargain books in a still uncertain economy. Both Borders and BAM said they are expanding their bargain book offerings, and executives from all three chains noted that they are adding more nonbook items to their product mix.
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Gulf Coast Booksellers Continue to Weather Storms
Despite natural disasters, a weak economy, and oil spills, about half of the Gulf Coast independent booksellers operating before Hurricane Katrina devastated the region remain open five years later, with varying degrees of success.
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Burkle to Appeal Pill Decision
Ron Burkle will appeal the decision made last month by the Delaware Court of Chancery that dismissed the lawsuit filed by Burkle's Yucaipa Companies against Barnes & Noble's poison pill rights plan. In the ruling, the court found that the B&N board acted appropriately in passing the provision.
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New Board of Directors at IBPA
Independent Book Publishers Association (formerly PMA) has announced its newest board of directors. They will serve on the board from 2010 until 2012.
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Distribution: National Geographic Extends RHPS Relationship; Ullmann Moves
National Geographic Books has extended its distribution agreement with Random House Publisher Services in a deal that will let National Geographic employ Random House's e-book distribution platform and make use of its online marketing services to be launched this fall. Separately, Continental Sales in Barrington, Ill., and Innovative Logistics, LLC in Lakewood, N.J., will now handle sales and distribution for h.f. ullmann and the former Konemann titles effective immediately.
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Two Bookstores to Open on East Coast
Two bookstores,one in the Washington, D.C. area, the other in Greater Boston, are slated to open within the next few weeks. Eileen McGervey is opening One More Page in Arlington, Va., while Leisa Ginsburg is opening A Novel Cafe in a 2,500-sq. ft. building dating from 1740 in Tewksbury, Mass.
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HEB Grocery Chain's Push for Reading
It may come as no surprise, given the HE Butt Grocery chain’s emphasis on literacy, but its HEB Plus Store in Laredo, Tex., had the biggest turnout at any stop on the route of this summer’s 17-city Junie B. Jones Stupid Smelly Bus Tour.
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Borders Working to Redefine Store Model
With sales of trade books falling about 6.8% on a same store basis in the second quarter and forecasts calling for more book sales to migrate from print to digital over the next few years. the number one focus at Borders is to redefine its store model, Mike Edwards, CEO and Glen Tomaszewski, interim CFO, said.
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Diamond to Change Weekly Delivery Date
Starting in January 2011, accounts serviced by Diamond Comics Distributors will be able to get comics and graphic novels delivered to stores on Tuesday for a Wednesday on sale date, in line with other industries that have street dates.
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Borders Launches Paid Loyalty Program
Borders is unveiling a customer rewards program called Borders Rewards Plus through which customers, for a $20 annual fee, can get discounts on merchandise and free shipping on most online orders. The new program is in addition to a free members program. B&N charges customers a fee to belong to its members program.
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Burkle Defends Nominees, Charges B&N with Distortions
In the back-and-forth between Ron Burkle and Barnes & Noble for shareholder votes it was Burkle's turn today to defend his slate of board nominees (which includes himself) and charge B&N with making "misstatements and unfounded allegations" in its letter sent to shareholders last week.
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Obituary: Joe Drabyak
Joe Drabyak, president of the New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association and long-time bookseller for Chester County Book & Music Company in West Chester, Pa., died last Friday, August 27, from complications of renal cell cancer. Known as a "bookseller extraordinaire," Drabyak mentored numerous booksellers during his career.
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Navigating Tough Times in Travel
Sales of travel books have been hurt by both the economy and the increased use of digital information by tourists, but two Los Angeles–area travel bookstores have adapted to changing times and have managed to hang on to their customer base.
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