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Tin House, Dzanc Books Aim to Help Indies
Tin House and Dzanc Books have launched separate initiatives this summer aimed at giving a little boost to sales at independent booksellers.
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Bookstores Plan Events for 'Mockingbird''s 50th
To Kill a Mockingbird may be on most elementary school students' summer reading lists, but booksellers around the country are hoping to get the classic novel on adults' summer reading radar, too--and Mockingbird's 50th anniversary on July 11 is giving them just the hook they need.
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Barnes & Noble Sees Bright Future
While Barnes & Noble chairman Len Riggio said at last week's investors conference that physical books will constitute the majority of its sales for at least the next five years, the company is investing heavily to make the transition from a bookseller to an electronic and technology retailer.
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David Kipen's Next Chapter: Bookseller
Returning to Los Angeles in April after living in Washington, D.C., for nearly five years where he was the NEA director of literature, David Kipen, former book critic for the San Francisco Chronicle, is planning to open a lending library and used- book store later this month.
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Baker & Taylor Takes Over Shopko's Book Program
Baker & Taylor is taking over the book program for Green Bay-based Shopko Stores. B&T, which already supplies music to Shopko's stores, will now be the retailer's sole supplier of books and will also provide Shopko with both field merchandising and vendor managed inventory services.
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Amazon.com Crashes
Although it isn't clear when it happened, Amazon.com appears to have crashed.
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New Indie Bookselling Model: Publish Own Handselling Favorites
Four years ago this month Susan Novotny, owner of the Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza in Albany, N.Y., looked to print-on-demand to bolster lagging store sales. With Eric Wilska, owner of the Bookloft in Great Barrington, Mass., she opened the Troy Book Makers in Troy, N.Y., in a storefront adjacent to her other bookstore, Market Block Books. Novotny and Wilska not only print books for others on the store's InstaBook machine or via offset, but bring back into print regional titles to sell in their stores--over 300 titles to date.
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Big Mouth Buzz
Even though he admits to occasionally having to plow through novels that don't appeal to him, Bill Cusumano, the adult book buyer for Nicola's Books in Ann Arbor, Mich., relishes reading future releases from the major houses long before many of his bookseller colleagues and even the pre-pub trade media.
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MBA Moves in With Tristan
Due to an adjacent business's immediate need to expand, the Midwest Booksellers Association is vacating its current offices next month. The regional booksellers organization is moving from Minneapolis to suburban Golden Valley, where it will rent office and storage space in a building owned and occupied by Tristan Publishing. The move will be complete by July 15, and the MBA will provide its members and others in the industry with its complete new contact information shortly before the move. The MBA's mailing address as of July 15 will be: 2355 Louisiana Avenue N., Suite A, Golden Valley, Minn., 55427.
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Converting Mindshare to Market Share
Optimism greeted a presentation by former Perseus Books CEO-turned-bookseller Jack McKeown at last month's BEA. He was discussing a survey that looked at how independent booksellers can recapture what McKeown calculates is $260 million a year in "leakage" (missed business) as well as examining the impact of e-books on an independent's business.
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An Impassioned Plea for Picture Books
The symbolism was not lost at this past Tuesday's meeting of the New England Children's Booksellers Advisory Council, held at The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Amherst, Mass., that Ken Geist, v-p and editorial director of Orchard Books and Cartwheel Books and author of the picture book The Three Little Fish, should choose this setting to ask independent booksellers to get behind picture books.
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April Bookstore Sales Fall
The weak improvement in bookstore sales seen in the first quarter disappeared in April with the U.S. Census Bureau reporting that bookstore sales fell 4.1% in the month, to $917 million.
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New Amazon Program Spurs Complaints
Amazon is well known for its aggressive and creative methods for gaining additional margin by finding ways for publishers to pay for more services. The e-tailer's newest effort, apparently aimed primarily at distributors and their publisher clients, is causing more than the usual amount of complaints.
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Can Sales Reps Survive?
Like other segments of the book business, the job of sales representatives is being dramatically transformed. "Last year was probably the most austere and crisis-mode period reps have experienced in a long, long time," says Paul Williams, executive director of the National Association of Independent Publishers Representatives.
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Layoffs at Brown Bookstore
In the face of the Great Recession a number of colleges and universities are raising tuition and making cuts to academic departments. At Brown University in Providence, R.I., even the bookstore has not been immune to early retirement offers and layoffs. As of June 30, Brown University Bookstore will have eliminated eight staffers, including senior buyer Peter Sevenair, who has been with the bookstore for more than 30 years.
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Borders Lays Off Paperchase Employees
Online message boards were atwitter Thursday with the news that Borders had let go all store-based Paperchase merchandisers and managers. The news is at odds with reports from Borders executives earlier this spring that the chain might add more nonbook items in the future, citing the success it had been having with Paperchase's gift and stationery offerings. A Borders spokesperson told PW Thursday that the staff reduction does not reflect Borders' hopes for Paperchase's continued success, though.
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With Assist from Glenn Beck, University of Chicago Press Book Tops Amazon Rankings
After a recommendation from TV talk show host Glenn Beck on Tuesday, the University of Chicago Press found itself in an unprecedented position: number one in Amazon and Barnes & Noble's sales rankings with F. A. Hayek's anti-big government book The Road to Serfdom. The 66 year-old book bested Stieg Larsson and Stephenie Meyer--at least for a day.
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'Bree Tanner' Proves Lackluster for Indies
While Stephenie Meyer's publisher is touting strong sales figures out of the gate for her new novella, The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner, not everyone in the bookselling community is happy with how the slim title is faring. A number of independent booksellers are complaining that Meyer’s book isn't selling in their stores. This, despite Little, Brown's news today that the book has sold over 350,000 copies since it went on sale just four days ago.
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LeBow, Edwards Get Top Spots at Borders
Bennett LeBow, Borders Group's largest shareholder and chairman, has been named CEO of the retailer with Mike Edwards named president of Borders Group and CEO of Borders Inc. Edwards had been interim CEO.
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Nonesuch Books & Cards to Open in Biddeford
Nonesuch Books & Cards is moving from Saco, Maine, to sister city Biddeford in mid-August. According to co-owner Jon Platt, the relocation from the Saco Valley Shopping Center to The Shops at Biddeford Crossing Mall will enable Nonesuch to "significantly expand" our product mix. "Shopping patterns," said Platt, "have changed over the past ten years, and we need to keep pace with our customers' expectations."
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