The Sacramento Bee says that as of last week, all actions and claims between the State of California and Barnes & Noble have been resolved. BN noted in their last quarterly report that they had paid the state $9 million in a settlement of claims against the bookseller’s online unit for sales tax of $17 million (plus interest and penalties) that should have been collected prior to November 2005. The settlement has been approved, and a countersuit by BN against the state’s board of equalization was dismissed.SacBee
Archives for September 2008
Harper to Launch "Book Army"
Into the crowded field of social networking around books, HarperCollins will launch BookArmy.com next week, which “will list every book with an ISBN and aims to drive sales and build a community of readers” according to New Media Age. A recommendation engine “will constantly feed users suggestions based on what books they like, what their friends like and what those with similar tastes enjoy. Authors will be encouraged to create and manage their own pages, while readers will be able to compile virtual bookshelves and write reviews to share with others.Those browsing books will be able to access a synopsis, […]
Business Book Award Shortlist
The nominees for the FT/Goldman Sachs business book of the year award. The winner will be named October 14: A Splendid Exchange: How Trade Shaped the World William J. Bernstein (Atlantic Monthly Press) Cold Steel: The Multi-billion-dollar Battle for a Global IndustryTim Bouquet & Byron Ousey (Little Brown Book Group UK) When Markets Collide: Investment Strategies for the Age of Global Economic ChangeMohamed El-Erian (McGraw-Hill) McMafia: A Journey Through the Global Criminal UnderworldMisha Glenny (Knopf) Remix: Making Art and Commerce Thrive in the Hybrid EconomyLawrence Lessig (The Penguin Press) The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of LifeAlice Schroeder (Bantam)
Lively Classics Lines
The LAT runs an appreciation of reprint lines published by the New York Review of Books, Europa Editions, Hard Case Crime, and Persephone Books. There are no actual facts here, but the conclusions are grand: “The publishers specializing in reprints have become increasingly important to the people who haunt bookstores searching for the next great read. For some, these reintroduced books are as eagerly awaited as any mainstream house’s seasonal list.” True to journalistic formula, it remains impossible to admire the small without indicting everyone else, as specious conclusions abound: “Whether the increasing number of reprints is because of reader […]
DrudgeScan Returns
Flash: Matt Drudge has renewed his interest in selected Bookscan sales figures. Today he features opening week numbers for Thomas Friedman’s HOT, FLAT AND CROWDED (69,285) versus Bob Woodward’s THE WAR WITHIN (55,432).
Multi(ple) Media
Penguin UK’s blog has two audio clips “announcing” their Eoin Colfer Hitchhiker’s Guide acquisition. One is from Colfer; the more amusing one comes from a character in the book. Separately, the Village Voice “reviews” Philip Roth’s Indignation in a nine-panel cartoon slide show (via Confessions of an Idiosyncratic Mind).