Hastings Entertainment reported a sharp decrease in fourth-quarter earnings, with a net income of $3.8 million, or $0.43 per share compared to $9.1 million or $0.94 per share, in the corresponding period one year earlier. Sales of $166.9 million for the quarter were down 8.9 percent from $176.1 million a year earlier. Comparable store revenues for books 7 percent for the fourth quarter, mostly owing to increased popularity of e-book readers, and lower sales of magazines, with a decline of 4.2 percent for the year ending January 31. All major trade book formats suffered more than the overall figure reflects, since their decreases were […]
Archives for March 2011
Thriller Writer Barry Eisler Walks Away From Lucrative Print Deal to E-Publish Next John Rain Novel
Two months after thriller writer Barry Eisler moved houses to St. Martin’s Press crime imprint Minotaur Books for his next John Rain novel, The Detachment, he reveals in a lengthy online conversation with his friend and fellow writer Joe Konrath that the deal is off. Instead, Eisler will publish the book on his own around mid-June, far sooner than the Spring 2012 publication date scheduled by Minotaur. “I know it’ll seem crazy to a lot of people,” Eisler states, “but based on what’s happening in the industry, and based on the kind of experience writers…are having in self-publishing, I think […]
eNews: CEO Nourry on Hachette US EBook Sales; Airport E-Bookstores; Android Kindle Speculation
At a conference last week Hachette Livre CEO Arnaud Nourry told Le Figaro that Hachette Book Group USA ebook sales since January “are in line with the national average,” which the AAP reported as comprising approximately 23.5 percent of the total trade in January. Indeed, HBG is one of the 14 publishers who report ebook sales to the AAP to begin with. Le Figaro Some Borders stores in the midst of closing-out sales have discounted the Kobo Wi-Fi reader to $59.99. CNET Taiwan International Airport will open arguably the first airport e-bookstore, which stocks four hundred titles available in ePub […]
Bookselling: California Town on Hook for Rent on Closing Borders Store; Foyles Buys Grant & Cutler; And More
As Borders continues its march through Chapter 11 and additional store closings, the city of Pico Rivera, CA faces a nasty surprise: for the next seven years, they must continue paying a minimum of nearly $11,000 a month in rent on an eight-year-old store Borders will shut by the end of April. That’s because Pico Rivera, with a population of approximately 65,000, was thought to be too small to support a Borders store, causing the government to cut a deal with Borders and its landlord, Vestar Development Center, to spend $1.6 million in federal grant money and subsidize the rent […]
The Next Two Questions on BKS
For the most of the day Friday Barnes & Noble’s stock looked likely to end its rotten week on an upswing, moving up and appearing ready to break a four-day losing streak with heavy volume. But then in the very final minutes of trading, three big sell orders of over a million shares each (or approximately 4 million shares in all) came to market and took the share price down sharply again. BN’s stock closed down another 4 percent for the day, and over 24 percent for the week, finishing at another new low of $8.89 a share. The two […]
Lunch Weekly for Monday, March 21
Deal Reports Just e-mail to deals@PublishersMarketplace if you aren’t using the online form linked below. Report a deal using the online form The Key As usual, the handy key to our Lunch deal categories. While all reports are always welcome, those that include a category will generally receive a higher listing when it comes time to put them all together. “nice deal” $1 – $49,000 “very nice deal” $50,000 – $99,000 “good deal” $100,000 – $250,000 “significant deal” $251,000 – $499,000 “major deal” $500,000 and up FICTION Debut Grace McCleen’s debut THE LAND OF DECORATION, about a ten-year-old girl […]