Ann Patchett, who’s currently on tour promoting her new novel STATE OF WONDER, told the Diane Rehm Show she and Random House sales rep Karen Hayes are preparing to open a 3,000 bookstore in Nashville sometime before Christmas. Both Davis-Kidd and Borders closed stores in the city in recent months, about which Patchett said, “We can’t sustain a 30,000 foot bookstore, but we really can sustain a 3,000 square foot store.” Diane Rehm transcript Former Morgan Adams Books employee Ron Davis and writer Crystal Wilkinson plan to open Wild Fig Books in the same space on June 20. Morgan Adams […]
Archives for June 2011
Tablets and Students’ eTextbook Resistance, and more eNews
A new study by the Pearson Foundation appears to show that students’ general resistance to etextbooks – documented in multiple reports from BISG – may be thawing somewhat. 55 percent of students still prefer print over digital textbooks, but among the 7 percent of students who own tablets devices such as iPads, 73 percent prefer digital textbooks. 70 percent of students surveyed say they are interested in owning a tablet (with 15 percent of those determined to buy one within the next six months) so no doubt the numbers will change by this time next year as more etextbook platforms […]
Apple Modifies App Store Rules to Avert Total Shutdown of eReading Apps
In advance of a June 30 deadline that would have potentially kicked all major third-party ereading apps from the likes of Amazon, Nook and Kobo out of the Apple App Store, the computer company has revised their rules to provide at least some leeway. The Apple rule that caused controversy earlier this year–beginning with the rejection of a proposed ereader app from Sony, which has still yet to launch such a feature–was a requirement that any content sold outside of approved apps must also be offered for purchase through Apple’s in-app purchasing program, “at the same price or less than […]
Borders May Close Up to 51 More Stores to Avoid Defaulting On Latest Loans
As potential bidders emerge for more than 200 of Borders’ superstores in a deal the company hopes will close in the next two to four weeks, the retailer may need to close an additional 51 stores and liquidate assets to avoid defaulting on their debtor-in-possession loan in the meantime. According to a motion filed in court Thursday morning, the move may result in worse terms for creditors, since the closed stores would not be available for sale to a bidder–and at least some of them are stores that “buyers have indicated that they also wish to purchase.” Though Borders hasn’t […]
It Seems Late, But Attendance Rose at London Book Fair
The London Book Fair has just released audited attendance figures for the April gathering. They tabulated 24,802 visitors, up 7 percent (or about 1,700 people) from the pre-volcanic era 2009 show. Over half the attendees are still local, but international visitors now comprise a slightly larger group, at 44 percent.
People: Obreht Wins Orange Prize, and More
Tea Obreht has won the 2011 Orange Prize for THE TIGER’S WIFE (Random House/Weidenfield & Nicolson). At 25 years old, Obreht is the youngest winner in the prize’s history. Release Edith Pearlman has won the PEN/Malamud Award for excellence in the “art of short fiction.” AP The Center for Fiction has named Scribner vp and editor-in-chief Nan Graham its 2011 recipient of the Maxwell E. Perkins Prize. “It seems most appropriate, if not overdue, for the Maxwell Perkins Award to recognize an editor who has for sixteen years published some of America’s most eloquent, most necessary writers under the imprint […]