Retailers of all kinds have been looking for creative ways to stretch the important holiday shopping period since this year’s late Thanksgiving provides the shortest possible span of 26 days until Christmas. (And Hannukah actually begins on Thanksigiving day.) Barnes & Noble has responded by inventing “Discovery Friday” for November 22, “created to serve as the official launch of the holiday shopping season and help customers experience the thrill of discovering the perfect gifts for friends and family.” On that day, “Barnes & Noble’s booksellers will be on the front lines to provide personalized recommendations.” Their stores will also feature a […]
Archives for November 2013
Threshold Withdraws Book by Debunked Benghazi Attack Eyewitness
Threshold Editions said on Friday that it has “withdrawn from publication and sale all formats of” THE EMBASSY HOUSE, written by “Sergeant Morgan Jones” — now revealed to be independent security contractor working for the State Department Dylan Davies, and Damien Lewis. The publisher said in a statement they were taking action “in light of information that has been brought to our attention since the initial publication of THE EMBASSY HOUSE.” They are “notifying accounts that they may return the book to us” and recommending they withdraw it as well. On Friday morning 60 Minutes correspondent Lara Logan issued an apology for her […]
Indigo’s Best of 2013
Though we missed it initially (as did, apparently, most everyone else) Canada’s dominant bookseller Indigo named their top 13 books of 2013 last week: Benediction, Kent Haruf The Orenda, Joseph Boyden The Son, Philipp Meyer The Spark: A Mother’s Story Of Nurturing Genius, Kristine Barnett An Astronaut’s Guide To Life On Earth, Chris Hadfield I Am Malala, Malala Yousafzai Fangirl, Rainbow Rowell The Goldfinch, Donna Tartt Thank You For Your Service, David Finkel Five Days At Memorial, Sheri Fink The Rosie Project, Graeme Simsion The Reason I Jump, Naoki Higashida The Dinner, Herman Koch
Hachette Continues Pursuing Richard Ben Cramer’s Estate
When Richard Ben Cramer, the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author of WHAT IT TAKES (1992), the influential 1988 presidential campaign chronicle, died January 7 from complications of lung cancer only days after being diagnosed with the illness, he had just been served by a lawsuit from his onetime publisher, Hachette Book Group’s Twelve imprint, for failing to deliver a manuscript on now-disgraced New York Yankees baseball player Alex Rodriguez. At the time of Cramer’s death, a spokesperson for Hachette told us “we were very surprised to hear of Mr. Cramer’s illness. We had been trying to contact him for well […]
Some End-of-Year Barnes & Noble Store Closings
Barnes & Noble often closes a handful of stores around the end of calendar year due to expiring leases that are not renewed. We charted reports of 8 such closings at the end of 2012, and 7 at the end of 2011. So far this season, we have spotted news of another 6 store closings due at the end of this year, for locations in Chestnut Hill, MA; Boylston Street, Boston, MA; University Park Village and Sundance Square in Ft. Worth, TX; Old Pasadena, CA; and Columbia, SC. In June, at the close of their fiscal year, the company said […]
S&S Celebrates Indies
As part of the build-up to the success Small Business Saturday program (on November 30) Simon & Schuster has created a Shop Local video featuring many of the publisher’s authors “praising the role of independent booksellers as community centers,” also including shots of many well-known indie stores. This page showcases the video along with downloadable promotional banners stores can use.