Barnes & Noble stock rebounded a little from its morning low on Friday to finish at just above $10 a share — still down $17 percent on the day (with Barnes & Noble Education falling over 7 percent as people sold anything either Barnes or Noble). In a down market overall, Barnes & Noble is declining again Monday morning, down over 7 percent so far. In the company’s quarterly SEC filing, they detailed the components of the recent period’s sales decline. The problematic relaunch of the BN.com website decreased online sales by $17.5 million — or 22 percent, which is significant […]
Bookstores
People, Etc.
At Catapult, Jennifer Abel Kovitz has been promoted to associate publisher and director of marketing, while Julie Buntin moves up to director of writing programs. The Costco Pennie’s Pick for December is Danielle Steel‘s Precious Gifts. This year on American Express Small Business Saturday, the Obama family visited Washington’s recently-opened Upshur Street Books. They purchased Purity, by Jonathan Franzen; Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights, by Salman Rushdie; Elske, On Fortune’s Wheel, and Jackaroo, by Cynthia Voigt; A Snicker of Magic, by Natalie Lloyd; Stargirl, by Jerry Spinelli; Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Hard Luck, by Jeff Kinney; and Dork Diaries […]
Books-A-Million Flat On Slightly Higher Comps
Still a publicly-traded company for now, Books-a-Million reported third quarter results on Tuesday afternoon. Sales of $101.6 million were $400,000 ahead of sales from a year ago, with same-store sales up 1.6 percent. But the company’s loss was slightly higher, by $200,000, at $7.1 million or 50 cents a share. The company attributed that to $800,000 in expenses related to the Anderson family’s pending buyout. In the release, ceo Terrance Finley said, “We saw improved sales in our core book and general merchandise categories, led by the positive impact of the growing coloring book trend. We also hosted several author events, namely those highlighting […]
Bookselling: Binnacle Books in Beacon, NY; Second Store for Village Books; and More
Binnacle Books opened in Beacon, NY earlier this month. The new-and-used bookstore is co-owned by Katie Ryan, Annmarie Nye and Corey Eastwood, the latter also owning part of Book Thug Nation in Williamsburg. “People are so excited and supportive,” Ryan told Philipstown.info. “The community is already giving us a lot of love. A lot of people have been coming in and telling us that this town needed a bookstore. It feels really good to have that kind of symbiosis.” Village Books & Paper Dreams has opened a second location in Lynden, WA, about 20 miles away from its flagship store […]
Hall’s Selected Poems Leads December Indie Next List; November iBooks Picks
The Selected Poems of Donald Hall is the No. 1 Indie Next choice for December. The rest of the list includes: A Dictionary of Mutual Understanding, by Jackie Copleton A Wild Swan: And Other Tales, by Michael Cunningham, Yuko Shimizu (Illus.) Boys in the Trees, by Carly Simon The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto, by Mitch Albom Year of the Goose, by Carly J. Hallman Time of Departure, by Douglas Schofield What She Knew, by Gilly Macmillan Oh the Moon: Stories From the Tortured Mind of Charlyne Yi, by Charlyne Yi Tightrope, by Simon Mawer Paradise City, by Elizabeth Day His […]
Amazon Books — The Bookstore — to Open in Seattle’s University Village
Amazon is indeed opening a 5,500-square-foot bookstore, carrying a modest 5,000 to 6,000 titles — all face out — in Seattle’s University Village on Tuesday, with 15 employees under the direction of Amazon Books vp Jennifer Cast. Store stocking is based on “data with heart,” she tells the Seattle Times. “We’re taking the data we have and we’re creating physical places with it.” That data includes such categories as top pre-orders and “most wished for cookbooks.” And “below each book on the shelf is a card with either a review or a rating from the site.” The staff favorites selection begins with […]