RiverRun Bookstore will open a second, smaller store this September in Kittery, Maine that will carry new and used books. Owner Tom Holbrook wrote in a note to customers: “It will be like RiverRun Portsmouth, except it will be about the size of your living room.” RiverRun’s expansion is happening “because we care about our Maine customers and don’t want to lose them. We loooovvve Portsmouth, but we understand that between bridge repair, parking, and general hubbub, it can be hard to shop here sometimes.” Barnes & Noble’s newest BN Recommends pick is Cathleen Schine’s novel FIN & LADY, published […]
Bookstores
Bookselling: Word Up Finds NY Space; Marcus Books in SF Faces Eviction
Word Up Community Bookshop, the “completely implausible store” in Washington Heights, aka “upstate Manhattan,” has successfully raised $60,000 on IndieGoGo from over 800 supporters. The store has signed a lease for a new storefront location at 2113 Amsterdam Avenue, by 165 Street. The reopening has not been scheduled yet. San Francisco’s Marcus Books, said to be the country’s oldest black bookstore, is due to be evicted from the space they have occupied since 1960 by June 18. The building was sold at a bankruptcy auction in April after the store’s owners defaulted on a loan they say was “predatory.” (They […]
“Difficult Negotiations” Persist Between S&S and B&N, Limiting Author Events, Too
One controversy not evident on the BEA show floor but still very heated off the floor is the stand-off on terms between Barnes & Noble and Simon & Schuster that has resulted in reduced business between the publisher and the bookseller since the beginning of the year. (For some publishers, discussion of revamped terms with B&N began last summer, and we’re told there is renewed pressure from the booksellers on those who have not changed business terms.) It landed back on the radar when S&S author William Kent Krueger blogged that he was told to cancel two events scheduled for […]
ABA Sales “Hold Our Own” After Strong 2012
ABA ceo Oren Teicher shared continuing positive sales news with member booksellers at the organization’s annual meeting on Thursday afternoon at BEA. “As you know, unit sales in our channel, as reported to our weekly Indie Bestseller List, were up almost 8 percent last year,” Teicher said. “This year we are seeing the good news continue, as we hold our own in unit sales for 2013 against a first quarter in 2012 that saw very strong double-digit growth.” The coming NPR promotional campaign run by Kobo is “a direct assault” on the problem that “Kobo remains the most successful e-book […]
ABA Membership Ranks Rise for Fourth Year In A Row
If three is a trend is four a pattern? As the industry prepares for BEA — which includes the American Booksellers Association’s annual meeting — the organization announced to the AP that ABA member stores have increased for the fourth straight year. CEO Oren Teicher says the ABA now has 1,632 members, a gain of 65 from a year ago. Total member locations rose by 71, to 1971 in all. The previous year the organization added 55 members, and the year before that they picked up 102 members — though that gain was driven by the merger with the Association of Booksellers […]
People, Etc.
At the Random House Publishing Group, Andy Ward has been promoted to vp, editorial director, nonfiction, while David Ebershoff moves up to vp, executive editor. At Crown Archetype, Suzanne O’Neill has been promoted to executive editor, while Talia Krohn moves up to senior editor and Stephanie Knapp has been promoted to associate editor. Mary McCue has been promoted to senior publicity manager for Gallery and Threshold. At Inkwell Management, Charlie Olsen has been promoted to agent. He joined Inkwell in 2007 and is interested in commercial fiction; young adult and middle-grade fiction and non-fiction; graphic novels and illustrated works for […]