Booked for Murder in Madison, WI is up for sale, as owner Sara Barnes is leaving the city to care for ailing parents in Minnesota. Barnes, who bought the store from previous owners in 2008, told the Daily Page she “has heard just ‘echoes of niblets’ from potentially interested buyers. The store’s best prospect may be “a consortium of friends who love books.” Owner of Harper Springs, MI-based bookstore Between the Covers Jeanne Regentin, has sold the store to Katie Capaldi after more than 10 years, Shelf Awareness reports. Capaldi is a bookseller and the daughter of the store’s children’s […]
Bookstores
Riggio Offers to Buy BN Stores, Subject to Negotiation
Following advance notice Sunday night in the WSJ, early Monday morning Barnes & Noble announced that Len Riggio “notified the board…he plans to propose to purchase all of the assets of the retail business”–comprising the BN superstores, and the BN.com web site. “Riggio plans to make the proposal in order to facilitate the company’s evaluation of its previously announced review of strategic options for the separation of its investment in Nook Media.” The price is subject to negotiation with the board, and “is currently contemplated to be comprised primarily of cash consideration and the assumption of certain liabilities of the […]
Barnes & Noble Stories: Riggio Might Buyback Stores; Nook May Pullback on Devices
With Barnes & Noble reporting earnings on a delayed schedule this Thursday, possible news is leaking ahead of time. As the company has been looking for a way to split the BN superstores–a profitable but declining business that looks like it should be privately-held–from the Nook Media business, the logical potential buyer, Len Riggio, is emerging as a candidate yet again. The WSJ cites a source who says “a public disclosure of his interest” is expected this week, while also noting “his expression of interest so far has been tentative”. The Journal goes rather far in conjecturing that stores “could […]
ABA Supports “The Concerns” Raised In Booksellers’ Suit
In their first response to the lawsuit filed by three booksellers a week ago against Amazon and the six largest trade publishers, the American Booksellers Association acknowledged that the organization “was approached by one of the plaintiffs” in mid-2012. At that time, they say they were asked “to participate in an antitrust action solely against Amazon.com.” (Refer yourself back to the letter to the DOJ we cited in Friday’s Lunch.) The ABA writes that it “shares the concerns of the plaintiff booksellers regarding Amazon.com’s business practices, as raised in the recently filed lawsuit,” but the statement does not mention the […]
Bookselling: WSJ on ResultSource and Paid Bestsellers; UK Indies Decline
The old saw of authors “buying” their way onto bestseller lists through carefully timed bulk orders gets a fresh twist in Friday’s WSJ, which reports on the San Diego-based company ResultSource. The marketing firm, according to the paper, charges authors “thousands of dollars for its services” to buy copies of the authors’ own books–mostly as pre-orders–to boost opening week sales (and many of those copies are then returned). The service is particularly popular for business book authors, who can monetize the “bestseller” credit (even when it’s a single week on the list) for years at speaking engagements and other lucrative […]
Briefs: A Cover of Inferno; Audible Updates iOS Apps; Anthology to Close
Doubleday unveiled the cover of Dan Brown‘s May 14 release Inferno on the Today Show this morning. ‘”Inferno takes place in Italy and was inspired by Dante’s iconic 14th century poem of the same name. The cover features a portrait of Dante against the city of Florence, as well as Dante’s famous nine rings of hell.” Apparently Audible has not had a dedicated app for Apple’s iPad line, even though “more than 20 percent of Audible customers already use Audible’s iPhone app on the iPad. They have addressed that with the release of a new app optimized for iPads, and […]