Kobo will reestablish a presence in US retail booksellers that they have lacked since Borders liquidated under an agreement with the American Booksellers Association that takes over from the soon-to-be-cancelled Google eBooks relationship. The WSJ says the new agreement will be effective in October (ahead of Google’s scheduled termination of their affiliates in January 2013); the ABA simply says it will launch “this fall,” with approximately 400 stores expected to participate. The ABA held conversations with a variety of potential new partners, said to include such providers as Copia and the soon-to-launch Zola Books (which is enrolling its own independent […]
Bookstores
Bookselling: Indies Coming to Astoria, Queens; Titles, Inc. Owner Florence Shay, 90, Dies; And More
The Queens neighborhood of Astoria had been without a bookstore since December, when Seaburn Bookshop closed. But the impending arrival of Astoria Bookshop, owned by Lexi Beach, and the possible expansion of children’s bookstore The Story Nook, owned by Faye Skandalakis, from a section of a kids’ boutique to a freestanding store suggests the neighborhood, and the borough, will see more book shopping traffic, according to the NY Daily News. Beach, a 31-year-old account manager for eMusic.com (who formerly worked at Simon & Schuster), is still raising funds for the Astoria Bookshop, which she hopes to open next year, but […]
BN Tries to Explain
In Tuesday’s conference call with investors, Barnes & Noble ceo William Lynch tried explaining the decline in digital content growth a couple of different ways, which are not obviously consistent with each other. On the one hand, per our reporting, publishers reported “a bit of a deceleration of the growth overall in the e-book market [more than a bit, actually] which was to be expected.” On the other hand, Lynch underscores that digital content growth is heavily dependent on new device owners filling up titles: “consumers fill up their lockers and those first two to three months are vital as […]
Bookselling: Inkwood Seeks New Owners, St. Mark’s Hits Fundraising Goal
Tampa bookstore Inkwood Books is the latest well-known indie to search for new ownership. (RJ Julia Booksellers in Connecticut and The Book Stall in Illinois are among others looking for buyers.) Co-owner Carla Jimenez is ready to retire after 20 years at the store, though her partner Leslie Reiner is open to staying on, but does not want to serve as sole owner. “I could do it,” she tells the Tampa Bay paper, “but it wouldn’t be as much fun.” Tampa Bay New York’s St. Mark’s Bookshop has successfully passed their $23,000 fundraising goal Tuesday afternoon, which is supposed to […]
Barnes & Noble Stock Falls To Lowest Level Since April
With Barnes & Noble set to report first quarter earnings before the market opens on Tuesday, analysts and short sellers are trotting out their seasonal pessimism about the company’s prospects. The consensus expectation is that BN will post a loss of 96 cents per share on revenue of $1.48 billion, and on Wednesday morning Stiefel Nicolaus downgraded its rating from “buy” to “hold,” causing the shares to decline almost 6 percent, closing at $12.56 per share, its lowest level since April. (Shares are down again slightly so far Thursday morning.) The downgrade is based on sentiment or a hunch rather than […]
Briefs: Harper Will Convert DIESEL Books Into Temporary Record Store To Promote Chabon Novel; Nook Device Prices Drop; And More
As part of its extensive marketing campaign for Michael Chabon’s forthcoming novel TELEGRAPH AVENUE, Harper will convert the Oakland branch of California independent Diesel Books into Brokeland Records — which is the record store co-owned by the main characters in Chabon’s book — between September 7 and 14, the WSJ reports. The store, which will host the launch party for TELEGRAPH AVENUE on September 12, “will sell used jazz records provided by an independent record dealer named Berigan Taylor” and Harper is creating exterior Brokeland Records signage and merchandise. Barnes & Noble has dropped the price of its tablet devices, […]