With the first phase of Barnes & Noble’s search for a buyer expected to wrap-up roughly by the end of this month, chairman Len Riggio filed a letter with the SEC that contains a number of pledges to a fair and open process. Why now? Well you could see the letter as addressing some of Ron Burkle’s concerns that the Barnes & Noble board conduct a fair and above-board search for bidders that does not favor Riggio. Some may also infer that a bid with Riggio’s participation is imminent, but of course there’s nothing concrete to that effect in the […]
Bookstores
Bookselling Briefs: Nook News x3; Stylish Reading Glasses; and Bicycle Delivery
In Barnes & Noble news, the company launched their promised NookStudy platform (which makes rich textbooks available via computers); promised that a November 1.5 version of their Nook reader operating software will “dramatically increase” page-turning speed, improve syncing of books across devices, add customized library organization and more; and invited tech media to a “very special” October 26 event, raising speculation about a new Nook device on the way. Not to be left out, Borders will add “fashion-forward, stylish” reading glasses from ICU Eyewear to their merchandise mix. (Reading glasses were a topic during the Q&A session at Barnes & […]
Borders Dips Toe in eBook Self-Publishing By Pairing with Start-Up BookBrewer
Borders has come up with a modest answer to Barnes & Noble’s new PubIt and Amazon’s established DTP program, announcing “Borders – Get Published” in association with start-up BookBrewer.com. The emphasis of the service is turning blogs into salable ebooks quickly and easily, though they charge a set-up fee and take 25 percent of the proceeds. (In this respect the service looks similar to plethora of sites that let you turn RSS feeds into mobile phone apps.) But they say it works for regular manuscripts as well. BookBrewer’s site says that, if you use the service independently, they can put […]
Amazon Is “Required” to “Capitulate” to Agency In the UK, Too; Still Tries to Inspire Customer Revolt
Amazon is apparently not going to resort to buy-button-backlash over the agency model in the UK, but they do still believe it’s a good strategy to get their customers riled. They write in a site note: “It is indeed correct that this group of publishers will require Amazon and other UK booksellers to accept an agency model for e-books. We believe they will raise prices on e-books for consumers almost across the board. For a number of reasons, we think this is a damaging approach for readers, authors, booksellers and publishers alike.” They disingenuously tell their UK customers “most publishers […]
Proxy Fight, The Sequel: Barnes & Noble Sets November Vote on Poison Pill
Barnes & Noble filed papers with the SEC yesterday announcing a special shareholders meeting and vote on November 17. The agenda is to review and vote on the poison pill “rights agreement” first adopted by the board in February following the increase in stock purchases by Ron Burkle’s Yucaipa companies, and modified on June 23. The company writes to shareholders that “the rights agreement does not prevent change of control transactions, but, rather, encourages potential acquirors [stet] of control of the company to approach the board and enables the board to negotiate a transaction that is in the best interests […]
Amazon to Feature Shorter “Kindle Singles”
Veterans of the ebook business may recall a modest (at best) initiative from 2005 called “Amazon Shorts,” selling “short-form literature from top authors” including Audrey Niffenegger, Stuart Woods, Robert Rhodes, Robin Cook, James Lee Burke, Danielle Steel, and Ann Beattie at 49 cents each. Amazon officially discontinued the program this June and reverted rights (with a suggestion to move that material to the Kindle platform). Today Amazon has announced what could be seen as that program’s successor, dropping the length/underwear metaphor for one from the music industry: Kindle Singles. “Singles” are described as pieces running between 10,000 words to 30,000 […]