Amazon ceo Jeff Bezos told the audience at the company’s annual meeting that their strategy for competing with Apple is the company looks to surge past Kindle in devices on the market is to stay focused on “serious reading households.” That strategy is said to drive the excuse for not adding a kolor Kindle any time soon. “Bezos said it would be easy to add a color LCD screen to the Kindle, but that it provided an inferior reading experience to the reflective E Ink Corp. technology that the device currently uses. As for color reflective screens, Mr. Bezos said […]
Bookstores
Survey Says Indies Need to Discount Bestsellers, Broaden Selection to Expand Sales
Verso Digital presented ABA members with results a new online survey conducted in April targeted at consumer intelligence relevant to independent booksellers. (They surveyed 9,300 book buyers, with an estimated margin of error of 1.5 percent.) The focus was to follow up on a finding from Verso’s earlier survey that indie “mindshare” is a lot bigger than indie market share–since 23 percent of book buyers list indie stores as one of their “favorite places to shop for books,” even though indie stores are estimated to have 5 percent or less of the actual dollar market for books. (At least one […]
Alibris Has Their Own Play for Self-Published (and Self-Promoting) Authors
Alibris has Author Stores, customizable, easy-to-create pages that let authors sell their books through the company’s marketplace (as well as their partners, including Barnes & Noble.com, Borders, Chapters Indigo, eBay, Half.com, and Waterstone’s.) CEO Brian Elliott says in the announcement “over a third of our marketplace sales are new books–most of those solidly in the ‘long tail’ — and through the new Author Stores sales channel and its dynamic features, authors can promote and sell more books.” You can view a sample author store at: http://www.alibris.com/stores/seanolaoire
ABA Actually Gains (9) Members for the Year
One previously-predictable lowpoint of BEA is moment during the American Booksellers Association annual meeting when a board member announces the annual decline in registered member stores. But this year, for the first time since we’ve been following the numbers, the association actually gained members–nine to be exact–with 1,410 registered stores. (That gain does not necessarily reflect a change in the entire store landscape, since not all independent bookstores are members of the national organization.) Here are the reported member-store numbers for the past decade: 2010: 1,4102009: 1,401 2008: 1,5242007: 1,580 2006: 1,6602005: 1,703 2004: 1,804 2003: 1,908 2002: 2,097 2001: […]
More Store (and Device) News As Len Riggio Admits "The store model is under pressure" and iPad Estimates Are Raised
With the rapid expansion of ebook market, the WSJ has a prominent story looking at the corollary of greatest concern in book publishing: to what extent will ebooks push bookstores out of business? (There is a self-reinforcing cycle in which, if rising ebook sales lead to store closings, still fewer print books will sold as result, further propelling ebook market share.) Barnes & Noble chairman Len Riggio concedes that “the store model is under pressure, whichever way you look at it.” Over the next three or four years, “Riggio says, a different, more diverse Barnes & Noble retail store will […]
Borders Finds Their Extra $25 Million In Financing As LeBow All But Takes Over
When Borders refinanced their revolving credit agreement in March and lined up a new $90 million term loan (at minimum interest of 14.75 percent), they were required to raise at least $25 million in new equity or else that term loan would have its borrowing base reduced by $10 million. This morning the company announced that financier Bennett LeBow, formerly known as as a “corporate raider” and currently chairman of holding company Vector Group, principally a tobacco company with other interests including Douglas Elliman real estate, has purchased $25 million of stock at $2.25 a share through an investment company. […]