Following the WSJ’s story about impatient Americans ordering anticipated fiction that has been released in the UK but not yet published in the US, the NYT files a story about significant business in the US for the British edition from Quercus of Stieg Larsson’s third book The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest. Knopf currently has that title scheduled for a May 25, 2010 release. While no precise numbers on import sales are reported, the UK version of Hornet’s Nest “tied for No. 5 on the bestseller list of the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association in October.” One aspect of the […]
Bookstores
Baker & Taylor Buys Blackwell NA; Sells UK Branch
Baker & Taylor announced yesterday they are buying Blackwell Book Services North America to integrate with YBP and Australia-based James Bennett bookseller (also owned by Blackwell). In turn, they are selling their UK unit Lindsay and Croft to Blackwell UK. Also, “Baker & Taylor’s YBP Library Services and Blackwell U.K. have entered into a strategic sourcing agreement under which YBP Library Services will source all U.K.-published academic material from Blackwell U.K., and Blackwell U.K. will source all U.S.-published academic material from YBP Library Services.”Release
Bookselling: Lamba Rising to Close Remaining Two Stores; Are Indie Booksellers Fulfilling their Promise Online?; One Bookseller Realizes Moody Experiment
Lambda Rising founder and co-owner Deacon Maccubbin announced that their Washington, DC store will close after 35 years in business at the end of this year, along with their outpot at Rehoboth Beach, DE (launched in 1993). Maccubbin writes on the store’s site, “Closing the store now will certainly leave something of a hole in Washington’s literary and political scene and even though I’m excited about the opportunities that will open up for us as we move into the next phase of our life, there is a bittersweet component to it all. But the book market has been changing dramatically, […]
Bookselling: Common Language Seeks Supports; Sony Spurns ABA Members; UK Sales Down; CreateSpace's Simple Deal with Lightning Source; Americans Buy Overseas Releases
Ann Arbor’s LGBT bookstore Common Language has “made a life-or-death appeal to the community” for support. This weekend they are holding a Book-a-Palooza fundraising sale of 5,000 donated used books. The owners indicate to AnnArbor.com “they will stay alive at least through the winter semester textbook season, and access sales after that.”AA Meanwhile, an ABA initiative announced in August to make it possible for to independent booksellers to obtain Sony Readers to sell in their stores has come up empty as Sony has now spurned “direct orders for small quantities.” The association tells members in Bookselling this Week, “work is […]
Bookselling: Amazon Takes Textbook Trade-Ins; Two Store Closings
Amazon announced this morning a textbook trade-in program that lets students get a quote online for used books, print a pre-paid shipping label, and return those books for credits against Amazon purchases.Announcement Two independent booksellers announced closings: Lee Booksellers in Lincoln, NB is closing after 30 years in business as their lease expires and co-owners Linda Hillegass and husband Jim McKee prepare to retire. “The big effect the economy has had is that we can’t sell the store,” Hillegass said. “We did try to sell the store, and it didn’t work.” Also closing is Ormond Beach, FL’s The Bookstore Cafe […]
The Risks of Experiments: Distribution of Moody's Twitter Story Surprises Readers
Experimentation is how you learn but sometimes the lessons are tough ones. Long-form narrative may not belong on Twitter and after this week’s tweeting of a short story by Rick Moody through Electric Literature, we may not have to think about it for a while. Encouraged by the start-up quarterly whose “mission is to use new media and innovative distribution to return the short story to a place of prominence in popular culture,” Moody wrote the story specifically for Twitter “and used it as a source of creative inspiration” according to a release from EL. He comments “it really was […]