BN disclosed for the first time in its quarterly SEC filing that on September 24 the company bought Tikatok for $2.3 million. Tikatok.com lets parents and their children write, illustrate, and publish stories into hardcover and paperback books. Barnes & Noble says it “plans to use Tikatok as part of its overall digital strategy, expanding the company’s reach to additional parents, educators and librarians.”Filing
Bookstores
Bookselling: Now Official, Elliott Bay Is Relocating; Author Solutions Partners with Espresso
Seattle’s Elliott Bay Book Co. has now confirmed that they will leave their 36-year-old location in Pioneer Square and move to the city’s Capitol Hill neighborhood “as early as March” of next year. Owner Peter Aaron tells the Seattle Times, “Here are the factors I’m looking at: parking, population, daytime and nighttime vitality and foot traffic, the absence of stadiums and conflicts with parking and crowding,” he said. “It’s the attractiveness and safety and vibrancy of the location.” Aaron says “our financing is in place going forward” and “is thrilled about 85 parking spaces for the new location that will […]
Bookselling: Larsson Imports Sell Well, But What About the Law?; Open Book Admits to Co-Op Filing Error; Copperfield's Say Kiosks Boost Sales
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 […]
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 […]