Following the Amazon ebook pricing reset that publishers have cursed and feared, on Thursday Walmart.com dropped the price on their top 10 pre-orders titles (Palin, Crichton, Grisham, Crichton, Patterson, Koontz, etc.) to an even $10, with free shipping included. More broadly, they are offering their top 200 books at discounts of 50 percent or more in a program called America’s Reading List. Later in the day, Amazon matched Wal-Mart’s pricing–and today both sites have dropped those ten promotional titles to just $9. Walmart.com ceo Raul Vazuez told the paper, “If there is going to be a ‘Wal-Mart of the Web’, […]
Bookstores
Amazon Adds Same-Day Delivery; Removes Kindle Data API
Amazon announced same-day delivery of assorted products in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington DC, Las Vegas, and Seattle. More quietly, and to everyone’s detriment, the etailer confirmed on a forum recently that the data API for Kindle books isn’t broken–it has been removed for good. The post simply states: “We apologize for the confusion surrounding Kindle Books. Kindle books are not available via the Product Advertising API.” What that means is that informational services for searching Amazon’s database (of which our own Amazoom is just one) no longer show any Kindle availability or data. It also means everything about […]
There's Your Barnes and Noble's E-Reader?
Gizmodo has a fine set of leaked pictures of the forthcoming Barnes & Noble eReader.The main screen is a standard black-and-white e-ink display–but at the bottom is a smaller touch-screen color LCD, to use to show for titles (with color jackets) and for other features like a on-screen keyboard. The LCD is said to be inactive while reading, so it probably won’t drain the battery too much. The device is equipped for wireless connections with a to-be-named service provider. The report says that BN will be selling the company’s own books (from Sterling) at a “deep discount.” As for the […]
Bookselling: Vroman's to Buy Book Soup, and More
Vroman’s of Pasadena has entered into an agreement to buy West Hollywood’s Book Soup from the heirs of the late Glenn Goldman. Vroman’s president Allison Hill told the LAT “Glenn and I had talked about it…and we’ve been in conversations with the seller since January.” Hill was the manager of Book Soup for six years. “There is an authenticity to what Book Soup is that we intend on honoring. We would be crazy to do this otherwise.” LAT But in a second LAT piece, there is hand-wringing over change (rather than celebration that the store will persist. Book Soup general […]
More on That BN eReader
The Wall Street Journal filed more details on Barnes & Noble’s own ereading device that we told you about previously, which “could begin selling the device as soon as next month.” (The launch has already slid from the information we were originally provided.) Then Gizmodo followed with a “leak” from “someone who claims to work for BN developing mobile apps” that says the reader could run Google’s Android as its operating system. Meanwhile, the in the UK the Telegraph is trying to figure out who is partnering with Amazon to provide wireless delivery to Kindle, since AT&T doesn’t work there–and […]
Barnes & Noble's New Earnings Schedule Has Bookstore Comps Down 4.1 Percent
Barnes & Noble announced results for their new fiscal quarter, aligned to dovetail with the just-acquired BN College. Reporting sales for the past nine weeks of the new quarter, same-store sales at BN fell 4.1 percent at $665 million, while results at BN.com rose 8 percent to $91 million. The retailer said that for the full fiscal 2010 quarter, they expect that comp-store sales decline to range between 1 percent and 3 percent–meaning they see sales improving from here. Of course those forward-looking comparisons are set against a lower bar–October is when book sales started to plunge last year as […]