Target’s ability to select and sell titles to its customers that may not be major bestsellers in traditional bookstores is the focus of an NYT feature, which says their Bookmarket club “has highlighted largely unknown writers.” Their picks are focused on trade paperback fiction, and include special designations such as a recent “Hand-Picked Titles From Emerging Authors.” Among the successful picks, which can sell 50,000 to 150,000 copies at Target alone, have been Michelle Richmond’s The Year of Fog, Meg Waite Clayton’s The Wednesday Sisters, Lisa Genova’s Still Alice, Diane Chamberlain’s The Secret Life of CeeCee Wilkes, and Tatiana de […]
Bookstores
It's Ready: Barnes & Noble Launches eBookstore, Partners with Plastic Logic
BN launched their anticipated ebookstore yesterday, offering approximately 200,000 real titles along with 500,000 free public domain titles from Google, “including hundreds of new releases and bestsellers at only $9.99.” The NYT says they define new releases as “a new e-book for the first six months of its availability.” In a conference call (to which we weren’t invited) the company promised to add another 300,000 titles or so within the next year. They are claiming in the release to have the “world’s largest ebookstore,” though Cool-er made that claim earlier in the year as well and asserted 750,000 titles (while […]
Bookselling: Borders Focuses More Store Space On Teens with "Borders Ink"
Borders has created expanded sections within some Michigan superstores focused on teen shoppers, providing graphic novels, fantasy and young-adult books together along with non-book merchandise focused on teens, and expects to roll-out the concept throughout nearly all of their superstores nationwide in August. The new sections take advantage of space previously used to sell music and dvds.WSJ
Bookselling: Reps Live with Electronic Ordering Tool; Fitten's 100-Store Tour and Blog; Efforts to Restart Seattle's Bookfest
* The National Association of Independent Publishers Representatives has now gone live with their electronic catalog/ordering tool, Frontlist Plus Universal, presenting fall 2009 lists from “more than 200 participating book publishers and primary distributors.” The service provides “new title data in catalog order” and promises to “eliminate countless hours of redundant data entry across thousands of industry sites utilizing diverse inventory-control systems.” The NAIPR (which operates as a nonprofit) says “publishers and master distributors pay a nominal fee per ISBN included in the program.” Their focus is on serving both “the buyer or inventory manager following up on their sales […]
Barnes & Noble Shifts Buying Team, Consolidates Proprietary Publishing at Sterling
Barnes & Noble announced two reorganizations internally earlier this week, one affecting the book chain’s buying team and the other related to their proprietary publishing programs. The buying/merchandising group has been realigned following the promotion of Jaime Carey in May to the position of chief merchandising officer. The company’s “supply chain czar,” vp of inventory management & vendor relations Joe Gonnella, now moves up to vp, adult trade, reporting to Carey, while continuing to oversee vendor relations. Antoinette Ercolano, who has held the buying position now being taken by Gonnella, moves over to a new job supervising regional buying and […]
As Tipped, Valco Buys Borders UK
As first indicated by the Independent earlier this week, claims that Borders UK wasn’t for sale were blatantly false, and restructuring company Hilco’s private equity arm Valco Capital Partners is indeed buying the chain from Luke Johnson, the Bookseller reports. Current chief executive Philip Downer will continue to lead the company after a management buyout in tandem with finance director Mark Little. No figures are included in the report, though it was thought that the ailing group would be unloaded for a nominal sum. Downer told the Bookseller in a follow-up story that among their immediate plans are a working […]