Portland, Oregon’s In Other Words bookstore, which has a “feminist and queer bent,” is in “a crisis situation” according to program director Katie Carter. “We looked at our financial situation and realized it was much more dire than it has ever been in the past. Book sales are “down significantly from previous years, and it looks like it’s going to continue that way.” The board needs to raise $11,000 or close in early January.Blog post
Closing
Philly's Oldest Indie to Close
Robin’s Bookstore, started and “believed to be Philadelphia’s oldest independent book seller, is calling it quits at the end of January.” With sales falling “as much as 15 percent in recent months,” owner Larry Robin says business has gone “from bad bearable to bad unbearable.”Inquirer
Toronto Store Will Close Without Rent Break
Toronto’s Pages Books & Magazines faces the same fate as many well-known US independent bookstores: the 30-year-old store will close next March unless the landlord agrees to a smaller rent increase or a new location is found. Owner Marc Glassman says “once our 10-year lease is up on March 1, the rent is going to practically double, unless the landlord changes his mind.” As for the search for a new space, “we haven’t found a place that’s quite right yet.” One way or another, the store’s well-known This Is Not A Reading Series will continue, though.Globe and Mail
The End for Olsson's
Olsson’s Books and Records closed all five of their remaining stores yesterday and petitioned the bankruptcy to turn their Chapter 11 filing back into a Chapter 7 liquidation. In a posting on their web site, the company cites “stagnant sales, low cash reserves, and an inability to renegotiate current leases, along with a continuing weak retail economy and plummeting music sales.” General manager Stephen Wallace-Haines says: “In the end, all the roads towards reorganization led to this dead end: we did not have the money required to pay for product in advance, to collect reserves to buy for Christmas, and […]
"Happy Bookseller" to Close
Columbia, SC-based Happy Bookseller, “the city’s most well-known independent bookstore,” will close in October. The paper reports that owners Andy and Carrie Graves mailed customers with the news last week. “We’re very sad this is all going to end. The reality is we don’t have a choice.” They add: “Sales peaked in 1993, Andy Graves said. They have been steadily declining but the last four to five years have been particularly hard, he said.” Rhett Jackson started the store in 1974 and solve it to Andy Graves, an employee, in 1996. Jackson says, “I babied that and loved it and […]
Personnel, Bookstores, and Distribution
Mary Cummings, former administrator of the McKnight Award in Children’s Literature and organizer of the Festival of Children’s Literature at the Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis, will be representing children’s books in association with Betsy Amster Literary Enterprises. Hollan Publishing’s principals Holly Schmidt and Allan Penn have joined with literary agent Lori Perkins to form Literary Partners Group, which is launching an online publishing company called Ravenous Romance. They will publish daily novel-length erotic romances, as well as lunchtime short stories, in e-book and downloadable MP3 format, starting December 1. Schmidt says in an announcement “we will succeed by producing […]