We’re in that strange nether region of the launch of the selling season.

Our team meeting, designed to re-attach our brains at the beginning of each sales season, crowded into last weekend and early this week. We assign “client reporting” to each other and march through sales conference notes, terms and review key goals & opportunities. Sean was just back from an all too brief UK holiday and Causten’s bags were mentally packed for a trip to France for his parent’s 50th wedding anniversary celebration in Cannes.

This week I’m seeing the Museum of Modern Art  and spending two days at B&N before seeing Politics & Prose in Washington. Sean is in the Philadelphia area; Linda is doing Washington DC area accounts before joining Sean & me at  the annual ALA  meeting next weekend in Washington.

While we speak every Monday morning in conference call, we won’t meet as a team until the end of July; until then, it’s “pedal-to-the-metal” .

In this week’s issue:

Manager’s report

Stores seen

In the News:

Community Support for Giovanni’s Room Continues

Allison Korleski departs B&N buying team for craft editor gig

Alison Morris, Wellesley Booksmith & PW kids columnist, departs for Scholastic Book Clubs

AAP: April Sales Increase, Big Gain for Hardcovers

“Red-Faced About Brown“ Shelf Awareness

Manager’s Report, Causten Stehle: We had another good week. Following the trend, we are ahead of 2009 in terms of net sales and orders taken. The reps are on the road, and accounts are gearing up for Fall ordering. As the economy lurches back from the lows of this past year, and given the optimistic mood at BEA, I am fully confident we will see a bright season. (All numbers here are orders taken from our in-house ordering system, SAILS, and do not include B&N, Brodart, B&T, store direct-to-publisher orders or retail orders placed with wholesalers.

)

Stores ordering this week:

Book Center, Busboys & Poets, Politics & Prose, World Bank Info Shop, Worldwide Art Books, Book Culture, Chester County Book Company, Edward R Hamilton, Labyrinth Books – Princeton, Lexington Historical Society, McNally Jackson Booksellers, Museum of Fine Arts, New England Mobile Book Fair, New York University Book Center, Open Book, Shakespeare & Co, Bank Street Bookstore, Book Revue, Bookazine, Drama Book Shop, Harvard Book Store, Northshire Bookstore, Artbook @ Visual Studies, Polybook Distributors

Stores seen

New England Mobile Bookfair, Newton, NY The warehouse was thronged Friday with teachers replenishing classroom stock and parents buying summer reading titles for children. However, our children’s buyer Fran Mermelstein complained that the store was short staffed. She still took time to review frontlist for our publishers. I took an extensive inventory and wrote fairly good business for all children’s lines. Fran refrained from ordering much outside of our core nonfiction paperback business. I’ll be back later in the summer for trade books, remainders and mass market. Sean
Baker and Taylor, NJ This week the focus was on the planagram for stocking the Michael’s craft chain. A large area in the buyer’s cube farm is now devoted to setting up the planagram, and our children’s buyers are making final adjustments. We have a good chance of getting books into the planagram for this fall. Sean
East/West Books, NYC New York’s top New Age store now advertises a “personal shopper” service. In their weekly newsletter they urge customers to “take advantage of our staff’s expertise by allowing them to join you in exploring the many subjects written about and tools utilized for spiritual exploration, or call in to schedule a time for a personal shopping experience.” Our buyer, Cami Aronowitz, is available to advise customers on “books and yoga.” Sean

Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza, Albany, NY celebrated its 35th anniversary this weekend with a special appearance by William Kennedy, award-winning bard of Albany. Current owner Susan Novotny was originally a book rep calling on the store. I called on the original store in the late 70’s/early 80’s and the owner was a jerk; Susan has not only dramatically increased sales and made the store a cultural center of Albany (dubious distinction that this may be) but she also made it exceptionally welcoming to reps–it’s one of my favorite sales calls and I loop back as often as I can in any season. Chris

Team Meeting, Hastings-on-Hudson Get Him to the Greek kicked off the meeting with Chris & Shelley.  Great information and exchanges between us.  I’m optimistic about the Fall. Linda

NAIBA Trunk Show, Syracuse, NY Twenty-five stores registered for the show; about 19 showed up.  All of the publisher presentations of major new fall books were well attended; mine filled the room, about 16 people.  The response was very positive and the presentation went well and fast.  Except for almost having to separate Lucy Kogler, Talking Leaves, Buffalo, NY and Pat Kutz, Lift Bridge, Brockport, NY, both NAIBA board members, for talking and disrupting the rest of the class, it was great fun.  Three authors spoke at the luncheon.  The mood was light, fun and cautiously optimistic about the fall.  Several of the booksellers have attended the ABA’s Winter Institute and plan to do so again in January in Washington, DC.  As Bill Reilly of Rivers End, Oswego, NY put it “We know how to sell books, it’s the other stuff we need help with”. Linda

Corning Museum, Cornell, NY Attendance is up and the gift shop seems to be doing very well.  The school trips have tapered off and family vacation traffic comprises most of the visitors Linda

Page After Page, Lewisburg, PA This small independent that bought exclusively from wholesalers surrendered this month to the new Barnes & Noble/Bucknell University Bookstore that is set to open a half block away.  The B&N store is in an old bank building in the middle of downtown Lewisburg to serve both the university and community. Linda

Harrisburg News, Harrisburg, PA I continue to solicit orders from them. The buyer likes regional titles for their service areas. Linda

IN THE NEWS:

Community Support for Giovanni’s Room Continues

By Karen Schechner on Thursday, Jun 17, 2010

Last summer, Giovanni’s Room, the oldest gay and lesbian bookstore in the country, asked customers for help with a large-scale renovation. Not only did the Philadelphia bookstore get overwhelming support from both customers and authors, but their support has also been ongoing.

In July 2009, bookstore owner Ed Hermance could no longer wait to repair a badly damaged exterior brick wall that was in danger of collapsing, but Giovanni’s Room couldn’t afford the $50,000 cost of construction. So Hermance appealed to customers. The biggest source of donations, he said, was people sponsoring the store by paying $50 for a brick or $500 for a lintel. Giovanni’s Room also held a fundraising event during “Outfest,” Philadelphia’s celebration of National Coming Out Day. Forty-two thousand dollars has been raised so far, and fundraising efforts continue.

Over the winter Edmund White participated in a benefit dinner, and Christopher Rice was the guest of honor for a cocktail party. “In the middle of a snowstorm, we still had about 40 to 50 people,” said Hermance.

Giovanni’s Room was founded in 1973 by Tom Weinberg, Dan Sherbo, and Bern Boyle; Hermance bought it from them in ’76. When the building housing the original location was sold in 1979, the new landlords refused to lease to a gay and lesbian bookstore. Other area landlords were equally unwilling. The bookstore turned to its community, which provided enough in donations for a down payment to buy a building and then helped renovate it. “More than 100 people helped renovate. They took out walls, put in a skylight,” said Hermance, who has since bought a neighboring building.

The most recent rescue reminded him of the one in 1979. “We wouldn’t be here if the homophobes didn’t force us to buy a building,” Hermance said. “We never would have been able to afford this place if we had to rent it.

“Thirty years later we had that same kind of amazing energy with people coming forward and raising money to pay for the wall. We don’t have that kind of money. I think it’s fabulous that the community is still working hard to let us continue.”
Favorite B&N buyer Allison Korleski is leaving to become an acquisitions editor for a crafts publisher; her categories have been reassigned ton the following buyers:

• Antiques & Collectibles–Michelle Marozik,  mmarozik@bn.com
• Art/Arch/Photo–Michelle Marozik,  mmarozik@bn.com
• Crafts–Cathy Whitlow cwhitlow@bn.com
• Gardening–Lee Stern; lstern@bn.com
• Home Reference/Interior Design–Lee Stern; lstern@bn.com

Coop: Road Tour Nearly Becomes a Canal Tour: Michael Perry, author of Coop, reports from his road trip:

The last time I was at Lift Bridge Book Shop in Brockport, N.Y., I believe I was on tour for the paperback of Population 485. When owner Archie Kutz showed me into the street after the reading that night, the air was bracingly cold. I also remember being fascinated to realize that I was within half a block of the Erie Canal, which had achieved mythological status for me decades previous as I sat beside the phonograph in our Wisconsin farmhouse and sang along with Pete Seeger’s album Children’s Concert at Town Hall:

…and we know every inch of the way
from Albany to Buffalo

Low bridge, everybody down,
Low bridge for we’re comin’ to a town
And you’ll always know your neighbor
And you’ll always know your pal
If you’ve ever navigated on the Erie Canal….

Today I had time to cross the lift bridge in Brockport and see the canal for myself after all these years. Somewhere back in my younger soul that song was playing. A more demonstrative man than I would have exited the car to stroll the banks whilst plucking a banjo and belting out the appropriate folk standard, but having obtained only three hours sleep the night previous (see yesterday’s post) and having risen for an 8:30 a.m. interview before driving in from Buffalo, I chose instead to park in the far corner of the local grocery store parking lot, knock the driver’s seat back and catch a 42-minute nap. Then, awakened by my cell phone alarm, I composed myself and toddled off to present My Art and/or tell sneezing cow jokes.

The event at Lift Bridge Book Shop began in the basement, where we gathered around a table for coffee, bagels and conversation (I stuck with herbal tea, as I fairly hum with coffee for the duration of book tour). It is difficult to express how neat it is to walk into a setting so far from home and ease into engaging conversation with people predisposed to like books. We discussed pet pigs versus bacon pigs; Jersey cows versus Holstein cows (Jerseys: lower milk production, higher cream production, big doe eyes, kick is the equivalent of a love tap; Holsteins: big milk production, look gorgeous against the backdrop of a green pasture, kick like Sebastian Janikowski); and some of our favorite agricultural writers (I always nominate Gene Logsdon, whose All Flesh Is Grass and Small-Scale Grain-Raising are staples of our operation). One theme I have been returning to again and again in discussions and interviews for Coop is how the contemporary slow/thoughtful/local/organic/whatever food movement is not simply a retreaded version of the ol’ rural-based “back-to-the-land” trope. I am heartened by the fact that whether someone is growing tomatoes in a window box in Brockport or raising four chickens in a backyard in Buffalo or returning to rural Upstate to launch a full-blown organic farm, each seems to be calibrating their efforts to match available time and resources. As I told someone today about our farm, sometimes 37 acres is nice… but many days it seems 36.5 acres too many.

After reading and signing books upstairs I had–as self-employed booksellers and book writers will do–a parting conversation with Archie regarding the state of the industry. There is much to furrow one’s brow about, but I continue to accrete readers one by one thanks to the old standbys: handselling, word of mouth, mailing lists (increased today by some 20 signatures on your standard yellow legal pad) and a publisher who got it way back when Population 485 came out, when I declared I wanted to approach a book tour like a low-rent road dog… just get out there, put those miles on, tell those stories, thank those readers, meet those booksellers and point the hood ornament toward the next place. It’s been working. While there was no need for Archie to hire security for the event, there were many more chairs filled than for my last go-round. And so now it’s on to Oswego, crossing the Erie Canal at least once more before I get there, hopes high, because you’ll always know your neighbor and you’ll always know your pal if you’ve ever navigated on the Erie Canal….

AAP: April Sales Increase, Big Gain for Hardcovers

In April, net book sales reported by 86 publishers to the Association of American Publishers rose 24.8%, to $629.8 million, and are up 11.8%, to $2.41 billion, for the year to date. The adult hardcover category showed notable strength, with an increase of nearly 50% for the month and 16.2% for the year.

from Shelf Awareness: Red-Faced About Brown Our story about the Brown Bookstore, Providence, R.I., yesterday erroneously stated that Event Network, which manages gift shops and does licensing for museums, zoos, science centers, etc., is managing the store. Event Network does not have any connection with the store. Instead, Brown Bookstore remains “an independent bookstore, and we’re proud of it and doing very well,” director Steve Souza said. We apologize for the mistake. Souza noted that the bookstore had participated in a year-long university-wide review because of budget deficits. As part of that review, Brown decided to eliminate 60 positions, several of which were at the store, including one of the two fulltime buyers, but overall this was “a small percentage” of store staff. The university has stated again that it has no intention of leasing or outsourcing the bookstore.

Alison Morris’ letter; departing Wellesley Booksmith for the Big Apple:

Dear Wonderful Sales Reps,

I’ve just sent the following message (below) off to both the NECBA and ABC listservs, announcing my departure at the end of June from Wellesley Booksmith.

What I’ve said to and about all of them applies double to you. It has been, in the truest sense of the word, an HONOR to work with you, the hardest-working, most-knowledgeable, too-oft-unsung heroes of the book world. I cannot thank you enough for the truly enjoyable time you’ve spent with me, the wisdom you’ve shared with me, the patience you’ve had with me, the confidence you’ve had in my work, the stock you’ve put in my opinions, and the friendship you’ve given me for lo these many years.

When I’ve thought about what’s going to change for me with this new job and what I’m going to be the most sorry to leave behind, YOU (all of you) are at the top of that list. WHAT am I going to do without you?? How am I going to enjoy buying books from anyone else?? I honestly don’t know. But suffice it to say that I’m still going to want to hear your thoughts and opinions, so I hope you won’t hesitate to share them with me via email (alouisemorris@gmail.com) or in person. Call me when you’re coming to the city. Finally I’ll be able to offer to buy YOU lunch for a change!

I’m sorry I wasn’t able to call all of you or deliver this news to you in person, but the timing of this announcement has been tricky and I couldn’t handle things in quite the way that I’d have liked.

Rest assured that I’m leaving you in good hands, and that you needn’t worry about having to reschedule this season’s appointments. I’m currently training Margaret and Lisa on the buying and one or both of them will be here and ready to buy from you on the days when you come by. I feel CERTAIN that you will enjoy working with them every bit as much as I have.

Your fan for life,

alison

*******************

Dear Friends,

I wish I had the time to call or visit each of you and deliver this news in person, but sadly that just isn’t the case. I’m resorting, therefore, to mass e-mail and just hoping the impersonal nature of this delivery method doesn’t make my words seem any less sincere.

I am (and it truly pains me to say this), leaving the fold of independent bookselling. My husband Gareth and I are moving to New York City, and starting September 1st I will be the Senior Editor of Acquisitions and Merchandising at Scholastic Book Clubs. In this newly-created position I’ll be working with David Allender, Vice President of Scholastic Book Clubs, to select and merchandise trade books for the Clubs’ monthly catalogs, which are sent home throughout the country with kids ages toddler to teen.

In many ways this job seems like a dream come true for me. I get to have the experience of working for a large publisher but, in much the same way as I’ve done as a buyer, I get to see and select from the lists of books being published by everyone. I get to steer an almost incomprehensible number and variety of kids and parents and teachers toward books, authors, and illustrators that I think are more than worth their knowing, and try to make those books affordable to all of them. I get to continue working with teachers—the customers with whom I think I’ve done the best and most rewarding work of my bookselling career—and I get to dip my toes still further into the worlds of both editing and marketing, without having to choose just one or the other. Most importantly, I get to try something NEW, which, scary though it may be, is something I think my brain really needs at this point.

What I don’t get to do is take all of you with me. I won’t get to attend your meetings and reap the benefits of your expertise. Or read your messages and find out what books you, my trusted colleagues, are enjoying. I don’t get to commiserate with you about the horrors of events no one comes to, or the joys of having spent an afternoon in the company of two year-olds. I don’t get to see and meet new customers on a daily basis, or sit down with teachers each week and help them reinvent the work they do in their classrooms. In short, I don’t get to be an “independent bookseller” anymore, which, as it has been both my career and passion for the past 12 years, is really almost impossible for me to believe.

In making the decision of whether or not to take this job, though, I’ve had to reflect on what my chief goals have been as a bookseller: to put great books into kids’ hands; to turn reluctant readers into eager ones; to sustain the interests of fluent readers by introducing them to a ready supply of new, great books; to help teachers find the books that will reach each of their students and make their jobs more enjoyable; to discover great talent and spot new trends in the fields of writing and illustration; to ignite in others (of any age!) a passionate love for reading and for literature – in particular that created specifically for kids and teens. I believe my new role at Scholastic Book Clubs will allow me to accomplish all of these same goals, even if my daily work and means of getting there will look decidedly different.

I am overwhelmingly grateful to all of you for what has been a truly amazing 12 years. You, my fellow booksellers, have been friends, colleagues, advisors, confidants, and role models to me for so long that I can’t imagine what life would be like without you. Your passion, your knowledge, your enthusiasm, your never-ending creativity, your dedication, and your sheer willingness to work so hard at what you do – these things have made you the very best kind of company, and the very best teachers too.

Just because I won’t be working so closely with you does not mean that I will stop working for you. I am still and always will be an evangelist for independent bookselling. I will continue to shop at your stores, sing your praises, send you new business, and educate the world about what it is that you do and why what you do is so valuable to all of us.

I will be at Wellesley Booksmith through the end of June (my last official day will be Friday, July 2nd). After that Gareth and I will spend a month apartment-hunting, packing, and reveling in both the excitement and terror of pulling up roots and planting them in (yeesh) the great hub of New York City. Once there I hope to spend a few weeks getting back to work on my too-long-neglected book, before I start work at Scholastic on September 1st.

I am sad to be leaving Wellesley Booksmith, and I am sad to be leaving the children’s section that I’ve spent 9 years building here. I am not, however, worried about how EITHER will fare in my absence!

Going forward, there are two amazing booksellers who will share the responsibilities of buying children’s books for the store and who are looking forward to getting much better acquainted with all of you. Margaret Aldrich is a bookseller and librarian par excellence who reads more books in a week than I read in a month (seriously) and whose taste is almost always 100% aligned with mine. (If you’ve liked my recommendations you will definitely, absolutely like hers!) Lisa Fabiano is a savvy bookseller, terrific mother, intelligent reader, portrait of efficiency, and cool head in any crisis. She’s been assisting Lorna and I in the Buyers’ office here for two years now, and we weep bitter tears on the rare occasion when she takes a vacation. Together Margaret and Lisa will continue to bring all the enthusiasm, good sense, and keen organization to our children’s department that customers have come to expect from us, but they’ll also (because there are two of them) be able to spend more time on the floor with customers, which is a blessing for everyone! I can’t think of a better fit for this job than this dynamic duo, and I know you’ll find both Margaret and Lisa a joy to work with – just as they’ll find you.

Working with Margaret and Lisa will eventually be a third person, a Children’s Event Coordinator, as soon as we find the right person for the job. The Children’s Event Coordinator will be in charge of running our extensive series of events with children’s book authors and illustrators, in addition to working part-time as a bookseller in our store. (If you know someone who’d be ideal for this position, please put them in touch with us!)

As for the overall health of Wellesley Booksmith, it’s probably right now the strongest it has ever been. While it’s true the store is currently for sale, there are several parties very interested in becoming our new owners, and all signs point to them being people who will continue to run our store in the way that it has been – efficiently, intelligently, and with the same dedication to superb customer service that has made us a vital part of this community for more than ten years. I have every reason to believe that our store will continue to grow and, in fact, thrive in the coming years.

I am sorry I couldn’t give all of you more advanced notice of my departure and feel terrible that I may leave here without having had a chance to say “so long” and “thank you” to all of you. I had been planning to share my news with you before this week’s NECBA meeting, but the timing of things didn’t work out the way I’d hoped.

I sincerely hope we’ll continue to stay in touch as I head off of this new adventure. I will have a Scholastic e-mail address in time, but until then the best way to contact me is to send messages to alouisemorris@gmail.com. Though I know most of you are too far away to join us, you’re also all invited to a gathering we’re hosting here at the store on Wednesday, June 30th from 3 – 6pm. Come out, have a glass of wine, let me introduce you to Margaret and Lisa, and give me a chance to thank you for the part you’ve played in this chapter of my life.

Wishing you all the VERY best with your current and future chapters,

alison

In this week’s issue:

Manager’s Report-Causten Stehle:

In the news:

Response to Sale of Politics and Prose, Washington, D.C.

BEA: 2010 Survey of Book-Buying Behavior

Engage Your Audience With Surveys

How to Use YouTube to Position Yourself as an Author/Expert

The Best Library bloggers (GalleyCat)
Manager’s report, Causten Stehle: We had another good week with a healthy batch of orders. We are well ahead of 2009. At this point in the schedule, post-BEA, accounts are adjusting their inventory from the spring, and gearing up ready to order their fall titles. With the good numbers from this past week, the excellent titles for the fall we saw during sales meeting and BEA, I am optimistic that we will have a good summer and fall. (All numbers here are orders taken from our in-house ordering system, SAILS, and do not include B&N, Brodart, B&T, store direct-to-publisher orders or retail orders placed with wholesalers.)

Stores Ordering this week: Americana Souvenirs & Gifts, National Building Museum, National Gallery of Art, Red Emma’s Bookstore, Smithsonian Institution Museum, Worldwide Art Books, Atlantic Books Management, Edward R Hamilton Booksellers, Joseph Fox Bookshop, New England Mobile Book Fair, Penn Book Center, Inc, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Strand Book Store, Ambassador Books and Media, Bank Street Bookstore, Book Revue, Bookazine, Drama Book Shop Inc., Harvard Book Store, Now Voyager Bookstore, R.J. Julia Booksellers, St. Mark’s Bookshop, Metropolitan Museum of Art

Stores:
Response to Sale of Politics and Prose: Preserving a Local Literary Icon: WASHINGTON CITY PAPER

Posted by Erin Petty on Jun. 10, 2010 at 01:52 pm “Though there’s been some shocked response to the news that Forest Hills bookstore Politics and Prose is for sale, there hasn’t exactly been surprise. Owners Carla Cohen and Barbara Meade opened the store twenty-six years ago and are now both 74 years old. Cohen is also seriously ill, reportedly with cancer. Neighborhood residentTerry Whitehouse’s eyes widened as she learned that Politics and Prose may soon change hands upon leaving the store, shopping bag in one hand and dog leash in the other. “Barbara and Carla have owned it for a long time,” she said. “I guess it’s time for them to pass it on and retire.” For Whitehouse, it’s not just the merchandise and author talks that bring her in multiple times a week. She also likes going in because the store is canine-friendly. “Sometimes they give him a doggy bone,” she said, pointing to her dog, Boy. In an age of e-books and chain stores, Politics and Prose has been able to survive—and even thrive—due to the respect it’s gained both locally and nationally. The store is a prime book tour destination, with publishers competing to get their authors a coveted speaking gig.

Peter Osnos, founder and editor-at-large of PublicAffairs books and a reporter and editor at various bureaus of the Washington Post for 18 years, considers Politics and Prose’s local identity to be integral to the store’s success.  From the beginning, “Carla and Barbara had a natural gift for servicing their community,” he said. “The future of independent bookstores is what they’ve done—they’ve made themselves an indispensible civic asset.” They’ve been a beacon for independent bookstores throughout the country in a changing publishing climate, but now Cohen and Meade face the challenge of transitioning out of the industry. This is not the first time the partners have considered their future beyond Politics and Prose. In 2003, Cohen and Meade unsuccessfully tried to bring in a new business partner, Danny Gainsburg. According to the Wall Street Journal, they sold him an equity position and wanted him to work his way up in the business with the understanding that he would eventually assume sole ownership. But staff, unclear about Gainsburg’s role in the business and uncertain of his future plans for the store, rebelled. Gainsburg sold back his shares after two years. A year later, in 2006, Meade and Cohen were meeting with an outside business consultant and devising a three-to-five year exit strategy. “Succession is a very tricky business,” said Osnos. “I hope that they find a good buyer.”

David Patterson, who worked at Politics and Prose for from 1997 to 2000 and is now an agent with Foundry Literary + Media in New York, expressed faith that Washington’s literary grandmothers would be able to find a suitable successor. “Politics and Prose is a Washington institution, a national literary landmark, a thriving cultural and community center, and–this is important–a big beautiful bookstore and a great business,” he said. “Personally I feel confident that Barbara and Carla will have suitors who recognize all of these things, who will want to keep the traditions going, and who will feel they have the abilities to do so. “Barbara and Carla have set the bar very high, in running such an extraordinary bookstore so well and for so long in shifting environments, but they have also shown that it can be done.” FINGERS CROSSED!

Bookazine: I had a good first meeting w/ Page Alexander, our new children’s buyer, an escapee from B&T where she had three “new” bosses in her last year. She is still learning Bookazine’s counter-intuitive computer system, but after five years at B&T, she is no stranger to “eccentric” systems. I also met with Cindy Raiton, President, who re-iterated how happy they are to have Jim DeMiero (late of Koen & Bookstream) on board. She also said that they would begin ordering up for the new warehouse space they’ve created with a second tier of racking. I also met with adult title buyers Kris Jackson & Tawan Smith who report that sales are good. Tawan, in particular, said that a number of specialty stores have asked her to begin creating orders for them. Chris

Busboys & poets, Washington DC is opening a branch in the suburban Hyatsville, MD. Just two miles from DC, a new “townhome neighborhood” Arts District Hyattsville features new townhouses with an Organic Market, Busboys and Poets and Tara Thai Restaurant, …or so the real estate web site claims. Linda

The new Bucknell University Bookstore in downtown Lewisburg, PA operated by Barnes & Noble, opens on Saturday, June 26, “after the Fourth of July Parade,” according to the university. (Go figure on the Independence Day timing.) A grand opening will take place August 27, during the first week of fall classes. The 29,500-sq.-ft. store in a historic, restored building features books, magazines, sportswear, a children’s section, a gathering area for performances and community meetings and a Starbucks cafe. The building also has a 68-ft.-long skylight over a three-story atrium and boasts the first escalators ever installed in Union County. The new store replaces a 12,500-sq.-ft. bookstore that had been in the Elaine Langone Center on campus. A shuttle service for students between the campus and store will begin in August. Students will have the option of ordering textbooks online and having them delivered to the Bucknell post office for pickup on campus. Most of the funding for the $10-million bookstore came from state and federal grants and incentives for small-town economic development projects. Linda/Chris

Barnes & Noble’s share price disintegration may be at an end: After a drop of about a quarter of its value in the past two months, Barnes & Noble has rated an upgrade from Standard & Poor’s to “hold” from “sell,” the AP reported. Analyst Michael Souers called the stock “fairly valued,” taking into account the pressures on bricks-and-mortar bookstores, too. B&N closed Wednesday at $16.96 a share, near the low of its 52-week range of $16.11-$28.78. (Shelf Awareness)

The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Kid’s buyer Krista Rauth said that sales have begun to pick-ip but that no one is feeling very bullish. The new retail stores administration is still cutting costs etc so the atmosphere is very tight. Chris

MIT Press Bookstore, Cambridge, MA John Jenkins, manager, said that business is picking up although there is still a lot of pressure from on high to curb costs; there have been no staff lay-offs although the University has had significant staff cuts. Chris

Drama Bookshop, NY Long-time owner and head buyer Roseann Seelen has announced her “semi-retirement” party for Sunday October 10th; she hopes to cut back her hours and shift most of the buying to other staff. The date is also the anniversary of her late husband Arthur Seelen’s death. His grave stone is said to read “O.S.I.” Chris

Brewster Books, Barnstable Books, MA Quick conversation w/ Jean, store manager. Sales good; traffic busy. Nancy Landon, owner, doing as well as could be hoped. Chris

Harvard Bookstore, Cambridge, MA is promoting its Publisher Focus Windows. Buyer Megan Sullivan said sales “are remarkably good. Everyone feels good. It must be the weather!” Chris

Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza, Albany, NY’s Dan Schreffler complained that business has been down for two months, attributable in large measure to the sewage system work being done on one of their major feeder roads; the prospect for an open highway is months away. In the meantime, the store has stopped spending on all “unnecessary” items which included most staff not going to BookExpo. In previous years, more than a half dozen managers have attended. Chris

I Love Books, Delmar, NY’s Melissa Steen says that business is much better than last year and almost back to 2008 levels. The store is enjoying a nice run on “silly bands” but they are “too cheap” to make much of a financial impact. “We’re actually selling a few books…for a change” she says. I see her in three weeks.

The Golden Notebook, Woodstock, NY Barry Samuels says that discussion with a group of local investors who want to buy the store is “proceeding well.” He is not making sales rep appointments until the new buyers are in place and are prepared to meet their reps under his supervision. Better news, co-owner Ellen Shapiro’s cancer is officially “in remission.” Big sigh of relief. Chris

Friar Tuck, Delmar, NY Donna Rose & Andrea Van Allen report that sales are “OK” but best of all, Donna is leaving for vacation with her grandson, so “life is looking very good.” The stores’ ownership are still up in the air about continuing but sales are picking up. Chris

The Brown University Bookstore, now in the hands of the Darth Vader of retailers, Event Network, unceremoniously dumped Peter Sevenar, long-time head of the trade department (age 64) and other staff, assigning buying to a former part-time, wanna-be school teacher saying that “with modern technology” this was all the man-power the book department needed. Suzy Staubach, former NEIBA president & ABA Director, and long-time store manager is hoisting a “transition” party for Peter and his colleagues at her farm July 10th.

New NYU Bookstore Now Open at 726 Broadway (the first dozen pictures contained no books in them…)

“I can get lost in books for hours. Taking notes about everything. The new NYU bookstore, that’s like paradise for me. There’s even coffee!” says Rachel, class of 2013. Rachel is the model on all of the new bookstore’s advertisements (seen above). The flyer also says that she’s a poet and dreamer, so I’m going to have to agree with her. I mean, she’s a dreamer, right? I think that makes her credible enough.

After only a few months of construction, the shiny huge bookstore opened its doors today at 726 Broadway. The space is humongous and dwarfs the former store in size and appearance. There’s way more apparel (some ridiculous pictures, to follow) on sale, especially for girls. The textbooks are way more spread out in even aisles instead of the underground labyrinth that they were formerly housed in. Pics after the jump.

The bookstore is massive and very modern. It’s worth checking out this week because they’re running a couple of special opening sales. Right now you can get 20% off all clothing and books. Some sweatshirts are marked off at $18.31 (NYU’s founding date). There’s a buy-one-get-one-free offer on select t-shirts. Most importantly though, there’s a raffle to win an iPad (NYU’s new go-to raffle item). I think it’s great that NYU now has a nice bookstore and I can’t wait to drop loads of cash on my books there.
Read more: NYU Local • New NYU Bookstore Now Open at 726 Broadway http://nyulocal.com/on-campus/2010/06/02/new-nyu-bookstore-now-open-at-726-broadway/#ixzz0qV5xKrGD
Under Creative Commons License: Attribution Non-Commercial

BEA: 2010 Survey of Book-Buying Behavior (Shelf Awareness summary for those of us who chose not to blkow-out an ink cartridge to print out the slides…)

Following up on a survey of readers that was the most-discussed presentation of the Winter Institute in San Jose, Calif. (Shelf Awareness, February 4, 2010), Jack McKeown, director of new business development for Verso Digital–and now a bookstore owner (Shelf Awareness, May 12, 2010)–presented findings at BEA based on the initial surveys as well as another conducted this spring. Some of  the data was “as fresh as three weeks ago,” he said, and altogether the surveys polled 9,300 respondents.

The data reiterated much of what he emphasized earlier this year or showed some shifts, all of which continue to present opportunities to independent booksellers, McKeown stressed. One of major areas of importance has to do with independents capitalizing more on their “mindshare,” that is, the preference of many book buyers for independent bookstores but their tendency to buy a significant number of books at chains and online retailers.
Fully 27.3% of avid book buyers–those who buy 10 or more books a year, who number an estimated 62.4 million Americans–say local independents are their first preference as places to buy books. Of all book buyers, 25.4% say indies are their first choice for buying books and 17.1% call indies second choice, meaning that 42.5% of all book buyers mention indies as top choices for book purchases.

Commenting on this gap between that “mind share” and indies’ market share of 10%, McKeown said, “What’s missing? Why aren’t indies able to convert this preference into sales? If there is a more pressing question for the future of independent retailing, I don’t know what it is.”

Average buyers who prefer indies are split about evenly by gender. While 46% of them are 46 and older (somewhat expected), 37% are 18–34, which McKeown called “pretty astonishing. This is a very, very promising development.” (Avid readers are overwhelmingly female.)

In the past year 36.2% of all book buyers visited an indie between three and nine times. McKeown said that a “real opportunity” exists for increasing the frequency of visits of this group beyond “just” trips to find gifts or around holiday times.

Pointing to data about age groups and store visits, he noted that “boomers and seniors aren’t coming to indies enough,” not as often as 18–24-year-olds (40% of this age group visit an indie five or more times a year, more often than every other age group).

In another critical phenomenon, more than 26% of independent bookstore customers browse at their favorite indies and then buy books they’ve discovered there online or at chain stores. Some 10% of indie customers do this “frequently,” and that tendency is more pronounced among book buyers aged 18–34. More than a third of this age group have browsed at indies but purchased elsewhere within the past year. Such “sales leakage” could be costing indies more than $260 million in sales and 1.8% of market share, McKeown estimated.

The survey found three particular factors that would prompt readers to shop in indies more than they do now: discounted bestsellers, better selection and improved proximity. Indies should thus consider, he continued, doing some discounting as well as using e-mail and online marketing, which alleviate questions about the stores’ distance and sometimes comparatively limited selection. In fact, 45.3% of respondents indicated that they are willing to provide e-mail addresses to receive information and material from stores; shoppers aged 18–34 were more disposed to do so than older respondents. McKeown pointed out that “12 million customers want to give you their e-mail addresses. If indies fail to realize this asset, someone else will.”

Based on preferred hardcover discounts, McKeown estimated that a 15% bestseller discount would increase sales 4%. Women are more concerned about price than men, whereas men tend to want better selection.

E-Books

Since November, e-reader ownership by general readers has risen to 6.8% from 3%, and e-reader owners are buying more e-books per capita, which reflects more “mainstream” ownership of the devices rather than early adopters who tend not to read as many books on average, McKeown said.

E-reader owners continue to buy printed books as well as e-books. Fully 27.7% of surveyed e-reader owners predict they would buy 10 or more printed books in the next year, while 17.2% likely will buy five to nine printed books. McKeown commented: “This is not a mutually exclusive universe. Quite possibly we are seeing an increase of readership moving seamlessly between print and e-books.”

The number of readers who are “not at all likely” to buy an e-reader grew since late last year to a majority, 52.2%, which suggests “limits to e-book penetration,” McKeown said. “The e-book market may not be 60% of the book market in three years.”

Printed books and e-books bundled together continue to be attractive to a significant group of readers. At least 42% of book buyers are at least somewhat likely to consider buying bundled books.–John Mutter

Atlantic Book Store will be among eight new stores & a renovated JC Penney added to Philadelphia area’s Montgomery Mall, mall owner Kravco Simon said Monday. The new stores include Weight Watchers, Crazy 8,  China Max, Subway, Body Central and AT&T. The other new store will be a 1,500-square-foot Sephora beauty boutique inside the JCPenney store. The $4.6 million makeover of the JCPenney store, which is 158,000 square feet, will include wider aisles, improved lighting, new signs and graphics, improved jewelry and shoe departments and other upgrades. It will be completed next month. Montgomery Mall has 150 specialty stores and is anchored by JCPenney, Macy’s, Dick’s Sporting Goods and Sears. Kravco Simon was formed in 2003 when Indianapolis-based Simon Property Group (NYSE:SPG) increased its ownership stake in King of Prussia, Pa.-based Kravco Co., a privately held company. Its other regional malls in the Philadelphia market include the Court and the Plaza at King of Prussia; Oxford Valley Mall in Langhorne, Pa.; Springfield Mall, Springfield, Delaware County, Pa.; and the Promenade at Sagemore, Marlton, N.J.

How to Use YouTube to Position Yourself as an Author-Expert

by Shennandoah Diaz (From Greenleaf Bookservice’s  BIG BAD BOOK NERD)

Everyone likes to have a face to go with the name, but as an author, you don’t have that many opportunities to get face to face with your readers. Luckily, the advent of new media lets you give readers a face to put with the name. Not only can you give them a face, but you can also give them a taste of a live and in-person experience, a teaser of what one could expect should they attend one of your events or book you for an interview.

New media has opened up several new avenues for authors, giving them the opportunity to connect with potential readers and positioning themselves as experts in a more personal and engaging manner. One of the most popular venues is Youtube. Not only can you post and share videos, but you can also create your own channel, allowing you to share a series of videos on a related topic in an entertaining and informational way.

To really make the most of Youtube, your videos need to be:

1. Short: We live in a world of short attention spans. Keep your message brief in order to keep them engaged.
2. Informational: Your posts should provide value or information to the viewer. There are more than enough renditions of Lady Gaga on YouTube and plenty of people filming their pets looking “oh so adorable.” Stand out from the crowd by giving people something they can really use.
3. Entertaining: Yes, you are competing with cute pets and dancing babies, so in addition to being informative you need to be entertaining. This doesn’t mean being gimmicky, it just means delivering your information in a lively and personal manner.
4. Quality: In order to be worth anything it has to be easy to see. Make sure you use good equipment, edit if necessary, and avoid posting files that are too grainy or that require constant buffering.
5. Relevant: Above all, the video needs to be relevant to your platform. In order for your platform to be effective, its needs to be consistent. Don’t go off topic unless you plan on changing the direction of your platform.

You don’t need a film degree or a large presentation to start making use of this social media tool. You can start by taking a concept from your platform and breaking it down into simple parts that you can deliver as a series. Post them on your social media and your website, and make sure to list your contact information at the end of every one of your videos. This will all help drive traffic to all of your social media outlets and help you grow as an author and position yourself as an expert.

In this week’s issue:

Last week, we were still “sales conferencing”  with publishers, although most of our “meetings” were telephone or web-based meetings. Sean sold in Maine and Massachusetts and Linda finished up in western Maryland. Causten & I prepped for B&N.

I’m selling at B&N Inc for three days this week; Sean assumes responsibility for promoting our fiction there this week, too. We’ll pop into the NY Stationery Show mid-week. Next week we segue into three days of the first mid-week Book Expo. Hope to see you.

Manager’s Report; Stores seen; Itineraries; In the News;

Boulevard Books Opens in Brooklyn

Three Industry Vets to Open Store on Long Island

B&N College Division, Trade Buying changes

breathe books appeal for investors

Spotlight on Bookstores: *Talking Leaves* in Buffalo, NY

Ron Burkle sues B&N over “poison pill” provision

Harvard Square’s “oft-overlooked specialty bookstores” (pick-up from Harvard Crimson & SHELF AWARENESS)

April Retail Sales up 0.4%: Sporting goods, hobby and book stores witnessed a 1.9% decline in sales.

VERSO survey of book buying habits: http://www.versoadvertising.com/survey/index.html An up-dated version of this survey will be unveiled soon; until then, it remains the sole large consumer survey of ebook ownership and book buying habits

Manager’s Report: Causten Stehle

“A good week overall; we have now eclipsed ‘09 by 22 per cent in net sales and 11 per cent in written-orders, and have caught up with ‘08’s net sales by a slim margin of 3%, and by 4% in orders taken. While we are still some 25% behind 2007 in net sales, we have gained quite a lot of ground over the last four months, which, given the state of the economy should make us very happy. (All numbers here are orders taken from our in-house ordering system, SAILS, and do not include B&N, Brodart, B&T, store direct-to-publisher orders or retail orders placed with wholesalers.)

Orders received: American Souvenirs & Gifts; Book Center, Bradley’s, breathe books, Butternut & Blue, National Aviary; Politics & Prose; Smithsonian; US Holocaust Memorial Museum; Edward R. Hamilton; Labyrinth Books-Princeton; Odyssey Bookshop; Sherman’s-Boothbay, Freeport & Camden; Wharton State Forest Bookstore; Ambassador Books; Book Revue; Bookazine; Margolis Art; Northshire Bookstore; Metropolitan Museum of Art; Stone Barns Center.

Stores seen or heard from:

B&N College Division, Trade Buying changes Boss Jade Roth has been assigned to coordinate the integration of Inc’s and College’s computer system and is working on Manhattan three days a week explaining what an ISBN is to the “leadership.” The buyers now report to Jack Barney, who was given fiction buying responsibilities a year ago. Abe Fiss is working at home two days a week and taking every Friday off–probably in anticipation of his retirement and, as a result, Randy Rosenzweig has been given “business.” Chris

Baker and Taylor, Bridgewater, NJ Michael’s, the 1100-unit craft chain, has tapped B&T to stock their book sections. The largest stores have 25 feet of book fixturing, and all of them have at least 15 feet. Surprisingly, they are more interested in stocking children’s books than craft titles. B&T buyers have built a model of the fixturing at the Bridgewater office and are filling it with samples. Sean

Sherman’s, Coastal Maine Sherman’s operates for large stores in Maine vacation towns: Camden, Freeport, Boothbay Harbor and Bar Harbor. The first store, in Bar Harbor,  was opened by Bill Sherman in 1886. Jeff Curtis currently runs the chain, and is feeling optimistic for his chances during this summer’s tourist season. He is stocking up, and notes that he certainly can’t reverse the sales decline of the past two years by buying conservatively. Sean

Spirit of 76, Marblehead, ME Best idea of the week: Spirit of 76 manager Hilary Lay runs a twice-a-year seminar in the store for self-published authors. She and a marketing expert explain to authors how best to guarantee sell-through for their project. The fee for the event is $30, and it is nearly sold out. Sean

Trappe Book Center, Trappe, PA The grocery store in PK Sindwani’s shopping center has closed, and with it has gone much of his traffic. PK is buying very conservatively at this time (I should refer him to Jeff Curtis) and is keeping an eye on the situation. Sean

Mendham Books, Mendham, NJ Owners Tom & Tori Williams made the front pages of New Jersey papers with the appearance of newly-installed Governor Christie at baseball star Daryl Strawberry’s store appearance. Christie, a neighbor and avid independent book shop patron, is a familiar presence in the store. Ironically, Williams notes that Christie’s campaign against local school budgets resulted in more than half the state’s districts voting against their Board’s proposed budgets with the result that Mendham’s school orders have dropped by more than 90 per cent in the last three months. Williams notes that they are almost entirely dependent upon author appearances to draw business. On another “front,” the store’s facade was finally repaired after an 80 year-old driver plowed her car through it. The strip malls’ owner is being investigated by the State for fraudulent over-charges against his tenants. The Williams will testify before a newly convened grand jury. Tom WIlliams also leads local booksellers in a widely popular semi-annual hike through local mountains. Sean and former Parson Don O’Connor recently joined him & a half dozen booksellers for a walk near the abandoned ore mines of Cold Spring, New York. During the Revolutionary War, the mines provided the ore used to forge the links in the chain drawn across the Hudson River near West Point to keep British ships from sailing up the river to divide the Colonies. At their peak, the forges consumed more than an acre of timber each night. Chris.

Harvard Bookstore, Cambridge, MA reports that it has a record string of major author events, “the busiest spring schedule we have ever had,” according to buyer Megan Sullivan, who is also a leader of the local bookseller group Emerging Leaders. The store’s on-site book printing facility continues to draw crowds of the curious and scholars eager to have their own copy of classic public domain reference works. While I was visiting, a local printed a copy of Irish Crop Rotation Techniques, 1875-1890. For my part, I was content to own a newer copy of Parson Weems’ A Life of Washington. Chris

St. Mark’s Bookshop, NYC owner Bob Contant reports renewed pressure from the store’s landlord Cooper Union for a new lease and a significant rent increase. Bob says that the last rent increase absorbed the entirety of their business gain from the closure of Barnes & Noble’s Astor Place branch. The store is nervous about the proposed new home for NYU’s Bookstore on Broadway, three blocks closer to them than it is now. Walk-in traffic is the lowest it has ever been, Contant report. The owners have taken significant pay cuts in order to retain staff. Chris

In the news:

Boulevard Books Opens in Brooklyn

Tomorrow Tatiana Nicoli marks a milestone: the one-year anniversary of her departure from the legal field to launch a new career. She has moved fast in that new career: next Monday, May 17, the lawyer-turned-bookstore owner is opening, in a soft launch, Boulevard Books & Café in the Dyker Heights section of Brooklyn, N.Y.

Since trading briefs for books, “it has been a whirlwind,” said Nicoli. While getting to know the industry and setting up her store, she has received guidance from some knowledgeable sources–fellow Brooklyn booksellers, including BookCourt proprietor Henry Zook, a friend of her father, who offered Nicoli insights when she was first getting into the business.

Nicoli met Christine Onorati, the owner of WORD, and Stephanie Anderson, the store’s manager, at the NAIBA conference this past fall. Rebecca Fitting, co-owner with Jessica Stockton Bagnulo of Greenlight Bookstore, responded to Nicoli’s Tweet inquiring about the Random House sales rep for Brooklyn. At the time, that rep was Fitting herself (who has since left her position with the company). They have offered words of wisdom on everything from mistakes to avoid to operating inventory management systems. “The advice and help that I’ve gotten from these ladies has been invaluable,” Nicoli said.  Initially Nicoli thought that advice was too good to be true. “Coming from the legal field where everything is so competitive, my first inclination was that they wanted to know what their competition is like,” she said. “Then I realized how genuine it was.” To help learn the workings of a bookstore, Nicoli also worked for a day at both WORD and Greenlight.  When it came to choosing a locale for the store, there was never any question where Nicoli would set up shop. “I didn’t choose Brooklyn,” she said. “It chose me because I was born there.” She has lived in Dyker Heights for more than 30 years, having moved there when she was an infant. Boulevard Books & Café, around the corner from her abode, is located on a commercial strip in a residential, family-oriented neighborhood. Since purchasing the two-story building, a former law office, Nicoli has transformed the ground-level retail space, doubling it from 900 to 1,800 square feet by expanding into the property’s backyard. (A photographer who rents the upstairs apartment has been tapped to take pictures at store events.) A 900-sq.-ft. basement will be used for birthday parties and as a community gathering space.Boulevard’s front section is devoted to children’s and YA books. The other half of the store features adult titles, as well as a café and a lounge area. The back wall, constructed of glass, has double doors leading out to a garden with a fountain. The store has dark wood floors and shelves, accented with stained glass and Tiffany-inspired lighting. The ambience is “Victorian, classic, cozy and warm,” Nicoli said. “I’d like to create an environment where people want to come in and get comfortable.” A reading nook on a platform, adorned with a restored Colonial fireplace mantle, will serve double duty as a space for visiting authors to present.  Once the weather turned warm and more pedestrians were out, the construction, which began in December, proved to be great advance publicity. “I’m out in front of the store all the time with the contractors. People stop every day and ask what’s happening. When I tell them it’s going to be a bookstore they seem really excited about it. One woman even jumped up and down,” Nicoli said. Another way she has been connecting with potential customers is through the store’s Facebook account, where she has chronicled the store’s creation.  The Boulevard Books & Café Facebook page has more than 200 fans, who will be receiving an invitation to the store’s grand opening celebration on Saturday, June 5. The day will begin with a ribbon cutting ceremony with Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, followed by children’s activities and an evening reception for grown-ups. “I can’t wait to finally have a place to settle in,” said Nicoli. “I couldn’t be happier at this point.”–Shannon McKenna Schmidt/SHELF AWARENESS Boulevard Books & Cafe is located at 7518 13th Avenue, Brooklyn, N.Y., 11228; 718-680-5881;www.blvdbooks.com.

Three Industry Vets to Open Store on Long Island

Here’s an unusual new bookstore story: on July 1, three well-known book world people–Jack McKeown, industry consultant and former co-founder and CEO of Perseus Books Group; Denise Berthiaume, president of Verso Advertising; and Mitchell Kaplan, owner of five Books & Books stores in southern Florida and the Cayman Islands–are opening Books & Books Westhampton Beach, in Westhampton Beach, N.Y., which will be owned by McKeown and Berthiaume (above) and be an affiliate of Books & Books.

Kaplan (left) will serve as a consultant, and his company will provide a range of support and will consult on marketing, author events, website development, e-mail newsletters and inventory management, giving the store access to what McKeown described as “a database of sales history going back 25 years.” The owners will also use the resources of the Verso Digital online network to reach consumers directly. Staff members will go on “exchanges” between New York and Florida.

The principals expressed great enthusiasm about the new store and their cooperation.

“The idea is to leverage all our strengths,” said Kaplan. “I am learning from them, and they are learning from me. This is exciting and proactive.”

“Denise and I would not be doing this if we did not have this association with Mitchell,” McKeown said. “We’re pooling our knowledge.” The arrangement “means we can jump-start the store and gives us an even greater likelihood of success. It’s an enormous advantage for a startup.”

“We’re all in an era where we have to look for new business models and new ways of operating,” Kaplan continued. The arrangement is similar to the one under which Books & Books operates in the Cayman Islands. Kaplan said he could implement the model with local people in other areas “that aren’t my markets.”

Eventually Kaplan may help Books & Books Westhampton Beach in other ways, such as using his experience as a founder and head of the Miami Book Fair International to help establish a book fair. Kaplan stressed that the Hamptons and southern Florida share many demographic characteristics and help make the new affiliation a good fit.

—

The new store has 2,000 square feet of space and is in the center of Westhampton Beach, in the Hamptons at the eastern end of Long Island. McKeown and Berthiaume have been working on the project for two years and “waited until the exact right storefront opened,” McKeown said. Part of the delay resulted from needing two adjacent storefronts.

Books & Books Westhampton Beach will look “very sleek and modern,” combining elements of several Books & Books stores, such as “the room-within-a-room effect” of the Miami Beach store and the moveable gondolas of the Bal Harbour store, McKeown said. Just as the Books & Books stores each have their “own distinct layout and design, while managing to convey a similar sensibility and character,” Kaplan said, the new store will adapt well to its community. McKeown and Berthiaume are long-time residents of the area.

The store will stock some 10,000 titles. About 2,000 will be of local or regional interest, and the rest will overlap with stock at other Books & Books stores.

McKeown is working full-time at the store, and Berthiaume will continue to head Verso but hopes to scale back her time there so she can spend “as much time as possible” at the store. For now, the store is hiring an assistant manager and two full-time junior people, as well as some part-timers at the height of the season, July through September.

Several key staff members from Books & Books will come to Westhampton Beach to work in the store this summer. As Kaplan noted, summer is not the height of the season for his stores, making it easier to send people north. The addition of these staffers will contribute “enormous stress reduction,” McKeown commented. The trio is also working on a regular “exchange program” to allow Books & Books employees in Florida to work at the Westhampton Beach store in future summers and have Westhampton Beach staffers work in Florida stores in off-peak times.

Besides their home in nearby Remsenburg, McKeown and Berthiaume have what McKeown called “a small beach cottage” that is about five minutes from the store. They usually rent it out during the summer but will use it this year for Books & Books staff who are working in the store, making it a kind of B&B B&B. “We can put up three or four people there,” McKeown said. Eventually the house may be used as subsidized housing for a full-time manager.

Books & Books Westhampton Beach will have a strong author event schedule that will rely in part on Books & Books’s established event program. McKeown noted that the store is 70 miles from New York City, so “we can have an event at 6 or 7 in the evening, and authors can still get back to the city that evening.” The store will have space in-store for events with up to 50 people. Other venues in town can provide space for up to 300.

McKeown and Berthiaume have spent much time at the Books & Books stores, and McKeown worked for a week last November at the Lincoln Road store in Miami–an experience he called “Bookselling 101.”

In addition to the Verso Digital online network, the vertical ad network and online marketing platform for book publishing that McKeown called “a great way to target readers interested in particular authors and promotions and more,” Verso’s 2009 Survey of Book-Buying Behavior provides data that have helped McKeown and Berthiaume in planning the store. (In a highlight of the Winter Institute earlier this year, McKeown presented survey findings that were encouraging about the role of bookstores and traditional books; Shelf Awareness, February 4, 2010.) “Our research has indicated that the market for consumer books will be a hybrid of physical books and e-books for decades to come,” McKeown said. “Older Americans, especially the retiring baby boomers, are disproportionately avid book buyers; more and more they want the intimate browsing experience that neighborhood bookstores afford. Younger readers as well express a preference for independent bookstores. We think this association with Books & Books can help us tap into these trends in a big way.”

Books & Books Westhampton Beach is located at 130 Main St., Westhampton Beach, N.Y. 11978.–John Mutter

breathe books, Baltimore, MD.n a letter to her customers, Susan Weis, owner, introduced the concept of a “breathe investor’s program: creative solution for today’s economic reality.”Despite the bookshop’s success and strong community support for events, Weis said, “I am not immune to the current economic situation. It’s become increasingly difficult to keep cash flow at a level to cover operating costs. That money allows us to pay presenters to come to breathe, and to stock the great variety of books, music, gifts and other items on our shelves, drawing a diverse group of customers. Inventory is a major investment.” In addressing the challenge, she has chosen to do “something that may sound counter-intuitive: we’re going to expand. I believe that I need to bring you more of what you want…. In order to finance the new business plan, we are starting a community investment program, modeled after a successful program in Brooklyn where the community recently supported the creation of a new bookstore in their neighborhood.”

Spotlight on Bookstores: *Talking Leaves* in Buffalo, NY

Today’s Spolight on Bookstores has me looking for an excuse to visit upstate New York!  Gabrielle Burton, author of the non-fictionSearching for Tamsen Donner (2009) and the novel Impatient with Desire(the imagined diary of Tamsen Donner, 2010) writes about the store’s nearly 40-year history as a local gathering place.  She gives much credit to the store’s owners, Jonathon Welch and Martha Russell; you can’t get that personal touch from a virtual bookstore!  Gabrielle shares the web address; you can also follow them on Twitter: @tleavesbooks

My husband can run into a hardware store and stroll out two hours later with a smile on his face.  I’m the same way with bookstores.

One of my all time favorite bookstores is Talking Leaves, the oldest independent bookstore in Buffalo, NY, where I lived for 30 years. Now Buffalo is a much-maligned city filled with treasures not enough people know about.  To name a few: Albright Knox Art Gallery, six Frank Lloyd Wright houses plus a F.L.W. mausoleum, perfect summer weather, authentic chicken wings, and Talking Leaves Bookstore.

“Independent and idiosyncratic since 1971.”  That’s Talking Leaves motto or manifesto.

I moved to Buffalo in 1974 and already 3-year-old Talking Leaves was a community fixture, albeit with a ’60’s twist.  This store would not have come into being or stayed in existence without the best of the 60’s philosophy as manifested in its co-owners, Jonathon Welch and Martha Russell. Jonathon, his later to be spouse Martha, and a group of fellow graduate students opened Talking Leaves with their own money and money borrowed from friends. Begun as a co-op, a $5.00 annual membership gave you 10% off any book purchase.  Situated next to a food co-op, you weighed your tenth of an ounce of rosemary on the scale, dug in the bin for oats to toast for your granola, then went next door for spice and staple for your mind and spirit.

Talking Leaves has had several locations over the years, getting larger each time, but never TOO large.  A second branch, opened in 2001, was similarly financed like the first–by small loans from members of the community, teachers, musicians, lawyers, and local activists.  People in Buffalo believe Talking Leaves is a valuable anchor to a community that has had a lot of rough knocks, but is still talking proud.

Even Talking Leaves’ first tiny space always seemed to have just about any book you wanted–classic and mainstream fiction, non fiction, poetry, literary criticism, philosophy, anthropology, sociology, and books with gay/lesbian or African-American perspectives when these books were not easily had.  Say you’d read about a great book and it wasn’t there, Talking Leaves immediately ordered and stocked it.  We customers just took it for granted that the most obscure literary journal or underground rag with the ink barely dry would be on the rack near the front door.  Now I wonder: How did they find all those magazines covering literature, politics, film and cultural interests that reflected the quirkiness of their customers–publications that weren’t ad-driven, but had small enthusiastic circulations. They kept their ear to the ground and attuned to the customers.

Many people founded and helped maintain Talking Leaves but, at some point in most people’s minds, it became synonymous with Jonathon Welch and Martha Russell.  They have been its enduring face over the years.  You don’t go into the bookstore business–or stay–to make the big bucks.  But you can’t survive–keep a store open and raise a family–without some business savvy.  That customers rarely glimpsed the savvy behind Talking Leaves’ constant striving to survive is a testament to Jonathon and Martha’s integrity.  Although a base of customers has always been academic, they don’t sell them sweatshirts and backpacks.  Talking Leaves has slipped a greeting card and calendar in now and then, but has always been first and foremost, a store for readers of books.

Most every writer who came through Buffalo read at Talking Leaves–in the early days folding chairs set up in narrow aisles, wine and snacks on the house–often now in different venues in joint production with other arts organizations in town.  When my first novel,Heartbreak Hotel, came out in 1986, Talking Leaves threw a signing/party for me in a popular bar.  While people streamed in and out, Jonathon broadcast over public radio–”Come on down, folks, we’re having a great time here.”  And they did come on down and we had a great time.

Last year I was in Buffalo reading my memoir Searching for Tamsen Donner at a printing press museum, and of course Jonathan and Martha were there too, the table piled high with my books.  A traveling bookstore: another thing I never thought about until I wrote this is the staggering unending logistics of transporting all those books, the energy and dedication required.  Authors just take for granted that no matter the venue, Talking Leaves will be present with our books, and like the Trinity, it always was and is.

I live in California now–the pull of 4 of 5 daughters on the West Coast too strong to stay East–but I’m going back to Buffalo this month to celebrate the publication of my new novel Impatient with Desire.  For me, and so many other writers, Talking Leaves is a core part of sending a book out into the world.

“We’ve faced immense challenges,” said Welch, reflecting on the store’s history. “It’s always a marginal business. It gives you resilience and a visceral understanding of being marginal. It teaches you how to better react to adversity.”

That is a quintessential Buffalonian statement.  We who have lived there or live there still call Buffalo “City of No Illusions.”  Like the independent bookstore business, Buffalonians are tough, resilient, and know how to live with adversity and survive it.

This started out as a paean to Talking Leaves, but it’s also becoming a paean to Buffalo.  Really, the two are inseparable. Independent and idiosyncratic.

To paraphrase Talking Leaves’ website: “Our conscience, taste, & community guide our decisions.  Who we are and what we stock set us apart.  We are an independent, alternative, general and literary bookstore–fiercely proud of our Buffalo roots, and proudly insistent that local independent businesses are the foundation of their communities.”   Hear, hear.

But I haven’t told you anything about how warm, comfortable, and welcoming Talking Leaves is, how you can disappear in the aisles and no one bothers you, how it carries the comfort of the libraries I found haven in growing up.  Take it from me: next time you’re planning a trip to Niagara Falls, be sure to make a side trip to Talking Leaves Bookstore.  Niagara Falls may be one of the 7 wonders, but in these days of homogenized or online bookstores, Talking Leaves also ranks high as a wonder. You can shop online too.http://www.tleavesbooks.com

Suit Challenges Barnes & Noble Over Shareholder ‘Poison Pill’

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Published: May 6, 2010

The Yucaipa Companies, the investment company run by the Los Angeles investor Ron Burkle, sued Barnes & Noble, saying the company’s shareholder rights plan favored the controlling Riggio family. In a suit filed Wednesday in Delaware Chancery Court, Yucaipa also charged that Barnes & Noble’s board breached its fiduciary duties, and said it planned to nominate three new directors to challenge the current slate at the company’s coming annual meeting.

In a statement, Barnes & Noble’s board called the complaint meritless.

Mr. Burkle and his Yucaipa Companies own about 19 percent of Barnes & Noble, which is based in New York. Mr. Burkle sought this year to raise his stake to as much as 37 percent without activating the “poison pill” plan, but Barnes & Noble rejected that request. Mr. Burkle, who has said he thinks Barnes & Noble’s shares are undervalued, is seeking greater say in the company’s direction.Sales at Barnes & Noble have been declining as a result of competition from discounters and online retailers.

Yucaipa is the retailer’s second-largest shareholder behind Leonard S. Riggio, the company’s founder and chairman, who holds a 29 percent stake. His brother Steve Riggio served as company chief executive until March, and remains vice chairman. The Riggio brothers and other senior company executives owned a total of about 32 percent of shares as of April 1

Harvard Square’s “oft-overlooked specialty bookstores” were showcased by the Harvard Crimson, which advised readers “to peruse the city’s streets and read between the buildings.”

“There are probably less than 10 places in the country that could do what I do in Cambridge,” said John C. Petrovato, owner of Raven Used Books, where the strongest section is philosophy. “I don’t fetishize about books in the same way other people do; for me, the book is really about the content. It’s not really about the first edition.”

Patrick Carrier, co-owner of the Globe Corner Bookstore–which specializes in books for travelers–takes “great delight in people finding interesting and obscure books on our shelf. There’s a tremendous amount of effort that we [put] into it, and it only works if interesting customers come in and find interesting things.”

Schoenhof’s Foreign Books “claims eager Harvard language students, eccentric expatriates, cultured intellectuals, and former First Lady Laura Bush among its patrons,” the Crimson wrote.

“There’s no other place now in this area, in New England–probably in the country–that we’d be able to survive, especially given the challenges independent bookstores face nowadays,” said Daniel Eastman, the bookshop’s general director.

For poetry readers, Grolier Poetry Book Shop is legendary. Owner Ifeanyi A. Menkiti said his decision to purchase the shop in 2006 “was more like a labor of love. If you had money to invest, the last thing you really wanted to do was put it into a bookstore.… There’s so much that poets can do so we can accelerate the voices together. That’s what got a crazy old man with the bookstore, when everyone is running away from it.”

In this issue:

Manager’s report;

Itineraries;

Customer notes;

News stories:

Book sales rep John Mesjak of Stu Abraham and associates reviewed the IPad for use in sales calls;

Clinton Bookshop to move; enlisting “human chain”

Karen Corvello promises to shave her head ( R J Julia);

Barnes & Noble press release: “Unlimited Free Express Shipping on All Member BN.com and All Ship-to-Home Orders. Member Orders Ship Express 1-3 Day”

Hot Hardware: Barnes & Noble NOOK Gets Web Browser, Games, And More In New Update

Making Information Pay conference notes from SHELF AWARENESS’ John Mutter

Manager’s report-Causten Stehle: As the spring 2010 selling season draws to a close, I am pleased to say that we can finally put to rest the dictum of “flat is the new up.”  We end this season holding steady at 20% above 2009 net sales in orders processed through our in-house system (SAILS) and 10% above 09 in actual orders placed. (These numbers do not including orders from B&N, B&T, and Brodart or direct to publisher orders). More pleasing is that we are now almost even with the pre-recession numbers of 2008. We still trail  2007 both in net sales and orders processed, but at a respectable distance considering the economic pressures on publishing, the independent bookselling market and the consumer in the last two years. I am pleased to report that we end the season at a 16% reorder rate, over the 11% rate in ‘09 and ‘08. Without drilling down further, (and we now know the trouble that can cause!), these numbers broadly indicate that stores are ordering ‘smarter’, either through bestseller reorder after an initial buy, or back-list mining. In either case this is how they stay afloat and thrive in a bad economy.

Stores Seen/Orders received: 

Smithsonian, Edward R. Hamilton; Labyrinth Books, Princeton; Sherman’s/Maine branches: Camden, Freeport, Bar Harbor & Boothbay; Book Revue/LI; Bookazine/NJ; Drama Book Shop/NYC; Polybook Distributors, NY.

Itineraries: We’re in our second, wrap-up week of NYC publisher meetings and have been able to schedule some time for selling. Sean will be in Maine meeting with Sherman’s again and Western Massachusetts; I see Barnes & Noble’s College Division’s trade buying department in Basking Ridge Wednesday.

Customer notes:

Erie Bookstore, Erie PA Kathleen Cantrell reports that although the economic upturn hasn’t hit Erie yet. there are two new tenants in the building that house the store, bringing in close to 1,000 employees.  She is planning to give them discounts, promote book clubs and summer reading suggestions for kids. Linda

Hoping to fill the void left by the closing of Lambda Rising Bookstore this past winter, Jocques LeClair, former manager of the gay and lesbian store, has opened Proud Bookstore in Rehoboth Beach, DE, according to the Cape Gazette . “There’s a steady clientele that’s been coming here for 19 years,” LeClair told the paper. “Why not take care of them? I decided, instead of disappearing, why not just reopen one?” The store sells new and used books, cards, gifts, CDs, movies and clothing. LeClair also said he will emphasize customer service, display work by local artists in the store and offer author signings.  Proud Bookstore is located at 149 Baltimore Ave., Rehoboth Beach, Del. 19971; 302-227-6969. Linda

Chautauqua Institution, Chautauqua, NY is showing signs of life are showing again. The houses as getting ready for the summer residents. The program is diverse and jam packed.  Reservations are up and manager/buyer Earl Rothfus is looking forward to a busy season. Linda

Wegmans Buyer Donna Kittrell continues to look for titles that compliment  the food, wine, home and cooking areas as well as local interest titles for their stores.  The chain keeps growing Linda

Book Crossing, Brunswick, MD After a long struggle, Stacy Wright closed the store last week.  They had a good year when they opened, then the bottom fell out of the economy and they never recovered Linda

Erie Bookstore, Erie PA – Kathleen Cantrell, reports that although the economic upturn hasn’t hit Erie yet, two new tenants in the building that house the store, bringing in close to 1,000 employees.  She is planning to give discounts, promote book clubs and summer reading suggestions for kids - Linda

Clinton Book Shop, NJ moves: Customers will form “an old-fashioned bucket brigade of books” to help the store move to its new location next Sunday. MyCentralJersey.com reported that manager Rob Dougherty and owner Harvey Finkel have signed up about 53 volunteers thus far and hope for as many as 125 helpers “to create a chain of people between the two locations, passing buckets of books from the old shop to the new shop, not unlike the original fire department might have done with water buckets during a fire during the late 19th century.” “It’s pretty much right on target,” said Dougherty, who expects the new store to reopen May 11. “The counters are done, shelving is up and the new children’s spa is finished.”  “The building is coming full circle,” Finkel added. “The new space, rich in history, will have the look and feel of what we are proud to be–a small town, independent book shop in New Jersey’s most beautiful town.” Sean

R. J. Julia’s Karen Corvello, manager ( and NEIBA Director) i n Shelf Awareness: n what may be a first, a bookseller’s desire to draw attention to a book she loves includes the threat or promise “to shave my head and move to a nunnery in the Himalayan Alps (do they have Alps in the Himalayans?)” if she doesn’t convince at least five customers to read the book. The bookseller is Karen Corvello of R.J. Julia Booksellers, Madison, Conn., who adores The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman (Dial Press), which, as she wrote on the bookstore’s blog, “tells the linked short stories of ten staff members at a newspaper in Rome. (Not a short story fan? No worries, it reads like a novel.) Some stories are funny, some are tragic; some characters are self-deluded and lost. My two favorites: Obituary writer Arthur Gopel’s relationship with his eight-year-old daughter, Pickle, and Abbey’s transatlantic flight sitting next to the copy editor she just fired.” After recounting Christopher Buckley’s rave front-page review in yesterday’s New York Times Book Review, Corvello concluded: “The barber is sharpening his blades, and the sight of me with no hair would not be pretty, so please, help me out here–I really don’t think I would make a good nun.”
By the way, no Alps in the Himalayas. With peaks like theirs, who needs Alps?

Voracious Reader, Larchmont, NY Owner Francine Lucidon is trying a new tactic to bring in customers- having a published author on staff. Voracious Reader’s newest bookseller is Sarah Darer Littman. Francine says “Sarah is an award winning author who writes for middle readers and teens and loves indie bookstores.  She’s as sweet as she is knowledgeable and a real feather in our cap!” Imagine the parents lining up for book recommends by a published author!  Sean

JOHN MESJAK, PUBLISHER SALES REP | APRIL 30, 2010

When I am working with a bookstore buyer in a sales call, I usually spend the first part of my time at any store carrying in tote bags of sales materials to share with my buyers.  For a publisher of children’s books, this can mean multiple totes of F&Gs. (For the uninitiated, F&Gs stands for “folded & gathered” unbound pages of picture books.)  For a publisher of books that involve design or photography or art, we usually receive color copies of sample page spreads or fancy printed “blads”. (Again, for the uninitiated, a blad is just a small booklet of sample pages, usually in the exact trim size of the finished book.)

I don’t want to sound like I’m complaining about having lots of sales materials to share with my buyers – I’m not, because I know that showing off the incredible sample pages of a book will often make the sale where my sales pitch alongside the catalog page might fall short. But after the iPad announcement I got to thinking, what if I had an iPad filled with an entire season’s worth of blads and F&Gs and sample page spreads?  What if I had PDF versions of all those sales materials instead of all the tote bags?

This was where I spent a lot of time, trying to find an app that would help me handle all those PDFs during a sales call, with a simple interface that any buyer could easily grasp.  My plan was to bring the iPad in to sales calls and turn it over to my buyers while I continued to use the laptop to present my sales pitch and take down the orders.  For a scary couple of days, I thought I might have to learn how to build my own app.

It might seem obvious now to anyone who has looked at the App Store’s best-seller list since the iPad went on sale, but when I first started looking around, GoodReader was a dark horse app, not one of the top-selling paid apps. Right away, I knew that this app was going to be a mainstay on my iPad.  And their almost instantaneous release of the iPad-optimized version (with fast updates since the launch) shows they are paying attention to their users’ needs.

Unlike the ebook-reading side of my work flow, this part works very smoothly, thanks to GoodReader’s beneath-the-scenes programming.  It is one of the first apps designed to take advantage of inter-app data sharing on the iPad.  This means that once you’ve installed GoodReader, the operating system knows that app can handle any PDFs that might come along – whether you’ve received it in an email or come across it on the web.  You just tap on the file and a pop-up option allows you to open it in GoodReader.  And you’re done.  That PDF is copied to GoodReader.

They’ve also built in capabilities to log on to popular cloud-based file storage services like Dropbox. The Dropbox service installs a file on your desktop and securely syncs any files you might put inside that folder up to your account in the cloud.  From inside the GoodReader app, you can easily access your Dropbox account and navigate to exactly the right files you want copied to your iPad.  I’ve already used the combination of Dropbox and GoodReader to move mountains of files to my iPad for next season.  (There is a Dropbox app for iPhone, but they haven’t updated it yet for iPad, so it doesn’t seem to work as smoothly as GoodReader does.)

ABOVE, an iPad screen grab of a double-page spread from a Fall 2010 Albert Whitman picture book, Smelly Bill: Love Stinks. RIGHT, an iPad screen grab of a full-page sample from a Fall 2010 Quirk Books title, Witch Craft. Click to enlarge.So how does it all work?  Even better than I’d dare to hope back in January.  The screen images are gorgeous, and the processor in the iPad is even more powerful than the iPhone currently has.  PDFs fly open, scroll quickly, and zoom in and out without delay.  So many people have iPhones or similar touchscreen-based smartphones already that I don’t expect much trouble in working with my buyers during our appointments.  The interface is quite intuitive.

I haven’t started selling the fall season to bookstores yet, but I’m looking forward to having so many samples right at my fingertips to show my buyers.

I’ve been asking our publishers to send me their sales materials in PDF form for this season and many have been very supportive.  I’m looking forward to our upcoming round of sales conference meetings to show them how great their materials look on the iPad. I encourage my fellow book sales reps to take a look at these new tools and spend some time thinking about how they might improve their workflow and their time spent with bookstore customers.

For any publisher who wants to find a smart way to cut back on costly printing, cross-country mailings, and antiquated systems for distributing sales materials to your sales and marketing people, step forward and give this method a try.  I’m happy to have a conversation with any publisher about how to put these tools in place. For an industry that’s struggling to define the future of books and ebooks for the general public and worrying about competing file formats, price wars, DRM, and myriad other fears, this kind of clean, internal change should be a no-brainer.  It’s not revolutionary, it’s simply evolution.  We find ways to do our jobs better and we move forward. Cross-posted at the Huffington Post.

Barnes & Noble Launches New Member Benefit: Unlimited Free Express Shipping with No Minimum

Unlimited Free Express Shipping on All Member BN.com and All Ship-to-Home Orders. Member Orders Ship Express 1-3 Days

NEW YORK, Apr 30, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) — –Benefit Available on Over Two Million Products Including Books, Educational Toys & Games and Great Home & Gift Selections

Barnes & Noble, Inc. /quotes/comstock/13*!bks/quotes/nls/bks (BKS 22.04, -1.18, -5.08%) , the world’s largest bookseller, today announced that, effective April 30, it will offer Unlimited Free Express Shipping to Barnes & Noble Members on all orders placed online at Barnes & Noble.com (www.bn.com) and on all ship-to-home orders placed in store. With this new benefit, all Member orders are automatically upgraded to Free Express Shipping and Members will receive their orders in three business days or less, with no minimum purchase required and no limits. In store, Barnes & Noble Members will continue to receive in-store discounts of 40% off list price on hardcover bestsellers, 20% off list price on all adult hardcovers (including textbooks), and an extra 10% off the Barnes & Noble price on already discounted items such as bargain, books, music, DVDs, all cafe items and more. Additionally, Members who join now receive $50 in bonus coupons, which is more than the cost of the $25 per year Membership. Online, BN.com will continue to offer all customers everyday low pricing on a great selection of books, toys and games, gifts, digital products and more. Members will now have the added benefit of Unlimited Free Express Shipping in 1-3 days. (Non-Members receive free standard shipping on all orders of $25 or more.)

HOT HARDWARE: Barnes & Noble NOOK Gets Web Browser, Games, And More In New Update

Anyone who ever told you that a single company owning the market was a good thing had their head in the clouds. In the latest edition of “why competition works,” the Barnes & Noble NOOK e-reader is seeing one of the most impressive updates in a long time, and we have to believe that this update wouldn’t be nearly as robust without Amazon’s Kindle, Spring Design’s Alex and Apple’s iPad sitting beside it on the virtual shelves. These days, consumers have lots of choices when it comes to buying an e-book reader and/or tablet, so without a nice feature set, it’s easy to overlook one and head right for another.

It’s clear that B&N doesn’t want their recently launched NOOK to become the one that’s overlooked, and judging by the new firmware, they mean business with keeping it up to date when compared to the competition. The latest update, which is being provided for free to current and to-be NOOK owners, adds new firsts and features for the e-book category as a whole and the NOOK itself. A new Read In Store experience has been launched in Beta, bringing users the ability to browse complete books in B&N stores at no cost, as well as games. The games app is the first Android app on the device, and if that’s not enough, don’t sweat it.

B&N is also providing enhanced Wi-Fi and a basic Web Browser (also in Beta), the latter of which is a huge win. The iPad has beenable to read ebooks and surf the Web since day one, so adding a browser of any kind to the NOOK is a legitimate way to draw attention back away from Cupertino. The new features, along with additional reading and device performance optimization, such as faster page turns and an enhanced home screen, are part of NOOK v1.3 software, and best of all, you don’t have to wait for it–it’s available now. So, has this new update put the NOOK back on your must-have list? We wouldn’t be shocked if you said “yes.”

Other updates NOOK customers will enjoy with v1.3 software include:

• Reading experience: To help customers get to their content conveniently and quickly, Barnes & Noble has continued to optimize NOOK’s performance with improved page turn speed, faster access to previously opened eBooks, enhanced color touch screen navigation and more.
• Games: From eBooks to rooks, play Chess against NOOK with one of three levels of difficulty, or get puzzled with Sudoku, choosing from four levels of play. Control the game using the color touch screen as the game board appears on the E Ink^® display.
• Wi-Fi connectivity: In addition to Barnes & Noble bookstores and other Wi-Fi hotspots, enjoy high-speed connectivity in even more places, such as those that require access to additional information through a Web browser including hotels and coffee shops.
• Basic Web browser (Beta): While connected via Wi-Fi, explore the Web and check Internet-based e-mail accounts on the E Ink display, while using the color touch screen for navigation and to access the virtual keyboard.
• Updated home screen: From the home menu (located on the lower color touch screen), get easy, direct access to existing features including Audio and Wi-Fi settings, as well as new features such as Games and beta Web browser.

NOOK v1.3 is now available via manual download at www.nook.com/update with additional information and easy-to-follow directions. NOOKs connected to Wi-Fi will receive an automatic NOOK v1.3 update over the next week.

In Barnes & Noble stores, NOOK automatically connects to the fast and free Wi-Fi where NOOK customers can tap on the Shop button to now enjoy the beta Read In Store feature. Customers can read many complete eBooks available in Barnes & Noble’s expansive eBookstore of more than one million digital titles, even if the physical book is not in stock. From current bestsellers to classics, customers can enjoy a wide variety of eBooks from hundreds of publishers, including all the major publishing houses. Soon, in-store visitors will also be able to virtually flip through leading daily newspapers and magazines covering news, finance and technology available in the eBookstore.

NOOK customers can explore the content of as many digital titles as they wish, on any given day, including any available eBook for up to an hour per day; and to come, current-edition newspapers and magazines in the BN eBookstore will be available for up to 20 minutes per day. NOOK’s Read In Store experience is another first for the retail and eBook arena, like the More In Store^™ experience which offers NOOK owners access to free, exclusive content from leading authors and special discounts and promotions when in Barnes & Noble stores.

Read more: http://hothardware.com/News/Barnes%2D%2DNoble%2DNOOK%2DGets%2DWeb%2DBrowser%2DGames%2DAnd%2DMore%2DIn%2DNew%2DUpdate/#ixzz0mraFwUr2

Making Information Pay: One-Way Trips?

Points of no return was the theme at yesterday’s Making Information Pay conference, sponsored by the Book Industry Study Group, in New York City.

Organizer and first speaker Mike Shatzkin, CEO of the Idea Logical Company, set the stage for the discussion, predicting growth in e-book sales to 25% of all new “straight-text, narrative books” in two and a half years, at which point total online sales for those books will exceed sales in bricks-and-mortar outlets. “Half of sales of new narrative books will be online,” he said. “This is a big effing deal, as our Vice President would say.”

That “point of no return” will come in 2012–appropriately, when the Mayan calendar ceases, a sign of the end of the world, many people say–leading to a somewhat grim scenario, as Shatzkin outlined it:

The traditional publishing business will have to “shrink fast.” Mergers among major publishers may take place. Big houses may reshuffle lists, so that one house would get out of romance and another out of science fiction.

Bookstores and publishers “will be threatened with disintermediation.”

Bricks-and-mortar stores will continue to close and will “not be coming back.” (”So far the reduction of bookstore shelf space has been a slow drip,” Shatzkin commented. “None of the three big chains has closed a lot of stores. It’s hard to see how this good fortune for publishers will continue.”)

Publishers that have survived in a world “where their control of shelf space in stores is the biggest competitive advantage” will have an infrastructure that is “increasingly seen as an albatross.”

A new publishing model of publishing titles first as e-books and then on a POD basis will become “more sensible.”

As e-books come to account for a quarter of publishers’ sales, the quality of e-books will become more important.

As prices go down and royalties rise in the e-book world, traditional publishers will do marketing for only big books or books about certain subjects key to the publisher, but by 2012, for marketing, “authors will be on their own.”

–

Kelly Gallagher, v-p of publishing services at Bowker, pulled the discussion back to less scary ground by reiterating a theme from last year: when it comes to books, the average reader–a 45-year-old woman–”wants what she wants where she wants it and when she wants it and doesn’t care how” publishers do it.

Publishers and other need to understand the consumer and understand customers’ proliferation of choice and access to content, Gallagher said. “We had a 6,000-year run at the supply chain. But that’s over.” Now the “consumer queen” drives the process. “We are living in a 24/7/365 world.”

Gallagher cited survey findings showing that a shift toward e-books continues and that e-book buyers are buying fewer printed books. Among other significant changes: social media continues to attract a range of readers–69% of book buyers engage in some kind of social networking–and book buying influences come increasingly online.

—

George Lossius, CEO of Publishing Technology, offered a British perspective on e-devices, noting that cell phones are “moving quicker everywhere else in the world” outside the U.S. He said that on a trip before the conference from Cambridge, Mass., to New York, he had seen more e-readers than “in Europe at all.” He called e-readers “a defensive strategy” that replicates “existing revenues.” By contrast, cell phones and products from Apple, for example, provide “wonderful opportunities to enrich content.”

—

Bruce Shaw, president and publisher, and Adam Salomone, director of digital initiatives, at Harvard Common Press, discussed how the cooking and parenting publisher has begun moving into the digital future during the past several years. “I have seen more change in the last year in publishing than I did in the previous 29,” Shaw said.

During his first 28 years at the helm of Harvard Common Press, Shaw said, “we were a traditional publisher. We produced very good books.” Now the press is doing some e-books and digital publishing, and “we’re thinking beyond that.”

As Shaw described it, the process has been gradual. “We’re still thinking about digital in an old-fashioned way,” he said. “It’s not a dramatically changing process. Still 97% of our sales are of books.”

Harvard Common Press has been partnering with some online companies. One example is BabyCD, which has excerpts from books and where consumers can link to the company’s website to buy books there.

The company is also talking with Yummly, which has 350,000 recipes online. “We’re talking about using their platform to sell recipes,” Salomone said. “It’s radically different from putting recipes in a book and selling that.”

Shaw predicted that the company “will sell fewer and fewer copies of books,” and that digital and e-books will make up for that “in part. We have to protect ourselves by going online.”

—

Matt Baldacci, v-p and associate publisher of St. Martin’s Press, said that for some St. Martin’s titles, e-book sales account for 30% of the book’s sales, and across Macmillan e-books are 10% of sales.

As a result, he has been able to change the emphasis of marketing so that much more of it is online. (He noted that marketing principles nonetheless remain the same: price, promotion, product, placement.)

He illustrated the change by noting that in the past Jackie Collins’s titles were launched with a Good Morning America appearance, print ads, display dumps, TV ads and major discounting. By contrast, her latest title was promoted via a tour, online ads, social networking promotions and print ads.

Baldacci stressed that market and consumer research has changed. “Twenty years ago there wasn’t much available and we didn’t use it well,” he said. Now the company has begun targeting material to people predisposed or interested in a subject or author.

As e-books become more prevalent, too, “reviewers and consumers will demand more from us,” Baldacci continued. For example, e-books will have to have indexes with hyperlinks. “In two years the most powerful reviewer will be a blogger who calls us on bad e-book formatting.”–John Mutter

--

In this issue:

Manager’s report:
Causten Stehle:  “As we near the end of the selling season, we are closer to our pre-recession 2008 numbers. orders entered through our in-house system, SAILS, trail ‘08 by less than six per cent.. We are also now almost 20% above ‘09.  (Note: These numbers do not including orders from B&N, B&T, and Brodart or direct to publisher orders.) We remain far below the high of 2007, but we are gaining ground. Orders entered through our in-house system show a similar trend – we are nine percent above 2009 and just five percent behind 2008.

A closer look at the number of orders taken this season shows an interesting trend. Of the total orders placed this season, 16% were re-orders from the same publisher. In 2009 year-to-date. this number was at 11%. In 2008, this number was also at 11%. What do these numbers say? To me, it says that after having weathered two years of recession, stores are ordering ‘smarter’; relying on known backlist performers, and/or new titles with customer appeal. In either case, I am encouraged by this.”

Stores seen/orders taken:

Linda Cannon: American Souvenirs & Gifts; Bradley’s, Compleat Bookseller, Corning Museum of Glass, Flesicher’s, National Gallery of Art, Politics & Prose; World Bank Info Shop.

Sean Concannon: Blue Stocking Books, Bookfairs by Bookends, Books on the Square, Brookline Booksmith, Eastern National Parks, Edward R. Hamilton, Garland of Letters, Gulf of Maine Books, Headhouse Books, Labyrinth Books-Princeton, New England Mobile Bookstore, NYU Book Center, Penn Concessions.

Chris Kerr: Book Revue, Harvard Bookstore, Mass Audubon Society Gift Shop, Mystery on Main Street, Now Voyager, Parnassus Book Service.

Causten Stehle: NY Botanical garden Gift Shop

Itineraries:

We begin the first stage of our sales conference season this week: the first round concludes May 13th, the second round resumes around & during BookExpo (May 24-28;) we conclude with conference call-meetings through early June, wrapping up at our team meeting June 13-14th. We look forward to catching-up with you.

I saw St. Mark’s Bookshop last week; they continue to struggle with low foot traffic and below expectations sales. They also face a serious rent escalation from their landlord Cooper Union. They’ve lost their angel on the Board; he’s been replaced by a brace of young real estate moguls. Things always perk up for St. Mark’s with warm weather, so they remain hopeful. Several management team members will be at BEA. Chris

I had a “farewell lunch” with the American Museum of Natural History buying team of Charles Kanarick and Chris Fleming with whom I go “way back.” Event Network takes over soon; they been “terminated” effective May 15th. Of sixty AMNH “retail division” employees, only 30 will be offered Event Network jobs. EN executives bragged to AMNH executives that their average publisher discount is 60%. (Note to clients: If you are giving the San Diego-based E.N. 60% discount, you need to brush up on your reading of Robinson Patman.)Chris

other news:
Barnes & Noble’s Nook carves out niche

Barnes & Noble Updates E-Reader to Fix Frozen Screen

Pannell Award for Best Kid’s store to Green Toad Bookstore

Mystery Lovers Bookshop, Oakmont, PA wins Raven Award from Mystery Writers of America

What Does the Drooping Book Business Need? How About a Jolt of Espresso? (Wharton Interview w/ Jason Epstein)

Book Blogger Convention Debuts: Friday, May 28, Javits Center, the day after BookExpo America

NEWS:

Pannell Award to Green Toad Bookstore (NAIBA news) 
When I visited Michel a few weeks ago she told me that the store had been selected as a finalist for this year’s Pannell award. Offering my usual sage advice, I counseled her that it took years of being nominated to heighten name-recognition etc and that she should be content to be a finalist. How little I know! Chris
The winners of this year’s Pannell Award, sponsored by the Women’s National Book Association in honor of Lucile Micheels Pannell and given to a general bookstore and children’s-only bookstore that “excel at inspiring the interest of young people in books and reading,” include one of our own.

Green Toad Bookstore in Oneonta, N.Y., was praised for “reaching out to young people with special needs and their ’substance mixed with a little flash.’ ” “We were high-fivin’ and whooping while Mary James Grey was on the phone with us! I’m pretty sure she thinks we are a crazy bunch,” owner Michele Pondolfino told NAIBA when asked how the store reacted to the news. Pondolfino was quick to add: “I’d like to especially commend the staff here at the Green Toad. They are a ridiculously smart, funny and ultra-creative bunch. They are the life force behind this place and there is no way I could ever maintain the pace of our store without their constant support and hard work.” Did the nomination change the way they looked at the store? “Yes, of course. Once nominated, we began developing a list of things we’ve done and programs we’ve implemented and felt pretty excited that so much has been accomplished in our brief year and a half. We also checked out our competition and realized there is lots more we can do to cultivate the love of reading in children,” said Pondolfino.  Ultimately, she said, customers lead them in the right direction and towards the current trends. “They are a wealth of information and ideas for us and since they pay our bills, we are rapt listeners.” ”We are always motivated for bigger and better things but now the pressure is on to live up to our award. While we don’t have any solid plans today, we tend to be pretty quirky around here and implement things on a whim which usually works pretty well for us.” Congratulations to Michele Pondolfino and her fine staff at Green Toad Bookstore.  They will be presented with a $1,000 check and a framed piece of original art by David Diaz and Gianna Marino at the Children’s Book & Author Breakfast at BEA.
The Mystery Writer’s of America: Booksellers Richard Goldman and Mary Alice Gorman, co-owners of Mystery Lovers Bookshop, are in New York for the Edgars to receive a Raven award “in recognition of the constant support and dedication they have shown to the mystery community,” but they will be back home in Oakmont, Pa., Monday to host the 15th annual Festival of Mystery. About 45 authors will gather to meet hundreds of readers and “talk about and sign copies of their work, participate in raffles benefiting the award-winning children’s literacy program, Beginning with Books, and be interviewed,” the Valley News Dispatch reported. “Prepare to come away happy that there are so many folks reading and writing mystery books,” said Gorman.  Saying that he is “extremely excited” to be attending the festival for the first time, author Kevin O’Brien observed, “The people at Mystery Lovers Bookshop are really cool, and they have a wonderful reputation in the publishing world.” Elizabeth Casey agreed: “After spending months behind a computer, you tend to forget there’s a real world out there. Getting to meet the readers who read my work is an absolute joy. It reminds me why I love doing what I do.”

Barnes & Noble’s Nook carves out niche. Last month, shipments of Barnes & Noble’s nook from manufacturers accounted for 53% of all e-book readers shipped to U.S., easily surpassing Amazon’s Kindle, Digitimes Research said. Digitimes Research senior analyst Mingchi Kuo attributed this ”partly to consumers’ interest in new products, as Amazon’s Kindle has already been on the market for some time” and to B&N’s “extra competitiveness” in having retail outlets across the country. Digitimes said e-book reader shipments worldwide were 1.43 million units in the January, February and March and will grow to 2.02 million units in the second quarter. For the year, global shipments should reach 11.4 million units, up from 3.82 million last year.

Barnes & Noble Updates E-Reader to Fix Frozen Screen

April 19, 2010, 4:28 PM EDT

By Matt Townsend and Carol Wolf

April 19 (Bloomberg) — Barnes & Noble Inc. plans to release a software update to its Nook e-reader this week to stop the screen from freezing, increase its speed and offer a Web browser and games for the first time, a company executive said.

“We’re fixing the problem,” Anthony Astarita, vice president of digital products, said in an interview in his New York office on April 16. “Like any consumer product, you have issues that do come up. No product is 100 percent perfect.”

Barnes & Noble released the Nook in November, entering a growing market led by Amazon.com Inc.’s Kindle and Sony Corp.’s Reader. Apple Inc.’s new iPad tablet computer, out this month, increased competition. The Nook is fundamental to the retailer’s push into the digital market, since users will turn to Barnes & Noble first to purchase e-books, said Michael Souers, a New York-based analyst for Standard & Poor’s.

Sales of reading devices will grow to 5 million this year from 2.2 million in 2009, the Consumer Electronics Association estimates. E-books and the Nook represent about 3 percent to 5 percent of Barnes & Noble’s sales, said Souers, who advises clients to sell the company’s shares. That should double to about 10 percent within five years, he said.

Revenue in the four quarters ended Jan. 30 totaled $6.07 billion. The company doesn’t disclose sales figures for the Nook or digital books.

Barnes & Noble, based in New York, fell 52 cents, or 2.3 percent, to $22.14 at 4:02 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The shares have gained 16 percent this year.

‘Almost Daily’

Hundreds of Nook owners have posted complaints online, including on Barnes & Noble’s Web site.

“It freezes almost daily,” Stacey Hendricks, a student at University of Louisiana at Lafayette, said in an e-mail to Bloomberg. “Assuming Barnes & Noble doesn’t whip this situation into shape pronto, I’ll likely be switching over to the iPad.”

Barnes & Noble has updated Nook software twice before now. The latest update speeds page-turns, lengthens battery life, and adds Web browsing and free chess and Sudoku games, Astarita said.

Best Buy Co. began selling the Nook in its U.S. stores yesterday. Barnes & Noble also provides the digital bookstore for e-readers such as Plastic Logic’s Que and free software that allow users of devices such as Apple’s iPhone to buy and read its electronic books.

The bookseller decided to make an e-reader in August 2008 and began work on the Nook in February 2009 at its offices in Palo Alto, California, Astarita said. Given the speed of development, the company assumed the software would need updating, he said.

‘Nail-Biting’

“It was one of those nail-biting scenarios that came down to the wire,” Astarita said. “It was that very reason that we made sure when we developed this product that we had the ability to do software updates and continually improve the product.”

Gloria Spink’s first Nook displayed garbled text. Barnes & Noble sent her a replacement last month. That one repeatedly froze, forcing her to open the device and remove the battery to unlock it, she said in a telephone interview.

“I said, ‘Enough and I want my money back,’” said Spink, a 63-year-old assistant buyer for Boyd Gaming Corp. in Las Vegas. “I returned the Nook and bought a Kindle online that same day.”

The Nook’s return rate, which also includes replacements, is below what the company expected, Astarita said, declining to provide specific numbers.

The retailer’s response to the freezing will determine the Nook’s success, Mike McGuire, a San Jose, California-based analyst for Gartner Inc., a technology research firm, said in a telephone interview.

“With hardware it’s not that there was a problem, it’s how you recover,” McGuire said.

What Does the Drooping Book Business Need? How About a Jolt of Espresso?

Published: April 28, 2010 in Knowledge@Wharton
What if you could print a perfect-bound volume for as little time as it takes to brew a cup of coffee? That is the premise behind the Espresso book machine, which turns digital PDF files into paperbacks in minutes. Jason Epstein and Dane Neller, chairman and CEO respectively of On Demand Books in New York, the company behind the Espresso book machine, believe their technology has the potential to transform book publishing. Epstein, who was editorial director of Random House for 40 years, recently wrotea widely read essay in The New York Review of Books about the impact of digital technology on publishing. In an interview with Stephen J. Kobrin, editor of Wharton School Publishing, and Knowledge@Wharton, Epstein and Neller discuss their views on where the publishing business is headed.

Epstein will speak at a conference on The Future of Publishing in New York on April 30. The conference is being organized by theWharton Interactive Media Initiative, Wharton School Publishing, and Knowledge@Wharton.

An edited version of the discussion appears below:

Stephen J. Kobrin: Mr. Epstein, I was fascinated by your article in The New York Review of Books. My first question is what will a book be in the digital age? Will it simply be a traditional book digitalized? Will it take new forms? Will the term “book” still be relevant?

Jason Epstein: We are talking about two different things — content and format. As far as content is concerned, that has been extraordinarily stable over centuries. A book will remain a book in that sense, no matter what the technology is. That doesn’t mean there won’t be innovations. For instance, there may be short books that people can read on cell phones, the way they do in Tokyo, but basically content will remain what it always has been.

Authorship, too, will remain what it always has been. There is a lot of talk about community publishing, about groups getting together to write books. That’s impossible. Authors don’t encourage collaboration of that sort unless they are writing books that require collaboration, as historians sometimes do.

Eventually all the content in the world will be digitized and available everywhere in the world in that format. It will be downloaded in one way or another — either to be read online or to be printed in book form by Espresso or similar devices. What the proportion will be is impossible to say at this point. My guess is that the dominant format will be the traditional codex [the format used for modern books], which is convenient, durable and portable. At least in America, when you buy a physical book in the bookstore, you own it; you can do what you want with it. When you download a digital file onto your Kindle, you don’t own it for fear that it will get loose. It could become viral and then the copyright would be lost, so publishers have to protect that.

Dane Neller: The Financial Times recently published an article about e-books based on a study by PriceWaterhouseCoopers. In the U.S. in 2008 — just for consumer books — e-books were a little sliver of the overall market. This is estimated to grow by 2013 to about 3% worldwide, which leaves print at around 97% of the market.

Now this is the key statistic. The print market is broken down between offset and toner based — or digital and offset. The toner based market, which is what we are in, represents about 6% of the books market in the U.S. right now. It’s twice as big as the e-book market and estimated to grow to 15% in the next three to five years. What is often not understood is that the toner-based, digital print on-demand market is larger than e-books and is experiencing a growth curve that is higher than e-books.

Knowledge@Wharton: Book publishing is witnessing a shift from physical inventory to digital distribution. How do you see the implications for the different players in the value chain — authors, publishers, retailers and customers?

Epstein: When this all settles down in four or five years, much of the publishing infrastructure will have been eliminated. Digital files can go from the publisher to the end user in one step with no intervening process. To the extent that this becomes possible, obviously the price of a book to the consumer will be lower because there will be less cost involved. The reward to the writer will be greater for the same reason. The possibility of profit to publishers will also be greater. They won’t be investing in inventory and the infrastructure that goes with creating an inventory. In other words, the publisher’s risk and cost will be lower.

In the digital future, those three conditions will prevail. Books will be cheaper; more [money] will go to the author; and the publisher will get a better break. But those are the ultimate effects; there will be a lot of static between now and then.

Knowledge@Wharton: How do you find publishers responding to these changes? What is right and wrong about the way they are reacting?

Epstein: Let me tell you an anecdote. When I first joined the publishing business, I was 21 years old. It was in 1951. I worked at Doubleday, and it occurred to me that it might be a good idea to take some of the books that my colleagues in graduate school — where I had just come from — weren’t able to afford because they were only available in hardcover and put them out in paperback.

There was a new market because of the GI Bill; millions of people who had never gone to college before were now going to college to study. By some miraculous effect, the man I worked for said, “Okay, we’ll try that.” So we printed 12 of those books in that format. It was a permanent paperback format that would be sold in bookstores, not like paperbacks sold in newsstands. To make a long story short, it revolutionized the book trade.

Now, none of my colleagues — none of the people who had been in the book business all their lives — noticed that opportunity. In fact, when I suggested it, they said, “Oh, this will never work. What does he know about anything?” There is a lot of inertia in the publishing industry, and it hasn’t changed since 1951. Publishers are loath to see the next step.

I can talk about other innovations that ought to have come out of the book business but didn’t. For example, Amazon should have come out of the book business. The publishers should have seen that. In fact, I did see that when I created my Reader’s Catalog [during the 1980s], which in effect became Amazon.

The digitization process [of books] also should have begun with the publishers. They should have seized this opportunity. They should have taken the initiative and not left it up to Google. Eventually they will come around, whichever of them are left. This change is going to be revolutionary.

Look at China. University towns there have 2 million students. We just signed a deal with the China Publishing Group, the country’s largest publishing company. Their goal is to make available Espresso book machines throughout China and reprint Chinese books, English books, French books and others. Their focus now is mainly on scientific and professional volumes, but over time that will change. You are talking about 1.6 billion people, some of whom have never seen books before. Pakistan has 2 million people who go to Islamabad University. This is a phenomenon of enormous worldwide growth.

Knowledge@Wharton: Consider another aspect of books going digital. If all books exist essentially as single droplets in a vast digital cloud, how will each book be found? What implications does this have for the marketing of books?

Neller: There are multiple answers to your question. Let us take the university setting and consider library books. That is an enormous growth area. What will happen? One way these books will be found is through the library’s electronic catalog systems. If you are a student, you will have access to the entire database of the library as well as have the ability to choose new acquisitions. These could either be in e-book form or print form. So you will discover books through that mechanism.

Outside the library systems, books will be made accessible through companies like Google who will make them discoverable. Readers will find books through Google, Amazon or websites of special interest. These mechanisms of discovery are already in place.

Kobrin: You are talking basically about accessibility and availability. But what about awareness? Right now a lot of people become aware of books in a bookstore. They pick the book up on the shelf and leaf through it. When books are part of a vast digital cloud, how will people become aware of them? How will they know they exist?

Neller: Word-of-mouth has always been the best way to sell a book — and the web represents the word-of-mouth medium in spades. There’s never been anything like it. There will be countless opportunities for books to get viral publicity on YouTube and its successors. That is something we never had before. Amazon does a very good job of building awareness about books. Believe me, Google will as well.

Knowledge@Wharton: What role do you see for the Espresso book machine in this brave new world of digital publishing? Can you give us some background about how you came up with the idea for the machine?

Epstein: For my entire career I have been concerned about backlists. Backlists keep publishers in business. They are like annuities; these are books you sell year after year with no effort and at very little expense. Our civilization resides in our backlists.

As I wrote in my article in the New York Review, in the mid 1970s I noticed that backlists had begun to deteriorate rapidly — 60,000 or 70,000 titles a year or more and growing. There were two reasons for this. One was a change in the tax law that made it no longer possible to write off unsold inventory as a business expense. The other was the demographic shift from cities to the suburbs. The large independent bookstores that depended upon city markets were closing down and being replaced by smaller shopping mall stores that couldn’t carry backlists. They had to depend upon current books.

I tried to offset this problem by starting a project called the Reader’s Catalog back in the mid 1980s. This was a telephone-size directory of some 40,000 backlist titles that you could order through an 800 number. The Internet wasn’t yet commercialized. The Reader’s Catalog was a huge success, but we were losing money on shipping. It was very complicated, and I decided to give it up. Then Amazon picked it up and put it online — and it became Amazon.

That didn’t solve the backlist problem, though. When digitization came in, I started to see there was an opportunity to solve it on a grander scale. With digitization you can restore every book ever printed to print. You can have a vast — almost infinite — inventory at very little expense — and you can deliver a book anywhere in the world on demand.

I discussed all this in a series of lectures I gave at the New York Public Library in 1999. One of the things I said was what’s necessary to complete this technology is a device, like an ATM, that can receive a digital file on demand anywhere in the world and print it out as a library quality paperback book. That lecture was printed — and soon someone called me and said, “I know where there is such a machine.” I went to see it — and that’s how it all began.

Knowledge@Wharton: How has the rise of e-readers like the Kindle and the Sony e-reader redefined the book business? What impact will the iPad have?

Epstein: It is hard to predict how that will sort itself out. I think eventually one-purpose machines like the Kindle and Sony e-reader will be replaced by multi-purpose machines such as the iPad. People who like to read books on screens will read their books on those devices along with their newspapers. But as I said before, most people in most parts of the world will prefer physical books.

Kobrin: What will happen to territorial rights? If you have an Espresso machine, you can download and print a digital book from any place in the world. As the business is structured now, the rights are regulated by territory — English rights, Dutch rights, American rights, Canadian rights, etc.

Epstein: That will have to change. Territorial rights become superfluous when content is in a digital cloud and can be downloaded anywhere instantly. There will have to be another understanding. Territorial rights are an artifact of the old Gutenberg system and like so many of those artifacts, they will have to change. How is that going to happen, when will it happen, who is going to make it happen…who knows? It has to happen.

Kobrin: Have you run into that problem with Espresso machines in other countries downloading U.S. books?

Neller: We deal with it every day. Our Espressnet software product filters territorial rights. Many times we have rights in the U.S., sometimes we have rights in Australia. But we have to filter them. Even with public domain books, not every country has the same rules so we have to filter those.

Epstein: Eventually that aspect of traditional infrastructure will give way and there will be a more convenient system, just the way that copyright rules will have to become universal and simplified. We can’t have different copyright conventions everywhere in the world.

Knowledge@Wharton: As the publishing business is transformed, how will the structure of the industry evolve? Will there be a few large global monopolies or smaller companies?

Epstein: It won’t evolve; it will devolve. It will become the way it was before these conglomerates were put together. You have to understand that these conglomerates were not rationally assembled. That happened out of necessity because of certain kinks in the way the system worked.

Fifty years ago, publishing was essentially a cottage industry. Each company was run by, effectively, a handful of editors with minimal management. Many services were farmed out. That’s how Random House worked; that’s how Simon & Schuster worked; that’s how they all did. But when the marketplace changed from one based on large independent bookstores that could carry extensive backlists to one with stores in shopping malls, where the backlist didn’t figure, bestsellers became a necessity. Publishers had to provide bestsellers for these shopping mall stores to remain in business.

The rights to potential bestsellers were then put up for auction. Smaller publishers could no longer afford to compete so they joined hands with larger publishers. Random House picked up a number of imprints — Knopf, Pantheon and so on. Even that didn’t work because even those proto-conglomerates — like Random House and Simon & Schuster back in the 1990s — couldn’t compete. They couldn’t put up these $1 million- or $2 million-, $5 million-, or $10 million-risks, so they collapsed into the present conglomerates.

Conglomerates were not rationally assembled as the most efficient way of publishing books. They were assembled because someone had to be able to fund these auctions — these gambling situations — we got ourselves into. But these conglomerates don’t function. There’s much too much overhead and complexity. There’s too much unnecessary management. Lawyers get in the way of everything. That can’t last. Digitization I think will inevitably have to replace it.

Neller: Let me add one more nuance. This is not so much about the publishing house as it is about the supply of content. It is true that the consumption of content will be massively decentralized either through Espresso book machines or e-readers or whatever. The supply of content, though, is a different matter. There is growing concern about control over supply exercised by companies like Google and Amazon in the U.S. or the Gallica digital library in Europe [which claims to have more than 1 million digital titles]. These organizations are developing very large digital discovery mechanisms and digital warehouses. As such, though some parts of the publishing business such as consumption may return to a decentralized model, there also a trend towards centralized digital hosting and discovery.

Kobrin: With digitization and print on demand, do you believe we will move away from a focus on bestsellers and have a much larger number of books that sell far fewer copies?

Epstein: I think that’s true. Of course, there will still be bestsellers. There will still be Stephen King and John Grisham, but that is a separate activity from mainline bookselling. All John Grisham needs is a printing company and a truck. That’s all the publishing work that has to be done, because those books are presold. You just ship them to Costco and other distributors and there you have it. That’s a different arrangement than what it takes to publish a real book of substance. I don’t mean to say those aren’t real books. They are just different than the books we are talking about.

Book Blogger Convention Debuts

The inaugural Book Blogger Convention takes place on Friday, May 28, at the Javits Center, the day after BookExpo America concludes. The convention was originally going to be held at another location in New York City until Steven Rosato, BEA event director, heard about the initiative and suggested that it take place in connection with BEA.

“It seemed like a natural fit,” Rosato said. “Bloggers are becoming so much more important for us, especially with newspaper coverage disappearing for books.” As with New York Book Week, a series of consumer events that will be held around the city during BEA, “thisis one other step for us to engage the reading public,” he added.

On the agenda are panels such as Blogging with Social Responsibility and the Impact of the Relationship between Author and Blogger. The keynote speaker is Maureen Johnson, the author of Scarlett Fever and other works. The convention starts with a reception on Thursday, May 27, 4–6 p.m., open to anyone attending BEA that day.

More than 135 book bloggers, authors, publishers and public relations professionals have signed up to attend the convention. “We certainly welcome anyone and everyone who feels they would like to learn more about book blogging,” said Trish Collins, who initiated the event. She blogs at Hey Lady! Whatcha Readin’? and is the co-founder of TLC Book Tours, which specializes in setting up virtual book tours. The convention is a way for book bloggers to network with online colleagues and share tips and knowledge, and it’s also a chance to get to know people in the industry. “The convention will be beneficial to publishing folks as well because they’ll not only have marketing opportunities, but they should be better able to find bloggers that match their needs,” said Collins.

Last year’s BEA lineup featured the panel Book Bloggers: Today’s Buzz Builders, moderated by Jennifer Hart, v-p and associate publisher of Harper Perennial, Harper Paperbacks and Avon. “Book bloggers were at BEA in big numbers, and that made a statement to the publishing and bookselling community,” said Hart, who blogs as Book Club Girl. “These are the people who, before they were doing blogs, were probably already reading a lot, buying a lot of books, going to the library. But now we know them, now we have contact with them, and they then speak to their own networks of readers.”

The online marketing department at Hachette Book Group has been connecting with bloggers in niche categories since the early 2000s. “Our relationships with book bloggers are incredibly important,” said Kelly Leonard, executive director, online marketing. “We value each individual connection. We also appreciate the variety of tastes and interests each book blogger has and where bloggers live so that we can try to match our book offerings with their individual and local interests.” (The Book Blogs Search Engine atfyreflybooks.wordpress.com lists more than 1,200 sites.)

Many book bloggers have promoted and participated in joint endeavors like the annual Book Blogger Appreciation Week, 24-hour read-a-thons and Tweetups, and the pace and breadth of contact has accelerated courtesy of Facebook and Twitter. “I’ve been blogging for a year, and I would say book blogging is much different even from when I started,” said Michelle Franz, who blogs at Galleysmith.com and is one of the convention organizers. “We’re not just that solitary blogger who gets a few comments and communicates with people that way. We have a reach that’s much further now.” That includes a kind of handselling, where the mention of a title leads followers to obtain copies of it.

In order to understand the growth in blogging, Rebecca Joines Schinsky of the Book Lady’s Blog and Brett Sandusky, digital marketing manager at Kaplan Publishing, have launched a survey about book blogs. (Appropriately the idea for the survey came after the two connected due to a weekly Twitter discussion (#bookmarket) about books and marketing. “I made a comment about how I’m a numbers person and would love to see data out of curiosity but also because I’ve been blogging for a year and a half,” Schinsky said. Sandusky contacted her, and the outcome is a long-term plan to gather data on book blogging.)

The book blogger survey is open through April 20, and the results will be announced prior to the Book Blogger Convention. Schinsky and Sandusky plan to survey publishers next. “We’re then envisioning another set of surveys down the road and consistent data collection until we get a full picture of what’s going on,” said Schinsky. “The goal is to open a dialogue between bloggers and publishers and help us work together more effectively to get books out there and create awareness for them.”–Shannon McKenna Schmidt

In this issue:
Manager’s Report
This Week…
Last week: Stores seen…
Other news:
Obituary: Mimi Beman
Boston Globe: “What’s the story with the future of independent bookstores? In some cases, it’s quite positive
Barnes & Noble Names Tracey Weber, EVP Textbooks
“A Contrarian Stock in an i-Pad World” re B&N
AAP stats on February sales, up 12%
Manager’s report: Causten Stehle: “We had a very good week. The net orders through our in-house ordering system, SAILS, (not including orders through major wholesalers or direct to publisher) show a 15% increase over the net sales from this time in 2009. More importantly, We are now only nine percent behind the ‘08 net sales. We’ve been able to recover some of the momentum lost during the economic meltdown of the last two years. (and all of this without a government bail-out. Take that, Citibank!) We are also gaining ground on the highs of 2007.”

This week Linda will have some office time in addition to seeing Children’s Book Shop, Baltimore, MD; American Civil War Museum, Americana Souvenirs, Gallery 30, Gettysburg, PA; Second Story, Ligonier, PA, Fort Ligonier;  Falling Water; Westmoreland Art Museum, Greensburg, PA; Michael’s Educational, North Versailles, PA. Chris is prepping for B&N kid’s new title selling Wednesday.Sean is braving eastern Pennsylvania and grappling with Ellen Mager, Booktenders, the only store we call on that makes post-Katrina New

Main Street Books, Frostburg, MD – Fred Powell reports their worst first quarter in years.  The winter weather hit them very hard as they are in the mountains.  They look forward to spring and a recovering economy.  Linda

Book Center, Cumberland, MD Lee Schwartz has seen business pick up since the weather broke.  They are planning for a robust tourist season.  The downtown, no cars mall seems to be very successful.  Mostly local business.  Linda

Book Crossing, Brunswick, MD After two years of struggle, the store is closing next week.  They opened just before the bottom fell out of the economy, they had a good year and a half bit not enough to sustain them through the last two years.  Sorry to see them go. Linda

Winterthur, Wilmington, DE Barbara Hershel reports that the museum was closed for 5 weeks over the winter for fear of continued slow sales.  They are open again and seeing crown size and buying in the gift shop on the rise.  They like all of the museums are hoping for a busy travel season  Linda

Bookends, Winchester, MA Last week, a customer called while on vacation in Arizona, to ask the staff  to look up a hotel that was mentioned in the Workman title 1001 Places to See Before You Die. Of course, buyer Beverley Bitarelli complied, but she couldn’t resist pointing out to the caller “You can’t get this kind of service from Amazon”. Sean
Portsmouth, N.H., a city of just 20,000 people, has become a “a literary haven” and “a top destination for the world’s most prestigious writers,” Seacoastonline.com reported, noting that during the past five years the city has hosted events for “dozens of A-list authors, including Stephen King, John Updike, Elmore Leonard, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Greg Mortenson, Anita Shreve, Madeleine Albright, Ruth Reichl, Bill McKibben, Gregory Maguire, Cokie Roberts, Ken Burns, Richard Russo, Mitch Albom, Jodi Picoult, Dennis Kucinich, Elizabeth Edwards and our pre-primary president Barack Obama.” Sean

Queens, NYC/DAILY NEWS: If you’re looking for a good book in Queens, N.Y., you may have to leave the borough, according to theDaily News, which reported that “Queens may offer some of the best shopping in the city–and is home to the most profitable mall in the nation–but it could be the worst borough to find a good read.” In addition to five chain bookstores in Queens, Seaburn Books is one of the few indies and bookseller Ariadne Reza “said some customers lament having to go to Manhattan due to a lack of local choices.”  “It’s pretty extreme how few [bookstores] there are in Queens,” she added. David Deason, v-p of development for Barnes and Noble,cited rising rents and dwindling profits as factors: “Queens isn’t the only place we have a limited presence. It’s throughout the boroughs. It’s an affordability issue.”  Sean

Green toad Bookstore, Oneonta, NY Michele Pantalino, owner and manager of this year+-old store, is enjoying her career change from residential real estate sales and had made this revived-downtown store a community meeting place and events center. She has hired a kid’s buyer and extended her out-reach to schools. Several of her author events have drawn 100+ attendance. She spent $45,000 rejuvenating the store’s interior with bright colors, deep windows and a nice open feeling. She and some of her team will be at BEA, her first since LA, before she opened. Chris

Augur’s Bookstore, Cooperstown, NY Becky and team are re-organizing this baseball/local history boostore which is the only account of which I am aware that is part of a jewelry store, Denison’s. Located in a 100+ year-old building on Main Street it is a unmissable destination for tourists visiting the Baseball Hall of Fame. Chris

The Book Nook, Cooperstown, NY This is the first time these folks have actually been open off-season.Visitors are greeted by Penny, a beautiful springer spaniel, whose chief talent is rolling over on her back to have her stomach patted. The store is now stocking some new titles, largely baseball oriented. Chris

Colgate Bookstore, Hamilton, NY Kate Reynolds has been stretched supporting her boss who is out on maternity leave. The store’s chief traffic builder on the day I was there was its iPad kiosk on the second floor. They have successfully worked with faculty departments to have departmental book sales of academic monographs and subject-appropriate trade titles. She will be at BEA. Chris

First Edition Books, Norwich, NY Owner Lisa Mody is holding her own in spite of a gapped-tooth downtown. One of the biggest draws on her block, a Salvation Army Thrift Shop, closed, and two of her best school libraries are being consolidated; the librarian who gave her the most purchase orders has been pushed out by a librarian who doesn’t believe in funneling orders through book stores. Lisa complained that no reps make it to Norwich anymore; I assured her that it was central NY, not her. She was by herself so we have a follow-up phone appoint for early May. Chris
Alphabet Garden, Cheshire, CT children’s bookstore, has moved to South Main Street, where the store will have “more space and visibility,” owner Karlene Rearick told the Meriden Record-Journal. The store had been in the Watch Factory Shoppes for four and a half years. Shelf Awareness/Sean

192 Books, Chelsea, New York City is featured in a video of three “Retail Stars” from around the world whose “concepts [are] getting it right,” Monocle.com included (starting at about 3:20). The store, founded by Holt editor Jack Macrae and his wife, gallery owner Paula Cooper, specializes in new, used and rare art books, literature, children’s titles and more, exhibits art and has an extensive reading program. Patrick Knisley told Monocle: “We’re very small and so we can’t stock everything. And so we think of our collection as a little curated. So the philosophy is that we want you to be surprised with what you find here, and it happens often.” Shelf Awareness/ Sean

“The Easthampton Star reported on the Montauk Book Store, Montauk, N.Y., which has been opened by Perry Haberman, former owner of the Madison Avenue Book Shop in New York City and president of the Montauk Library, and his wife, Cristina. The Habermans bought Barnacle Books last year and renovated the space. “I wanted to open a solid little bookshop,” he told the paper. “Because of my involvement with the library, I know Montauk wants and needs a bookshop.” Besides general, children’s, diet, gardening and cooking titles, the store has rotating displays of local artists’ work and readings. The Montauk Book Store is located at 37A the Plaza, Montauk, N.Y. 11954; 631-668-4599.” Shelf Awareness/Chris

“Bradley’s Books, the Pittsburgh, PA, area bookseller, is expanding into three mall stores formerly occupied by Borders Express stores, giving the retailer seven stores, the Pittsburgh Tribune reported. Marvelously named owner Mike Paper told the Tribune: “Our competitive advantage lies in the fact we deal with primarily bargain books. Overstocks, remainders, close-outs, things we can find at deep discounts. In today’s environment, it’s especially valuable to offer consumers value.” The stores also carry some new books.”  Depending on location, some of the Bradley’s stores emphasize African-American, spiritual and religious titles, while all stores do well with sports and history, Paper said.” Shelf Awareness/Linda

“Bookselling This Week profiled smart booksellers who offer tips on writing effective shelf talkers: Among other points, Joe Drabyak of Chester County Book & Music Company, West Chester, PA, said, “Being both a sports fan and a dedicated bookseller, I use what I tend to think of as an ‘ESPN’ approach in creating my shelf talkers. Each should be Erudite, Succinct, Personable, and Noteworthy.” And Suzanna Hermans of Oblong Books & Music, Rhinebeck, N.Y., said, “In an idea lifted from BookPeople in Austin, shelf talkers in the fiction section are at eye level, so every book at eye level is a face out staff pick. We’ve been doing it for just over a year, and sales of these books are phenomenal.” Shelf Awareness/Sean

How do they do it? Seacoastonline.com cited several factors, “including the arrival of RiverRun Bookstore downtown; the launch of the Writers on a New England Stage author series at the Music Hall; the appeal of Portsmouth itself; and the passion of local bibliophiles.”

“We’re very pleased with how this whole thing has gone,” said Tom Holbrook, RiverRun’s owner and manager. He works with events coordinator Michele Filgate to bring local and national names to the bookshop. “It couldn’t happen if the Seacoast wasn’t completely covered with local writers of all caliber.”

Among them was a local author who has achieved mega-bestselling status. “It doesn’t hurt that we’re able to get Dan Brown to come to the Music Hall because we know him,” Holbrook said. “It doesn’t hurt that we’re able to get Joe Hill to do his release here because Michele is Twitter friends with him.”

Said Brown: “Thanks to places like the Music Hall, Phillips Exeter Academy, and our great indie bookstores, the Seacoast literary scene thrives in ways usually seen only in the largest cities. As a writer, I’m grateful every day for the luxury of accessing world-class cultural events without sacrificing a tranquil writing environment.”

“You couldn’t do it if you weren’t as crazy and committed as we are, but you also couldn’t do it if you weren’t in Portsmouth,” Holbrook added. “If I was in some town where people didn’t read and weren’t writers themselves it just wouldn’t work.”

Obituary Note: Mimi Beman

Mimi Beman, longtime owner of Mitchell’s Book Corner on Nantucket Island, Mass., died March 31 after a short illness. She was 62. Beman sold Mitchell’s two years ago to Mary Jennings, wife of Google CEO Eric Schmidt, but continued to work in the store (Shelf Awareness, January 10, 2008). She had owned Mitchell’s–which was founded by her parents, Henry “Mitch” Mitchell and Mary Allen Havemeyer, in 1968–for 30 years. The Inquirer and Mirror offers many tributes from friends and fans, including this from Lizbet Carroll Fuller, co-founder of the Nantucket Lighthouse School: “Mimi Beman was a fiery, passionate, intelligent, funny, dynamic and generous soul. It is hard to believe that her light has gone out so quickly… but she burned so brightly while she was here! Mimi and her lively bookstore were literal cornerstones of Nantucket’s Main Street. Mimi’s love of language and the written word was so great that she needed to share it with one and all. Of late, Nantucket Lighthouse School was the lucky recipient of Mimi’s energetic generosity and warm enthusiasm. As a board member and an ardent advocate for education, Mimi adopted Lighthouse School in her wholehearted, gregarious and generous way and invested her considerable energies in support of the school. It was truly a gift to get to know Mimi and we sorely miss her warm and wonderful self.”
–

Looking for a happily ever after

What’s the story with the future of independent bookstores? In some cases, it’s quite positive.

By Alex Beam, Globe Columnist  |  April 6, 2010

Then there were three.

The death roll of A-list bookstores in the core of Boston includes the amazing Waterstone’s in the Exeter Street Theatre, Frank Kramer’s Harvard Book Store Cafe on Newbury Street, the Stavis family’s Wordsworth in Harvard Square, the excellent Barnes & Noble on Washington Street, and so on, ad infinitum.

For the purposes of this column, there are three AAA-rated independent bookstores left in our reading area: the Harvard Book Store in Cambridge, the New England Mobile Book Fair in Newton, and Brookline Booksmith in Coolidge Corner. Apologies to the excellent Porter Square Books, but five years in business is a whisper on the Buddha’s eyelash compared to the track record of your three venerable competitors.

The future of Brookline Booksmith is up in the air. Last month, legendary entrepreneur Marshall Smith, creator of Videosmith, Learningsmith, and several bookstores, announced his intention to disengage from the book business. His Wellesley Booksmith store is up for sale. The Coolidge Corner location has been enjoying record sales; Barnes & Noble finally abandoned its cynical attempt to put Smith out of business, and shuttered its category-killing, two-story store just up from him on Harvard Street.

So Brookline Booksmith is not on the block — yet. “We talked about selling it at the same time as Wellesley, but with the Barnes & Noble closing we reached new levels of profitability which we will try to sustain,’’ the 78-year-old Smith said. “But eventually I’ll have to back away from that, too.’’ Smith owns about 70 percent of the two stores, and Brookline store manager Dana Brigham and Wellesley manager Deb Sundin each own about 16 percent. Smith says his partners won’t buy him out: “Neither one wanted to do that.’’

These stories do not always end badly. Two years ago, Kramer found motivated buyers for his Harvard Square bookstore: Jeff Mayersohn and his wife, Linda Seamonson. They have invested in the property and retained the highly regarded staff. There was a recession in 2008, maybe you heard. “Sales are down but not catastrophically,’’ Mayersohn said. “I am a big believer in the future of books. I think there is money to be made in the book business. People are spending a lot of time talking about books, and that can’t be all that bad.’’

The owner-managers of Porter Square Books, refugees from the successful Concord Bookshop, must believe that: Three of them put their homes on the line to land the bank loan that launched the store. “A month after we opened, Wordsworth closed, and we thought, What do we know that they didn’t?’’ manager Dale Szczeblowski said. He explained that the early days of double-digit sales growth for the store have leveled off: “It’s possible to be profitable and not grow sales.’’

As for the pulp-and-paste book business, to heck with the Kindle and the iPad! (That’s me talking, not them.) “There is definitely an opportunity,’’ Szczeblowski told me. “According to our national trade association, independent bookstores’ market share has remained fairly constant, while the chains’ share has declined. It’s essentially a lifestyle business. You go into it because you love what you do. Making money is a necessary element but it’s not the number one motivator.’’

Overlooked?Without telling me, The New York Times Co. entered the bookselling business. I spotted an attractive, Times-themed bookstall at the Jacksonville, Fla., airport last month. That turns out to be one of eight airport stores the company (which owns The Boston Globe) has opened up since 2005. If you know Barbara’s in South Station — part of a small, Chicago-based chain — you know how excellent and effective these point-of-departure stores can be.

The other Times stores are atLaGuardia; Lexington, Ky.; West Palm Beach, Fla.; Atlanta; Providence; and El Paso, Texas. Earlier thisyear, it opened up in Louisville, Ky. What’s next? “We work with our licensing partner, Paradies Airport Shops, to identify locations that have potential for future store openings,’’ said Times spokeswoman Diane McNulty. “We have not announced any at this point.’’

Alex Beam is a Globe columnist. His e-dress is beam@globe.com.

April 8, 2010, 8:30 a.m. EDT · Recommend · Post: 

Barnes & Noble Names Tracey Weber, Executive Vice President, Textbooks & Digital Education

NEW YORK, Apr 08, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) — Barnes & Noble, Inc. today announced that it has named Tracey Weber as Executive Vice President, Textbooks and Digital Education, Barnes & Noble.com (www.bn.com). Ms. Weber will be responsible for developing, implementing and managing Barnes & Noble’s entire suite of digital education products and services.

Ms. Weber joins Barnes & Noble from Travelocity where she served as President, North America, and held a variety of increasingly responsible roles including Chief Operating Officer, North America; Senior Vice President, Air, Car and Last Minute Deals; Vice President, Product Operations; and Co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of SITE59.COM, which was acquired by Travelocity in 2002. Prior to joining Travelocity (SITE59.COM), Tracey had a successful career in management consulting with some of the world’s premier consulting firms including The Boston Consulting Group and Ernst & Young.

“In a very competitive market, Tracey led Travelocity to become one of the world’s leading travel websites and we believe her track record for building and growing business will help Barnes & Noble leverage its existing advantages in selling textbooks online and in the emerging digital education market,” said William Lynch, CEO, Barnes & Noble, Inc. “Industry experts expect the digital education arena to explode over the next few years and we believe Tracey’s experience will enable us to harness the resources we have through Barnes & Noble College Bookstores on over 600 of the best colleges and universities campuses in the country.”

Ms. Weber graduated from Harvard University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics and received her MBA from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business.

Barnes & Noble: A Contrarian Stock in an iPad World

Apr. 09, 2010 | Filed Under: BKS

One sector that has certainly been out of favour since the tech bubble is the one of brick-and-mortar booksellers. The extremely quick expansion of Amazon.com shortly after it was founded 15 years ago followed by the arrival of the ebook reader and more recently, the iPad, means the beginning of the end for bookstore chains according to many. Analysts often compare the industry to the one of CD’s and DVD’s. Companies like Barnes & Noble, Borders Group and Books-A-Million have all seen a significant decline in their stock price over the past 5-10 years. I will get into some thoughts regarding macro trends later on but for now, let’s look at the potential upside that represents an investment in the dominant player: Barnes & Noble.

Since its spinoff of video game seller GameStop in 2004, BKS had seen its sales grow at an average pace of 3.5% until FY 2009, when they fell from $5,410.8M to $5,121.8M. While books are generally considered a discretionary expenditure, many started to wonder if thisdecline was actually of secular nature rather than a simple cyclical downturn. Nevertheless, although the operating earnings went down significantly last year along with the sales, BKS continues to amass a considerable amount of free cash flows. While part of the decline in sales is probably secular due to the increasing sales of ebooks and books through online stores, the market appears to be too pessimistic when it comes to “brick-and-mortar” sellers.

It would be reasonable to estimate that even if its sales continued to decline, BKS would still eventually be able to maintain sales of at least $4,500M through its superstores and bn.com and $1,500 through its newly acquired college booksellers, for a total of $6,000M.Last year, BKS produced an operating margin of 2.8%, its worst year in a very long time. Staying conservative, let’s assume BKS was only able to sustain a 2.5% EBIT margin in the future on those $6B sales. Additionally, one could assume that in the past, 10% (~135M$) of BKS’s SG&A expenses have served strictly for the purpose of growing through new stores and the development of its ebook reader and online store. It is also worth noting that during the Q4 2008 earnings call, management stated that only $25M of the $125M in capital expenditures that were projected in 2009 would serve for maintenance while the rest was for new stores and initiatives. Once again, to be conservative, I will assume that $55M/year would be needed on the long run to maintain the brand and the stores on the Barnes & Noble side and $15M/year more on the B&N College Booksellers side.

Sustainable Free Cash Flow Calculations

Sales (B&N + College): $6,000

EBIT (2.5% margin): $150

+”growth” SG&A: $135

__________________________

Adjusted EBIT: $285

* taxes (1-0.40): $171

+ D&A (B&N + College): $220

__________________________

“Real” Operating CF: $391

- Maintenance CapEx: ($70)

__________________________

Excess cash: $40M

Number of shares: 57.56M

Considering that none of the analysts covering BKS rate it as a “buy” and that 29% of the float is currently short, it becomes more and more apparent that this share has been way oversold at its current price of $22.58 (April 9^th, 2010).

The question now becomes, is this type of free cash flow actually sustainable or will the “brick-and-mortar” model eventually die off? At the current price, the market seems to believe that Barnes & Noble won’t be able to collect much more than $150M in FCF/year in the future. Considering what the company has achieved recently, even while Amazon was grabbing away a tremendous market share of book sales, I believe this number to be ridiculously low. Barnes & Noble remains a cash cow with a solid relationship with its customers and in my opinion, could make the necessary adjustments to offset some of its lost revenues was there to be a tipping point in the way people purchase and read books.

The main reason why this stock has been beaten up so badly is probably the poor outlook that many have on the future of book stores. Amazon.com is definitely a tough competitor when it comes to bookselling and it is easy to imagine many seeing long Amazon, short Barnes & Noble as a solid pair trade. This brings us to the first major concern regarding the future of the brick-and-mortar stores which now have to face an increasing share of books being sold and shipped online. While Amazon is a runaway leader in this field, BKS’ long established brand and relationship with its customers still make it a reputable player in the area with its growing online sales. Moreover, while it is very convenient to have access to a wide range of titles along with customer reviews and have them delivered at home, there is still a certain appeal to slowly browsing through an actual bookstore and reading in a nearby café. This type of store also allows BKS to demonstrate the capabilities of their new e-book reader, a device that many are still unfamiliar with, in person.

Ebooks have been around for a long time on the internet but have not quite yet caught on in the mainstream like digital music has. Many have blamed this on the lack of available devices that make it convenient to read them on the go, away from the computer. The trade-off between the portability and the readability of the screen of such a device also makes it difficult to design a product that the casual reader will want to buy. The Kindle and now the nook are certainly interesting and are a step in the right direction in my opinion. The eInk technology really gives the impression of reading an actual book but at the same time, makes it tougher to read charts and tables and look at pictures when needed. The new iPad on the other hand is easy on the eyes and has a lot of potential but its shorter battery life and its similarity to the already available netbooks makes one wonder if they are even going after the same customers. It also remains to be seen what Android and Microsoft have in store. All the hype around these new products in the last couple of months certainly hasn’t helped BKS’s stock but now that the dust settles down, I would be surprised to see B&N’s book sales decline as much as what seems to be anticipated by the market. Part of the struggles in the recent quarters may be secular but the current economic conditions probably explain the majority of the disappointing couple of recent quarters. There is considerably less traffic in and around malls these days where a lot of their stores are situated.

Finally, one positive trend that could act as a tailwind for Barnes & Noble going forward is the ongoing retirement of the “baby-boomer” workforce. A lot more people who are a big part of BKS’s target market will soon have a considerable amount of discretionary income and free time to spend and a good portion of that generation may never decide to switch over to the ebook format. A survey concerning book buying behaviour done by Verso Digital (http://news.bookweb.org/news/7313.html) mentioned that “of those surveyed, only 9.8 percent said they were “very likely” to purchase an e-reader within the next six to 12 months, and 65 percent of Boomers and “seniors” were not likely to purchase an e-reader”. For the ones that do, BKS should still be an important player in the market with the nook and its large inventory of digitized books, helping offset some of its lost revenues. It should also be considered that was there to be such a major shift, Borders , Books-a-Million, and independent sellers would probably be first to go, leaving BKS as the only player in the brick-and-mortar sector.

Another story that has gotten some attention recently is the accumulation of shares by activist Ron Burkle that started over a year ago. Burkle stated that he was not pleased with the management’s acquisition of their other company, B&N College, adding debt to the balance sheet and using up the cash that BKS had on hand. He also expressed concern with the recently implemented poison pill which prevents any outside shareholder from holding more than 20% of the company’s shares. More information can be found in the 11/13/2009 and 02/01/2010 SC 13D/A fillings. It is interesting to note that Burkle now owns close to 19% of the company while Aletheia Research & Management, with whom he has done business at A&P Supermarkets, owns about 18%. These two clearly see the company as undervalued and could act as a catalyst in pressuring management into improving operations and free cash flows, and closing the gap between the stock price and the intrinsic value. In the meantime, shareholders still receive a nice dividend yield of close to 4.5%, not counting potential stock repurchases.

February AAP Sales Up 12.2%

In February, net book sales reported by 85 publishers to the Association of American Publishers rose 12.2%, to $486.3 million, and are up 4.8% to $1.3 billion, for the year to date. The solid sales are similar to the healthy gains in general retail sales during March, as reported on Friday (Shelf Awareness, April 9, 2010).

Last Week: I was off last week but the rest of the team carried on. Most of the retail book news was over-shadowed by anticipation of the release of Apple’s iPad. Technical reviews were tepid but consumer reviews were very positive. Apple stores in New York and San Francisco reported Harry Potter-like over-night crowds. 

On the B&N front, investor Ron Burkle continued to pressure B&N’s board of directors to expand the number of non-company seats. Borders dodged a major creditor bullet but was forced to sign new loan agreements at high interest rates and with covenants which protect current note-holders from any share dilution.

This week: I’m prepping for a run through B&N’s kid’s department for fall new title presentations and sprinting to central New York to see accounts in Hamilton and Oneonta, along the Mohawk trail. Sean is back in suburban Boston seeing the Children’s Bookshop in Brookline, Jabberwocky in Newburyport and Bookends in Winchester, and seeing Water Street Books in Exeter, New Hampshire. Linda will be enjoying her new satellite radio in western Maryland.

Manager’s Report: This week was slightly slower than we’ve experienced recently, but we are still making progress. We are now 13% above 2009 net sales processed through our in-house system (not including B&N, B&T or direct to publishers orders). We are also closing the gap from 2008 and 2007. In terms of orders processed, we are seven per cent above 2009, even with 2008, and again, closing the gap on 2007. This was a holiday week and spring break, so I’m optimistic that we’ll see  more growth as the spring progresses. Causten Stehle

Linda: My week ended up being much busier than expected.  I left Baltimore Monday AM headed across Maryland to see accounts in Cumberland & Frostburg and ended up in Pittsburgh.  My car had been serviced the Friday before I left.  I was stopping in Hagerstown, MD for gas and when I got off the freeway my car died. The diagnosis was a broken timing belt; I rented a car and continued my travels.  The idea of investing much in a car with 149,000 miles made no sense, so in between sales calls and in the evening I looked at cars. I picked up a new one Friday.

Reiter’s Business & Professional Books, Washington DC Reiter’s has closed its K Street store and moved into the space of their Washington Law store space on G Street.  The internet has hit them hard so consolidating the two stores was the only logical decision for them.  They will be open for business on Monday April 5^th.  Linda

Penguin Book Shop, Sewickley, PA Mary Ann Eichorn is now doing all of the buying for the store. However, her heart is still with the kids books.  She reported that  they had a much better than expected first quarter and look forward to growing their school and book fair business as well as hosting in-store and off site events. They will also be stocking the summer reading lists for the local private and public schools.  The store looks great and they are very pleased with how well the locals have taken to buying “locally” again. Linda

Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA Jerry Farber reports that although the stores at all of the museums are doing OK, the books with low price points are selling best.  The Andy Warhol Museum continues to attract large crowds.  The Science Center has an almost non-existent book presence.  The warm weather and spring school trips will pick up soon. Linda

Aspinwall Book Shop, Aspinwall, PA In spite of having made an appointment, John Towle decided that he just couldn’t buy anything new.  He is still planning to close the store unless a buyer is found.  He is actively looking for a job and would love to stay in the book business as he has spent most of his career as a bookseller.  Linda

Bradley’s Book Stores, Pittsburgh, PA This six (soon to be seven) store chain stocks mainly remainders, however, they do buy some new books on a limited basis (bestsellers, local interest).  This was the first time they bought from me and it looks like they could be a bright spot in  the declining independent presence in Pittsburgh. Linda

Stanley at Market Block Books ,Troy, New York said that they missed the record East Coast snows but they are now getting pounded by spring rains. However, spring showers are not keeping people indoors, as traffic is as busy as ever. Spring has been good – better than last year. Things are picking up, he said optimistically.Causten

Over at Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza, Albany, NY, Dan Schreffler also had some decent news. This March is the first time in a while they are above their projected goals. Not by much, but even a little above is a good thing. The last time this happened was December.Causten

Rondi Brower at Blackwood & Brouwer Booksellers, Kinderhook, NY has become the organizer of the first annual Empire StateBook Festival, sponsored by the New York Library Association. The key-note speaker is Gregory McGuire, author of Wicked, and the expected attendance is “anywhere between 500 and 5000”. If you are going to be anywhere near Albany on April 9, you should definitely check it out and give Rondi a big thumbs-up! http://empirestatebookfestival.wordpress.com/ Causten

Words, Maplewood, NJ was voted “Best Bookstore in New Jersey”. From the magazine: “Word up! Words in Maplewood boasts a vast selection of books of all genres, plus multiple cozy seating areas, including bean bag chairs for kids; regular author events; and a moderated in-store book group. Word also features a robust special-needs section and welcomes patrons with autism, striving to make Maplewood a model community of inclusion. (179 Maplewood Ave, 973-763-9500, wordsmaplewood.com)” The runners up include Montclair Book Center, Montclair, NJ and Atlantic Books, with eight NJ locations. Sean

Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA: The museum is wrapping up a hugely successful exhibition of Picasso paired with painters he worked with in Paris. The shop has not benefited from the exhibition, however, as the museum declined to publish an official catalog for the show. The shop’s buyer, Choti Weiler, resorted to selling a Taschen book on cubism which covers most of the artists, but notes that many customers have passed on the book or may be purchasing it elsewhere. Sean

Word, Brooklyn, NY: Word started a matchmaking service last year titled “Between the Covers”, and it’s going strong. The bulletin board where the lovelorn can post ads asks “looking to slip between the sheets with more than your latest purchase from WORD?” By the looks of things, many customers have answered with an emphatic “yes”: Sean

NPR story, forwarded by Randall Williams, NewSouth Books:

iPad Could Help Self-Publishers Kick Open Doors

by Laura Sydell April 3, 2010

The iPad, Apple’s highly anticipated tablet computer, hit stores Saturday. The sleek, lightweight aluminum and glass device is equipped with a 9.7-inch touch screen and has no keyboard. The iPad has access to all the usual entertainment available on iTunes — music, movies, and TV.

But along with the iPad, Apple is also launching its own digital book business. E-books on the iPad may help give the world of self-publishing a boost, authors and consultants say.

The Internet and new digital technologies have already opened up the self-publishing industry. Take a writer like Mark Morford. Ten years ago, if Morford had written a book, he would probably sell it to a major publisher. He’s got 50,000 regular readers for his provocative column on the Web site of the San Francisco Chronicle. He took on the recent controversy around school textbooks in Texas with a column entitled, “Dear Texas, Please shut up. Sincerely, History.”

He also has a forthcoming book, The Daring Spectacle, a collection of his columns. Initially, Morford did meet with agents, and he had a lot of interest from traditional publishers.

“I encountered a lot of excitement for the book,” he says. “Agents and publishers alike said, ‘Yes, this is a great idea. We like it.’”

But the book deals they offered were not what they once were. There were no more big advances, and no national book reading tours with stays in swanky hotels. Morford says he was told, “That whole idea has sort of vanished, has sort of gone away. There is no more marketing money.”

Morford began to wonder if he even needed a big publishing house. He looked around and discovered a burgeoning industry of companies that help authors publish their own books in any format they like, from the traditional printed book to e-books and Amazon’s Kindle, and now for the iPad. Morford decided to publish with a company called BookMasters.

As Morford sees it, he’s got a column and a core of fans, so he can do his own marketing. And if he needs an example, he can look to other successful self-published authors like Tim Chou.

Chou is pretty different from Morford. He’s a geek. His recent book is called Cloud, and he’s not talking about the fluffy white kind. Chou’s book is about the future of online computing. Not exactly a pager-turner for most people.

Chou might have tried and succeed in getting the interest of a traditional publisher, but after he did the math he decided against it. He points out that on the Internet, the average book retails for $25. But, he says, “the author gets maybe one or two dollars a book.”

Chou found a company called Lulu.com that charges nothing up front and will only print a book when someone buys one. But if they do, Chou says, “in the Lulu context, that same book, I’m going to get $10-12 per book.”

Chou has sold nearly 10,000 copies of Cloud through Lulu. If you do the math, that means he’s made more than six figures.

It was authors like Chou that Lulu.com CEO Bob Young had in mind when he founded his company. Young saw that big publishing houses needed to sell tens of thousands of copies of a book to make a profit, whereas Lulu and its authors make money even when the company sells one book.

According to Young, the question that animated Lulu.com was, “If the Internet, as a medium, allows us to connect each of us with everyone else, why, as an author, can’t I get my book to my audience without having to ask the permission of the publishing industry?”

Chou says Lulu made the whole process incredibly easy. “In essence,” says Chou, “if you can create a Word document, you can create a book.”

Lulu will also help authors find an editor if they need one, and it offers design templates and marketing advice.

Lulu books are available on e-readers like the Kindle and they will be available on the iPad. iPad books will be in color and have interactive features like videos and links to related web sites. Michael Shatzkin, who consults with publishers about digital books, says the iPad might make self-published books even more competitive with books from the big publishing houses.

“The biggest thing that a publisher provides is the ability to put physical books on bookstore shelves,” Shatzkin says. “And as that becomes a less important component of the overall commercial proposition, the leverage that the publisher has or the reason that an author would to go a publisher is seriously diminished.”

Self-publishing is even starting to draw established authors like John Edgar Wideman. Wideman, whose work deals with serious themes like race, class and alienation, has won the prestigious PEN/Faulkner Award twice, and he was a recipient of a coveted MacArthur “genius” grant.

When Wideman put together Briefs, a collection of what he calls “microstories,” he decided to experiment with a release on Lulu.com. In part, Wideman says, he was just sick of the way that traditional publishers treated serious fiction.

“Cookbooks and novels get the same treatment,” he laments. “Fighting for space in chain stores, that works for some kinds of books. But I don’t think it works for fiction.”

Wideman says if his first experience on Lulu goes well, he may use it to publish a full novel.

Per this report in New York Magazine, McNally Jackson Books will soon have an Espresso Book Machine. John Turner, a buyer for the store confirms the rumor and reports that he’ll be running the thing. Will this make him a ‘book barista’?

There aren’t a whole lot of books available for it now, but imagine this future:

As of now, in addition to “millions” of public-domain books, the machine can only access about 175,000 backlist titles (you’d need to sell a couple thousand copies a year to make it worth your while). But millions of books are being digitized, and, Neller says he’ll have them soon enough. He’s talking to lots of chains, and not just bookstores. “Imagine libraries being a place where you can get books [that is, more books] and Staples, Kinko’s, coffee shops.” In two years, he says, “We’ll be having a different conversation.”

Read the New York article here.

I’m pasting in this article from today’s Shelf Awareness partly because one of my favorite booksellers, Shelly Plumb of Harleysville Books, Harleysville PA is mentioned, but also because there are so man good ideas for bringing business into your bookstore here. Becoming a center of learning and discovery for your community is a great way to build your business. Read on:

Kristen McLean, executive director of the American Booksellers for Children, moderated the panel called Give It Away to Get It Back: Using “Thought Leadership” Marketing to Build Your Children’s Business as a follow-up to last year’s “Thought Leadership” discussion (Shelf Awareness, June 16, 2008), again building on Joel Kurtzman’s idea that “thought leaders” are people “widely recognized for innovative ideas that they share broadly with their organization or community.”

This year, the focus was on building relationships with teachers and the larger community through book fairs, book clubs and other indie businesses.

McLean suggested that bookstores:

• Give professional book talks
• Offer teacher in-service
• Form creative partnerships with local schools
• Teach a class in the community’s continuing education program about children’s books
• Create an in-store education information center
• Spearhead buy-local programs

Shelly Plumb, owner of Harleysville Books, a general bookstore in Harleysville, Pa., noted that children’s books are her bestselling category for which she has developed several programs:

• Participation in the Pennsylvania State Certification Program and offering PSCP courses to teachers. (Most attendees are private or parochial schoolteachers.)
• Establishing eight types of book fairs for schools, from preschool through middle school.
• A contest with schools where they earn “book bucks” and a prize goes to the school that’s read the most books.

Diane Capriola, owner of Little Shop of Stories in Decatur, Ga., started a book fair program with local schools when parents complained about the mass market titles and “gimmicky things” offered through Scholastic Book Fairs. Capriola said she “handpicked quality books” for the school book fairs, and that while it’s labor-intensive and doesn’t generate a lot of revenue, it does create a lot of good will.

“Teaching today is very different from teaching 10 years ago,” Capriola said, noting that teachers have to focus more on testing and the core curriculum. She said because of such demands on teachers, “bookstores have the opportunity to approach them with summer reading lists, book fair ideas and how to use graphic novels in the classroom,” with an educators’ discount. Little Shop of Stories has also partnered with other kid-friendly businesses such as toy stores, a candy store, and a music school that’s opening soon in their area.

Another way Capriola generated good will was by promoting at her store an event at the Carter Center where a sister indie, A Capella Books, was handling the book sales. A Capella did a shout-out to Little Shop of Stories, thanking the store for spreading the word, which resulted in attendees buying books from Capriola.

When Capriola heard that Daren Wang (formerly of Spoken Word), author Thomas Bell and others were thinking of starting a book festival in Decatur in February 2005, she offered to provide children’s book authors for a “Children’s Stage” event. The Decatur Book Festival launched Labor Day weekend in 2006 and has grown to draw more than 70,000 attendees; and the Children’s Stage generates the most revenue, Wang told Capriola and Little Shop co-owner Dave Shallenberger. A YA stage made its debut at last year’s festival.

Speaking of teens, Shannon Mathis, the children’s book buyer for Books Inc., with headquarters in San Francisco, Calif., is perhaps best known for founding the “Not Your Mother’s Book Club,” which is now four years old. Mathis called it a “literary salon for teens.” Among its “rules”: participants don’t have to read the book before meetings, every event is a party and Books Inc. gives away prizes such as iPods. Through the book club, Books Inc. has made a name for itself with teen readers in the Bay area as well as with the San Francisco public library system.

Some San Francisco residents used to pay to have people facilitate book clubs in private homes, Mathis noted. Books Inc. saw this as an opportunity and offers a speaker at a book club as a prize at school auctions. The stores also sponsor book talks called “Lattes and Literature” and give out book lists with the bookstores’ addresses. Mathis also urged booksellers, “Don’t underestimate teen reading lists.” She distributes summer reading list order forms and receives orders from schools as far as 30 miles away.

McLean reminded booksellers of the “posse” that last year’s thought leadership panelist Emily D’Amour Pardo started at Books & Books, Coral Gables, Fla.: teens who interned in the store created a teen blog on the store’s Web site about both titles and events. Teens reach teens most effectively, she said.

McLean also urged booksellers to incorporate the articles she includes in the ABC Toolbox e-newsletter on their own Web sites where appropriate. After all, it’s all about “innovative ideas that [we] share broadly with [our] community.”–Jennifer M. Brown

-From Shelf Awareness (subscribe)