In its Personal Journal section, today's Wall Street Journal offers overviews of efforts to cut textbook costs and the ever-increasing popularity of audiobooks.

Concerning audiobooks, the paper notes that the Internet and smaller playing devices, including iPods, have made it easier to download and listen everywhere--and that as multitasking becomes more common, "more people, from all walks of life, are downloading and listening to spoken versions of information normally found in print, including books, language courses, magazines and newspapers."

One measure of the growth of the business is Audible's history: the company has maintained 70%-80% annual sales increases since its launch in 1997, and in the second quarter of 2006 had sales of $19.1 million.

Science fiction and fantasy publisher Reagent Press used to produce an audio version for half its books but now does all in audio. Jeannie Kim, v-p and publisher, told the paper that when considering publishing a book, "we have to ask ourselves, 'Is this a book that will work well both in print and in audio?' "

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In a move that somehow seems related, the University of Chicago Press is making its Chicago Manual of Style available online for a fee of $25 in the first year and $30 a year thereafer, the New York Times reported. Book division marketing director Carol Kasper commented on the perennial seller's popularity: "People use it obsessively. They're really geeky about it."

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On October 11, Barnes & Noble will open a store in Legacy Place at 11389 Legacy Avenue in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. When the store opens, the B&N at 2480 PGA Boulevard will close. The new store will stock the usual nearly 200,000 books, music, DVD and magazine titles.

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Miraida Morales has joined Independent Publishers Group as Spanish-language sales representative and will sell into both traditional and nontraditional Spanish-language book channels. Morales was formerly international sales coordinator at Publishers Group West and earlier was national accounts assistant at Perseus Books Group.

Noting that IPG has tripled its Spanish-language offerings over the past three years, Jeff Tegge, v-p of sales, said in a statement, "the hiring of Morales represents a major advance in our strategy of creating growth for IPG publishers in the Spanish-language marketplace."

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Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez's recommendation of Noam Chomsky's Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance (Owl Books, $13, 0805076883) continues to boost sales of the book, the AP reported yesterday. Holt, which announced a new printing of 25,000 after the initial fuss, yesterday went back to press for another 25,000.

Publicist Tara Kennedy told the AP: "Across every account, we are seeing a dramatic increase in sales. Demand is not slowing down."

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In a "two-pronged" marketing campaign, Knopf is spending much of its $200,000 ad budget for Letter to a Christian Nation by Sam Harris, which questions the validity of the Bible and religion, on space in expected spots--the New Republic, Atlantic Monthly, etc.--but also in Christian publications and conservative Web sites, today's Wall Street Journal reported. So far, the strategy seems to be working. In eight days, the book has gone into its sixth printing and has 110,000 copies in print. Now if only Knopf could ignite Ann Coulter. . .

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The Virginia Quarterly Review, winner of this year's National Magazine Awards for general excellence and fiction, is publishing a newly discovered Robert Frost poem in its next issue, which will be released Monday, October 2.

Frost wrote the poem, called War Thoughts at Home, in 1918 after his friend and fellow poet Edward Thomas was killed in World War I.

The poem was discovered by graduate student Rob Stilling in a collection of books and manuscripts purchased by the University of Virginia. Stilling has contributed an essay to the issue of VQR. Glyn Maxwell, poetry editor of the New Republic, has also written an essay.
 

This morning on the Today Show: Deirdre Dolan, author of The Complete Organic Pregnancy (Collins, $14.95, 0060887451).

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This morning on Imus in the Morning: James Carville, author of Take It Back: A Battle Plan for Democratic Victory (S&S, $14, 0743277538).

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This morning Good Morning America will discuss Presidential Doodles: Two Centuries of Scribbles, Scratches, Squiggles & Scrawls from the Oval Office by the Creators of Cabinet Magazine (Basic Books, $24.95 0465032664).

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This morning on the Early Show: John Robbins, author of Healthy at 100: The Scientifically Proven Secrets of the World's Healthiest and Longest-Lived Peoples (Random House, $25.95, 1400065216).

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Today on KCRW's Bookworm: Wole Soyinka, author of You Must Set Forth at Dawn (Random House, $26.95, 037550365X). As the show describes it: "The Nobel prize-winning African playwright explores the myths of exile and return that underlie his most recent memoir. He contrasts European and African cosmologies, and describes his passionate activism as a quest influence by the gods."

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Tonight the Charlie Rose Show features a discussion about Chris Wallace's contentious interview on Sunday of Bill Clinton. Panelists include Wallace, several others, and Richard Clarke, whose book Against All Enemies: Inside America's War on Terror (Free Press, $14, 0743260457) Clinton recommended several times--and thereby boosted sales.

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Tonight on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart: former New Jersey Governor James McGreevey talks about his book, The Confession (Regan Books, $26.95, 0060898623).

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Tonight on the Colbert Report: Steve Wozniak, author of Iwoz: Computer Geek to Cult Icon: How I Invented the Personal Computer, Co-Founded Apple, and Had Fun Doing It (Norton, $25.95, 0393061434).

Book TV airs on C-Span 2 from 8 a.m. Saturday to 8 a.m. Monday and focuses on political and historical books as well as the book industry. The following are highlights for this coming weekend. For more information, go to Book TV's Web site.

Saturday, September 30

8 a.m. History on Book TV. During an event that took place at the Old South Meeting House in Boston, Mass., Russell Bourne talked about his book Cradle of Violence: How Boston's Waterfront Mobs Ignited the American Revolution (Wiley, $24.95, 0471675512), in which he argues that the city's waterfront gangs were responsible for starting the tradition of anti-British resistance that eventually led to the American Revolution. The gangs' violent protests included tarring and feathering customs officials, burning a Lt. Governor's mansion and fighting British soldiers in the streets.

9 a.m.-5 p.m. Live events and interviews from the National Book Festival on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Among authors appearing: Bob Woodward, Taylor Branch, Doug Brinkley and Doris Kearns Goodwin. Go to Book TV's Web site for the complete schedule. (Full program re-airs starting at 10 p.m.)

6 p.m. Encore Booknotes. Kirkpatrick Sale, a contributing editor of the Nation, discussed The Fire of His Genius: Robert Fulton and the American Dream (Free Press, $13, 0743223217) about the early days of inventor Robert Fulton, whose patents included an inclined plane, a rope-maker, a submarine, an underwater cannon and a steam frigate. Despite legend, Fulton did not invent the steamboat, but, Sale said, his knowledge of machinery and an ability to incorporate the inventions of others into his own work led to the development of the first practical steamship, which helped usher in the industrial age.

7 p.m. General Assignment. Columnist and Eagle Forum founder Phyllis Schlafly discusses her book The Supremacists: The Tyranny of Judges and How to Stop It (Spence Publishing, $16.95, 1890626651), in which she argues against "judicial activism" and comments about Supreme Court appointments.

9 p.m. After Words. Ted Halstead, founder and president of the New America Foundation, interviews financier George Soros, author of The Age of Fallibility: Consequences of the War on Terror (PublicAffairs, $24, 1586483595). (Re-airs Sunday at 6 p.m. and 9 p.m.)


Sunday, October 1

12 Noon. In Depth: historian and author John Hope Franklin, whose most popular book, From Slavery to Freedom: A History of African-Americans, was written in 1947 and has sold more than three million copies. The show will be live. Viewers with questions for Franklin may call in during the program or e-mail booktv@c-span.org.

5:15 p.m. Public Lives. During an appearance at the Bookworm in Omaha, Neb., Charlyne Berens, a journalism professor at the University of Nebraska, talked about her book Chuck Hagel: Moving Forward (University of Nebraska Press, $24.95, 0803210752), a biography of the Republican Senator. She notes that his internationalist outlook often puts him at odds with his own party, and she examines his chances as a presidential candidate in 2008.

7 p.m. General Assignment. Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf talks about his In the Line of Fire: A Memoir (Fireside, $28, 0743283449).

Among major titles appearing next week in paperback:

Sunday, October 1:

Dream Maker: Untamed\Less of a Stranger by Nora Roberts (Silhouette, $7.99, 0373285248).

Tuesday, October 3:

Skeleton Coast by Clive Cussler (Berkley, $16, 0425211894).

Dance of the Gods by Nora Roberts (Jove, $7.99, 0515141666)

Dark Harbor by Stuart Woods (Signet, $9.99, 0451218701).

The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova (Back Bay, $15.99, 0316154547).

On my flight home from the Mountains & Plains Independent Booksellers Association trade show in Denver, Colo., I read the following in Brendan I. Koerner's introduction to an intriguing new anthology, The Best of Technology Writing: "The best tech writing is also frequently read online, rather than in the pages of magazines or newspapers--publications often jokingly referred to as 'dead trees.' "

Technology was the prevailing theme of MPIBA's Thursday programs, which featured panels like "Essential Technologies: An Overview," "Digital Media Formats and the Independent Bookstore" and "Capturing the I and My Generation (Ipods, IMs, and MySpace)."

During the Digital Media panel, someone used the term "fiber-based books." It was meant to be a throwaway line, but the audience laughed uneasily and other panelists briefly smacked it around like a badminton birdie.

Dead trees.

Fiber-based books.

Fasten your seat belts, folks. It's going to be a bumpy ride.

Most of the panelists at the MPIBA show were (how do I say this diplomatically?) not representing the MySpace generation, yet their attitude toward technology was generally curious, engaged and resourceful.

Dave Weich of Powell's Books made the wisest statement of the weekend: "I don't know what's going to happen. The changes in the next 15 years will make the changes in the last 10 look like nothing."

The Essential Technologies panel dealt with bricks-and-mortar as well as Web site issues, and the point was made more than once that the two cannot be separated. If you have a Web site, it is your virtual bookstore and may be the first impression that many potential customers have of your business. It must be taken seriously as a venue for customer interaction.  

Interactivity.

"What's changing in the world in the last decade or so is that there is less emphasis on product and more on customer," said Len Vlahos, director of Booksense.com and director of education at the ABA. "People use the Internet as they used to use the phone book." He added that booksellers have to be more conscious of their Web presence, making it an integral, rather than tangential, component of their bookshop: "It is rare when you walk into a store to see any evidence of a Web site."

Liz Sullivan of BookPeople in Austin, Tex., suggested that with a strong Web presence, "you can actually get rid of your Yellow Pages advertising." She was also one of many industry professionals recommending the e-mail marketing service Constant Contact, calling it "the only one that didn't take days to figure out."

Carl Lennertz of HarperCollins stressed the need for every bookstore to have a high speed Internet connection in order to acquire information from and communicate with publishers. "Catalogues may go online in the next five years," he said, adding that publishers are already offering an array of digital POP materials. He stressed the importance of ongoing communication with customers, citing Constant Contact as "the best invention since Above the Treeline."

Andy Nettell of Arches Book Company in Moab, Utah, who described himself as a representative of "the frustrated user group of bookstore owners," also praised Constant Contact: "It makes your store look very professional."  

At the Digital Media Formats panel, the discussion ranged well beyond the confines of the topic, as if digital downloads were merely the shark's fin poking above the surface of still-impenetrable waters.  

Dave Weich of Powell's Books shared a wealth of information about that bookstore's focus on adapting to new opportunities while preserving the best aspects of customer service. "We've sold e-books for six years or so for Adobe Reader, Microsoft Reader, Palm Reader," he said. "They account for about 1% of our sales." He expects that figure to rise dramatically when the long-anticipated--but still unrealized--development of a first-rate reading device occurs. "People are committed to their device, not to their desktop computer," he continued. "Eventually there is going to be an iPod for books; that's when e-books will explode."

Still, e-books and digital downloads are just a part of what successful bookstore Web sites can provide. Weich offered two suggestions for raising bookstores' Web site game. First, don't assume you must always hire expensive techies to guide you through the virtual jungle: "Try to nurture the people on your staff who already have an interest in this stuff." And second, never forget that a very traditional, "fiber-based" question still applies to the digital book world: "What makes the relationship between your customer and your store meaningful?"--Robert Gray (column archives available at Fresh Eyes Now)