Cool idea of the day: Alex Dawson, owner of the Raconteur, a used
bookstore in Metuchen, N.J., has started a literary motorcycle club
whose first trip earlier this month was to the house in Burlington,
N.J., where James Fenimore Cooper was born, today's New York Times
reported. Five people took the ride; the next trip, Dawson hopes, will
be an overnight to the Robert Louis Stevenson cottage at Saranac Lake,
N.Y.
Dawson opened the store, now "slightly famous in literary circles in Brooklyn and Manhattan as well as Edison and New Brunswick," in November 2004. The Raconteur sells used books, rents DVDs, stages readings and film events and offers writers' workshops. The store's Wordfest, which featured 15 writers reading for five hours, drew 400 people to a nearby theater recently.
Business has been as expected, Dawson told the Times. "But you have to remember that I ran a theater company for the last six years, so this isn't a financial step down, it's a financial step up," he said.
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Harper Lee, author of To Kill a Mockingbird, has written a rare published item--"a letter for Oprah Winfrey's magazine on how she became a reader as a child in a rural, Depression-era Alabama town," according to the AP via CNN.
In the letter, Lee tells that she became a reader early on. Her older sisters and brother read to her; her mother read a story a day; and her father read newspaper articles to her. "Then, of course, it was Uncle Wiggly at bedtime." In Monroeville, Ala., books were scarce in the '30s, making her treasure them all the more.
"Now, 75 years later in an abundant society where people have laptops, cell phones, iPods, and minds like empty rooms, I still plod along with books," she wrote.
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The $40 million Eastern Michigan University Student Center opens in November and will include a new bookstore managed by Follett that will have "a lounge, coffee area, general reading area and more access to used textbooks," according to Eastern Echo, the university newspaper.
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Several newspapers look at changes in used book sales. The conclusion seems to be that stores selling used books that don't sell online don't sell as many books as they used to.
Gil's Book Loft has abandoned its bricks-and-mortar site in Binghamton, N.Y., and now sells only online from a spot in nearby Johnson City that is close to the post office, the Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin reported.
Since 1995, the New Hampshire Antiquarian Booksellers Association has lost 17 members, down from 80 to 63, according to the Concord Monitor. Sales at Homestead Bookshop in Marlborough, N.H., owned by NHABA president Robert Kenney, have dropped 30% since 1995. And Tom Stotler of Old Paper Collectibles in Warner, N.H., has seen his business gradually drop off. Other used booksellers without e-commerce sites told the paper they had similar sales declines.
But among the Monitor's examples of booksellers taking advantage of the Internet: Bill and Karen Carruth, who just closed the retail establishment Old Forge Books, Epsom, N.H., but continue to sell online--and plan to move to Newbury, where they will open a B&B and another bookstore.
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Effective July 5, Jennifer Sheridan joins HarperCollins as sales rep for the New York region, selling adult lines to Bookazine, Barnes & Noble College Stores and independent bookstores. She has been a buyer for Bookazine; a manager and buyer for the children's department at Unabridged Books in Chicago; a bookseller at other stores; a freelance editor; and taught fiction writing at Columbia College in Chicago.
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Advanced Marketing Services has named Tara Catogge executive v-p, sales and merchandising. She joined the company in 1994 as marketing manager for Sam's Club, was promoted to general sales manager, director, club sales and was most recently v-p of sales. She will continue to be responsible for wholesale sales and merchandising with AMS's core suppliers and warehouse club customers. Earlier Catogge was sales director at Academic Press.
Dawson opened the store, now "slightly famous in literary circles in Brooklyn and Manhattan as well as Edison and New Brunswick," in November 2004. The Raconteur sells used books, rents DVDs, stages readings and film events and offers writers' workshops. The store's Wordfest, which featured 15 writers reading for five hours, drew 400 people to a nearby theater recently.
Business has been as expected, Dawson told the Times. "But you have to remember that I ran a theater company for the last six years, so this isn't a financial step down, it's a financial step up," he said.
---
Harper Lee, author of To Kill a Mockingbird, has written a rare published item--"a letter for Oprah Winfrey's magazine on how she became a reader as a child in a rural, Depression-era Alabama town," according to the AP via CNN.
In the letter, Lee tells that she became a reader early on. Her older sisters and brother read to her; her mother read a story a day; and her father read newspaper articles to her. "Then, of course, it was Uncle Wiggly at bedtime." In Monroeville, Ala., books were scarce in the '30s, making her treasure them all the more.
"Now, 75 years later in an abundant society where people have laptops, cell phones, iPods, and minds like empty rooms, I still plod along with books," she wrote.
---
The $40 million Eastern Michigan University Student Center opens in November and will include a new bookstore managed by Follett that will have "a lounge, coffee area, general reading area and more access to used textbooks," according to Eastern Echo, the university newspaper.
---
Several newspapers look at changes in used book sales. The conclusion seems to be that stores selling used books that don't sell online don't sell as many books as they used to.
Gil's Book Loft has abandoned its bricks-and-mortar site in Binghamton, N.Y., and now sells only online from a spot in nearby Johnson City that is close to the post office, the Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin reported.
Since 1995, the New Hampshire Antiquarian Booksellers Association has lost 17 members, down from 80 to 63, according to the Concord Monitor. Sales at Homestead Bookshop in Marlborough, N.H., owned by NHABA president Robert Kenney, have dropped 30% since 1995. And Tom Stotler of Old Paper Collectibles in Warner, N.H., has seen his business gradually drop off. Other used booksellers without e-commerce sites told the paper they had similar sales declines.
But among the Monitor's examples of booksellers taking advantage of the Internet: Bill and Karen Carruth, who just closed the retail establishment Old Forge Books, Epsom, N.H., but continue to sell online--and plan to move to Newbury, where they will open a B&B and another bookstore.
---
Effective July 5, Jennifer Sheridan joins HarperCollins as sales rep for the New York region, selling adult lines to Bookazine, Barnes & Noble College Stores and independent bookstores. She has been a buyer for Bookazine; a manager and buyer for the children's department at Unabridged Books in Chicago; a bookseller at other stores; a freelance editor; and taught fiction writing at Columbia College in Chicago.
---
Advanced Marketing Services has named Tara Catogge executive v-p, sales and merchandising. She joined the company in 1994 as marketing manager for Sam's Club, was promoted to general sales manager, director, club sales and was most recently v-p of sales. She will continue to be responsible for wholesale sales and merchandising with AMS's core suppliers and warehouse club customers. Earlier Catogge was sales director at Academic Press.