Wow. Rueben Martinez, who has two Libreria Martinez Books and Art
Gallery locations, in Santa Ana and Lynwood, Calif., and who won a
MacArthur "genius award" two years ago, will direct the selection of
Latino-related books and magazines at three Hudson News stores at John
Wayne Airport in Santa Ana, according to the Orange Country Register.
"They know the Latino population is growing," Martinez told the paper. "They're going to have libros en español. My job is to lead people in that direction." He also said that he is a 15% owner of the stores.
According to the Register, Hudson bought the stores earlier this year and is remodeling them. The completed stores, with Martinez's selections, should be unveiled in two months. Martinez is also consulting with the company on a Spanish-language section at Los Angeles International Airport and may do so at other Hudson airport stores.
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Michael McDermott is closing the Bookstore, in Warwick, N.Y., according to the Warwick Advertiser, which has published several letters from anguished customers. The store was open for eight years.
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In Bookselling This Week, Melissa Lion, a handselling maven at Diesel, A Bookstore, with shops in Oakland and Malibu, Calif., offers the delightful 10 "Rules of the Handsell." Here's No. 6:
Always up-sell. Here are some of my favorites:
Customer comes up with a travel book for Thailand.
Me: Have you read Bangkok 8?
Customer comes up with a travel book for Boston.
Me: Have you read Dennis Lehane?
Customer comes up with Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus
Me: Have you read this obscure '60s SciFi book?
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The Los Angeles Times profiles Abril Books, "which claims to be the largest of the half-dozen Armenian-language bookstores in the U.S." The Glendale store began nearly 30 years ago when Harout Yeretzian, an Armenian from Lebanon, and his brother founded a magazine devoted to the Armenian language and Armenian culture, which "spawned a print shop, which spawned a bookstore, which spawned a small publishing house." Now the magazine and print shop are gone, and Abril Books offers some 5,000 books, half in Armenian (some of which it publishes) and half in English, as well as periodicals, greeting cards and music CDs.
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Bookselling This Week unlocks the Open Door Bookstore, Schenectady, N.Y., a general store with a strong children's section that has expanded to 3,000 square feet from the 500 square feet it had when bought by Betty and John Fleming in 1992. Besides books, Open Door has a gift gallery with jewelry, pottery, glass and fashion accessories. The store celebrated its 35th anniversary in May.
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In two articles, the Sarasota Herald-Tribune recently paid visits to a total of four used bookstores in the greater Sarasota area. One striking story: in 2001, John and his wife bought a used bookstore near their home in Oregon and "shipped it, book by book, to Punta Gorda, a city they found on the Internet and fell in love with." At the time, John's Pennywise Books and Art Supplies was one of at least six used bookstores in the county, but Hurricane Charley forced two of them out of business. The store is open long hours and recently began to make a profit.
Linda Mello, owner of the Paper Pad Bookstore in Port Charlotte, Fla., since 1997, said that sales are off but she is happy to have survived Hurricane Charley. In one of the more unusual ways of expressing a desire to keep working, she said, "I'd love to be here until I'm 90 years old and crippled."
The other Sarasota Herald-Tribune story featured Dearborn Books, South Venice, Fla., which Joan Wells founded 15 years ago. The store specializes in used paperbacks, particularly "romantic suspense, murder mystery and true crime." Business has slowed so much that sometimes she "doesn't see a single customer walk through the door."
Husband and wife Sviat Makohon and Peggy Sienecki opened the Sanddollar Bookstore in South Venice four months ago, a shop whose opening inventory was the pair's hard-to-find and collectible titles. Makohon said he hopes that the store's "living-room" feel will help make it "a place to sit and relax and maybe buy a book."
---
The National Association of College Stores is offering several free audio Webcasts featuring speakers at BEA's Day of Education who addressed issues of concern to college retailers. The Webcasts include the Manga Demystified session and Prospecting the Backlist Country and Creating Excitement with Bargain Books.
"They know the Latino population is growing," Martinez told the paper. "They're going to have libros en español. My job is to lead people in that direction." He also said that he is a 15% owner of the stores.
According to the Register, Hudson bought the stores earlier this year and is remodeling them. The completed stores, with Martinez's selections, should be unveiled in two months. Martinez is also consulting with the company on a Spanish-language section at Los Angeles International Airport and may do so at other Hudson airport stores.
---
Michael McDermott is closing the Bookstore, in Warwick, N.Y., according to the Warwick Advertiser, which has published several letters from anguished customers. The store was open for eight years.
---
In Bookselling This Week, Melissa Lion, a handselling maven at Diesel, A Bookstore, with shops in Oakland and Malibu, Calif., offers the delightful 10 "Rules of the Handsell." Here's No. 6:
Always up-sell. Here are some of my favorites:
Customer comes up with a travel book for Thailand.
Me: Have you read Bangkok 8?
Customer comes up with a travel book for Boston.
Me: Have you read Dennis Lehane?
Customer comes up with Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus
Me: Have you read this obscure '60s SciFi book?
---
The Los Angeles Times profiles Abril Books, "which claims to be the largest of the half-dozen Armenian-language bookstores in the U.S." The Glendale store began nearly 30 years ago when Harout Yeretzian, an Armenian from Lebanon, and his brother founded a magazine devoted to the Armenian language and Armenian culture, which "spawned a print shop, which spawned a bookstore, which spawned a small publishing house." Now the magazine and print shop are gone, and Abril Books offers some 5,000 books, half in Armenian (some of which it publishes) and half in English, as well as periodicals, greeting cards and music CDs.
---
Bookselling This Week unlocks the Open Door Bookstore, Schenectady, N.Y., a general store with a strong children's section that has expanded to 3,000 square feet from the 500 square feet it had when bought by Betty and John Fleming in 1992. Besides books, Open Door has a gift gallery with jewelry, pottery, glass and fashion accessories. The store celebrated its 35th anniversary in May.
---
In two articles, the Sarasota Herald-Tribune recently paid visits to a total of four used bookstores in the greater Sarasota area. One striking story: in 2001, John and his wife bought a used bookstore near their home in Oregon and "shipped it, book by book, to Punta Gorda, a city they found on the Internet and fell in love with." At the time, John's Pennywise Books and Art Supplies was one of at least six used bookstores in the county, but Hurricane Charley forced two of them out of business. The store is open long hours and recently began to make a profit.
Linda Mello, owner of the Paper Pad Bookstore in Port Charlotte, Fla., since 1997, said that sales are off but she is happy to have survived Hurricane Charley. In one of the more unusual ways of expressing a desire to keep working, she said, "I'd love to be here until I'm 90 years old and crippled."
The other Sarasota Herald-Tribune story featured Dearborn Books, South Venice, Fla., which Joan Wells founded 15 years ago. The store specializes in used paperbacks, particularly "romantic suspense, murder mystery and true crime." Business has slowed so much that sometimes she "doesn't see a single customer walk through the door."
Husband and wife Sviat Makohon and Peggy Sienecki opened the Sanddollar Bookstore in South Venice four months ago, a shop whose opening inventory was the pair's hard-to-find and collectible titles. Makohon said he hopes that the store's "living-room" feel will help make it "a place to sit and relax and maybe buy a book."
---
The National Association of College Stores is offering several free audio Webcasts featuring speakers at BEA's Day of Education who addressed issues of concern to college retailers. The Webcasts include the Manga Demystified session and Prospecting the Backlist Country and Creating Excitement with Bargain Books.