Beware of Harry Potter party poopers.
Joci Tilsen, owner of the Valley Bookseller, Stillwater, Minn., told the Pioneer Press she discovered the hard way that "companies holding rights to the boy wizard have rules--and are quick to enforce them."
Tilsen had planned to charge admission for her store's Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows event, but "J.K. Rowling's agent found us on the Internet and informed Time Warner and Scholastic," she said. "We had been charging for our party, and that was in violation of the guidelines. So we have restructured our party, and it is now free with the purchase of a book from us." She added that she "was told we were not alone in being called to task for it."
Amy Baum of the Red Balloon Bookshop, St. Paul, Minn., said, "The guidelines have forced us to be very cautious. Even the naming of the event is challenging." In fact, the Pioneer Press reported that "bookstore staffers say they are wary of using terms they think Warner Bros. owns, such as muggle."
Anderson's Bookshop, Naperville, Ill., adjusted to the strict guidelines in an appropriately mysterious way by calling its HP7 event The Party That Shall Not Be Named. The bookshop's website even includes a disclaimer: "This event is not endorsed, sanctioned or in any other way supported, directly or indirectly, by Warner Bros. Entertainment, the Harry Potter book publishers, or J. K. Rowling and her representatives."
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Bookselling This Week profiles New York City's Tenement Museum, which
offers 1,500 titles in its Museum Shop and regularly puts on
book-related events. "Even though we're attached to the museum, we'd
still like to be considered one of the best bookshops in New York,"
Helene Silver, v-p and director, told BTW.
Because so many ethnic groups lived in the Lower East Side at different
points, the shop covers a broad range of subjects. "It permits us to
have a section on Jewish interest, Irish interest, Italian interest,
Scandinavian interest, German interest . . ." Silver said. "People come
here to learn a little more about their roots."
New assistant director Amanda Lydon, formerly manager of Good Yarns
Bookshop, Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y., is "the first real book person
we've had," Silver added.
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BTW also celebrates the 30th anniversary of the 6,000-sq.-ft. Ninth
Street Book Shop, Wilmington, Del., founded by former teachers Jack and
Gemma Buckley. The couple have adapted to a sickly downtown retail
environment by reducing the title base and stocking fewer business
books and more fiction, among other changes. "We still manage to have
the right book for people," Jack Buckley said. "We're careful watchers
[of our inventory], and we're good at getting stuff back on the shelf.
We also do a lot of out-of-print searches."
Jack Buckley is a member of the board of directors of the American
Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, and the couple have been
very active in defending First Amendment rights by posting petitions
and participating in the test of the ABFFE/Book Sense gift cards.
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Shades of Stephen King and PGW.
Larry Portzline, the founder of bookstore tourism, is planning a
50-state, 10-week tour of independent bookstores to "raise consumer
awareness of independent bookstores and celebrate the indie spirit."
Portzline's "Why Indie Bookstores Matter" tour will begin next year on
April 1 (no fooling!) and include visits to at least 200 stores. Mr.
Bookstore Tourism will drive across the continental U.S. and fly to
Alaska and Hawaii.
At each store, Portzline will interview owners, booksellers and
customers and post updates, pictures and podcasts on the tour's blog.
At the end of the trip, he plans to write a book about the tour.
Portzline is seeking sponsorships to help pay for the trip and suggesting that
fans "make a donation and ride along . . . for a day or two." For
more information, go to whyindiebookstoresmatter.com.
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Barnes & Noble, which in 2005 closed a store at 5001 Jericho
Turnpike in Commack, N.Y., is returning to the neighborhood. In July
2008, the company plans to open a store in the Huntington Square
Shopping Center at 400 East Jericho Turnpike.
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Borders plans to open a 24,540-sq.-ft. store in the Holyoke Mall in Holyoke, Mass., in November. The mall is located at the intersection of I-90 and I-91.
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Effective
Monday, July 9, the Southern California Independent Booksellers
Association is moving. Its new address is: 959 E. Walnut St., Suite
220, Pasadena, Calif. 91106. SCIBA's other contact information remains
the same: 626-793-8435; fax 626-792-1402; scbabooks.org.
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Congratulations to the Globe Corner Bookstores,
Cambridge, Mass., and online, whose spring travel narrative and
armchair travel bestseller list appears in the current issue of
Entertainment Weekly, dated June 29. The store's travel guide
bestseller list is available at globecorner.com/bestsellers.html.
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Something to nosh on: Our mention of Books & Books' Food for Thought series in Thursday's issue inadvertently chewed up one of the titles featured in the book group-lunch program. The Last Flight of Jose Luis Balboa (Mariner, $12, 9780618658862/0618658866), a collection of short stories set in Miami, was written by Gonzalo Barr and is a Bakeless Literary Prize winner. Francine Prose was the judge and wrote a foreword for the book, which was published last September. Our apologies!
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In connection with its recent conference "Tools of Change for
Publishing," O'Reilly has launched a blog on the topic--check out the
tool at toc4p.com, an offshoot of the company's Radar blog.
Incidentally O'Reilly is planning to hold a second Tools of Change conference in February in New York City.
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Costco book buyer Pennie Clark Ianniciello has chosen One for the Money
(St. Martin's Griffin, $13.95, 9780312362089/0312362080), Janet
Evanovich's first in the Stephanie Plum series, as July's book pick.
She has highlighted the title in the current issue of Costco
Connection, which goes to many of the warehouse club's members.
"What could be tastier than rereading Janet Evanovich's One for the
Money?" Ianniciello wrote. "She introduces readers to the brassy bounty
hunter Stephanie Plum--who happens to be out of work and money.
Evanovich delivers laughs and clever prose with each novel. I guarantee
that if you love the first in this series, now up to a respectable 13,
you'll love them all."