Online sales during the first full business week of December rose 9% to $3.74 million, according to comScore (as reported by Retailer Daily and Seeking Alpha). The best-performing categories were sport and fitness, up 35%, and consumer electronics, up 24%. Book and magazine sales rose 10%.
"The online holiday shopping season has picked up noticeably since Thanksgiving as consumers have given in to the holiday spirit--and very attractive retailer discounts," comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni said.
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At a reception yesterday at the White House with Dr. Halima Bashir, who near her remote clinic in Darfur was tortured and gang-raped after speaking out about rapes of girls, President Bush held a copy of her book, Tears of the Desert: A Memoir of Survival in Darfur (One World/Ballantine), the AP reported. He called Bashir a "brave soul."
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Borders lands next Monday at the Philadelphia International Airport, opening its second store in the airport. The 909-sq.-ft. store will be between Concourses D and E and offer 7,000 book and audiobook titles as well as DVDs, CDs, gifts and stationery.
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The Burlington Free Press has a Q&A with Natacha Liuzzi, who recently opened Brown Dog Books & Gifts in Hinesburg, Vt. While working as a children's librarian, a preschool teacher and at several area bookstores, she always had a "dream to own my own bookstore." Brown Dog Books & Gifts offers "lots of groovy stuff," she added.
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From Footnotes, the monthly newsletter of the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association:
Allegory Books & Music, Gleneden Beach, Ore., is celebrating 30 years in business this month.
Voyageur Bookstore, Craig, Alaska, has transformed itself into Wheelhouse Coffee Roasters and will sell coffee and sidelines but no longer any books. Owner Gail Slentz told Footnotes: "Over the course of the last three years high speed Internet has made its way into most every household and business in our remote corner . . . Combined with some astronomical freight prices, non-existent free freight programs and an economy in recession, it is no longer financially feasible for me to be a general bookstore. I, like many who have fallen before me, cannot compete with Amazon.com prices and free shipping."
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In the Philadelphia Inquirer, Larry Robin, who is closing the street-level part of Robin's Book Store and no longer selling new books (Shelf Awareness, November 18, 2008), described his new operation "a cultural salon." He will sell used books and host signings, readings and performances.
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For a piece headlined "Cheetah Heels and Monsters," New Yorker magazine's Book Bench blogger Andrea Walker reported on "the inaugural meeting of the Marie Claire live book club, where editors from the magazine discussed Lauren Groff’s début novel, The Monsters of Templeton, at the McNally-Jackson bookstore, in SoHo."
The
event played to an SRO crowd, and was described by Walker as "the most
stylish literary reading I attended in 2008. Two women wore
cheetah-print heels; another, black patterned tights and a satin-y,
bright-pink bubble-style skirt." Fashion notes aside, however, the
"editors asked probing questions but kept the tone conversational;
readers of their monthly discussions, in the magazine, will know that
they aren't afraid to criticize."
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Scott Makarchuk,
who became the owner of Books and Memories, Syracuse, N.Y., in
September, has "revamped the look and focus of the store, while still
keeping up some of the familiar traditions," according to the New Times.
Makarchuk "now thinks of the store as a bookstore cafe. 'The atmosphere
is a giant cafe with books as decoration.' His vision for the place
also includes rethinking the traditional bookstore as more of an
'entertainment exchange.' He said the store trades in movies, games,
posters, magazines, CDs and other media, not just books."
He
doesn't believe this focus will lessen the quality and depth of his
books selection. "We try to keep a really rich variety in every
section."
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Boing Boing spotted artist Jennifer Khoshbin's music boxes made from old books.
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Congratulations to Chris Finan, president of the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression and outgoing chair of the National Coalition Against Censorship, who has been elected 2009 chair of the Media Coalition, which is dedicated to "defending the First Amendment rights of publishers, booksellers and librarians, recording, motion picture and video games producers, and recording, video and video game retailers in the United States."
Earlier in his career, Finan worked at the Media Coalition as a staff member. He's also the author of From the Palmer Raids to the Patriot Act: A History of the Fight for Free Speech in America and Alfred E. Smith: The Happy Warrior.
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In a restructuring of the Tor and Forge Books marketing and publicity departments:
- Phyllis Azar has been promoted to executive director of marketing. She had run the advertising and promotion department for almost 10 years and was previously ad/promo director.
- Patty Garcia has been promoted to director of publicity from associate director of publicity.
- Brian Vaughan has been promoted to the new position of director of publishing operations. He was formerly marketing manager.
- Joseph Bendel has been promoted to the new position of manager of publishing operations. He was formerly assistant sales/marketing manager.
- Jennifer Kaufler has been promoted to marketing manager. She previously served as marketing coordinator.
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Effective next March 16, manga publisher Go! Comi will be distributed in the U.S. and Canada by PGW. Go! Comi CEO David Wise commented: "Our business has grown very quickly since we started out four years ago, and we believe that PGW will help increase sales through traditional book outlets, as well as continue the growth in comic book and other specialty markets."
The new distribution arrangement launches with 11 spring 2009 titles, including additions to the Bound Beauty and 07-GHOST series, along with several debut titles.