Sandra B. Cochran has resigned as president, CEO and director of Books-A-Million and is becoming executive v-p and CFO of Cracker Barrel Old Country Store. She remains a board member of American Promotional Events, an Anderson family company.
BAM chairman Clyde B. Anderson is adding the title of CEO. In a statement, he commented, "During her years with Books-A-Million, Sandy has been a valued partner and has worked tirelessly to help our company grow and prosper."
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At Borders Group's annual meeting, to be held May 21 in Ypsilanti, Mich., the company may seek approval of measure to do a reverse stock split if that's necessary to avoid being delisted by the New York Stock Exchange. Under a reverse stock split, the company's shares, currently trading at 49 cents per share, would be combined so that, for example, three current shares would become one new share, worth $1.47. Under normal NYSE rules, companies may not continue to be listed if their share prices remain under $1 for specified periods. Because of the current economic crisis, however, that rule has been bent somewhat.
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A coalition has been formed to "save Ann Arbor literary institution Shaman Drum Bookshop," the Ann Arbor News reported. University of Michigan professor Julie Ellison distributed a letter last Friday explaining that the newly-formed group "envisions turning the store into a nonprofit 'humanities commons,' possibly linked in some way to U-M through a campus/community alliance."
Last month, Shaman Drum owner Karl Pohrt said he might have to close due to a sharp drop in textbook sales and unexpected government delays regarding an application for nonprofit status under the name Great Lakes Literary Arts Center (Shelf Awareness, February 9, 2009).
The Shaman Drum coalition has made some initial suggestions, including:
- The U-M Institute for the Humanities could make space available for Great Lakes Literary Arts Center classes.
- U-M could change its textbook policy to include a statement on the benefits of buying books locally.
- Individuals could buy shares or memberships in the Great Lakes Literary Association to support the store.
- Shaman Drum could become a site for teaching for U-M.
- Students and faculty in the U-M's Nonprofit and Public Management Center and the School of Information could work with Shaman Drum to develop a new business model and write grants to support it.
By Friday afternoon, "about 40 people had signed up to support the coalition," including two former Poet Laureates, Robert Hass and Robert Pinsky.
"I hope what comes out of this is an economic model and a community learning model,'' Ellison said.
Pohrt added, "What I am interested in is what the new model for bookshops will look like. This is an opportunity to try and invent it. And it's not a lone ranger thing. This is collaborative.''
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ABA's IndieBound program has been honored as one of the 2009 ReBrand 100 winning brands.
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Scam Alert revisited: Pat Daly, co-owner of Books & Crannies, Middleburg, Va., informed us that the Paul Jackson Institute ordering scam (Shelf Awareness, March 13, 2008) was attempted recently at her shop as well. "We tried to get address verification on the VISA card," she said. "When we could not confirm the billing address on the card with our merchant services rep, we contacted PNC Bank, who advised us not to run the transaction. Thanks for printing this warning in Shelf Awareness. It confirmed our conclusion that the transaction was a scam."
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"The people who like my books enjoy what they're collecting. They're looking for a good book they haven't seen before, at a reasonable price," said Tommy Savage, owner of Thomas Savage Bookseller, Baton Rouge, La., in an interview with the Advocate. Savage opened his used, rare and out-of-print bookshop eight months ago, but has been in the business for two decades, previously owning bookstores in Quito, Ecuador, and St. Francisville, La.
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Vox Pop bookstore and café, Brooklyn, N.Y., described by the New York Times as "a beacon of change" for Cortelyou Road in Ditmas Park, is three months behind on its rent, facing $29,000 in unpaid fines, and in danger of closing.
"We’re in trouble," said Debi Ryan, who was hired by the store's 51 shareholders "in December to straighten things out has never been paid."
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Despite, or perhaps because of, the recession, Europeans are buying more books, according to the Associated Press (via the New York Times), which reported that the "resilience has been particularly evident in Continental Europe. After a dip in the fall, the number of books sold in France rose 2% in December from a year earlier and 2.4% in January."
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Obituary note: James Purdy, whose novels included Malcolm and The Nephew, died last Friday. He was 94. In its obituary, the New York Times described Purdy as a writer "whose dark, often savagely comic fiction evoked a psychic American landscape of deluded innocence, sexual obsession, violence and isolation."
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Time Out New York trailed John Wray as he read through a bullhorn from his novel, Lowboy (set, as well as partly written in, the subway system), on the Brooklyn-bound L train in New York.
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Le livre et le sang. French teenagers are devouring Emily Brontë. The Times reported that interest in Wuthering Heights (Les Hauts de Hurlevent) has spiked thanks to Stephenie Meyer's Twilight vampire series: "References to Wuthering Heights abound in Eclipse, the third of the four-book series, and Belle Swan, the heroine, emerges as a Brontë fan. The upshot in France is that the 13 to 16-year-old girls who form Meyer's core readership have been keen to find out more about Brontë and her work."
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Congratulations to our former colleague Kevin Howell, bookselling and audiobook review editor at Publishers Weekly, who has become associate marketing manager for Tarcher/Penguin. In a nice twist, he reports to Brianna Yamashita, another PW alum.
Kevin noted that when he moved to New York City in 1997 after working at Little Professor in Michigan and was hired by PW, he was also interviewing for marketing jobs at publishing houses. "Now 11 years later, I end up with a marketing job, and at a publishing house I really respect. I feel fortunate to be here, especially with this economy and so many talented people in publishing being out of work. Amazingly I was only out of work for a month . . . in fact, I got hired before I got my first unemployment check!"
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Congratulations, too, to Kelly Amabile, who is working part-time both as events coordinator and bookseller at WORD bookstore, Brooklyn, N.Y., and for Reading Enterprises, which manages the New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association. Through May, she will provide part-time events support at Book Culture in Manhattan, where she was formerly events and marketing manager. She continues to serve as facilitator for the Independent Booksellers of New York City. She may be reached at kelly@wordbrooklyn.com.