Opened this week, Lonely Planet's store at Sydney Airport features "the full range of Lonely Planet's digital products and travel guides, as well as a selection of travel accessories, and Lonely Planet magazine," Bookseller & Publisher Online reported.
Lonely Planet sales and marketing director for Australia Howard Ralley said that travelers will "immediately see that Lonely Planet means much more than just books." Opened in association with Lagardère Services Asia Pacific, the store showcases the company's website, video and TV content, wireless guides such as the iPhone Guidebook and a portal to make custom guides.
Ralley called the store "an important base" for launching other digital aspects of Lonely Planet's business in the Asia Pacific Region and said that the concept may be expanded to other locations.
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"You have that itch. You've got the urge. You feel the need to read," observed the Denver Post
in a guide to the city's bookshops. "Regardless of how bad
the economy gets, you just can't seem to cut back on your book habit.
Libraries are thriving as the economy falters, but there always will be
those who want to own what they read. We've rounded up a sampling of
some favorite bibliophile haunts, where book dealers are happy to feed
your literary addiction. New or used, specialty or general, these spots
can cure your word jones."
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The Trover Shop on Capitol Hill, Washington, D.C., is closing after more than a half-century in business. The Washington Post
reported that a letter in the shop's window began: "It is with great
sadness that we inform you of our plans to close our Capitol Hill
location, but given the current economic climate and the changes in our
industry, we are faced with no other viable option."
"It's
tough. It's our whole life," said co-owner Andy Shuman. "This is
something my dad took a lot of pride in. He worked six days a week all
his life." He told the Post that several years ago, the family
had owned five Trover Shops in the city. After the imminent closing of
the Pennsylvania Avenue store, the only remaining Trover Shop will be
the one at 13th and F Streets, which sells cards and gifts, but no
books.
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In an article headlined "Bookstores Aim at Amazon With E-Readers of Their Own," Wired
magazine suggested that "e-book readers promoted by big stores could
also widen the gap between chain stores and independent book sellers
who may not be able to offer an integrated e-book reading experience."
Stephanie Anderson, manager of WORD bookstore, Brooklyn, N.Y., told Wired
that indies will still have their place in the industry. "A lot of what
independent book stores are about is a place for people to go, meet
authors and talk about what they are reading," she said. "For indies,
the books are the most important thing but the community comes a close
second."
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Boing Boing showcased Francis Ford Iowa, a blog turned book promotion marketing tool by Daniel Kraus, who noted: "I work at the American Library Association's Booklist
magazine (I make a lot of ALA's videos, including the one of the FBI
whistleblower that Boing Boing mentioned last year). My debut
young-adult novel, The Monster Variations, comes out on August
11. As a promotional tool (but mostly because it's fun), I've been
posting all the terrible movies I made as a teen growing up in Iowa."
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At the premiere in London last night of the film version of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, fans "braved rain and hail" to welcome the cast, the New York Times reported. The movie opens here next week.
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A Forbes story about investing in the current difficult economic times quoted one analyst who said that highly leveraged companies "are probably not going to be able to last."
By contrast, companies with low debt are much better positioned to survive, and among those cited were Amazon.com, with a debt-to-equity ratio of 3%, and Barnes & Noble, with no debt.
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Rob Weisbach Creative Management is adding three senior associates who will work with their own clients as well as help the agency in general:
- Erin L. Cox will represent writers and provide publicity and promotion services. She was formerly book publishing director at the New Yorker and is a sales rep for the German Book Office's Publishing Perspectives. She earlier worked in the publicity department at Scribner and was associate director of publicity at HarperCollins.
- David Groff will scout and develop writers, provide editorial expertise and offer editorial services. A writer, he has spent 25 years in the book business and was a senior editor at Crown and continues as an independent editor and publishing consultant.
- Jake Baumann will develop and represent authors and screenwriters and provide film and TV expertise. He was most recently director of development at the Weinstein Company and earlier worked at Wild Child Films and Laura Ziskin Productions, where he was involved with many book-to-film projects.