On the Millions, staff writer Patrick Brown, who is also community manager for Goodreads.com and formerly of Vroman's, Pasadena, Calif., took issue with Flavorwire's list of the Top Ten Bookstores in the U.S., which began, "Bookstores are dying."
"Okay, maybe there are fewer bookstores in existence now than there were ten or twenty years ago, but to say that bookstores are dying is an oversimplification. It's not so much that they're all dying, but that a certain kind of bookstore is on its way out....
"We're seeing a resurgence of the neighborhood bookstore, something many had considered dead in the heyday of the super stores. Technology has actually leveled the playing field between big stores and small stores; anyone with enough capital and the space for a large copy machine can have a Book Espresso Machine, giving them access to hundreds of thousands of titles, as well as custom-printed books....
"There are so many tremendous smaller stores that are equally deserving of recognition.... And what makes so many of these stores incredible, what many of the chain stores could never mimic, is the staff. A better list might be one that names the top 10 booksellers in America (I could take a crack at that: Stephanie Anderson from WORD, Emily Pullen from Skylight, Michele Filgate from Riverrun, Rachel Fershleiser from Housing Works.... Well, I could go on)."
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Library Systems & Services, a private equity-owned company that is in essence "the country's fifth-largest library system," is preparing to take over the Santa Clarita public library system, the first time it has been hired "to run a system in a relatively healthy city," according to the New York Times.
The three branches have been run by the Los Angeles system, and some patrons would like that to continue. Jane Hanson, a longtime patron who organized a petition campaign, said, "A library is the heart of the community. I'm in favor of private enterprise, but I can't feel comfortable with what the city is doing here."
For his part, Frank A Pezzanie, CEO of LSS, "has pledged to save $1 million a year in Santa Clarita, mainly by cutting overhead and replacing unionized employees," the Times wrote.
Pezzanie told the paper: "A lot of libraries are atrocious. Their policies are all about job security. That's why the profession is nervous about us. You can go to a library for 35 years and never have to do anything and then have your retirement. We're not running our company that way. You come to us, you're going to have to work."
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Bookworks
bookstore, Albuquerque, N.M., will be under new ownership by the end of
the week. Nancy Rutland, who opened the bookshop in 1984, is selling
the business to two staff members, Wyatt Wegrzyn and Danielle Foster.
"The
plan is to complete the sale on October 1st and the store will be
theirs," said Rutland, who wants to pursue other interests after
"passing the baton."
In a recent e-mail to customers thanking
them for years of support, Rutland wrote, "I loved growing the bookstore
from its initial 600 square foot space into a community partner,
hosting 150 author events a year and working with people, schools,
libraries, museums, theaters, restaurants and non-profits of all kinds
to fulfill our mission: Bringing Books and People Together."
She
noted that Wegrzyn and Foster "have formed a partnership to buy
Bookworks and guide it into its next generation. They embrace the
traditions of Bookworks and also provide new ideas to continue bringing
quality service, books, authors and events into our community."
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Author Anita Diamant wrote on her Red Tent--and more blog that her recent paperback mini-tour for Day After Night took her to independent bookstores only, and "I couldn't be happier about this."
Included on her itinerary were Gibson's Bookstore, Concord, N.H.; Northshire Bookstore, Manchester Center, Vt., R.J. Julia Booksellers, Madison, Conn.; Newtonville Books, Newtonville, Mass. and Tatnucks, Westborough, Mass.
"Every
independent bookstore is unique and in New England that often means
ramshackle, which is the opposite of corporate," Diamant wrote. "I love
the wood plank floors and the kind lighting. You can actually smell the
books in these stores. Best of all, the staffs are almost always
helpful, smiling, and happy to be working there.... Whenever I visit an
independent bookstore, I ask my hosts how the store is doing. I ask with
trepidation, the way you inquire after someone whose health is known to
be frail. Bookselling is not a growth industry. What I'm hearing is
that business is okay, and better than last year for sure. The regulars
are loyal. New people turn out for readings and buy books. I breathe a
sigh of relief, say a little prayer, and say yes, I'd be glad to come
back for my next book. My pleasure."
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On the Boswell and Books blog, Daniel Goldin, owner of Boswell Book Company, Milwaukee, Wis., showcased "Bookseller Moment #279--The Author Stop-by on His or Her Way to Another Event."
His "case study" featured Room
author Emma Donoghue, who "stopped by in the afternoon with her author
escort Bill, before her event at Next Chapter.... This was what a dreamy
stop-by is all about:
b. She is super charming, as I remembered from a dinner a number of years ago for Slammerkin. Or was it Life Mask? I can't remember. I read the latter and really enjoyed it.
c. I also got to say I read her first novel when it came out, Stir Fry. Only I called it Scrambled Eggs at first. And Donoghue, as gracious as could be, said, "Sometimes they call it Sweet and Sour."d. And we could even be helpful and provide space for Donoghue's phone interview with the Daily Beast.
"This was just a wonderful experience and I'm very grateful," Goldin wrote. "So I can only imagine what the actual author events are like.... And note to booksellers: she probably wouldn't say no to a tall latte, if you're meeting her in the afternoon. Oh, and was I jealous that she wasn't reading at Boswell? Of course! Wouldn't you be?"
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On its blog, the Seattle Mystery Bookshop, Seattle, Wash., pointed out a problem with older, slow-selling titles that once would have gone out of print but now are revived in POD editions that sometimes use the same ISBN as older, cheaper editions:
"David Rosenfelt's Sudden Death. This was a regular ol' mass market paperback, $7.99 from Warner. (Warner no longer exists as a publisher--it is now Hachette.) But at some point, the book was switched to this POD system. What arrived was a trade paperback edition priced at $20.99 AND with a much lower discount. So now the book is far more expensive to put on the shelf and nearly impossible to sell at that price."
The store asked: "Books that would normally be out of print will be available for people to buy, but will they be affordable and will they sell at the prices being asked?"
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Here's a story that's difficult for us to report on fully--illustrating the problem!
Dave Smith, owner of Mulligan Books, Ukiah, Calif., and a founder of the late Smith & Hawken, posted an item on his blog by Gene Logsdon, who lamented that Prairie Public Radio interviewed him and the Chronicle of Higher Education praised his latest book, in both cases carefully avoiding mentioning the title. The problem is that the title includes one of George Carlin's seven dirty words and would more politely be rendered Holy S#!t.
Now Shelf Awareness joins the crowd. If we state the full name, this e-mail will be blocked by many e-mail systems. Crap.
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HarperCollins has joined several other major houses in setting up a conservative imprint. In January, the company is launching Broadside Books, which will be headed by Adam Bellow, son of Saul Bellow, and will publish books on "the culture wars, books of ideas, books of revisionist history, biographies, anthologies, polemical paperbacks and pop-culture books from a conservative point of view," the New York Times reported.Bellow told the paper, "I am a conservative in a liberal industry. And I've always considered it to be my function as an editor to bring news from the outside world--which is to say, reality--to the New York political cocoon."
Broadside's first titles include Death by Liberalism by J.R. Dunn, The Coming Entitlement Bomb by Peter Ferrara and The Free Market Capitalist's Survival Guide by Jerry Bowyer.
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The Melbourne Age offered an overview of e-books and digital publishing in Australia, where the Kobo e-reader was introduced in May. Some 20,000 of the devices have been sold, and Borders Australia and Angus & Robertson, both owned by REDgroup, have sold more than 100,000 e-books, and say they could have sold more if more e-titles were available. In addition, some 200,000 Kobo apps have been downloaded for free.
In many ways, the Australian e-market is several years behind the U.S.--e-book sales are still below 1% of total book sales. Publishers and retailers express familiar sentiments as consumer awareness about e-readers and lower prices for e-books has risen. Booksellers await the launch of Google Editions so that they can fully join the e-game.
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Nebraska Book Company has won the Nebraska Retail Federation's Retailer of the Year Award. According to the Lincoln Journal Star, the award cited the company as "a shining example of what a business can accomplish from Nebraska. Starting in 1915 with a single bookstore near the University of Nebraska in Lincoln, they now operate over 280 college bookstores and sell textbooks through some 2,500 other college bookstores nationwide."
Besides the college store and textbook divisions, the company offers e-commerce, retail software, design and marketing services for independent bookstores and has a textbook rental program.
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Check out this interactive literary map of Manhattan in the New York Times highlighting "where imaginary New Yorkers lived, worked, played, drank, walked and looked at ducks."
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The Independent Book Publishers Association is participating in Above the Treeline's electronic catalogues that are being made available in connection with eight of the nine regional booksellers association this fall. More than 100 IBPA publisher-members who are exhibiting in IBPA's cooperative booths at the shows will have their titles listed in the catalogues.
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Book trailer of the day: Dewey's Nine Lives: The Legacy of the Small Town Library Cat Who Inspired Millions by Vicki Myron with Bret Witter (Dutton), which will be published October 12.
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The American Book Review offers "100 best first lines from novels." We're happy to report all our favorites are here.
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Effective January 1, Black Dog & Leventhal's export sales and marketing in Europe, Japan, Korea and several other international markets will be handled by Abrams and Chronicle Books, the new distribution joint venture that has headquarters in London. Also effective January 1, Murdoch Books, Sydney, will handle Black Dog & Leventhal in Australia.