The New York Times noted that because of e-book growth, "publishers are moving against convention by pushing paperbacks into publication earlier than usual, sometimes less than six months after they appeared in hardcover."
Among recent examples of such titles: The Tiger's Wife by Tea Obreht, Swamplandia! by Karen Russell and Those Guys Have All the Fun by James Andrew Miller and Tom Shales.
"The idea that someone would wait for a year is an assumption that we should no longer make," Jane von Mehren, publisher of trade paperbacks at Random House, said. "So we're looking at shortening the window."
Carrie Kania, who is soon departing HarperCollins to become an agent in London, commented, "I really do think that e-books are part of the reason for this trend of hurrying up that paperback. You don't have to wait for a lower-priced version of that book now."
Still, at least one old rule applies: paperback editions of hardcovers that are selling strongly continue to be delayed past the usual year.
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Books-A-Million is nabbing another location soon to be vacated by bankrupt Borders. The company will open this year in the Mall of Monroe, Monroe, Mich., in a 2,290-sq.-ft. site currently occupied by Waldenbooks, according to the Monroe News.
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Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Mich., is buying the University Bookstore, a privately owned store, the university said. WMU will pay $980,000 for the business and $1 million for the building and land, which is surrounded by the WMU campus. The university said that it has long had a policy of buying property contiguous to the campus when possible.
University Bookstore owner Robert Warner will operate the store through October. The university, which has its own bookstore, WMU Bookstore, will operate University Bookstore through the fall semester and possibly longer. University Bookstore's online operations, which WMU described as "thriving," will continue in business.
WMU said that negotiations with Warner began a year ago, when he expressed interest in retiring. University Bookstore has been at its present location since 1958.
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Book trailer of the day: Children of Paranoia by Trevor Shane (Dutton), the first of a trilogy, which goes on sale September 8.
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Cool offshore bookselling job of the day: Books & Books is looking for a manager for its Cayman Islands store, which opened in 2007. Current manager Holly Smith is moving back to the U.S. to be closer to her family.
The company seeks someone with three years of retail management experience, preferably in bookselling, with strong written, verbal, supervisory, results-driven skills and advanced knowledge of Wordstock, Word, Excel and PowerPoint. The manager has a range of responsibilities, including overseeing day-to-day operation of the store, maintaining a strong community presence and establishing relationships with wholesalers and distributors. Salary is between $60,000-$80,000.
Anyone interested should contact Books & Books owner Mitchell Kaplan at mitchell@booksandbooks.com or Sally Young in the Caymans at sally.young@drcl.ky by August 12.
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Even a good niche for an indie can be a little scary. Eerie Books & Collectibles, Wylie, Tex., is the place to go "if you're looking for a place specializing in what's spooky," NBC-DFW reported.
"I've always been a reader, and I thought it's going to be really hard to compete because Barnes & Noble will just obliterate me," said owner Randy Ray, who opened the store in 2008. "So, why not pick a niche? And there is only one other all horror bookstore in the country. It's called Dark Delicacies and it's in Burbank, Calif., and I thought they were far enough away that they wouldn't be much competition."
Ray added that he "wanted to make it into a place that was cool enough and carried enough cool stuff that people would be willing to make the trip to see what we have, and it’s worked out really well for us because we've had people from Oklahoma just to see us."
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"Even the computers at Borders have given up," noted the Consumerist in featuring a reader's photo of "her local Borders, where printed-out notes taped to monitors tell of the in-store computers' doom: 'Does Not Work, Ever Again... Any of Them.' "
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Is there a future for author readings? At Quillblog, Iain Reid, author of One Bird's Choice, made a case for the traditional form, observing that "as a writer and reader, I selfishly can't bring myself to pronounce the unadorned, bare-bones reading dead. Not yet. When I stand back, and tilt my head, the defamed, plain old reading doesn't look all that inadequate. It may look a little out of shape, in need of a makeover, but generally healthy. It's not because every reading I've given has been a categorical success. More that each has been bizarrely satisfying...."
"It's the presence of fellow writers, curious readers, book enthusiasts and the engagement with each that I've developed a real taste for. It's the chatting before and after. I've happily met more authors, and festival volunteers and café operators and bookstore owners/fruit shoppers this year than in all my other years combined."
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The most recent episode of the Web series Put This On featured a report on "that most bookish of fabrics" at the annual meeting of the Corduroy Appreciation Club, as well as an interview with "one of the world's most elegant men," author Gay Talese.
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Flavorwire's literary mixtape for Tolkien’s master wizard, Gandalf the Grey, included "something to listen to on the long road to Lórien. Here's what we think he would advise Frodo, gallop on Shadowfax, and send the Balrog back to the abyss to."
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Brian Gurewitz has joined OverDrive as director of content sales. He was formerly president of library sales for Books on Tape, a division of Random House.