June Store Sales Down
Bookstore sales fell in June for the first time since January, dipping 1.9%, to $1.02 billion, according to preliminary estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau. For the first half of 2011, bookstore sales were virtually flat with the comparable period in 2010, up one-tenth of a percentage point, to $7.05 billion.

Suit Filed Against Publishers, Apple
A Seattle-based law firm filed a class action suit charging Penguin, S& S, Harper-Collins, Hachette, and Macmillan with conspiring with Apple to fix e-book prices. Filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California by the firm Hagens Berman, the suit alleges that publishers teamed with Apple in order to force Amazon to raise its $9.99 e-book price in favor of agency model pricing, which prices e-books from $12.99 to $14.99. The publishers and Apple have 60 days to respond.

F+W Sued for Holiday Parody
CCA and B, publishers of the holiday book Elf on the Shelf, filed a 19-count lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia against Adams Media, parent company of F+W Media, and three Adams staffers for copyright infringement for its humor book, Elf Off the Shelf, to be published October 18. A hearing for a temporary restraining order is set in Atlanta for August 24.

Kno Rolls Out New Text App
Education tech company Kno has released its new textbook app, featuring enhanced, digital editions of more than 100,000 popular textbook titles from almost every major publisher at 30% to 50% off regular prices.

Amazon Launches the Kindle Cloud Reader
Amazon.com has launched the Kindle Cloud Reader, an HTML5 reader that will allow customers to buy and read Amazon titles through the Web browsers found on almost any PC or mobile device. By setting up an iPad Kindle Store available through the Kindle Cloud Readers with 900,000 titles for sale, Amazon is bypassing Apple's 30% cut of sales.

Sales Down, Loss Up at Indigo
Indigo Books & Music reported a 1.1% drop in revenue, to C$202 million, in the first quarter ended July 2 compared with the same quarter last year. Indigo attributed the drop to lower print book sales, but noted that its digital business grew by 170%, accelerating late in the quarter following the launch of the Kobo eReader Touch. The net loss attributable to shareholders for the quarter was C$18 million compared to C$5 million last year, which was attributed to investment in Indigo's digital business and in preparation for its launch of its proprietary gift and lifestyle business this fall.

Clarification
In last week's Deals column, the three novels by Dennis Lehane that William Morrow acquired were incorrectly referred to as "historical" works.

Dedecker Named Dir. of Ed for BEA
Sally Dedecker has been named BEA's director of education. Dedecker will oversee the show's conference program and will also lead the BEA Conference Advisory Board and produce the BEA DIY Conference.