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A Talk with Neil Van Uum
Last November, when Barnes & Noble announced that it was putting itself up for sale, Neil Van Uum’s bank called in the loan for his Joseph-Beth Booksellers chain. The ensuing bankruptcy has since wound down, but only after three of the six JoBeth stores closed—Charlotte, N.C.; Pittsburgh, Pa.; and Cleveland, Ohio—and the Davis-Kidd store in Nashville. Van Uum lost both the Joseph-Beth and Davis-Kidd names along with the Lexington and Cincinnati stores and a health clinic in Cleveland to his former landlord, Robert Langley, in auction; a fourth store in Virginia went to Books-A-Million. Instead of planning a 25th anniversary celebration for JoBeth, which he cofounded in 1986, Van Uum has spent the past six months since the bankruptcy was resolved renovating the only store in the chain that he kept, the former Davis-Kidd in Memphis, renamed the Booksellers at Laurelwood.
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Authors Guild Hosting Talk With Katherine Paterson
The Authors Guild, as part of its new interview series with authors, is hosting a call with children's book author Katherine Paterson this evening at 7 p.m. EST.
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Resignation Shakes Up Canadian Booksellers Association
Following the resignation of its vice president and incoming president, the Canadian Booksellers Association has shuffled its board members.
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Maple Street Book Shop Opens Two New Stores in 2011
In the space of just three months, the 50-year-old New Orleans bookstore has opened two new locations.
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Saturday Is 'Take Your Child to a Bookstore' Day
This Saturday marks the second annual kids’ bookstore day. After the event launched in November 2010, now more than 250 bookstores in 45 states, Canada, England, and Australia are participating.
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Children's Booksellers Report on Black Friday Weekend
Over Black Friday weekend, the official kickoff for the holiday bookselling season, children's series continued to sell briskly, including Jeff Kinney's Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Suzanne Collins Hunger Games trilogy, Christopher Paolini's Inheritance,' and Rick Riordan's Heroes of Olympus series.
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You CAN Go Home Again
Thanks to the renown of co-owner Ann Patchett, Parnassus Books is probably the most celebrated new bookstore in America. The grand opening was less than two weeks ago and already the store has sold through half its opening stock of books.
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ABA Launches Reader App
The American Booksellers Association came closer to its goal of providing a seamless digital reading experience through local independent bookstores with the December 1 launch of the IndieBound Reader.
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Borders Could Earn $32 Million from Kobo Sale
As Borders winds down its bankruptcy, the company is about to complete the sale of one of its most valuable assets: its interest in Kobo.
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B&N Sales Dip, Losses Cut, Forecast Moderate
Barnes & Noble’s second quarter report was a bit of a mixed bag. The company reported a 0.6% decline in total revenue for the period ended October 29, to $1.89 billion, but its net loss was cut to $6.6 million from $12.6 million in the comparable period in fiscal 2011.
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National Retail Federation Backs Tax Fairness Legislation
The National Retail Federation submitted written testimony ahead of today’s hearing by the House Judiciary Committee to support tax fairness legislation.
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Black Friday Weekend Proves A Dickensian Start to Holidays
This year’s holiday selling season at independent bookstores hews closely to the opening of Dickens’s A Tale of Two Cities: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”
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Borders in WARN Act Deal
Borders and a group of employees who had filed a class action suit against the bankrupt chain over being given insufficient notice before being laid off have reached a tentative deal.
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Traverse City Is for Book Lovers
Megan Raphael, executive director of the National Writers Series, a literary nonprofit organization, in Traverse City, Mich., insists that local government leaders should declare it a “book city.”
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RiverRun Gets Lifeline
Tom Holbrook, owner of RiverRun Bookstore in downtown Portsmouth, N.H., has signed a letter of intent for a new location with lower rent two blocks away. He has also received donations of books and money as well as a dozen offers to invest in the store as co-owners.
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Random House Implements Indie Shipping Initiative
Random House has started an expedited delivery program for independent booksellers during the holiday season that it is calling "2-Day Transit."
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Sales Down, Losses Up at Books-A-Million
A combination of a 7.7% drop in comparable store with the closing of 21 under-performing stores led to an 8.1% decline in sales, to $94.4 million, at Books-A-Million in the third quarter ended October 29.
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New Owner for New England Mobile Book Fair
The Boston area’s iconic bookstore in Newton, Mass., New England Mobile Book Fair, has a new owner just in time for the holidays, management consultant Tom Lyons.
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Nashvillians Flock to Patchett’s Grand Opening
Ann Patchett and Karen Hayes opened their highly-anticipated bookstore in Nashville this weekend, drawing big crowds and big sales.
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