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Cooking the Books with Celia Sack
Celia Sack opened Omnivore Books on Food in San Francisco last November. Her 560 square-foot space carries a mix of old and new books (but not many by Food Network authors) and has already hosted signings by Ruth Reichl, Deborah Madison, Molly Wizenberg and other heavyweights. Sack talked to Cooking the Books about her first six months in business.
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'PW' Announces National Bookstore Day
Publishers Weekly is inviting booksellers and publishers to participate in the first annual National Bookstore Day on Saturday, November 7, to stimulate in-person visits to retail bookstores. PW will provide marketing and publicity for the event, including promotional materials and online outreach. “We want to celebrate the vibrant culture of bookstores,” publisher Ron Shank said, &...
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Soapbox: How to Be A Great Local Author
Anonymous manages an independent bookstore in New England.
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Rizzoli and Empire Open Hamptons Store/Gallery
Rizzoli and Empire Gallery in Sag Harbor, N.Y., are joining forces to open the Rizzoli Bookstore at Empire Gallery at 197 Madison Street, Sag Harbor, this summer. The hybrid bookstore/art gallery will sell more than 90 new Rizzoli titles and will host author events throughout the summer.
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‘PW’ Announces National Bookselling Day
Publishers Weekly is inviting booksellers and publishers to participate in the first annual National Bookstore Day on Saturday, November 7, to stimulate in-person visits to retail bookstores. PW will provide marketing and publicity for the event, including promotional materials and online outreach.
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Big Chains Stumble at Start
Another weak quarter from Borders Group led to a 6.7% decline in total revenue for the country's three largest bookstore chains in the first period. Of the three, only Books-A-Million managed to post a sales gain in the quarter. Borders's sales in the quarter followed the same pattern as its competitors, with a mild uptick in April, which benefited from Easter.
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Mild Surprise from B&N, BAM
Barnes & Noble and Books-A-Million both did slightly better than expected in the first quarter ended May 2, although B&N still lost money in the period, while BAM managed to increase both sales and earnings. Executives at both retailers said cost cutting and expense management, including a reduction in inventory, were key factors in improving the bottom line.
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Number of On-demand Titles Topped Traditional Books in 2008
Book production of traditional book fell 3% in 2008 with travel and religion segments down the most. Production of on-demand titles, however, soared 132% to 285,394.
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OverDrive in Deal with ChineseAll
The digital audiobook distributor is partnering with digital publisher ChineseAll to supply Chinese-language e-books and audiobooks to public libraries in North America. The collection will include more than 20,000 titles, with 8,000 e-books and 3,000 audiobooks to be available in the first year.
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Starbucks Picks 'Crazy for the Storm'
The next selection in Starbucks’s book program will be Crazy for the Storm: A Memoir of Survival by Norman Ollestad, which Ecco will publish on June 2.
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Bookstore Sales Down 1.3% in March; Off 4.2% for Quarter
Bookstore sales fell 1.3% in March, to $999 million, and were down 4.2% for the first quarter. The drop in March was the smallest in the first period.
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Alibris Expanding Distribution Services
Alibris is ramping up a program that has been gaining momentum since it was first launched 18 months ago. Alibris Distribution Services aims to help booksellers and publishers that want to liquidate excess inventory, but don't want to put the resources into selling the titles online themselves. Under what Alibris CEO Brian Elliott called a consignment program, ADS provides cataloguing, pricing,...
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The Lonely Stand of Print Reference
In 2008, Google made a startling announcement: in July of that year, Internet users had used the Web site to perform 235 million searches per day on average, a new record. With all of that information being sought online, it's only natural that the print reference category is feeling the pinch. Casper Grathwohl, publisher of Oxford University Press Reference, says, “The decline in print s...
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Rizzoli Bookstore Adds French, Spanish Titles
Rizzoli Bookstore, known selling art , photography and fashion titles, as well as Italian-language books, is expanding its international offerings, adding French, Spanish, and German language books to its inventory.
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Bookazine Gives $1,500 to Independent Booksellers of NYC
It’s the first major contribution from a fellow industry independent and NYC-area business for IBNYC, whose goal is to raise awareness about the city’s independent bookselling community. The non-profit organization says it will use the donation to promote the more than 75 alliance members to local consumers.
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Free Speech Groups Criticize Dismissal of Wisconsin Library Board Members
Four members of a library board in West Bend, Wis., were dismissed last week for refusing to remove controversial books from the library’s young adult section—and yesterday, the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, the National Coalition Against Censorship, the Association of American Publishers and PEN American Center criticized the firings.
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NEIBA 2009 Award Winners Announced
The New England Independent Booksellers Association named this year’s winners of the New England Book Awards.
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More Than 100,000 Users in 160 Countries Try Shortcovers
Indigo Books & Music’s e-reading platform, Shortcovers, has released user metrics from its first two months. Among the most interesting findings: more than 100,000 people from 160 countries have tried Shortcovers, and 10,000 have registered with the service since it launched in February.
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Books Move Up At Hastings
In one of the worst retailer environments for books in 30 years, Hastings Entertainment managed to post a 2.8% increase in book sales in the fiscal year ended January 31, the multimedia retailer said in its 10-k filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Book sales were $123.7 million last year and represented 23% of Hastings's total revenue, up from 22% in the previous year, putting b...
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Three Cheers for 30 Years at Hicklebee’s
This past Saturday afternoon I was lucky enough to attend the 30th anniversary celebration at Hicklebee’s Children's Bookstore in San Jose, Calif. Guest after guest told of their amazing connection to this valuable resource for children’s books. And it was evident from the huge turnout that families and children have cherished this special store, as well as the knowledgeable staff, for over three decades.
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