Borders in Pact To Prevent Closings
The 51 Borders stores that faced the possibility of being forced to hold closing sales starting this week will get more time. In a statement filed with the bankruptcy court June 15, the company said that it has reached an agreement in principle with its lenders and the creditors committee on an amendment that would alleviate the need to hold store closing sales at outlets where no agreement had been reached to extend lease negotiations. Borders called off plans to hire a liquidator to conduct store closing sales.

Google eBooks Starts Affiliates Program
Google eBooks has launched an affiliates program that will enable publishers, bloggers, retailers, and Web sites to link to Google eBooks and receive a commission for referring visitors at their sites to Google eBooks to buy books. The Google Affiliates Network was launched as a beta program at the end of 2010, teaming with GoodReads.

April Store Sales Up 1.8%
Bookstore sales rose 1.8% in April, to $887 million, according to preliminary estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau. Boosted by a major revision in March sales, which changed a 5.8% decline to a 1.1% increase, bookstore sales for the first four months of 2011 were up 0.2%, to $4.98 billion.