Under the shadow of the iPad's imminent debut, Amazon "agreed to halt heavy discounting of e-book bestsellers in new pricing deals" with Simon & Schuster and HarperCollins, the Wall Street Journal reported, noting that the agreements "mirror deals struck earlier this year with Apple for the iPad" under the agency pricing model.
On Thursday, as Hachette began its transition to the agency model, buy buttons for some of the company’s digital titles were missing at Amazon.com. In an e-mail to authors and agents, Hachette's chairman and CEO David Young cautioned that, "as with any transition, we expect there will be a few hiccups along the way, and you may even see some short-term interruption in the availability of our e-books, especially in the first few days, as systems are being adapted to accommodate changes. We fully expect any such issues to be resolved within the first week, as we smooth out the new processes."
"People shouldn't overreact if an e-book isn't immediately available on one site or another," added Maja Thomas, senior v-p of Hachette Digital. "There are so many moving parts that there are bound to be some hiccups. But within a week or two much of that will be sorted out."
The Journal suggested that more "deals between publishers and Amazon could follow ahead of Saturday's iPad launch."
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Penguin, however, has still not reached an e-book agreement with Amazon. GalleyCat reported that an e-mail sent from the publisher to agents and authors said, "In recent weeks we have been in discussion with our retail partners who sell e-books, including Amazon, to discuss our new terms of sale for e-books in the U.S. At the moment, we have reached an agreement with many of them, but unfortunately not Amazon--of course, we hope to in the future."
The e-mail also informed authors that "your newly released e-book is currently not available on Amazon, but all of your e-books released prior to April 1st are still for sale on their site. We want to also assure you that all of your books are available through other e-tailers and at bricks and mortar stores everywhere--from the large chains to the clubs to the independents and on their respective websites."
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Sony "is also in transition," the Wall Street Journal reported. A notice on the company's Reader Store informed customers that "'some titles may be unavailable' during the transition to the new pricing model, which Sony's store has begun to implement. The note adds: 'Although most of the e-books will be priced from about $12.99 to $14.99, there will not be a broad pricing change across the Reader Store.'"
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Ron Burkle's Yucaipa American Management fund is pressuring Barnes & Noble "to add three to four new independent directors to the board," Reuters reported, noting that in a filing Wednesday with the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission, "Burkle wrote that representatives from his fund discussed corporate governance practices with unnamed Barnes & Noble representatives on March 29." Burkle, who holds an 18.7% stake in the company, also repeated his request that B&N's "poison pill" policy be changed.
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The American Booksellers Association has established a new Member Relations Department to "ensure that booksellers have a simple and convenient way to get information about the opportunities available to them as part of their membership," Bookselling this Week reported. Elizabeth Nichols and Kaitlin Pitcher are now the member relations managers who will serve as the main contacts for bookstore and provisional members.
Nichols is the liaison for stores in areas covered by the GLIBA, SIBA, MBA, MPIBA and PNBA. She can be contacted at 800-637-0037, ext. 6614, or elizabethn@bookweb.org. Pitcher is the liaison for all provisional members, as well as stores in areas covered by the NEIBA, NAIBA, NCIBA and SCIBA. She can be reached at 800-637-0037, ext. 6666, or kaitlin@bookweb.org.
"We heard from members that they weren't sure which ABA staff members they should speak to about different issues," said Meg Smith, ABA's membership and marketing officer, "and while booksellers are welcome to contact any staff members, this new member relations structure gives them an easy way to get an answer to any question. Even if Kaitlin and Elizabeth don't have the answer immediately, they'll find it."
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A Cook County judge ruled against a Barbara's Bookstore in a dispute with its landlord over rent and taxes at the Oak Park location. Owner Donald Barliant said the bookshop, "which has been in Oak Park since the 1970s, including more than 20 years at Lake and Marion streets, will be moving to a new locale this summer," the Chicago Tribune reported. He added that he'd planned to move regardless of the judicial decision.
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Next week, A Room of One's Own Bookstore, Madison, Wis., will celebrate 35 years in business. Co-owner Sandi Torkildson spoke with A.V. Club about the shop's success "in a market where a simple act of survival is cause for celebration."
Of the bookstore's evolution, she observed, "We still have a strong feminist emphasis, and large gay and lesbian sections, but we’ve certainly expanded much beyond that. It’s a matter of staying alive. We’ve changed our mission as other bookstores in Madison have closed. We’re in a city where people want a general bookstore. We knew we might catch a little flack for it. People weren’t coming in, [not] because they were anti-feminist, they just didn’t think we’d have what they wanted. It’s helped.
"We’ve been very lucky," Torkildson said. “Many people have helped us when we’ve needed it. We moved, and the library lent us carts. People showed up and helped. And that’s always been the case: If we need it, people help us."
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On April 1, no joke, Books-A-Million announced it had bought a minority interest in Yogurt Mountain Holding, which has two stores in Alabama, home state of Books-A-Million.
BAM said that Yogurt Mountain is a self-service yogurt store that "features 16 rotating flavors all of which are fat free or low fat and offers over 50 toppings for consumers to choose from. Yogurt Mountain's stores cater to the growing trend in healthy foods in a unique and entertaining environment."
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Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War by Karl Marlantes debuted on USA Today's bestseller list this week at Number 69, with 75,000 copies in print as the author begins his 24-city book tour. USA Today took note of the fact that "some independent bookstores, enthusiastic about the novel, are donating a portion of their proceeds from tour events to Disabled American Veterans. These include Maria's Bookshop in Durango, Colo., where the idea originated; Third Place Books in Seattle; and the Clinton Book Shop in Clinton, N.J."
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Obituary note: Mike Rose, a manager at Books & Co., Dayton, Ohio, died March 26, Publishers Weekly reported. He was 55 years old.
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The Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library named recipients of 2010–2011 fellowships. From September to May, each fellow will have "an office in the library’s Stephen A. Schwarzman Building at Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street, full access to the library’s research collections, and a stipend of $60,000," the New York Times reported.
This year's fellows include writers Mary Gaitskill, Annette Gordon-Reed, Larissa MacFarquhar, David Bezmozgis, Maile Chapman, Wells Tower, David Sandlin, Geoffrey Brock, David Hinton, Michael Meyer and Matthew Stewart.
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Effective immediately, Michelin Travel & Lifestyle North America, publisher of guides, atlases and maps, has moved its trade distribution for North America to National Book Network, which will share distribution of folded and wall maps and European atlases with Rand McNally. Michelin had been distributed here by American Map Corp.
--Stephen Fry, author and actor, in a Time magazine article describing his recent meeting with Apple's Steve Jobs and brief, pre-release encounter with an iPad. 
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On Wednesday, Borders Group reported that net income had risen in the fourth quarter, that it had paid off a $42.5-million loan from Pershing Square Capital Management and that it had secured new long-term financing. Wall Street liked the news: yesterday in eight times the usual trading volume, Borders stock closed at $2.54, up 47.7%.
Sonnet to Spring
Sonia Sanchez--poet, activist, scholar--was Laura Carnell professor of English and women's studies at Temple University. She is the recipient of both the Robert Frost Medal for distinguished lifetime service to American poetry and the Langston Hughes Poetry Award. One of the most important writers of the Black Arts movement, Sanchez is the author of 16 books, including Morning Haiku, her first new collection of poetry in more than a decade, published by Beacon Press in February 2010. 
On your nightstand now: 
One collection I chose was The Heaven-Sent Leaf by Katy Lederer (BOA Editions, $16, 9781934414156/1934414158), and I can tell you the primary reason why it now belongs to me. I picked it after reading four lines in a poem titled "Brainworker" on page 37:
I also bought The Ecco Anthology of International Poetry (Ecco, $19.99, 9780061583247/0061583243) because I read about it on the 
This Sunday night the Major League baseball season opens with a Yankees-Red Sox game. Charles North's Complete Lineups (Hanging Loose Press, $18, 9781934909034/1934909033) was the third poetry collection I found and I couldn't resist its charms. This is a collection lineup cards--the names of starters for imaginary teams, listed by position and in their batting order. Many date back to 1972. Some are newer. 
April 7: AWP Annual Conference & Bookfair