In an effort to distinguish itself from its main competition, Barnes & Noble has developed a new strategic plan that has been the focus of intense deliberations at the company since Borders Group announced its own new strategic plan 10 days ago. The goal of B&N's plan is to free it from reliance on its U.S. superstores by taking advantage of "unanticipated market opportunities," as a company statement put it.

For one, B&N, which once owned a minority stake in the old Chapters chain in Canada and scouted locations in the U.K., has decided to take the international plunge. Again it is looking at the British market, where some established locations that generally fit the B&N model are available at favorable rates. The company is also considering purchasing similar locations in Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. While B&N noted that the weak U.S. dollar will present certain hurdles to starting in business abroad, it did emphasize that in the future, remittances to New York will be in strong currencies like the pound sterling. Any confusion caused by Australia and New Zealand's use of the word dollar for their currencies will be cleared up early on, B&N assured investors.

There will be major changes in B&N's domestic operations, too. Although the company has closed many of its B. Dalton Bookseller mall stores during the past decade, the company said that it now sees renewed opportunities in this area and will both expand its Dalton operations by opening new branches as well as through "the acquisition of existing mall bookstores that can be easily adapted to the Dalton format."

In another significant strategic move, B&N plans to have "an established third party" handle its online bookselling operations. The company stated that it believes its expertise lies in selling books in a bricks-and-mortar environment. It also has grown tired of collecting sales tax on online purchases.

In yet another major change, B&N has decided to abandon its proprietary publishing program. Effective immediately, the company is suspending the publication of new titles and will order no reprints on existing titles--and let them go out of print. "We are a retailer first and foremost," B&N stated. "It follows that we want to work in close partnership with our suppliers and not compete with them."

B&N is also putting its Sterling Publishing subsidiary on the block. The company said it has already received strong interest from another leading bookselling company.

In related news, B&N said that considering that the company's sales at stores open at least a year dropped 0.3% during the past fiscal year, chairman Leonard Riggio and CEO Stephen Riggio have insisted on taking a salary of just $1 a year each and forgoing stock-award bonuses until comp-store sales grow at a rate of at least 2%. At the request of the Riggios, their new salaries will be paid in cash.

Once again there were no layoffs to report at Random House this week--and there never have been.

 

The auction of rights to hold PGW's traditional Saturday night, end-of-BEA blowout party has attracted considerable interest and will be decided in bankruptcy court in Delaware this coming Friday. The insecure partygoers committee, appointed by the judge, is sifting through bids. This marks the last, sad chapter for the once-thriving distributor whose parent company, AMS, filed for bankruptcy at the end of last year.

David Steinberger, CEO of Perseus, which took on the lion's share of PGW publishers, confirmed to Shelf Awareness that he has bid for the party. If successful, Steinberger plans to merge the PGW party with several other BEA events held by Perseus-owned companies, including the old Consortium-independent publishers shindig and several receptions and dinners hosted by Da Capo, PublicAffairs, Running Press and Basic Books, among others. He stressed that although on first glance, the various events would seem not to mesh well, they all have synergies of partydom and that going forward, Perseus is committed to providing good times for all. If Perseus wins the party bid, the event will be known as the Transition Vendor Party.

Jed Lyons, CEO of NBN, which has taken on some PGW publishers, is also in the running for rights to the party. In a public letter to BEA attendees, Lyons promised that he would 1) do away with the cash bar, 2) allow three people in per invitation and 3) have a "high-quality" warmup band that would start playing not long after doors open. In addition, in an effort to win support from the industry's many baby boomers, he will require bands play a minimum number of recognizable, pre-1975 songs, particularly before midnight.

Lyons charged that Perseus's party bid was unfavorable to "the many people dying for a drink" by the second night of the trade show, especially "a free drink," adding, "We will pay 100% on the beer barrelhead."

For his part, Steinberger noted that NBN had stated only that the cash bar would end and did not explicitly say that there would be a free bar. "NBN may make it a BYOB party," he said. "FYI, BYOB is not a PGW tradition."

In related news, the bankruptcy court quietly sold the initials PGW to company founder Charlie Winton, who plans to use them in reference to himself: Party Guy Winton.

More details have come out about Borders's new strategic plan. According to sources at the company, senior management has been impressed by the attention and excitement of publishers about special sales accounts as well as by the ability of some non-bookstore retailers to rack up extraordinary sales of a very limited number of titles. The attractive economics of what one Borders executive called "selling tons of only a few bestsellers a year" has led the company to draw up plans for yet another new prototype store: called Caffè Borders, the stores will be 1,000-2,000 square feet in size, offer a full range of coffees and other drinks as well as some food and have comfortable chairs and wi-fi (where customers would be encouraged to lounge for hours). The book and music inventory would consist of one or two titles at any given time, "seemingly as an afterthought," Shelf Awareness's source said. Staff--perhaps to be called baristas--would have extensive training in coffees and Italian and seek to create a kind of atmosphere that the Borders exec called "fourth place minus one." The company foresees opening thousands of the stores and placing them close to one another, particularly in urban areas. Borders superstores will be phased out as leases end.

 

Judith Regan, whose publishing company was shut down last December by imprint HarperCollins, has founded a new publishing venture. Like ReganBooks, Chutzpah Press will specialize in what Regan, in a long, rambling statement, called "books that go to the edge, call into question, get in the face, never surrender and are distinguished by utter originality."

Chutzpah's first title, scheduled to be released in the second half of July, is called Harry Potter and the Secret of the Purpose-Driven Da Vinci Code Life.

Chutzpah's literary imprint, Schizophrenic House, has already signed up several volumes of poetry and thoughtful first fiction.

In her announcement, Reagan also complained of being unfairly forced to stay after school one day in fourth grade.

 

On her personal Web site, author J.K. Rowling has offered several initial clues about the first sequel to the Harry Potter series. Following his death in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Harry apparently will be resurrected, much like the fortunes of Bloomsbury, Scholastic and many booksellers around the world.

Rowling said that she has already written the final final chapter for the series, which will be told in 138 books, each longer than the one preceding it. 

 

Last week, a Sony Reader was sold; the milestone took place at a Borders store. The buyer, who for personal reasons wished to remain anonymous, called the device "nice and retro." Among the selling points: he said he had heard that the Reader was WordStar-compatible and that it contained a version of Pong. Asked what e-titles he had bought so far, he was momentarily confused, then responded, "I'm still waiting for a decent e-book reader."

 

ISBN-13 to the 10th Power is coming! Prepare for the ultimate: a book identifier with so many digits that every book ever printed will have its own unique ISBN. The Book Industry Study Group invites booksellers, librarians, publishers, wholesalers and anyone having trouble sleeping at night to read more about the transition to ISBN-13 to the 10th Power at www.goodgodnotmorenumbers.org.