What do e-book readers want?

"According to In-Stat's most recent consumer survey, current e-book owners desire email capability in the next e-book they purchase," Stephanie Ethier, an In-Stat analyst told Reuters. "Longer battery life and Internet connectivity are the top two desired features among respondents who don't currently own an e-book but plan to buy one in the next year."

Other statistics of interest: 45.5% of e-book reader owners are spending between $9 and $20 a month on e-book content, and 11% of total survey respondents said they planned to purchase an e-book over the next 12 months.

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Arsen Kashkashian, inventory manager at Boulder Book Store, Boulder, Colo., told the Christian Science Monitor that the much-hyped fall book season has "a little more sense of urgency to it," and that while independent bookstores face numerous challenges, "We've adapted to what the economy is."

Agent Robert Gottlieb called the autumn stakes very high for the industry: "Fall has always been important, but never this important."

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"If you’re going to exist in the book world, you have to be ready to adapt to changes," said Janet Geddis, who plans to open Avid Bookshop in Athens, Ga., next summer, according to Flagpole Magazine.

"There's a general creativity in Athens, but it lacks in services for those into literature," Geddis added. "We want to find dialogues about books already out there and create new dialogues of our own."

Geddis is already blogging about her bookshop and Flagpole reported that she hopes to sell e-books.

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The New Haven Advocate featured a booklovers guide to the city with Eva Geertz, who "has worked in New Haven bookstores since her teens." Geertz admitted that with the closure of some local literary institutions in recent years, "there's just not the same degree of idiosyncrasy as there used to be," but the Advocate noted that she is still "encouraged, knowing that the staff at the stores still standing are all 'real book people.'"

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Gagosian Gallery plans to open a bookstore below its exhibition space on Manhattan's Upper East Side. ARTINFO.com reported that "the shop, at 984 Madison Ave., will open September 14 and offer catalogues, books, and magazines printed by the gallery, which sells an assortment of publications and editions through its website."

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Book trailer of the day: The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by William Kamkwamba.

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Simonandschuster.net is a new S&S website for school and library professionals. Among the resources available on the site are author videos, photos and author-generated content; award winners; instructional materials, including curriculum and reading group guides, activity sheets, themed book collections for historical events and holidays, author interviews and behind-the-book essays; conference information; monthly giveaways of promotional material; and targeted newsletters. Beginning this fall, the site will offer Lexile measures that enable readers, teachers, librarians to select books according to reading ability.

Simon & Schuster has an Education and Library Facebook page and will have a Twitter account dedicated to the library and academic community.

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Start-up digital publishing company Quartet Press will discontinue operations. According to a post by Kat Meyer on the company's website, "Sometimes, even with the best of intentions, a hard-working team, and the support of the community, things just don't work out. This is one of those times. It's disappointing to all of us, but it's reality and we will all move on."

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Among other publishers, Penguin is betting that Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol, which goes on sale next week, will spark interest in related titles, particularly two of its Freemasonry books, The Lost Keys of Freemasonry and The Secret Destiny of America. Both are by Manly P. Hall, an honorary 33 degree Mason--the highest rank Freemasonry can bestow. Those titles and material about 2012 are the focus of Tarcher Talks, part of the From the Publisher's Office videos and podcasts that Penguin produces.

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Reading Group Choices has released Reading Group Choices 2010: Selections for Lively Book Discussions (16th edition), which includes more than 70 titles recommended for book groups.

Barbara Drummond Mead, president of Reading Group Choices, commented: "Selecting discussible books since 1994, Reading Group Choices is proud to be a 'pioneer' in providing print and online resources for reading groups."

Reading Group Choices also has a website, monthly e-newsletter and presence on online social communities. For more information, go to readinggroupchoices.com.

The Story Pirates, an acting troupe of 12 Northwestern University graduates based in New York, gave a preview of "Escape to Araluen" at New York's Books of Wonder last week, while also auditioning young Ranger "recruits." Here a monster threatens the prospective recruits. Audience participation was encouraged. The 27-city tour will spread the word about John Flanagan's sixth book in the Ranger's Apprentice series, The Siege of Macindaw, published last month by Penguin/Philomel. The series has sold more than one million copies. Additional tour details appear on the series's Web site.

Today on Fresh Air: Max Blumenthal, author of Republican Gomorrah: Inside the Movement That Shattered the Party (Nation Books, $25, 9781568583983/1568583982).

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Tomorrow morning on Good Morning America: Howard Morris and Jenny Lee, authors of Women Are Crazy, Men Are Stupid: The Simple Truth to a Complicated Relationship (Simon Spotlight, $22.99, 9781416595052/1416595058).

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Tomorrow morning on the Today Show: Jodi Lipper, author of How to Love Like a Hot Chick: The Girlfriend to Girlfriend Guide to Getting the Love You Deserve (Harper, $14.99, 9780061706448/0061706442).

Also on Today: Shmuley Boteach, author of The Kosher Sutra: Eight Sacred Secrets for Reigniting Desire and Restoring Passion for Life (Harper, $25.99, 9780061668357/0061668354).

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Tomorrow morning on NPR's Morning Edition: Vali Nasr, author of Forces of Fortune: The Rise of the New Muslim Middle Class and What It Will Mean for Our World (Free Press, $26, 9781416589686/1416589686).

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Tomorrow on the Bonnie Hunt Show: NeNe Leakes, author of Never Make the Same Mistake Twice: Lessons on Love and Life Learned the Hard Way (Touchstone, $24.99, 9781439167304/1439167303).

Also on Bonnie Hunt: Rod Blagojevich, author of The Governor (Phoenix, $24.95, 9781597776462/1597776467).

Book TV airs on C-Span 2 from 8 a.m. Saturday to 8 a.m. Monday and focuses on political and historical books as well as the book industry. The following are highlights for this coming weekend. For more information, go to Book TV's website.

Saturday, September 12

6 p.m. Encore Booknotes. For a segment that first aired in 2001, Kurt Eichenwald, author of The Informant: A True Story (Broadway, $16.95, 9780767903271/0767903277), discussed the collaboration of the FBI and the Justice Department with a high level informant to collect information implicating a large American corporation, Archer Daniels Midland.

10 p.m. After Words. Barry Glassner interviews Kathryn Olmsted, author of Real Enemies: Conspiracy Theories and American Democracy, World War I to 9/11 (Oxford University Press, $29.95, 9780195183535/0195183533), which looks at the role of conspiracy theories in American history and politics. (Re-airs Sunday at 9 p.m., and Monday 12 a.m. and 3 a.m.)

11:45 p.m. Robert Glennon, author of Unquenchable: America's Water Crisis and What to Do About It (Island Press, $27.95, 9781597264365/1597264369), proposes market-based solutions that look at water as a commodity as well as a human right. (Re-airs Sunday at 5 p.m.)

Sunday, September 13

8:30 a.m. Geoffrey Megargee, the editor of The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933-1945, Part 1 (Indiana University Press, $295, 9780253353283/0253353289), recounts the creation of the Nazi's camp system and the discovery of thousands of work camps and ghettos during his team's 10 years of research. (Re-airs Sunday 11:30 p.m.)

6 p.m. Dore Gold, former Israeli ambassador to the U.N. and author of The Rise of Nuclear Iran: How Tehran Defies the West (Regnery, $27.95, 9781596985711/1596985712), argues that the West should take strong actions to stop Iran from getting the bomb. (Re-airs Monday at 5 a.m. )

Oz Clarke's Bordeaux has won the Louis Roederer Award for International Wine Book 2009 during the International Wine Writers' Awards ceremony this week, Booktrade.info reported.

In addition, Oz Clarke and James May won Personality of the Year at the International Wine Challenge 2009 Awards. Their book, Oz and James Drink to Britain, was the TV tie-in for a BBC2 television series.

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Along with his fellow judges, Andy Stanton, one of last year's winners of the £2,500 (US$4,132) Roald Dahl Funny Prize, read 160 children's books to arrive at two shortlists of six books each for this year's award, the Guardian reported.

"We've come up with a great mix, from well-known names to debut authors." said Stanton. " We were looking for something which makes you laugh--you can get caught up weighing the books against Roald Dahl, which is a pretty high standard to live up to. We wanted the books to make us laugh, and to be in the right sphere of excellence." The finalists:

Funniest book for children aged six and under:

• The Great Dog Bottom Swap by Peter Bently, illustrated by Mei Matsuoka
• Octopus Socktopus by Nick Sharratt
• Elephant Joe Is a Spaceman! by David Wojtowycz
• Crocodiles Are the Best Animals of All! by Sean Taylor, illustrated by Hannah Shaw
• Mr Pusskins Best in Show by Sam Lloyd
• The Pencil by Allan Ahlberg, illustrated by Bruce Ingman

The funniest book for children aged seven to 14:

• The Galloping Ghost by Hilda Offen
• Eating Things on Sticks by Anne Fine, illustrated by Kate Aldous
• Grubtown Tales: Stinking Rich and Just Plain Stinky by Philip Ardagh, illustrated by Jim Paillot
• The Boy in the Dress by David Walliams, illustrated by Quentin Blake
• Purple Class and the Half-Eaten Sweater by Sean Taylor, illustrated by Helen Bate
• Ribblestrop by Andy Mulligan

Reconsidering Happiness by Sherrie Flick (University of Nebraska Press, $21.95 trade paper, 9780803225213/0803225210, October 13, 2009) 

Opening lines of books we want to read:

Vivette, On the Road

Vivette knew nothing about Des Moines except for the lovely ease of the letters--the way its name sounded out like a yoga chant, exotic and foreign. Des Moines, with those silent s's beckoning with a sexy finger, a promise. It whispered to her as she lay in her tousled New Hampshire bedsheets. The wooden shutters on her windows escorting cross-stitched moonlight across the dusty floor. The tugboats, with their deep-throated howls, stretched at their moors, the buoys offering cowbell clangs. Des Moines, Des Moines. Her friends thought she was crazy.

--Selected by Marilyn Dahl

Although Zimbabwe has been the focus of several recent books (When A Crocodile Eats the Sun and The Boy Next Door to name two standouts), there is room on the shelf for Douglas Rogers's The Last Resort, a lively, wry, but deeply heartfelt account of the country in which he was born and raised and his efforts to rescue his parents from the escalating chaos of Mugabe's regime and the mounting danger they faced on the family farm.

A New York journalist, Rogers returned to Mutare, Zimbabwe (located at the edge of the Mozambique border) in 2002 after hearing of violence erupting around Mugabe's land reclamation program, which reassigned white-owned farms to dubious "war veterans." Arriving a few days before an election, Rogers found his parents (owners of Drifters, a highly successful backpacker lodge featured in the Lonely Planet guides) unfazed and optimistic about an imminent shift in political power. But as soon becomes very clear, the election is rigged to favor Mugabe, and dissenters are punished severely. Despite increasing violence, outrageous inflation and the exodus of almost all their white friends (in fact, almost all whites), Rogers's parents won't consider leaving their mountainous, beautiful farm (which Rogers describes in exquisite detail). They are true Africans, Rogers's parents maintain (their families have lived on the continent for 350 years), and they will not be forced off.

As the years pass and conditions degenerate, Rogers's parents are forced to adapt and survive in creative ways. On a subsequent visit, Rogers finds that his father has begun growing marijuana and that the lodge is doing a brisk business as a brothel. Rogers also finds that his parents have accumulated a posse of quirky characters with whom they do business; among them a black market money launderer, diamond dealers and political opponents. Despite their tenacity and resilience, however, the Rogers's farm becomes a target and they find themselves in very real peril.

Rogers creates a vivid, multilayered portrait of Zimbabwe; maintaining a keen eye for beauty as well as the absurd. His journalist's drive to uncover the real story is evident in the textured descriptions of Zimbabwe's people, history and even its landscape. He succeeds in creating a narrative that is informative, moving and often very funny. Perhaps what makes this memoir so compelling, however--beyond the attention it calls to the dire situation in Zimbabwe--are its subtle but striking comments on family, country and identity.--Debra Ginsberg

Shelf Talker: A fascinating view of Zimbabwe as told by an expatriate journalist who goes home to help his parents. 

Although the Espresso Machine and POD services like Ingram's Lightning Source and Amazon's BookSurge have gotten much attention lately, there's another POD company specializing in books. Called the Troy Book Makers, Troy, N.Y., it's been in business three years, is in the black and was founded by two booksellers, Susan Novotny and Eric Wilska. Novotny owns two bookstores, the Book House at Stuyvesant Plaza, Albany, N.Y., and Market Block Books, Troy, N.Y. Wilska is the owner of the Bookloft, Great Barrington, Mass. (Troy Book Makers and Market Block Books are in the same building in downtown Troy.)

"People are talking about independent bookstores" doing POD, Novotny, pictured below, said. "But we have been doing it. I like to think we're a little ahead of the curve."

Troy Book Makers, whose motto is "let your inner book out!" and whose name is a play on Troy's gambling past, has printed more than 300 titles and now does one or two new titles a week. Novotny and Wilska, she said, "do the marketing and drive the business." She added: "I never thought I'd be in a position to have to learn all about binding, ink and paper. I have immense respect for commercial printers."

Troy Book Makers is ready to expand its services to other booksellers. "We're ready to start a national focus," Novotny said. The company will send a mailing soon to other independent booksellers, starting with the region, encouraging them to send customers who want to be authors to them as well as to consider printing both new and oop titles of local and regional interest. Part of the pitch is that Troy will offer booksellers $100 for referrals. Another part of the pitch: unlike many POD printers, Novotny said, "We give special TLC to every book."

Troy Book Makers considered an Instabook Machine before it started, but decided to use a variety of machines that make the production area of its office look like a very sophisticated copy center. Three high-end printers run about 55 pages a minute. A Duplo machine handles binding. Nearby Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute helped create some proprietary systems.

The company's charges for printing vary depending on length of book, type of paper, numbers of copies, etc. After a one-time set up fee for books with fewer than 500 copies, a standard charge for a 200-page 6" x 9" book is $9.70 a copy. There is a minimum of 10 copies. For extra fees, the company provides a range of additional services, from design and layout and obtaining an ISBN to creating and hosting author websites, marketing and publicity. No editing is done in-house; the company recommends freelance editors.

The company can take material in a variety of forms and does color illustrations. Troy Book Makers can bind a book with a maximum of 600 pages. (Larger books must be handled by binderies.)

Book distribution is the authors' responsibility, but Troy Book Makers will put the books on consignment in the three related bookstores for six months and lists them online.
 
"Handholding" authors is a major part of her job, said Melissa Mykal Batalin, art director and manager. "I have say, 'You're not going to book on Oprah.' " (Besides Batalin, the fulltime staff includes Anne Smith, author liaison.)

Novotny added: "Most authors are realistic, but we have a contract that politely says if you're a pain in the ass, we'll throw you out on the curb."

Besides books intended for local and regional markets, many of the titles that Troy Book Makers has printed are family books as well as memoirs. "World War II memoirs" are especially popular, Novotny said. The family histories and family cookbooks are often done in printings of 30-40 copies and given out at reunions or as Christmas presents.

Some titles are by academics who are well-known in their fields. The company has also handled chap books and poetry books and, of course, novels.

The company is printing some historical books in cooperation with Arcadia, which solicits photos for historical societies and makes books out of them.

Troy Book Makers publishes some titles that are in the public domain, both of local and general interest. "Dover does a lot of this kind of publishing and quite cheaply," Novotny said. "But we've done a few and done them very well." (The company has made some small books with this kind of material that it has sold in stores as stocking stuffers.)

Most books have the TBM logo or use an author's imprint. The only general limitations: the company won't print anything that it deems libelous or pornographic. So far, it hasn't rejected any submissions.

One of the first titles was typical: a title of intense local interest that has sold well in the area that probably would not have been published otherwise. The memoir is called A Man Named Nebraska by Nebraska Brace, whom Novotny described as "a local pimp and politician." Brace dictated the story, "a real Albany story," and has mainly sold the book out of the trunk of his car. He's also done events, including at the Book House. Altogether Brace has sold more than 500 copies of A Man Named Nebraska at $23 each--copies that cost $8 each to make. The book has sold more than 150 copies in Novotny's stores.

Judith Barnes, who is a Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute alumna (RPI is a half mile up the hill from Troy Book Makers's offices) and lives in Albany, has published Good to Be Here, essays she has read on NPR, which have sold more than 400 copies in Novotny's bookstores at $14.95 each.

Known for his mysteries, dog books and journalism, Jon Katz lives on a farm near Troy and has done several books with the company under his Bedlam Farm Books imprint. Out of the Shadows is his account of a struggle with mental illness and "his return to the light." My Place on Earth is a collection of poems by Mary Kellogg with photographs by Katz.

An unusual title is Son of the Mountains: My Life as a Kurd and a Terror Suspect by Yassin Aref with a foreword by a local lawyer. The book has been sold at local fundraisers and has sold 1,500 copies. Aref, who was arrested five years ago, is in federal prison and denies that he is a terrorist, now has a literary agent.

Inside the Club: Stories of the Employees of the former Lake Placid Club by Barbara A. Campbell is another example of a niche market--but still a profitable one.

At the Bookloft, Eric Wilksa has sold several hundred copies of The Berkshires with Kids: 44 Outings by Christine Hensel Triantos in the store and at other locations in the area. Another bestseller this summer at Bookloft was the Troy Book Makers title Gibson's Grove and Turner's Landing: Lake Buel's Century as a Summer Resort by Bernard A. Drew.

In case after case, Novotny emphasized, Troy Book Makers and its partners have had a nice spread on retail over printing costs, so that odds are high for nice profits.

Novotny will be talking about this, POD in general and Troy Book Makers on Thursday, October 1, from 4-5:30, on a panel at the New England Independent Booksellers Association trade show in Hartford, Conn.--John Mutter

The following were the bestselling titles at independent bookstores in the Chicago during the week ended Sunday, September 6:

Hardcover Fiction

1. Homer & Langley by E.L. Doctorow
2. The Help by Kathryn Stockett
3. A Gate at the Stairs by Lorrie Moore
4. South of Broad by Pat Conroy
5. The Women by T.C. Boyle

Hardcover Nonfiction

1. Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child
2. Zeitoun by Dave Eggers
3. Grand Illusion by Theresa Amato
4. Born to Run by Christopher McDougall
5. Cahokia Timothy by Timothy R. Pauketat

Paperback Fiction

1. The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery and Alison Anderson
2. The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
3. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
4. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
5. The Shack by William P. Young

Paperback Nonfiction

1. My Life in France by Julia Child and Alex Prud'Homme
2. In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan
3. The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson
4. Cults, Conspiracies & Secret Societies by Arthur Goldwag
5. What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami

Children's

1. The Book Thief by Markus Zuzak
2. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
3. New Moon by Stephenie Meyer
4. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne
5. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian by Sherman Alexie

Reporting bookstores: Anderson's, Naperville and Downers Grove; Read Between the Lynes, Woodstock; the Book Table, Oak Park; the Book Cellar, Lincoln Square; Lake Forest Books, Lake Forest; the Bookstall at Chestnut Court, Winnetka; and 57th St. Books; Seminary Co-op; Women and Children First, Chicago.

[Many thanks to the booksellers and Carl Lennerz!]