Notes: Lost Symbol Sells a Million Copies First Day Out
Sales of The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown on Tuesday exceeded one million copies in the U.S., Canada and the U.K., according to the publisher. In a statement, Sonny Mehta, chairman and editor in chief of the Knopf Doubleday Group, said, "We are seeing historic, record-breaking sales across all types of our accounts in North America."
The company has already gone back to press for another 600,000 copies on top of the initial print run of five million copies.
---
Amazon.com called the Dan Brown novel its "best-selling adult fiction at street date," which includes advance orders. An Amazon spokesperson told the Wall Street Journal that the Kindle edition of The Lost Symbol outsold hardcover editions, excluding advance orders, on Tuesday.
---
Pirated digital editions of The Lost Symbol began appearing on the Internet immediately after publication, the Guardian said. The novel was available on Pirate Bay and Scribd.com Wednesday. Transworld, the U.K. publisher, has been asking sites to take down copies of the book.
---
Borders Group continues to up the ante on school and teacher sales: it's now offering a 30% discount the week of September 29-October 7 at most Borders and some Walden stores to "current and retired teachers, librarians, licensed homeschoolers, school administrators and daycare facilitators." The discount applies to "nearly everything" in the stores, "even Seattle's Best Coffee cafe products," and can be for personal use. Borders recent boosted its regular educator discount to 25%.
---
Steve Ross, former president and publisher of Collins, is writing a blog on the Huffington Post. Read the first contribution, about downturn chic, here.
---
Book trailer of the day: Wesley the Owl: The Remarkable Love Story of an Owl and His Girl by Stacey O'Brien. (Get out the Kleenex.)
---
Virginia prisoners will again have access to the Books Behind Bars program that was recently halted by prison officials (Shelf Awareness, September 14, 2009). The Washington Post
reported that the 20-year-old program founded Kay Allison, owner of
Quest Bookshop, Charlottesville, has been reinstated after protests
from supporters persuaded Department of Corrections Director Gene M.
Johnson to reconsider his position.
"At this time it is my
intention to restore the opportunity for inmates to request three free
books per month through the Quest Institute while strengthening our
procedures for the introduction of materials into [Virginia Department
of Corrections] facilities," Johnson wrote.
"I'm ecstatic," said Allison. "This is a victory for the inmates."
---
In anticipation of the 30th anniversary for Women & Children First Bookstore, Chicago, Ill., the Windy City Times
reminisced with co-owners Linda Bubon and Ann Christopherson, and noted
that "their walk down Memory Lane has been a wild, emotional journey
that, quite often, is more like driving along Rocky Road."
"It
seems very real to me and I'm flooded with memories," said Bubon. "We
sat down a week ago and tried to come up with [a list of] key
highlights [from the past 30 years] and very quickly we were at 12, so
we stopped the list."
Christophersen added that five years ago,
"30 years is a very rare club. One of the things to me that has been
very interesting to think about is, all the change that we've seen over
30 years--from how much money we needed to open the business to how
much more money we need today to keep our business running, and
everything in between."
Would they do it all over again?
"I
really didn't know, at 28, that I would find the career of my lifetime
and that I would find work that I feel I was born to do," Bubon said.
"I feel that I am so good at this. I feel like I am just a really good
book seller. I don't know what else I could do that I would utilize all
of my talents, such as, story-teller, which probably is my favorite
thing to do. Doing this work is my life's purpose; it's not just a job.
I have never once felt that I was not doing what I was meant to do."
---
The nine indie bookstores featured on nycgo.com
"are for real book lovers. The booksellers are more likely to gently
press into your hands a copy of their favorite collection of Alice
Munro stories than the latest Stephenie Meyer novel (though you'll
likely find that all of your vampire-book needs will be met as well).
You'll discover cozy seating and mellow cafés where you can sit and
while away the hours with a stack of good things to read. And, most
likely, you'll find yourself making many return visits."
New
York's bookselling magic nine are McNally Jackson, St, Mark's Bookshop,
Idlewild Books, Crawford Doyle Booksellers, Book Culture, BookCourt,
WORD, Freebird Books & Goods and the soon-to-open Greenlight
Bookstore.
---
Patti Vunk, owner of the Dolphin Bookshop, Port Washington, N.Y., told Newsday
about a critical May afternoon when "longtime customer Dorothy Rule was
stunned by . . . Vunk's reaction after hearing that one of Rule's
daughter's friends had requested a Barnes & Noble gift certificate
for her birthday."
"If you shop there, we won't be here much
longer," Vunk had said, admitting to her customer, "We've had to cut
staff back, have reached a point of no cash flow. People are not
shopping. We are grateful for your support, and we need you."
Rule
recalled that she "went home and in addition to putting fliers up, sent
a note to the constituents at the Port Washington's Children's Center
to put out a notice to buy books at Patti's."
"The response was
phenomenal," Newsday wrote. "People continue to show their loyalty and support,
Vunk says, and sales are now up."
---
He writes; he
scores! NBA basketball superstar LeBron James added popular author to
his long list of achievements while visiting Manhattan this week to
sign copies of Shooting Stars, co-written with Buzz Biussinger. Newsday
reported that the "line wrapped around the building, from Fifth Avenue
onto 46th Street. They came here Tuesday to see, as one man shouted,
'The King.'"
"I'm blessed that I'm even able to have the
opportunity to do this,'' said James, who literally played to a sellout
crowd when the bookshop ran out of copies of the "candid look at James'
launch into stardom as a high school phenom."
---
Charles McGrath of the New York Times went with Jon Krakauer to a reading Monday at West Point for Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman, which is highly critical of the U.S. Army command. "Less than three dozen" people attended the event and some were more interested in Krakauer's other books, but "the questions were good."
Incidentally Krakauer called Tillman more "interesting and complicated" than he had originally imagined, and said that journals Tillman kept, which his widow let Krakauer read, were invaluable, suggesting "an inner life more typical of a philosopher than a pro football player," the Times wrote. "Tillman talks about his feelings, his fears, his reading, which included Emerson and Noam Chomsky as well as the Cardinals' playbook."
BINC.1118.T2.2024YEARENDCAMPAIGN.jpg)
As part of the launch of 
Thirteen-year-old Cristiano Zena adores his father's longtime pal and working mate, Quattro Formaggi, nicknamed after his favorite pizza and daily diet. Quattro Formaggi is locally famous as Electric Man for having survived his fishing line getting caught on overhead electrical cables, leaving him with a staggering gait and facial spasms. His personal pride and obsession is a room-filling miniature Nativity scene. He's the village idiot, but he also knows how to cut ignition wires and steal cars.