"I come from the Northwest, where we take our booksellers seriously as well."--Jess Walter, author of The Financial Lives of the Poets, in his opening remarks at "A Taste of HarperCollins Breakfast" during the Southern Booksellers Independent Alliance trade show in Greenville, S.C., last weekend.
Disney Publishing has introduced a new subscription website where, "for $79.95 a year, families can access electronic replicas of hundreds of Disney books . . . DisneyDigitalBooks.com, which is aimed at children ages 3 to 12, is organized by reading level," the New York Times reported.
"There isn't anything like Disney's product on the market," said Sarah Rotman Epps, a media analyst at Forrester Research. "They are the first to say, we're putting our whole catalog online in this one place, and we're selling it straight to parents."
In choosing a subscription online model over "downloads and sales for devices like the Kindle--Disney is placing a specific bet about where the children's market is going, at least in the next three to five years. The move could send ripples through this corner of publishing, if only because of the size of Disney, which annually sells 250 million children's books," the Times wrote.
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Sony will partner with e-book publishers Smashwords and Author Solutions to "allow any author to upload a book to their eBook Store, giving self-published writers unprecedented access to the ubiquitous point-of-sale marketplace that is the e-reader," according to Wired magazine.
Sony's eReader division "will only vet content for hate speech, plagiarism, improper formatting or public-domain books offered by another other than the legitimate author. Other than that, they deny nothing," Wired noted.
"We're committed to providing our customers access to the broadest range of eBook content available and believe these collaborations will allow us to expand the store selection with a host of compelling works from independent sources," said Chris Smythe, Sony eBook Store's director. "Additionally, we recognize that it is important to provide independent authors and publishers the opportunity to quickly and easily bring their ideas and content to a wide audience of readers."
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While the release date for Sarah Palin's Going Rogue: An American Life has been moved up to November 17 (Shelf Awareness, September 29, 2009), the e-book edition won't be available until December 26. The Wall Street Journal reported.
"This is the first time we're trying this, and we'll see what we learn," said HarperCollins CEO Brian Murray. "The publishing plan is focused on maximizing velocity of the hardcover before Christmas, at a time when hardcover sales in the industry are down 15%."
Harper's Tina Andreadis told the Journal that the decision was made to "give our retailers the strongest possible incentive to promote the hardcover edition in stores during the holidays. We aren't giving booksellers a lot of time to promote this book because we're crashing it out."
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More on Shelton Johnson, the National Park Ranger at Yosemite who appears in several segments of Ken Burns's documentary The National Parks, currently airing on PBS, and whose novel, Gloryland (Sierra Club Books), has just appeared (read a sample of it in Shelf Awareness, September 28, 2009).
The New Yorker has a nice Talk of the Town piece about Johnson visiting New York for the premiere of the documentary, and National Park Service News interviews Johnson about his conversation with President Obama after the premiere. ("I'm standing there listening but there's this loop playing in my head, 'Oh my God, I'm shaking hands with the President of the United States of America. Oh my God, I'm shaking hands with the President of the United States of America' and that loop keeps playing and playing and I'm seeing the President's mouth moving and I know words must be coming out but this loop keeps playing and I'm trying to figure what it is he's talking about and I'm, well I'm just stupefied.")
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Reporting from last weekend's Mountains & Plains Independent Booksellers Association trade show in Denver, Colo., NewWest.net observed: "For all the doom and gloom I've been hearing about the book business in recent years, I found the booksellers at this conference to be a fairly contented lot. Maybe they just seemed upbeat because they enjoy this event, or maybe they've been cheered by all the popular books publishers have released this fall, which have brought in renewed traffic to their stores."
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Cool idea of the day: People gathered recently at the Book Works bookstore, Del Mar, Calif., to write postcards to President Obama. The Del Mar Times reported that "the goal was not to wish him a Happy Belated Birthday, but to communicate to him the importance of marriage equality. Each person who attended the event wrote a brief personal story or thought about why marriage equality is important to them. The event was organized by 'Postcards to the President,' a grassroots organization that supports marriage equality."
"The staff and I believe very strongly in bringing our community together in open forums that encourage tolerance and education," said Lisa Stefanacci, owner of the Book Works.
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Like most bookstores, Wooden Shoe Books, Philadelphia, Pa., gives "the public a means to find entertainment, a place to relax, socialize with people and find information. Wooden Shoe Books offers this and more--with a bit of a twist," according to the Temple News. That twist? This is a "a non-profit, volunteer-run bookstore that has a strong left-wing theme to it. Though it functions much like a standard bookstore, it sticks by one particular tenet."
"Our main focus is to allow access to information," said volunteer Todd O'Leary.
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In his new book, Speech-Less: Tales of a White House Survivor, former speechwriter Matt Latimer claims that officials in the Bush administration objected to the awarding of a presidential medal of freedom to J.K. Rowling because they believed her Harry Potter series encouraged witchcraft, the Guardian reported.
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Borders Group has joined many other booksellers, including Barnes & Noble, by offering free wi-fi service to customers. Verizon is providing the service, which should be available in most of the 500 Borders stores by mid-October.
"Re-engaging with customers as a serious bookseller is one of our strategic priorities," Borders Group CEO Ron Marshall said in a statement. "By offering free wi-fi, we are extending the open atmosphere of exploration that is at the core of every great bookstore experience and furthering the sense of community we have always fostered at Borders."
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Obituary Note: Frank Goodall, McGraw-Hill's West Coast sales representative from 1963 until his retirement in 1997, died on September 19. He was 82.
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Book trailer of the day: Border Crossing by Jessica Lee Anderson (Milkweed Editions).
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Effective tomorrow, October 1, Books International will handle warehousing and fulfillment for SUNY Press. The new ordering address is: SUNY Press, P.O. Box 960, Herndon, Va. 20172-0960; customer service 877-204-6073 or 703-661-1575; fax 877-204-6074 or 703-996-1010; e-mail suny@presswarehouse.com.
Vermont Public Radio's Neal Charnoff interviewed Allen Gilbert, executive director of the Vermont chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, which is celebrating Banned Books Week "with an event called 'An Evening Without' this Wednesday in Norwich. Vermont authors will be reading from books that have been subjected to bans, or whose authors were barred from the U.S. because of their political viewpoints."
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On the international banned books front, the New York Times reported that to prepare for the National Day holiday, retailers in Hong Kong "have been stocking up on merchandise like designer bags, gold jewelry--and banned books. . . . Big downtown bookstores and airport kiosks alike carry paperbacks detailing the latest gossip about Communist Party cadres. More serious fare can be found at the city's tiny 'upstairs' political bookstores tucked above ground-floor storefronts. Inside are stacks of books on the Cultural Revolution, the Great Leap Forward, the Tiananmen Square crackdown of 1989, and almost everything else Beijing does not want people reading."
"The more mainland customers we had, the more we realized that they wanted things they couldn't get back home," said Lai Pok, a staff member at the People's Recreation Community bookstore. "Now we specialize in Hong Kong-published books that are banned on the mainland. The business is better."
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"Imagine how many more books might be challenged--and possibly banned or restricted--if librarians, teachers and booksellers across the country did not use Banned Books Week each year to teach the importance of our First Amendment rights and the power of literature, and to draw attention to the danger that exists when restraints are imposed on the availability of information in a free society," said Joan Werner of Atalanta's Music and Books, Bisbee, Ariz., which will join the Copper Queen Public Library to host Banned Books Week events, according to the Sierra Vista Herald.
Beloved by so many in the romance book world, Kate Duffy, editorial director of Kensington Books, has died after a long illness. She was 56.
Duffy won a range of awards and published or worked with such writers as Jude Deveraux, Julie Garwood, Lori Foster, Heather Graham, Judith McNaught, Mary Janice Davidson, Jacqueline Frank and Mary Jo Putney.
During her career she was an editor at Popular Library, then worked at Dell and Simon & Schuster, where she was the founding editor of Silhouette Books. After working at Pocket Books, where she founded Tapestry Books, she joined Harlequin Enterprises, where she founded the Worldwide Library imprint. At Kensington, she established Brava Books.
There will visitations this evening, Wednesday, September 30, 3-6 p.m., and 7-9 p.m., at the Frank E. Campbell Funeral Chapel, 1076 Madison Avenue (at 81st) in New York City.
Prospective booksellers from as far away as Trinidad and Greece met the week of September 14 on Amelia Island, Fla., for the workshop retreat called Opening a Bookstore: The Business Essentials to learn the complexities and book retailing and the strategies behind building a profitable, sustainable bookstore business. Graduates include (starting at bottom left to top) Tatiana Nicoli, Janet Geddis, Teresa Carbajal Ravet, Mike Olson, Laura DeVault, Rick Bash, Theodoros Nikolaidis, Heidi Bash, Claudia Maceo Sharp, Kim Johnson, Sheri Olson, Nicole Opadeyi and Anne DeVault with trainers Donna Paz Kaufman and Mark Kaufman. The workshop is sponsored twice a year by the Bookstore Training & Consulting Group of Paz & Associates in partnership with the American Booksellers Association.
At a Midwest Booksellers Association session last weekend on buying local campaigns, Becky Anderson of Anderson's Bookshop, Naperville and Downers Grove, Ill., related that using the IndieBound name and materials, the local business alliance in Naperville has grown into an active organization with nearly 100 member businesses--just the kind of connection with non-book retailers that ABA had hoped would develop from IndieBound when it founded the program two years ago.
Last summer IndieBound Naperville held an independents week that included a blood drive; a "tax-free day" (stores took 7.25% off purchases); and a bingo card that businesses stamped. The group has held other events and recently conducted its first survey of members and is planning to do several holiday promotions. Members are also now patronizing each other more than in the past.
Membership in IndieBound Naperville costs $30; businesses receive large IndieBound Naperville signs for their store windows. Anderson said that she is starting a similar organization in Downers Grove.
One unforeseen difficulty: scheduling meetings is like herding a bunch of cats, Anderson said, mainly because stores have widely varying opening hours.
ABA CEO Oren Teicher emphasized that booksellers can "start small" with local business alliances. "Some of the most successful efforts are operated by a small number of stores."
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In a social media panel, Martin Schmutterer of Common Good Books, St. Paul, Minn., said that social media is "ultimately about selling books," but encompasses much more. Social media, he continued, helps stores become enmeshed in the community and find new communities, helps people "turn to you first," helps develop affection and loyalty for the store and extend the brand, and helps build social capital.
Social media also "humanizes the store quite a bit and allows customers and others a way into the store they wouldn't otherwise get." On Twitter "there is a group who direct mail me who may not come in all that often," he said. "They make it their first line of contact."
Sometimes tweets resound in unanticipated ways. Schmutterer said that a recent tweet about a burglary at the store "a few tweets later became a major new item" that was picked up across the country. (And here too: Shelf Awareness, August 2, 2009.) "As my boss said, it's the least expensive way to get a lot of publicity."
Schmutterer added that through social media, he learns a lot from other bookstores about a range of things from what's selling to what they're having problems with.
Todd Sattersten of 800-CEO-READ recommended that all booksellers who haven't yet done so should start a blog. His company, which specializes in business books, has used social media for five years. All social media is on the front page of the company's site and includes a daily blog, audio interviews and videos.
He called the efforts "digital handselling" and emphasized that "we're having a conversation with a huge group that chooses to have that conversation. Many of them aren't coming into the store, and many will be future customers."
Sattersten praised social media, saying, "I don't know another way to talk to your customers every day for free." He noted, too: "I can send out what I want, and I'm not dependent on media coverage or postage and printing. This is people talking to people, not a marketing brochure."
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At a session about customer service, Lanora Hurley, owner and general manager of the Next Chapter Bookshop, Mequon, Wis., talked about a range of programs at the store and offered all kinds of tips.
Hurley called handselling "a key component of customer service" that helps booksellers meet customers' needs and differentiates independent bookstores from both online and bricks-and-mortar competition.
Shelf talkers are an aspect of handselling and lend themselves to community bookstores. Hurley prefers handwritten shelf talkers, and lets customers write them, too, particularly children. "It's great to have a 13 year old recommend books to her peers," she commented.
IndieBound is "one of the easiest ways to handsell," Hurley continued. The selection of titles "tells what's good." The Next Chapter also has a bookcase with faceouts of all staff members' picks.
In discussions with customers, booksellers should "always be honest," Hurley said. "Booksellers shouldn't be afraid to say, 'I didn't like the book.' " In part, this contributes to stores' credibility "that we believe in what we sell."
Hurley hires people "who love books and who love working with people. I don't want to hire a reader so much as a reader who can talk about what she's reading."
At Next Chapter, Hurley promotes handselling by holding contests among the staff with prizes such as a day off, free movie passes or a free lunch. She also promotes handselling by giving some staff members, particularly children's booksellers, small amounts of paid time off so that they can read f&gs, which "helps them sell." Staff meetings begin with a discussion of what each staff member is reading, which "reminds us of why we're here and allows me to sell books I haven't read," Hurley said.
Rep nights, an old Harry W. Schwartz Bookshops tradition at which three or four reps present their picks for the season to the staff, also help booksellers sell books they haven't read. (Next Chapter coordinates these evenings with Boswell Book Company, another Schwartz successor store.)
Next Chapter staff members greet every customer who comes through the door, always phrase comments in ways to avoid "no" as an answer and always take customers to a section when referring them to where a book is. Staff members also don't use the phrase "special order" and estimate delivery times of ordered books in terms of business days. When customers say they can order a book online, Hurley says she can order the book as well but doesn't charge for shipping and notes that the sale supports a local business.
Hurley called "branding booksellers" a great idea, both in the store and online.
Another kind of handselling is displays. For example, Next Chapter has a Get Lost in Translation display that features Europa Editions titles, which aren't promoted in any other way. "We can't keep them in stock," she said. "People love them." One title, The Most Beautiful Book in the World by Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt, has achieved a most beautiful status: since its publication in July, it has sold 55 copies in Next Chapter.--John Mutter
This morning on Good Morning America: Steve Harvey, author of Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man: What Men Really Think About Love, Relationships, Intimacy, and Commitment (Amistad, $23.99, 9780061728976/0061728977).
Also on GMA: Mitch Albom, author of Have a Little Faith: A True Story (Hyperion, $23.99, 9780786868728/0786868724).
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Today on the Diane Rehm Show: Gregory Maguire, author of Making Mischief: A Maurice Sendak Appreciation (Morrow, $27.50, 9780061689161/0061689165).
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Tonight on the Charlie Rose Show: Brian Ross, author of The Madoff Chronicles: Inside the Secret World of Bernie and Ruth (Hyperion, $19.99, 9781401310295/140131029X).
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Tomorrow morning on Good Morning America: Helen Thomas and Craig Crawford, authors of Listen Up, Mr. President: Everything You Always Wanted Your President to Know and Do (Scribner, $24, 9781439148150/1439148155).
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Tomorrow on the Diane Rehm Show: William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer, authors of The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope (Morrow, $25.99, 9780061730320/0061730327).
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Tomorrow on KCRW's Bookworm: Alvaro Uribe and Cristina Rivera-Garza, editor and a contributor, respectively, to The Best of Contemporary Mexican Fiction (Dalkey Archive, $15.95, 9781564785145/1564785149). As the show put it: "This new anthology makes clear that magical realism is only a tiny segment of what's been happening in Mexican fiction over the last half-century. In this conversation with its editor, Álvaro Uribe, and Cristina Rivera-Garza, one of the writers whose work appears in the book, we uncover a cavalcade of styles and influences, as well as a host of writers whose names will be new to American readers."
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Tomorrow on CNN's Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer: Taylor Branch, author of The Clinton Tapes: Wrestling History with the President (Simon & Schuster, $35, 9781416543336/1416543333).
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Tomorrow on CNN's Joy Behar Show: Jeffrey Ross, author of I Only Roast the Ones I Love: Busting Balls Without Burning Bridges (Simon Spotlight, $24.99, 9781439101407/143910140X).
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Tomorrow on the View: Carrie Fisher, author of Wishful Drinking (Simon & Schuster, $13.99, 9781439153710/143915371X).
Also on the View: Laurie Ann Levin, author of God, the Universe and Where I Fit in (HCI, $15.95, 9780757314407/0757314406).
Stephen King will "turn his novella The Colorado Kid into an hourlong series for indie studio E1 Entertainment," Variety reported. The project is titled "Haven."
Variety added that "the team who turned King's The Dead Zone into a series for USA Network are at it again for Haven." Three of the producers--Scott Shepherd, Lloyd Segan and Shawn Piller--were also executive producers for the Dead Zone, and Sam Ernst and Jim Dunn, who wrote Dead Zone are writing the pilot for Haven.
While E1 "is in advanced talks with several European broadcast partners to sign on and help finance the show," the company plans to look for U.S. and Canadian broadcasters after securing an international partner, according to Variety.
The recent arrest of director Roman Polanski in Switzerland has left his latest film, an adaptation of The Ghost by Robert Harris, in limbo. According to the Hollywood Reporter, "Polanski's agent, ICM chief Jeff Berg, said Polanski had completed much of the editing on The Ghost. But other postproduction work, including music scoring and sound mixing, had yet to be done."
The film does not have a U.S. distributor yet, but Berg told Variety that "Polanski usually finishes his films before lining up U.S. distribution, so the completed movie can be shopped around."
The Unfinished Angel by Sharon Creech (Joanna Cotler/HarperCollins, $15.99, 9780061430954/0061430951, 176 pp., ages 8-12, October 2009)
So much of Sharon Creech's (Walk Two Moons; Love that Dog) signature humor pervades the pages that readers may not initially notice the small moments the author creates that lead to several moving epiphanies. Angel "flishes" the citizens of Ticino by planting images in their sleeping heads, often to help them think more kindly of someone or to give them peace of mind. When Zola tells Angel about a group of homeless orphans who've taken refuge in an abandoned shed, Angel flishes the townsfolk and it backfires, leading to a comedy of errors and also to greater understanding. For Angel serves as the town's kindly brain trust. The hero knows that as Signora Mondopoco grows older, she also grows more childlike (oh how she loves poppets, "little dollies"), and that Signora Divino has not been the same since her grown boy moved to America and left his son in her care ("She seems hard on the outside, but inside is soft and fragile like an egg"). But who knew that a girl from America could teach a Swiss angel a thing or two? "Sometimes a people needs an angel and sometimes an angel needs a people," as Angel puts it. Creech uses her characters' struggle with language to demonstrate the importance of being understood, of making oneself seen and heard--orphans to villagers, Angel to Zola. This book will make you . . . "What is that word for the happy teeth?? Smule? Smale? Smile? Smile!"--Jennifer M. Brown
