Opportunities in the Price Wars
We've received more letters on the price war between Wal-Mart and Amazon, now joined by Target and Sears.
Arsen Kashkashian, inventory manager at the Boulder Book Store, Boulder, Colo., writes:
Perhaps the price wars are really a positive thing for independent bookstores. We are looking at canceling our orders from the publishers on these books and ordering them from Amazon, Wal-Mart or Target. We will save almost $10 per book on some of the titles. I figure we can cut our billing by close to $1,000 and offer our customers significant savings while still maintaining a healthy margin. If these companies want to become wholesalers at a loss why should we discourage it?
Deb Sullivan, co-owner of the Book Oasis, Stoneham, Mass., writes:
As a very small retailer of new hardcover releases, I'm embarrassed to say I might consider buying them from a big box at these prices. Why would I want to be forced into buying case quantities of hot titles when I only want three? With free shipping, I can still sell them at 30%-40% off cover and make a profit while getting customers into my store that will hopefully buy other full price items or more profitable second-hand titles.
Fans of Jen Yates, on tour for Cake Wrecks: When Professional Cakes Go Hilariously Wrong (Andrews McMeel) at Legacy Books, Dallas, Tex., await cake served by volunteers from Bronwen Weber's Frosted Art Bakery.
House of Reckoning, published by Ballantine this month, is John Saul's 36th novel. His first, Suffer the Children, published in 1977, was an immediate bestseller. His other suspense novels include Faces of Fear, In the Dark of the Night, Perfect Nightmare, Black Creek Crossing, Midnight Voices, The Manhattan Hunt Club, Nightshade, The Right Hand of Evil, The Presence, Black Lightning, The Homing and Guardian. He is also the author of the serial thriller The Blackstone Chronicles.
This memoir is like nothing else you've ever read. Blaze Ginsberg, age 22, permits us to visit the inner workings of his brain, from his freshman year of high school in 2002 through the spring of 2008, when he receives his editor's comments on an early draft of this book. But don't expect the usual personal narrative along a chronological timeline. For Blaze, a "high-functioning autistic," as he calls himself, certain details stand out above others, and he often organizes his memories around a theme. A special someone showing up to class can make his day; a glitch in his routine can ruin it. Sound familiar? Blaze shows us how we're all more alike than different. He constructs his recollections as "episodes" on a TV show; sometimes they occur on consecutive days, sometimes he skips entire weeks. He gives each episode a title, date, summary, notes, quotes, trivia, "goofs" and a soundtrack listing (recurring singers/groups include Hilary Duff--on whom he develops a crush--James Taylor, Coldplay, Marvin Gaye, Alanis Morissette, David Bowie, the Eagles, Stevie Wonder and Anita Baker), with a specific song highlighted, plus the album (and year) on which it appeared. A "Thanksgiving Special" appears as a bookend to each year; in it, Blaze often makes comparisons to previous Thanksgivings, and always recaps the "major events" of that year. His sense of humor permeates his reflections, as do bouts of anger or sadness.