In January, books sales reported by 85 publishers to the Association of American Publishers fell 0.7%, to $814.9 million, compared to the same period last year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the three months ended January 31, at Hastings Entertainment revenues rose 5.5%, to $176.1 million, and net earnings more than doubled to $9.1 million.

In stores open at least a year, book revenues during the quarter were down 1.9%. The company attributed this mainly to "decreased sales of new trade paperbacks and hardbacks and lower sales of calendars and books on CD, partially offset by an increase in sales of used trade paperbacks and hardbacks and fewer promotions offered during the quarter as compared to the prior year. Sales of new hardbacks and trade paperbacks faced a challenging comparison due to strong sales of books from Stephenie Meyer's The Twilight Saga series during fiscal 2008."

Hastings operates 147 stores averaging 21,000 square feet of space that sell new and used books, videos, video games, CDs and consumer electronics, primarily in medium-sized markets.

 

Perseus Books Group and Workman Publishing have signed deals with Apple to be represented on the iBookstore, where e-books for the iPad will be sold, according to the New York Times. The pair join the five of the six biggest U.S. publishers in adopting an agency plan with Apple, a plan that gives the publishers control over e-book pricing.

Besides its own range of publishers, including Basic Books, Da Capo, PublicAffairs and Vanguard Press, Perseus is a major distributor through Perseus Distribution, Consortium and PGW. Workman's imprints include Algonquin, Storey Publishing, Black Dog & Leventhal, Timber Press, HighBridge Audio and Artisan Books.

The Times noted that the deals come as Amazon is "pressuring publishers that have not yet signed deals with Apple to refrain from doing so.... These publishers fear that if they sign deals with Apple, Amazon will discontinue selling their books." Amazon has agreed to an agency plan only with Macmillan--after the companies' well-documented showdown earlier this year.

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As the April 3 shipping date for the iPad approaches, a survey of consumers by comScore shows that "a significant number of consumers are already thinking about buying it" and that consumers are as aware of the iPad as they are of Amazon's Kindle, the Wall Street Journal wrote.

"The tablet and e-book reader market is developing at breakneck pace right now, and Apple’s entry into the market is sure to accelerate mainstream adoption," Serge Matta, an executive v-p at comScore, said in a statement.

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Colin Robinson, co-publisher of OR Books, the new publisher that sells only direct, explains on Huffington Post why OR Books doesn't sell through Amazon. In a nutshell:

"To sell our titles, Amazon would require a discount of 55% or even 60%, that's $11 or $12 on a $20 book.... For their very substantial take on a book, Amazon will rarely do more than simply make it available. Rather than going out and finding customers, it waits for them to come to it. And, of course, plenty do--Amazon.com received 615 million visits in 2008; the company has 50 million customers annually.

"But at OR Books, our calculation is that, for the amount of money we would have to give Amazon, we can do a better job finding customers ourselves. We know who our audience is, we share their interests, we visit the same websites and read the same writers. We empathize with them in a way that is impossible for the Bezos behemoth.... By investing our money in clever advertising and extensive online mailing, in imaginative viral video and lively author events, we are heading out into the world to the places where our potential readers already congregate."

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Sony is offering a $30 discount on its entry-level e-book reader, the Pocket Reader, through April 4, the Wall Street Journal reported. At $169, the Sony device is $90 less than the Kindle.

The Journal predicted a possible price war on e-readers, writing, "Analysts say single-purpose, black-and-white reading devices--like Sony's Reader, Amazon.com Inc.'s Kindle and other devices--need to cut prices to stay competitive in a market where multipurpose color devices cost less than $500."

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The Deal speculated that besides other reasons for the shift, the appointment of William Lynch to CEO of Barnes & Noble may not be intended so much to mollify Ron Burkle, the major investor who is critical of chairman and vice-chairman Len Riggio and Steve Riggio, as to "help sway other shareholders who worry about the outsize influence of the Riggios."

Stifel, Nicolaus & Co. analyst David Schick told the Deal that "B&N trades at a cheaper valuation relative to its cash flows compared to other dominant retailers for just this reason, and that Lynch's promotion may help change that."

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Speaking of the new B&N CEO, who says bookselling doesn't pay?

William Lynch will earn an annual base pay of $900,000, be eligible for bonuses with a target of "not less than" 150% of base pay, receive 500,000 shares of B&N stock and have options to buy another 500,000 shares, according to his employment agreement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Lynch, who was president of B&N.com for the past year and has extensive online experience, is eligible, too, for the company's executive performance plan.

At B&N's current price of $23.90 a share, 500,000 shares is worth $11,950,000.

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The Bellingham Herald profiled Lindsey McGuirk, the digital marketing and publishing manager at Village Books who oversees the bookstore's online and e-mail activities, as well as the Espresso Book Machine.

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Book trailer of the day: The House of Tomorrow by Peter Bognanni (Putnam).

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Big upsets and shattered brackets not enough March Madness for you? The Christian Science Monitor featured the "10 best books about college basketball."

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And if you want to read more about the other big contest during the past few days, the Monitor also listed the best books on the topic of health care reform.

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Speaking of which, the Washington Post is publishing an instant book on health care reform called Landmark: The Inside Story of America's New Health Care Law and What It Means for Us All. The book, by a group of Post reporters and editors, will be published by PublicAffairs first as an e-book and then a paperback--and in all formats by late April.

The Post and PublicAffairs have collaborated previously on Being a Black Man: At the Corner of Progress and Peril (2007); Deadlock: The Inside Story of America's Closest Election (2001) and The Starr Report (1998).

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In "The Subconscious Shelf: Marriage Therapy Edition," the New Yorker's Book Bench blog considered "what your books say about your marriage" and concluded that "the solitary act of reading is very pleasurable, but having someone to share the book with after turning the final page is bliss, which is why the happiest marriages are always, without fail, marriages between readers."

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"If there's a hell for book reviewers (and I'm sure many authors hope there is), no doubt we will spend eternity there being jabbed by trident-wielding imps bearing certain adjectives emblazoned across their brick-red chests: 'compelling,' 'lyrical,' 'nuanced' and so on," Laura Miller wrote in Salon, noting that "the conscientious critic is bedeviled by clichés."

Move over, Rock Bottom Remainders. Tiger Beat, "the world's only YA author rock band," according to Sourcebooks' Paul Samuelson, made their debut at New York City's Books of Wonder last Thursday to help celebrate the launch of the Teen Fire imprint at Sourcebooks. Pictured here are Adele Griffin (l.), author of Picture the Dead, which Sourcebooks is publishing in May, with Tiger Beat frontwoman Libba Bray, author of Going Bovine, the 2010 Printz winner. For an experience almost as good as being there, check out this video (note Teen Fire editor Dan Ehrenhaft on--appropriately--the red guitar).

A major event last week at the National Association of College Stores conference and CAMEX trade show held in Orlando, Fla., was the presentation of the association's study about the college store of 2015.

Costing $300,000 and conducted by Retail Forward, the study was discussed in detail by Lois Huff, senior v-p of Kantar Retail, parent company of Retail Forward. She called the study "an ideal positing of the college store in the landscape of 2015. This is just the start of the journey. The goal is success, not survival."

Noting that even Wal-Mart, which seemingly offers something for everyone, has a core customer through which "it filters everything"--that core customer is a "mom in her 30s"--Huff said that college retailers need to differentiate between core, secondary and fringe customers. College stores' core customers are students, not faculty or the administration or alumni. "Students are who you need to understand," she continued.

The student population will change significantly during the next five years, Huff said. In 2015, "there will be more older students," in part because the recession is leading more people to go back to school. People 18–24 will decline as a percentage of the population, and there will be more minorities than there are today. There will also be more working students and more commuting students "with less of a connection with the campus environment." Many of these students will be the first wave of "digital natives," and they will have more options for where to shop and where to get an education, including online. But there is one thing that won't change: students will remain "spending constrained," as Huff put it.

Typical students in 2015 will have a "values focus," Huff said. They will have a strong world view, embrace multiculturalism and have a green approach to life. They will be results-driven and will want instant feedback as well. They will be asking regularly, "What's in it for me, for my job and career?"

This will also be "a very empowered generation" with "a Google mindset," Huff went on. Students will want to get answers fast, and they will be confident that they can find what they want to know. "They will be the chief information officers in their families," Huff said, "and they will want to co-create and be involved with your stores."

Not surprisingly, these students will be "more demanding and have higher expectations" than students today. "They will be a challenge but also an opportunity," Huff said. "You can become more relevant to their needs."

To be more relevant, college stores need to be online communicating and selling "in a way that's meaningful," Huff added. Stores need to explore ways to connect with students, via e-mail, social media, texting and more. Stores need to add more capabilities, including new selling-support platforms and supporting smartphones that allow people to buy instantaneously. Stores also need to explore new business models, including rentals, modules and user-generated content like Wikiversity.

It will be important for stores to "build traffic to the store and website because the natural traffic will tail off since fewer people will be on campus on a regular basis," Huff said. "You need to build more reasons for more students to come to your store more often."

Stores should remember that they are in an enviable position. "Any mainstream retailer would give his right arm for your data," Huff said. "You know who the students are, what classes they're taking."

Huff stressed that retailers should tell "your story. Students need to know about you and love you for what you bring to the campus." Likewise, the administration and faculty "need to now students love you because they need rationales to support you." Stores should "be relevant and be more than a place to buy books. You are not bookstores. You are college retailers serving this lifestyle called being a student."

The Physical Store

In terms of material, "you are not about textbooks but an expert in course materials," Huff said. In 2015, there will be "no simple game-changing thing out there. There will be many ways students and faculty access course materials, including e-books, POD, user-developed content--and our goal is to provide all options."

Stores have an advantage because "you already own the curriculum," Huff said. But stores need to provide other services, either on their own or by partnering with students or with other groups. These services can involve technology, multimedia (including producing digital files and presentations), even flu shots and, for graduates, resume writing and job placement services. And when they offer something special, stores should "claim it and name it" in the tradition of Best Buy with its Geek Squad or the Apple Stores' Genius Bar, Huff said.

In this vein, she raved about lululemon athletica, a yoga apparel and gear site that offers free yoga classes. "Lululemon athletica is not just selling stuff but promoting a lifestyle," she said.


Stores should also offer "unique and local products, services and events." Unique items in apparel and gifts should be rotated frequently. Stores should have events space to emphasize that the store is "a place where things happen, not a place for products." She cited Umpqua Banks on the West Coast, where most desks and fixtures are on rollers. After hours, they are moved away and the bank becomes a community center hosting poetry readings, concerts and festivals. The Villanova University Bookstore, Villanova, Pa., has flexible space and hosted a string quartet during the Christmas season.

Huff also recommended stores sell "grab and go fresh groceries. You'll never beat Wal-Mart with packaged goods, but you can deliver fresh food in a way others can't." Cafes and coffee shops/coffee bars add to the sense of the store as an event, gathering and work space, she continued. She also advised stores to stock "fast-moving, high-demand items" like beauty and personal care products as well as medicines. She noted that the UCSD Bookstore at the University of California at San Diego store has a Sunshine Market that sells fresh and packaged grocery items.

Most of these proposals were well-received by booksellers, but some balked at stocking food. Several booksellers noted that they are contractually unable to sell food. And another laughed, "Last year they told us to sell Apple. Now they're telling us to sell apples."

Some 2015 Store Examples

Huff pointed to several stores that are doing things she sees as exemplifying the approach of the successful college store in 2015. The Mount Hood Community College, Gresham, Ore., has involved students in major ways in the store by letting them create displays, posters and more. Thanks to many student employees, the University of Arizona BookStores, Tucson, offers a line environmentally friendly cleaning supplies. The Garfield Book Company at Pacific Lutheran University, Tacoma, Wash., sells many fair trade products. During the winter, the UBC Bookstore at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, B.C., had a Facebook link to the Olympics, which increased the store's online presence. And with limited resources and staff, the Wilson Bookstore at the College of Wooster, Wooster, Ohio, recruited students and gave them paint, pinboards, chalkboards and more to make over the store in an appealing way.--John Mutter

 

Tomorrow morning on the Today Show: Shonda Schilling and Curt Schilling, authors of The Best Kind of Different: Our Family's Journey with Asperger's Syndrome (Morrow, $25.99, 9780061986833/0061986836).

Also on Today: James Martin, author of The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything: A Spirituality for Real Life (HarperOne, $26.99, 9780061432682/0061432687).

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Tomorrow on the Joy Behar Show: Jason Mattera, author of Obama Zombies: How the Liberal Machine Brainwashed My Generation (Threshold Editions, $25, 9781439172070/1439172072).

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Tomorrow on NPR's Diane Rehm Show: Robert Mnookin, author of Bargaining with the Devil: When to Negotiate, When to Fight (Simon & Schuster, $27, 9781416583325/1416583327).

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Tomorrow on Talk of the Nation: Tim O'Brien talks about the 20th-anniversary editions of The Things They Carried, available in hardcover (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $24, 9780547391175/054739117X) and paperback (Mariner, $14.95, 9780618706419/0618706410).

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Incidentally as fate would have it, Wes Moore, author of The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates (Spiegel & Grau, $25, 9780385528191/0385528191), did not appear yesterday on Oprah or the Today Show. Shelf Awareness was supplied incorrect information (not from the publisher!) and regrets any confusion this caused.

Jennifer Connelly and Greg Kinnear have joined the cast of Salvation Boulevard, which will be adapted from the novel by Larry Beinhart (Wag the Dog). Variety reported that Marisa Tomei is also in negotiations to be in the film's cast that already included Pierce Brosnan, Jim Gaffigan and Ed Harris. George Ratliff will direct the screenplay.

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Rebecca Hall will co-star with Will Ferrell in Everything Must Go, based on a short story by Raymond Carver. The screenplay will be written by Dan Rush, who will also make his directing debut with this project, Variety wrote.

 

Selected new titles appearing next Tuesday, March 30:

Deception by Jonathan Kellerman (Ballantine, $28, 9780345505675/0345505670) is the 25th novel featuring psychologist Alex Delaware.

Giada at Home: Family Recipes from Italy and California by Giada De Laurentiis (Clarkson Potter, $35, 9780307451019/0307451011) is a collection of the Food Network star's best recipes.

Without Mercy by Lisa Jackson (Kensington, $25, 9780758225641/0758225644) explores a fatal mystery surrounding an ominous boarding school.

Invisible Boy by Cornelia Read (Grand Central, $24.99, 9780446511346/044651134X) follows a former newspaper reporter who gets involved in the case of murdered child.


Now in paperback

Hungry Girl 1-2-3: The Easiest, Most Delicious, Guilt-Free Recipes on the Planet by Lisa Lillien (St. Martin's Griffin, $19.99, 9780312556181/0312556187).

Dark Deceptions by Dee Davis (Forever, $6.99, 9780446542012/0446542016).

Descent into Dust by Jacqueline Lepore (Avon A, $13.99 trade paperback, 9780061878121/006187812X, March 23, 2010)

Opening lines of a book we want to read, in this case, the extraordinary adventures of Emma Andrews, Victorian lady and vampire hunter:

Come in under the shadow of this red rock,
And I will show you something different from either
Your shadow at morning striding behind you
Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you;
I will show you fear in a handful of dust.
  --T.S. Eliot, "The Waste Land" (1922)

Images of shadow and dust--how these words shattered me when I read them in this recently published poem, penned by one who could never know my story. Though the poet was a stranger, his verse took me in its fist and cast me on a rushing flood tide into the past, back to all which I have held in secret for this long time.

With these words beckoning, rattling around in my brain and giving me no peace (I will show you fear in a handful of dust), I cannot resist the pull of memory. And though it is many decades later, it all comes back to me; back even to those early days when the terror was new and I was dangerously untrained. When I was young and did not yet know I had a secret.

And I think it is time. I feel it is. Time to tell my story. A truly remarkable story.--Selected by Marilyn Dahl

Dr. Georg Letham, a philosophical man of scientific training, has committed the ultimate offense. He has murdered his wife. What could drive an intelligent man to extinguish a human life, much less that of his spouse?

Praised by Thomas Mann and Franz Kafka, written in 1931 but never translated into English until now, this big 560-page brick of a book is a tornado of fresh air blowing into your reading experience, brutally honest, compulsively paced--a slightly surreal tale with a hypnotic narrative voice that crackles with cynicism and irony and yet remains touchingly human, all of it rippling with gallows humor. It's smart, heady stuff, with the subtle thrill of genius. It's addicting. After a couple hundred pages, the book begins to seem way too short.

The story is a sinuous surprise. You can only grip this hefty tome in both hands and read in horrified fascination as the plot deftly sets off on its own journey, from mental institution to prison hospital to penal colony, full of unexpected detours from the tropics to the North Pole.

As a narrator, Georg is cynical, opinionated and constantly withholding information. He refuses to talk about some topics, like the murder of his wife. Yet his scorn for sentimentality is refreshing, and you learn to see through his harsh judgments, frequently growing to love the very people that he scorns.

For a novel so large, it has relatively few characters, but those few become almost mythic in their imaginative power. There's March, the handsome young prisoner who's chained wrist-to-wrist to Georg and falls in love with him. There's Walter, another doctor and his childhood hero, and Brigadier General Carolus, who would rather make charts than deal with anyone's body.

The novel is strewn with unforgettable images. A bloody laboratory dog with skull partially exposed breaks free of its straps and runs into a classroom of medical students. A burial at sea goes wrong, and the body floats back up to the surface to be played with by dolphins.

Oh, and rats are everywhere in the novel. They torment the convicts in the tropical penal colony. They battle the crew for possession of an ice-trapped ship at the North Pole. And in the flashbacks, they infest the home of Georg Letham's childhood, where his father has devised a particularly hideous trap for them. One of the most heartbreaking scenes in the novel is Georg's father forcing the little boy to kill a rat.

Out of such grim material Weiss creates a literary world of pure reading joy. We're so lucky Joel Rotenberg took the time to give us a fine translation and that Archipelago Books took a chance on publishing it. Read it slowly. Savor it sentence by sentence. Enjoy the bracing, invigorating slap of real literature.--Nick DiMartino

Shelf Talker: An addictive tale of a murderer--cynical, ironical and yet touchingly human.

 

This lovely tribute to bookstore customers appeared recently in the e-newsletter of Eagle Harbor Books, Bainbridge Island, Wash., and was written by Eagle Harbor senior bookseller Ann Combs, the author of Helter Shelter and Smith College Never Taught Me to Salute, among others, and "a pillar" of the store's used book department.

As we continue to celebrate the 40th Anniversary of Eagle Harbor Books, we would be remiss if we didn't mention the fact that one of the best things about working here is our customers: the small children who march into the store and know exactly where they are going even when a visiting grandparent doesn't, the people who patiently follow us around the store as we search for a book the computer assures us is available.

We delight in customers who come to us for recommendations when they are about to go on a trip, or need a birthday present for a son-in-law and are particularly pleased when they come back later to report that our suggestion was a big success.

We appreciate the customers who understand when a book takes longer to order and bring into the store than expected.

We're grateful to those of you who tell us that you may check on the availability of a book on Amazon but "I come here to buy it."

We listen when you describe your own favorite books, and we often find ourselves adding them to our own bedside stack.

You customers amaze and intrigue us with your varied interests and opinions.

We enjoy the conversations, the banter, the laughter. And we're thrilled that you customers come in to browse, to meet friends, to get a treat for your dog and simply to say hello.

No wonder the 40 years seem to have sped by in a minute.