"To me, a book is a book, an electronic device is not, and love of books was the reason I started writing. I don't have a word processor, e-mail, any of that stuff. I write in longhand mostly, then put it on my typewriter as I go along. I don't have any interest in any of that electronic stuff, but I'm going on 85, and won't have to worry about it too much longer."

 

Although Amazon says it is now selling three times as many Kindle e-books in the first half of the year compared to the first half of 2009, this does not necessarily mean that the market for traditional books has eroded. Here's one measure, courtesy of Above the Treeline: sales at 51 large independent bookstores (with annual sales of more than $2 million) in the first six months of the year have risen 1%, "not spectacular in and of itself, but probably pretty in line with general retail and probably something that would come as a surprise to people given the e-reader 'explosion,' " as Above the Treeline's John Rubin commented.

 

 

 

Andrew Wylie's Wylie Agency has created an imprint called Odyssey Editions that will sell e-book editions of older titles by some of the literary agency's extensive clientele. Its first deal runs two years exclusively with Amazon and includes 20 well-known backlist titles that Amazon will sell for $9.99 for the Kindle. Among the titles, which have not appeared in electronic form until now: The Adventures of Augie March by Saul Bellow, The Stories of John Cheever, Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison, The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer, Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov, Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie, John Updike's Rabbit series and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter Thompson.

The Wall Street Journal noted that many of the titles were originally published by Random House, which has claimed rights to older titles whose contracts did not specify e-book rights. Random House spokesperson Stuart Applebaum told the New York Times: "We can't comment on this matter, in part because we have not been made directly aware of any plans affecting specific Random House Inc. titles. In collaboration with the agent community, we continue to make daily progress in our digital conversion of Random House backlist works: more than 15,000 Random House e-books and counting."

Wylie told the Times: "The fact remains that backlist digital rights were not conveyed to publishers, and so there's an opportunity to do something with those rights." He added that the terms reached with Amazon were "more favorable" than terms most other larger publishers are offering for e-book rights.

Late last year, Stephen Covey and RosettaBooks announced a similar deal to sell e-editions of several of the author's longtime bestsellers and several new titles exclusively via the Kindle (Shelf Awareness, December 14, 2009).

 

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Sad news: Mitchell Books, Fort Wayne, Ind., is closing, "another casualty of our current economic climate," as book buyer Katie Glasgow put it in an announcement. The 22,000-sq.-ft. store opened six years ago and begins a closing sale this Saturday. Inquiries may be sent to Glasgow at kateglasgow@hotmail.com or general manager Steve McCaffery at macmccaffery@gmail.com.

According to the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, the store's staff had expected Mitchell's to close next February, when the lease expires, but "the timetable was accelerated when a new tenant committed to the space and wanted it sooner."

In the beginning, the store sold books, music, movies, magazine, lattes, travel accessories and offered a 65-seat screening room. Founder Peter Bobeck joined "forces with Kim Moppert and Deb Stafford, owners of Mr. McGregor's Garden, to create a 6,000-square-foot children's section that included a play area and murals." But in recent years, Mitchell's had contracted somewhat.

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Keen Communications is consolidating Wilderness Press into its offices in Birmingham, Ala., and Cincinnati, Ohio, where Menasha Ridge Press and Clerisy Press are located, respectively. Wilderness Press's Berkeley, Calif., offices will close at the end of this month. All presses are distributed by PGW.

Keen bought Wilderness two years ago (Shelf Awareness, February 6, 2008). The outdoor book and map publisher was founded in 1967 by Tom Winnett.

Susan Haynes will assume Wilderness Press acquisition duties from Rosyln Bullas. Mike Jones, who is Keen's sales director and former publisher of Wilderness Press, will work with Haynes and Keen COO, Molly Merkle, to insure continuity. The Keen marketing and publicity group will handle the marketing and publicity of Wilderness titles as well as Wilderness Press titles that are underway.

Keen called the Wilderness staff "wonderful people and true publishing professionals."

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This is one of our favorite stories in a while.

Naked Girls Reading is "an all-star international lineup of naked readers" who last night kicked off the Toronto Burlesque Festival. The Globe and Mail called them "the newest phenomenon of the phenomenal burlesque revival... Burlesque divas remove the pasties and G-strings--those time-honoured barriers to complete nudity--and grab a book.... The format is generally four or five readers who take 10-minute turns, ending with a group read from a common book. The readers usually perch demurely on a chaise."

The group was formed early last year, a salon founded by burlesque star Michelle L'amour (pictured above). "We hold the series every month at my studio," she told the paper. "Each evening has a theme, and each girl selects her own material which can come from fiction, non-fiction, song lyrics or poetry. For example, for the 'Independent Women' show, readings included Dorothy Parker, Mae West and Coco Chanel."

The reading lists and other information are available at nakedgirlsreading.com.

One woman who participates in Naked Girls Reading commented: "It has a courtesan feel about it. It's seductive, because we're naked, and, at the same time, comforting, like listening to your mother reading to you when you were little."

Another said: "In burlesque, we unveil our bodies. In Naked Girls Reading, we unveil our souls."

 

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Tuesday night at Bookshop Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, Calif., more than 150 people celebrated the 50th anniversary of the publication of To Kill a Mockingbird, "a very moving and powerful evening," the store's Stefanie Berntson said. The highlight of the event was when Santa Cruz County public defender Larry Biggam and county Superior Court Judge Ariadne Symons read Atticus Finch's closing arguments in the trial that is a centerpiece of the novel.

Earlier the crowd discussed the novel and issues it addresses, "such as race, gender, compassion, social stratifications and mob mentalities--and how some of them persevere to this day," the Santa Cruz Sentinel wrote.

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The Miami Herald surveys independent bookstores in South Florida: the Bookstore in the Grove, which opened in 2007 after Borders left Coconut Grove; Undergrounds Coffeehaus, Fort Lauderdale, where used books are "piled on the floor and scattered along the shelves"; Spellbound Books & Gifts, which opened in 2006 in Homestead; Librería Universal, on Calle Ocho in Little Havana, "the go-to place for books written by Cuban authors or featuring Cuban topics"; the acclaimed Books & Books, which has four stores in the area; and Shalom Miami Products, a Christian bookstore in West Kendall, which bought Benite's Christian Book Store three months ago.

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Book trailer of the day: A Dog's Purpose by W. Bruce Cameron (Forge Books).

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Cool idea of the day. During August, local booksellers in Charlotte, N.C., will band together to offer financial support for the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library, which "is suffering from deep county-wide budget cuts," according to the Observer. Three libraries were closed indefinitely last month, and "to keep the remaining libraries open, the book-buying budget was reduced by 58% since last fiscal year."

"We were able to keep the libraries open with the deals made with the municipalities, city and county, but we still had to make cuts elsewhere," said Angela Haigler, communications and marketing director for Charlotte Mecklenburg Library.

In response to the crisis, 18 bookstores in the greater Charlotte area will hold three-day book sales and donate a portion of their profits to the library's book-buying fund. The Observer reported that the initiative "was jump-started by Caroline Crownover, marketing manager of Joseph-Beth Booksellers at SouthPark."

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Rodgers Book Barn, Hillsdale, N.Y., "might not have the instant name recognition of, say, the Strand, but what it lacks in branded tote bags it more than makes up for in charm," observed the New Yorker's Book Bench blog, adding that the shop, which is owned by Maureen Rodgers, is "nearly impossible to leave without at least a few books in hand."

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Slashing prices to keep his two satellite bookstores alive, John K. King has placed "Everything Must Go" or "Every Book Must Go" signs in the storefront windows of John King Books North, Ferndale, Mich., and the Big Bookstore near Wayne State University, the Detroit News reported.

"If we don't move the entire inventory in a fairly quick time--a couple months--then I don't know what I will do," he said, adding, "First it's the Amazon stuff, the state's bad economy and now all this e-book hype."

King is not considering closing his downtown flagship store, John K. King Used and Rare Books, which is less threatened "because it still does solid business selling rare and used books. Plus, additional revenue comes from providing parking for events at Joe Louis Arena and King recently renting the facility for a movie shoot," the News wrote.

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Wayne Gooderham introduced the concept of "holiday reading insurance" on the Guardian's Books Blog: "Rather than risk ruining your break with a big book you don't get on with, why not spread your risk with the novella?... To this year then, and no more throwing caution to the wind by taking along a single doorstop novel. No! This year I intend to sally forth with a carefully selected collection of novellas."

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Today from 1-2 p.m., Eastern time, the Book Industry Study Group is holding an online webcast called Understanding the Impact of Independent Publishers on the U.S. Book Market. Presenters are Jamie Carter, operations manager, Publisher Alley, a Baker & Taylor division, and Florrie Binford-Kichler, president of the Independent Book Publishers Association and head of Patria Press. For more information and to register, go to bisg.org.

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Wiley has launched Wiley Authorities Speak, a website that lists Wiley authors available for speaking, signing and virtual events and is geared to organizations, conferences, seminars, etc. Rather than pay a speaker's fee, the hosting venue is asked to purchase books and cover related travel expenses.

For more information, contact 201-748-5977, eventsdepartment@wiley.com, WileyAuthoritiesSpeak.com or www.wiley.com/go/press.

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Lisa Richards joins Macmillan as national account manager, where her accounts will include Levy, Anderson Merchandisers, Target, Walmart, Sam's Club and Levy's other retail accounts. She will represent all of the Macmillan Children's Group--Farrar, Straus & Giroux Books for Young Readers, Roaring Brook Press, Holt Books for Young Readers, Feiwel and Friends, Square Fish, Priddy and First Second--as well as its distribution lines, Bloomsbury/Walker Books for Young Readers, Kingfisher and Papercutz. Richards previously held sales positions at Tokyopop, Viz Media and Prima Publishing.

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Effective in January, Zest Books, San Francisco, Calif., will be distributed by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Zest has been distributed by independent sales reps.

Zest publishes eight to 10 books a year for teens that focus on "the color and chaos of teen life." Titles are written by industry experts on such topics as relationships, fashion, beauty, stress, dating, music, and high school and home life. Zest was founded in 2006 by Hallie Warshaw, who said, "This new relationship with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt will help us to grow our valued base and bring our books to many new readers."

Laurie Brown, senior v-p of sales and marketing at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, commented: "We're excited to bring these lively, teen-friendly and widely admired titles to new markets as well as enhance their visibility and distribution to existing customers."

 

What began on Twitter last week with #dearpublisher (Shelf Awareness, July 14) continued this week, with additional hashtags introduced by Michele Filgate of River Run Bookstore (#waystoimpressbooksellers), Rainy Day Books (#indiebooksellers) and Katherine Fergason of Bunch of Grapes (#whynotAmazon). Industry professionals and interested observers traded insights, jokes and (some pointed) suggestions in a sprawling series of debates and conversations.

Publishers themselves are active participants, whether responding to questions or re-tweeting their favorite suggestions. Erin Deedy, associate publicist, told us that "Honestly, I wasn't sure what was going to happen by joining in the conversation, but it ended up being a great way to get the word out about what we have going on at Peachtree Publishers and our blog, and also to see what other publishers are doing, what people are reading, and how to establish better relationships with booksellers and bookstores, all of which are important."

And when we asked Erin Kottke, marketing and publicity manager at Graywolf Press, how the house might incorporate these hashtags into its online marketing strategy, she responded, "Taking part in these ongoing conversations IS part of our online marketing strategy."

Erica Barmash, marketing manager at Harper Perennial and founding tweeter of the #dearpublisher tag, believes that "these hashtags and conversations create a sense of community between publishers, booksellers, bloggers, and readers. Even if every suggestion can't be implemented, we've opened up a dialogue and made it clear that we have common goals and a common motivation--the love of books."

In an industry often accused of navel-gazing, is this just more of the same? Or (as can happen on Twitter) is it just a lot of white noise? On the contrary, publishers are making changes based on tweets. Thanks primarily to #dearpublisher, Harper Perennial has now expanded its outreach with book bloggers and, in response to a suggestion from Amy Riley, will adjust its pitches to include page counts, Barmash said.

Terrie Akers, online publicity and social media manager at Other Press, noted that the publisher will be adding publication dates to the spines of advanced reading copies and is looking into e-galleys, based on feedback from booksellers. Museyon Guides is reconsidering its linking policy: "We link to Amazon often in our blog," explained Jennifer Kellas, media editor, "which we didn't know would offend booksellers. We do this because as an independent publisher, it is important to get our Amazon ranking up. It is something we will be changing in the future though now that the hashtags made us aware!" Peachtree Publishing has started a series of blog posts on the process of making a book that Deedy hopes will help authors and readers get a better feel for how the industry works.

And Kottke is going on tour: "Per [Liberty Hardy of River Run Bookstore]'s suggestion, I'm planning a nationwide tour of bookstores, during which I will hold up my boombox and blast "In Your Eyes" in front of the stores. Seriously, though, one thing I would like to consider is to invite more feedback from booksellers on our covers, which was something people were talking about at length [on] #dearpublisher. I was very interested in thoughts on deckled edges, French flaps and other presentation issues--we now have a lot to think about."

Ruth Liebmann, v-p, director of account marketing at Random House, wasn't particularly surprised by any of the suggestions or concerns raised: "Many of the things that came up are things we're already well aware of, because we get so much productive feedback from our reps, and because we're talking to booksellers all the time." [An argument in favor of in-store reps if ever we've heard one!] On the other hand, she did discover "a number of booksellers--and not necessarily the manager or buyer--who are hungry for more conversation with publishers."

Which, really, is what these tags are for, Akers said. "Communicating directly with booksellers has been one of the biggest advantages of Twitter for us, and we love to hear what we can do to make them like us (and sell more of our books, of course). They're the ones on the front lines, and we should be literally bending over backwards to help them do their jobs. I'm thrilled that they're telling us how to do that."--Jenn Northington

 

 

In a kind of Project Runaway meets Simon & Schuster scenario, the MXYPLYZYK store in the West Village in New York City made unusual use of the book jacket of Paco Underhill's new book, What Women Want: The Global Marketplace Turns Female Friendly (Simon & Schuster).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tomorrow on the View: Susie Essman, author of What Would Susie Say?: Bullsh*t Wisdom About Love, Life and Comedy (Simon & Schuster, $25, 9781439150177/1439150176).

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Tomorrow on Rachael Ray: Karen Tack, co-author of Hello, Cupcake!: Irresistibly Playful Creations Anyone Can Make (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $15.95, 9780618829255/0618829253).

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Tomorrow on Voice of America: Peter Heller, author of Kook: What Surfing Taught Me About Love, Life, and Catching the Perfect Wave (Free Press, $15, 9780743294201/0743294203).

 

Filming has started on Winnie, adapted from Anne Marie du Preez Bezdrob's Winnie Mandela: A Life. Variety reported that the Darrell Roodt-directed film, starring Jennifer Hudson and Terrence Howard, "began lensing June 7. Winnie will shoot throughout the summer in Johannesburg, the Transkei and Robben Island, where Mandela spent 18 of the 27 years he was imprisoned for fighting apartheid."

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Sony is planning a December, 2011, release for its "English-language reboot of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" and "is continuing talks with Daniel Craig to star," according to Variety, which also noted that Sony "hopes Dragon will launch a new franchise for the studio."

 

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, July 24

8 a.m. For an event hosted by Elliott Bay Books, Seattle, Wash., Stewart Brand, author of Whole Earth Discipline: An Ecopragmatist Manifesto (Viking, $25.95, 9780670021215/0670021210), advocates more nuclear power as the best way to slow the effect of climate change. (Re-airs Sunday at 12 a.m.)

10 a.m. Robert Remini, author of At the Edge of Precipice: Henry Clay and the Compromise that Saved the Union (Basic Books, $24, 9780465012886/0465012884), presents a history of the Compromise of 1850 brokered between the North and South by Kentucky Senator Clay. (Re-airs Monday at 4 a.m.)

11 a.m. Tim Wise, author of Color Blind: The Rise of Post-Racial Politics and the Retreat from Racial Equity (City Lights, $14.95, 9780872865082/0872865088), debates the racial meaning, if any, of the election of Barack Obama. (Re-airs Sunday at 10 p.m.)

1 p.m. Book TV offers coverage of the 2010 Eagle Forum Collegians Summit, a conference that brings together conservative speakers, authors and college students, held annually in Washington, D.C. Featured authors include Tom Pauken, Larry Schweikart, Ian Fletcher, George Allen, Christopher Horner, David Kupelianand and Michael Coffman.

4:30 p.m. David Sears, author of Such Men As These: The Story of the Navy Pilots Who Flew the Deadly Skies Over Korea (Da Capo, $25, 9780306818516/0306818515), examines James Michener's reporting on aviators in 1951, which was later used for his novel, The Bridges of Toko-Ri.          
    
7 p.m. Robert Egan and Kurt Pitzer, co-authors of Eating with the Enemy: How I Waged Peace with North Korea from My BBQ Shack in Hackensack (St. Martin's $25.99, 9780312571306/0312571305), recount Egan's experience hosting unofficial meetings with North Korean officials at his New Jersey restaurant and passing along information they provided to the FBI. (Re-airs Sunday at 11 a.m. and Monday at 5 a.m.)

8 p.m. From the Gaithersburg, Md., Book Festival, James Reston, Jr., author of Defenders of the Faith: Charles V, Suleyman the Magnificent, and the Battle for Europe, 1520-1536 (Penguin, $29.95, 9781594202254/1594202257), talks about this fifth volume in a biographical series on the conflicts between Islam and Christianity throughout Western history. (Re-airs Sunday at 6:15 a.m. and Monday at 2 a.m.)

10 p.m. After Words. Paula Dobriansky interviews Ayaan Hirsi Ali, author of Nomad: From Islam to America: A Personal Journey Through the Clash of Civilizations (Free Press, $27, 9781439157312/1439157316). (Re-airs Sunday at 9 p.m., Monday at 12 a.m. and 3 a.m., and Sunday, August 1, at 11 a.m.)

Sunday, July 25

1 p.m.  Book TV offers coverage of the Roosevelt Reading Festival, held at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum in Hyde Park, N.Y. Featured authors include Stephen Ortiz, Tonya Bolden, Andrew Roberts, Lauren Sklaroff, Julie Fenster and Alan Brinkley.

8 p.m. Sydney Schanberg, author of Beyond the Killing Fields: War Writings (Potomac Books, $27.50, 9781597975056/1597975052), discusses his four decades of reporting from Cambodia, Vietnam and Bangladesh.

 

Views from the Loft: A Portable Writer's Workshop edited by Daniel Slager (Milkweed Editions, $20 trade paper, 9781571313232/ 1571313230, July 29, 2010)

A sampling from a collection of writers' wisdom from the Loft, our nation's largest independent literary center:

Working from Experience, Larry Sutin:

It's fun to hear about what works for other writers, in the same way that it's fun to hear about any private little rituals of other people--how they make coffee, disperse their anger, buy themselves treats when they're depressed....

When I interrupt my writing to make a pot of coffee, it is a great pleasure for me to recall Balzac working by night, fueled by the thick black coffee he drank like a fiend. This fact of his life means more to me than any of his works that I have read.

On Tour, Shannon Olson:

My editor gave me a fabulous piece of advice before I went on tour for my first novel, Welcome to My Planet. She told me that people would ask me extremely personal questions and that I should pretend I was a presidential candidate and answer questions by not answering them, by talking, instead, about whatever I wanted to talk about.

I wish I had remembered more often to do this.

The Making of Sense, J. Otis Powell!:

The freedom not to prove every concept is a luxury of poetry writing. The planet is filled already with propaganda and rhetoric. The soul needs voice. The heart wants an advocate. Each writer's voice is different because each life sings a new song. Space offers hope that a dialogue can occur between reader and poet and that a new wholeness will be discovered.

--Selected by Marilyn Dahl

In his first novel, Restitution, Vance did a masterful job of moving the story of a Wall Street kingpin accused of his wife's murder beyond the formulaic ho-hum it might have been. His own life serves his writing well--he's a Harvard Business School grad and a retired general partner of Goldman Sachs. He knows the Wall Street lingo, who the players are when oil is on the agenda, and how deals are made.

In The Garden of Betrayal, he delivers a fast-paced, punchy story told in short chapters like bursts from an AK-47. Mark Wallace is an energy-industry analyst living the good life in Manhattan. Then, one winter night in 2002, while he's on his way to London, his 12-year-old son, Kyle, goes out to run an errand a few doors from home and is never seen again. Mark, his wife, Claire, and their daughter, Kate, are mired in grief and guilt and what ifs. Their marriage is strained and Mark's career suffers, but with the help of friends he continues to work in his field.

Cut to seven years later. At an opening ceremony for a natural gas pipeline connecting Russia to Germany, a huge explosion kills hundreds and sends energy markets up, down and sideways. On the same day, a new lead appears regarding Kyle's disappearance. The pace ratchets up from here on. Along with Reggie Kinnard, a detective who has never given up on Kyle's case, and Joe Belko, Reggie's retired partner, Mark enters a dangerous race to find answers. They are soon joined by Claire, whose disaffection disappears when she is faced with the possibility of finding out about her son, and by Kate, who is now a 17-year-old tech guru.

Through a maze of possible suspects, both in the explosion and the kidnapping, these four navigate around a bent senator, a beautiful and duplicitous petroleum engineer, Mossad operatives, an OPEC insider and hedge-fund sharks. Plus, Mark is seeking answers to why his good friend, Alex, son of his boss, committed suicide. Things come together in unexpected ways, to say the least. Start this book when you have time to spare; you will not want to stop reading.--Valerie Ryan

Shelf Talker: A fast-paced, entirely plausible thriller about the kidnapping of a young boy, the explosion of a gas pipeline in Russia and four people looking for connections.