"Publishers provide a huge resource to authors who don't know who reads their books. What the Internet has done for me, and a lot of others, is enable me to know my readers."

 

In the first quarter ended July 31, total sales rose 21% to $1.4 billion, and the net loss was $62.5 million compared to a net gain of $12.2 million in the same period a year ago. Sales at B&N stores fell 2% to $1 billion, and sales at those stores open at least a year slipped 0.9%. Sales at B&N College stores open at least a year rose 2.9%. Sales at B&N.com rose 42% to $145 million.

During the current quarter, the company predicted that comp-store sales at B&N will fall between 1% and 3% and B&N College store sales will be flat.

Barnes & Noble noted that the loss in the quarter included expenses of $9.5 million resulting from the company's successful defense of a lawsuit brought by shareholder Ron Burkle of Yucaipa Companies. (See New York item below.) B&N said, too, that costs in connection with legal matters and the proxy contest next month will raise the expected loss for the full year.

B&N CEO William Lynch commented: "As we have previously stated, the company is allocating significant financial resources to strengthen its digital businesses in fiscal 2011 to maximize our ability to power growth and capture share of the emerging digital market. We are encouraged by our results to date, which are ahead of plan, and remain committed to transforming Barnes & Noble to a company committed to expanding and enhancing the reading experience for book lovers and college students through rich physical and digital content, an industry-leading retail and eCommerce offering and world-class digital devices, software and technology."

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In a feature article headlined "The Billionaire and the Book Lover," New York magazine asked the question that has been on many minds recently: "Are Barnes & Noble founder Len Riggio and his nemesis Ron Burkle the only people in America who still want to own a mega-bookstore?"

New York noted that Riggio "knows where he wants Barnes & Noble to end up: in a world, perhaps just over the horizon, where selling books is profitable, whether they are physical or digital, sold in stores or online. The problem is no one in the publishing industry quite knows how to get there, and at times Riggio has seemed overwhelmed by the task."

Burkle told the magazine "this is not a battle between Len and I, even though that’s what everyone wants it to be." According to New York, however, "in the next breath, Burkle said that now that Barnes & Noble's board was looking for a buyer, he would certainly consider a bid. Indeed, back when he first invested, he had considered making a $25-per-share offer to shareholders, and with the stock currently trading at around $15, the company could almost certainly be had for less today. 'I think people will continue to buy books,' Burkle said. 'But even if we’re wrong, Barnes & Noble will still be alive for five or ten more years. They really should be the last store standing.'"

New York concluded: "For most of his long career, Riggio has been the innovator, the opportunistic instrument of creative destruction. Now, as he nears the final chapter, he is discovering what it means to be old-fashioned."

What’s a fan to do until the clock strikes 12 and Mockingjay is released? Why, divide into Districts to play the Hunger Games Trivia Quiz while consuming Arena Punch, and dress like Katniss Everdeen, of course. Last night in Brooklyn, N.Y., the costume winners posed with WORD owner Christine Onorati and manager Stephanie Anderson. From left to right: Sarah Davis, Melissa Torres, Anderson, Heather Alexander, Onorati, Rosa Colon and Chelsy Hall.

 

(Look for our review of Mockingjay in tomorrow's issue.)

 

 

Mark Bierley has resigned as COO and CFO at Borders Group "to pursue another employment opportunity," the company announced. V-p Glen Tomaszewski has been named interim CFO. Bierley will assist Borders as it searches for a new CFO.

Tomaszewski has been with the company for 12 years and has led the company's financial accounting and reporting functions.

Two months ago, Bierley, a 14-year Borders veteran, was named chief operating officer in addition to his position as CFO (Shelf Awareness, June 20, 2010). He had become CFO in 2009.

Borders CEO Mike Edwards thanked Bierley for "the many contributions" he made to the company. "He successfully led our debt and equity financings earlier this year and oversaw the recent sale of Paperchase."

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Like many projects these days, the Bookrageous calendar was born on Twitter. The #bookrageous tag, as noted in our "Hashtags Could Save Publishing" piece, chronicles "some of the outlandish things readers and booksellers are doing in honor of their favorite books." For the resulting calendar, the guidelines were simple: participants were asked to submit a photo of themselves with their favorite books, and to have fun with it.

The Bookrageous calendar organizing committee comprised Trish Collins (heylady.net), Sarah Rettger, Rebecca Joines Schinsky (thebookladysblog.com), Josh Christie (brewsandbooks.com), Ali Colluccio of Murmur.com and Jenn Northington; check out their podcast.

The calendar, available here, features 18 booksellers and book bloggers and runs from January 2011 to June 2012--and we can't wait to hang it on our wall. All proceeds from sales go to First Book, which provides new books to children in need.

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Book trailer of the day: Fast Girls: Erotica for Women edited by Rachel Kramer Bussel (Cleis Press)--our first naked bubble bath book trailer!--which features the editor talking about the book.

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New York Magazine offers its 20 "most anticipated" fiction and nonfiction fall books.

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On Sunday, as part of a story on BBC Radio's Americana program about books and printing, Simon Winchester spoke with Skip Prichard, president and CEO of Ingram Content Group, about books and e-books. Click here for the entire show; the book part begins 17 minutes into the program.

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Eight Cousins Books, Falmouth, Mass., has donated $420, representing 10% of its sales last Friday, to Pakistan flood relief via the American Red Cross--and is challenging Amazon and Barnes & Noble also to donate 10% of a day's sales. Owner Carol Chittenden pointed out that last Friday was one of the busiest days for the store--at the peak of the summer season on Cape Cod. "It's not political, it's not ideological, it's just human to reach out in these circumstances," she said. "We're a small fish, and we're not rich, but we feel darned lucky to be able to give this much."

She has sent letters to Jeff Bezos and Len Riggio about her challenge.

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Eva Gabrielsson will not give up the manuscript of Stieg Larsson's fourth novel easily. The "best friend, lover and collaborator of 32 years" told the Daily Mirror that because the author died without a valid will and "under Swedish law his estate went to his estranged father and brother, she "estimates they've received upwards of £25 million (US$38.9 million) while she hasn't got a penny."

"Stieg would never have imagined something like this would've happened," said Gabrielsson. "I mean the success is something extreme--no one could've foreseen this. But the inheritance thing, that his father and brother could be like this, he would never imagined it. I sometimes wonder if they're related. Family members are different but this must be the most different-est difference ever."

The Daily Mirror reported that Larsson's final manuscript is her leverage now. "Everyone wants to get their hands on it," she said.

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In Toronto this fall, aspiring writers will be able to attend the Faber Academy. The National Post reported that Toronto, which was established in 2008 by British publisher Faber and Faber, "has the honor of being the school’s first North American 'campus'--classes are already offered in London, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dublin, and Paris."

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NPR's Fresh Air interviewed Chicago cab driver Jack Clark, "who's been driving for 30 years and written three books."

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Ray Bradbury turned 90 this week, and the Guardian featured a birthday quiz for fans of "this master of the futuristic."

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Above the Treeline has launched Serendipity, a new program for small publishers to join Edelweiss, the e-catalogue service, without having a stand-alone catalogue. The publishers will be able to add their titles to the compilation catalogue called Serendipity.

Publishers participating in Serendipity will be able to create a profile and include a range of title information, all of which is accessible to the 2,000 book industry professionals who use Edelweiss.

Through Serendipity, publishers and authors will connect to industry catalogues, including e-catalogues for exhibitors at regional bookseller association trade shows this fall.

Serendipity costs $20 per month for the first title and $10 per month for each additional title. Above the Treeline will also reward third parties, including booksellers and bloggers, who refer new Serendipity clients to Above the Treeline.

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Wilkins Farago, Melbourne, Australia, is now being distributed in the U.S. and Canada by Independent Publishers Group.

Wilkins Farago specializes in translating into English children's and parenting books from around the world as well as publishing titles on the topics by Australians. Some of its books have already appeared here through such U.S. publishers as Random House's Schwartz & Wade Books, Kane Miller, Roaring Brook Press and Charlesbridge.

Now through IPG's Trafalgar Square Publishing, some previously unavailable titles are now available here, including, for example, I Love Kissing You by Davide Cali and Serge Bloch; The Red Piano, André Leblanc and Barroux's controversial story of the Chinese Cultural Revolution; Silvio Freytes and Flavio Morais' In Just One Second, which details everything that happens in a South American city in a single second; and psychologist John Cheetham's parenting manual, Grow Up! How to Raise an Adult by Being One Yourself.

Wilkins Farago is owned by Andrew Wilkins, until recently publisher of Australia's book trade journal, Bookseller+Publisher, which he calls "the nearest thing to Shelf Awareness Australia has."

 

Very sad news about a longtime friend.

Paul C. Williams, executive director of the National Association of Independent Publishers Representatives and co-publisher of Bunim & Bannigan Ltd., books, died yesterday in New York City of complications from throat cancer. He was 51 years old.

Williams worked in the book world since graduating from Haverford College in 1980. He started as a store manager, and later regional manager, for the Encore Books chain. In 1985 he became manager of the Doubleday Book Shop at 53rd Street and 5th Avenue in New York City. He then became sales manager at Ballantine Books, national account manager at Grove Press/Weidenfeld & Nicolson and director of marketing and sales at Rizzoli International Publications and Routledge/International Thompson Publishing.

From 1997 to 2002, Williams was publisher of Herodias, Inc., a literary press he founded. From 2005 to the present, he was co-publisher, with James Munves, of Bunim & Bannigan, Ltd., a small press in New York City and Prince Edward Island dedicated to unusual literary works and political nonfiction. He was particularly proud of B&B's award-winning new translation by Stephen Pearl of the Russian classic Oblomov by Ivan Goncharov.

Despite encroaching illness, last year Williams built and launched Frontlist Plus Universal, a web-based data service provided by NAIPR free to booksellers and aimed at fostering the bond between independent book publishers and bookstores. 

He is survived by his wife, Livia Tenzer, their daughter, Julia, as well as a son, Corey, his mother, Irene Sieminski Williams, and his siblings Hugh Jr., David, Margaret and Mark.

A memorial service will be held at the 15th Street Friends Meeting in New York City in the fall.

 

My Dog Tulip, an animated film by Paul and Sandra Fierlinger based on J.R. Ackerley's book of the same name, is being released at the Film Forum in New York City September 1 and will go into wider distribution later. The film, which was a selection of the Toronto International Film Festival last year, features the voices of Christopher Plummer, Lynn Redgrave and Isabella Rossellini.

My Dog Tulip, about Ackerley's German shepherd, was originally published in 1956 and, 11 years ago, was the first title published by NYRB Classics. In connection with the film debut, NYRB Classics is re-issuing the book again, the imprint's first movie tie-in edition. It appears today in trade paperback ($14, 9781590173542/1590173543).

 

Tomorrow morning on Fox & Friends: Bobby Bowden, author of Called to Coach: Reflections on Life, Faith, and Football (Howard Books, $25, 9781439195970/1439195978).

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Tomorrow on MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews: Peter S. Canellos, editor of Last Lion: The Fall and Rise of Ted Kennedy (Simon & Schuster, $28, 9781616797485/1616797487).

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Tomorrow on NPR's Talk of the Nation: Kathy Reichs, author of Spider Bones (Scribner, $26.99, 9781439102398/1439102392).

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Tomorrow night on the Colbert Report: Heidi Cullen, author of The Weather of the Future: Heat Waves, Extreme Storms, and Other Scenes from a Climate-Changed Planet (Harper, $25.99, 9780061726880/0061726885).

 

Christina Wayne's Cineflix Studios is pitching a comedy series based on It Could Be Worse, You Could Be Me by Ariel Leve. Variety reported that "Wayne had been working independently with Leve on the project for more than a year before she was appointed prexy of Cineflix Studios."

"It's about the what-ifs in life," Wayne said. "She's someone who's always thinking of the worst-case scenario--'What if I wind up an old bag lady under a bridge?'--as a way of facing up to her fears in a very hilarious way."

For the past five years, Leve has written the "Cassandra" column, on which the book is based, for the London Sunday Times magazine.

"It's not like we'd have to reinvent the wheel every week. It's one of those rare instances when you have such an original and fresh voice writing about a world that has existed for a long time," Wayne said.

 

The winners of the 2010 Midwest Booksellers' Choice Awards, sponsored by the Midwest Booksellers Association and chosen by member bookstores, are:

Fiction: A Gate at the Stairs by Lorrie Moore (Knopf/Vintage)
Nonfiction: The Girls from Ames: A Story of Women & a Forty-Year Friendship by Jeffrey Zaslow (Gotham Books)
Poetry: The Chain Letter of the Soul: New and Selected Poems by Bill Holm (Milkweed Editions)
Children's Picture Book: Otis by Loren Long (Philomel)
Children's Literature: Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater (Scholastic Press)

Honor Books:

Fiction: Driftless by David Rhodes (Milkweed Editions)
Nonfiction: Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoë François (St. Martin's)
Poetry: Beloved on the Earth: 150 Poems of Grief and Gratitude edited by Jim Perlman, Deborah Cooper, Mara Hart, Pamela Mittlefehldt (Holy Cow! Press/Consortium)
Children's Picture Book: Moose on the Loose by Kathy-jo Wargin, illustrated by John Bendall-Brunello (Sleeping Bear Press)
Children's Literature: Odd and the Frost Giants by Neil Gaiman (HarperCollins)

The titles and authors will be celebrated at a reception Friday, October 1, during the MBA Trade Show in St. Paul, Minn.

 

Selected new titles appearing next Tuesday, August 31, and Thursday, September 2:

Freedom: A Novel by Jonathan Franzen (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $28, 9780374158460/0374158460) explores the degenerating family life of a suburban Minnesota couple.

A Journey: My Political Life by Tony Blair (Knopf, $35, 9780307269836/0307269833) chronicles the career of the former British Prime Minister.

Dirty Sexy Politics by Meghan McCain (Hyperion, $23.99, 9781401323776/1401323774) shares the experiences of the daughter of Senator John McCain.

Body Work by Sara Paretsky (Putnam, $26.95, 9780399156748/0399156747) is the 14th mystery starring private investigator V.I. Warshawski.

Lost Empire by Clive Cussler and Grant Blackwood (Putnam, $27.95, 9780399156762/0399156763) brings back married treasure hunters Sam and Remi Fargo for another adventure.

Howl: A Graphic Novel by Allen Ginsberg and Eric Drooker (Harper Perennial, $19.99, 9780062015174/0062015176) illustrates the famous poem by Allen Ginsberg.

Maybe This Time by Jennifer Crusie (St. Martin's Press, $24.99, 9780312303785/0312303785) is a romantic comedy about a woman trying to fix the problems of a family and the ghosts that inhabit their home.

The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson (Tor, $27.99, 9780765326355/0765326353) is the first volume of a planned 10-part fantasy series.

Dark Peril by Christine Feehan (Berkley, $25.95, 9780425236598/0425236595) is a new entry in the Carpathian fantasy series.

Somebody Else's Century: East and West in a Post-Western World by Patrick Smith (Pantheon, $25.95, 9780375425509/0375425500) examines the past and future of interactions between the Western world and Asian countries.


Now in paperback:

Wolf Hall: A Novel by Hilary Mantel (Picador, $16, 9780312429980/0312429983).

Midnight Crystal (Book Three of the Dreamlight Trilogy) by Jayne Castle (Jove, $7.99, 9780515148367/0515148369).

 

Stolen Horses by Dan O'Brien (University of Nebraska Press, $19.95 trade paper, 9780803231085/0803231083, September 2010)

Opening lines of a book we want to read:

Since Erwin Benson was a young man he has been an early riser. Belief that the darkness would cease and that the sun was on its way made him hopeful and was as close to religion as he ever managed. From time to time he wished he could believe in more. He always knew that such a leap would have made life easier, but he could never take that leap and had to settle for the predawn. His early morning ritual has served him well enough. He was eighty-five years old and still working. Already this morning he made his way in the dark from his house on Calvert Street to his office in the Lakota County courthouse. He moved through the inky air like a blind man in his own home. Navigated by the scent of waning lilac and columbine. By feel he found the office key on a ring of many. Without switching on the light, he puttered with the coffeepot and wandered the three rooms of the county prosecutor's office waiting for it to perk. He glanced out the window and was pleased to find the darkness still exhilarating. There was still the sense of risk. There was a chance that today was the day the sun would not rise. Rising early was an act of faith.--Selected by Marilyn Dahl

 

 

Young readers' fascination with Wimpy Kids and Dorks clearly shows one thing: they want to be popular! And who better to lead them on the road to popularity than Amy Ignatow, former teacher and author of The Popularity Papers: Research for the Social Improvement and General Betterment of Lydia Goldblatt & Julie Graham-Chang (Amulet/Abrams, $15.95, 9780810984219/0810984210, 208 pp., ages 12-up). As a debut writer on her first bookstore tour during that transitional time between summer and the start of school, she will give kids tips on how to be popular no matter where they are.

Here's Amy's inaugural post on the Shelf, and if you miss any entries, you can see them collected on her tour blog.

Here's the thing about being a new children's book author on tour: not many kids know who you are. Sure, your numbers are "good," yes, your book got a great review in the New York Times, causing all members of your immediate family to simultaneously plotz, but this doesn't mean much to the kid whose parent dragged them to the bookstore so that they could meet a real live author and squeeze some culture in before the start of school. To those kids, I'm just some round lady with frizzy hair who is gripping a purple book in her hands.

I like kids and I spent a lot of years teaching, so it's not so hard to keep their attention for the 15 or 20 minutes that I have to talk about my book. By the end of it, after the last question is asked (often by a parent who wants to know how I got a book deal), the kids are relatively interested in the book and happy to have me sign it.

But then there's always a couple of kids, usually girls, who have already read the book. I can tell they've read it, because they're usually a little more fidgety and giggly, and they nod when I mention specific bits of the book. They've got these huge smiles on their faces when they meet me--I'm more than just a round lady with frizzy hair and a purple book, I'm Amy Ignatow, I'm the author of The Popularity Papers, and it's AWESOME.

My husband and I have just left Cover to Cover Books in Columbus, Ohio, on the fourth day of our book tour/vacation, and Mark, left to his own devices while I write, has decided to taste-test every Christian rock station. "Let me know if this is distracting you," he said, but seeing how he's doing all the driving right now I'm not going to complain about the dj who is talking about how great my salvation is going to be before putting on a screaming rock song. Every now and again Mark will blurt out "Yellow car!" when he sees one, but we're playing our Yellow Car game noncompetitively until I'm done with my work. Good thing, too, because otherwise if he calls four yellow cars in a row I have to sing the song of his choosing using only the Klingon word for "I salute you." It's become kind of a complicated game with lots of rules.

So far we've been to Books & Co. in Dayton, where my in-laws came and asked questions like, "Is Julie supposed to be you and Lydia supposed to be Mark?" (Answer: no, we're an adult married couple and they are fifth-grade girls.) Then we headed South to Cincinnati, to Joseph-Beth Books, where an older gentleman asked, "What is the moral of your book?" I was flustered--I never write with a moral in mind, I just write stories and hope they don't influence kids to take piles of drugs and go on killing sprees.

"There is absolutely no moral to my book whatsoever," I deadpanned, and a couple of people laughed, although most of the attendees just stared at me. "It's about friendship," I said.

Onward to Indianapolis! We've put 736 miles on our own little yellow car so far, and we've got a long way to go before we can stop. Hopefully these events will get a little fuller and I won't say anything horribly off-putting to anyone, and I will see yellow cars before Mark does.

 

Ignatow is posting more about her travels here.