At least some Berkeley, Calif., residents want to save Cody's Telegraph
Avenue store the way Kepler's was brought back to life last year. A
group is organizing an effort to keep the store open and will meet June
8 with the motto "a wake up call, not a wake," according to the
Oakland Tribune.
Owner Andy Ross told the paper, "The community has been calling me up
like crazy, saying, 'What can you do?' My question is, 'What can they
do?' " He emphasized that any solution will "have to come from outside"
but "I will talk to anybody."
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Many new or renovated libraries adopt bookstore elements. The
redesigned Bedford Public Library in Bedford, Tex., has gone farther:
its new arrivals and magazines sections look much like a bookstore
because the fixtures came from a nearby Barnes & Noble that was
moving. The library also has added chairs and serves coffee.
Closed for a month last year because of budget cuts, the library has a
new logo, signage with a uniform look and a Web site that will be
redesigned--"all in an effort to create brand identity," the
Ft. Worth Star-Telegram
said. "Libraries can capitalize on what they see occurring in
bookstores," community services supervisor Jeanne Green told the paper.
"The stuff is moving off the shelves."
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Closed since Hurricane Katrina, the Barnes & Noble in Gulfport,
Miss., reopened yesterday, according to the
Biloxi Sun Herald. The
remodeled store has a larger café and music and movie section than
before Katrina.
"The storm ruined all the volumes," community relations manager Andrea
Yeager told the paper. "Everything had to come down, and it took us
that long to get contractors and supplies, like everyone else."
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Carl Lennertz
coins a great phrase: judging a book by its lover. In other words, the
habit of a significant amount of readers to rely solely on
recommendations from trusted sources. Thanks to Tom Campbell of the
Regulator, Durham, N.C., whose e-mail prompted Carl's latest act of wordsmithing.
---
Stacy Schiff has won the second annual George Washington Book Prize for her latest book,
A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France and the Birth of America
(Owl Books, $16, 0805080090). Sponsored by Washington College in
Chestertown, Md., the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History in
New York and the Mount Vernon Ladies Association, the prize is worth
$50,000 and was presented on Monday at Mount Vernon, Va. The
Washington Post tells no lies about this prize.
---
Check out the
Written Nerd
for Jessica Stockton's informative account of the blogging panel at BEA
and a thoughtful consideration of what she calls the "anti-indie
backlash."
---
The Logos bookstore in Oak Park, Ill., will close by the end of May,
Oak Park Oak Leaves
reported. Owners Tammy Daugherty-Holzer and Chris Holzer looked for a buyer and considered selling online only,
but there was "no miracle," Daugherty-Holzer said. Echoing Christian
stores that have closed in the past several years, she said sales had
slumped because of competition from the Internet and stores such as
Wal-Mart. In addition, stores and churches "can go directly
to our supplier on the Internet and get the same price, or maybe a
little less, and delivery."
The owners had bought the
franchised religion store in 2001 from Bob and Marietta Walsh, who
opened it in 1976.
---
Judith Moore, author of
Fat Girl, the memoir that was nominated for a National Book Critics Circle award last year, has died, the
New York Times reported. She was 66. Moore was also the author of
The Left Coast of Paradise: California and the American Heart and
Never Eat Your Heart Out and was a senior editor at the
San Diego Reader.
---
Custom-made books and DVDs have improved Amazon.com's selection without
raising inventory costs and are becoming more important to the
company's business, founder and CEO Jeff Bezos told shareholders at the
company's annual meeting on Tuesday, the AP reported.
"As a customer, if you get a product from Amazon, you might never know
it was printed yesterday," Bezos said. "I think we'll see more and more
products created instantaneously."
Both BookSurge, the book POD company Amazon acquired last year, and
Amazon's on-demand DVD subsidiary, CustomFlix Labs, have helped the
company increase offerings 42% in the past year. Selection is one of
the cornerstones of the company's business model, Bezos said.
---
Chronicle Books has made more changes in sales and marketing:
- Liz Rockhold has joined the company as senior sales manager in
special markets and will handle such key accounts as Williams-Sonoma,
Pottery Barn, Pottery Barn Kids and Crate & Barrel as well as
premium sales. She was formerly a consultant to educational companies
and earlier had sales, management and marketing positions at Prentice
Hall/Pearson, Addison Wesley/Pearson and Thomson Learning.
- David Cunningham has joined the company as national accounts
manager, handling wholesale clubs and other mass market accounts. He
was formerly a product manager at AMS, specializing in buying and
selling cook and gift books to the wholesale clubs.
- Joseph Ternes has joined the company in the newly created
position of director of Internet sales and marketing. He has worked for
10 years building and managing Web marketing and e-commerce operations
for, among others, the Cooper-Hewitt Museum, the Santa Monica Museum of
Art, Club Monaco, Dwell Magazine, IDEO and American Apparel.
- Patricia Quill has joined the company as publicity and marketing
manager for art, architecture and design, photography and creative arts
titles as well as U.S. publicity and marketing contact for Laurence
King Publishing. Quill has 18 years of marketing and publicity
experience in fine arts and higher education.
- Mark Boorstein has joined the company as sales analyst. He has 16
years of sales analysis and forecasting experience at, among other
companies, Gap, Williams-Sonoma and Levi Strauss & Co.
BINC.1118.T2.2024YEARENDCAMPAIGN.jpg)
Our
favorite picture from BEA--the only one we're reproducing--was of a sign in the window of a gated, somewhat
tired-looking liquor store and possible deli across the street from the
Washington Convention Center. A twist-off toast of thanks to Brian
Heller, who was quicker with a camera than we were. 
