In the second quarter ended June 30, net sales at Amazon.com rose 39.3%, to $52.9 billion while net income was $2.5 billion, compared to net income of $197 million in the same period a year earlier. Although revenue was below financial analysts' forecasts, profit was more than double what had been anticipated (consensus was a profit of $2.49 a share; profit was actually $5.07 a share). This marked the first time Amazon had profits of more than $2 billion in a quarter, and the third quarter in a row it had profits of more than $1 billion. As the Wall Street Journal wrote, "No longer is Amazon known for suffering losses or producing razor-thin income by plowing every dollar it makes back into investments."

In after-market trading, Amazon shares rose more than 3%, to about $1,860 a share. Amazon shares have risen 55% since the beginning of the year. By comparison, the Dow Jones Industrial Average has risen slightly more than 3% this year, and the NASDAQ is up 13.7% since January 1.

The best-performing parts of the company in the second quarter that contributed significantly to record profits were Amazon Web Services, the cloud service division, whose operating income was $1.6 billion, and advertising offerings. Online retail, the company's traditional business, has kept on growing but not as rapidly as in the past and continues to have much lower margins. The Journal noted that online store revenue grew 12%, to $27.17 billion, a smaller jump than in the past several quarters. Slightly more than half of all products sold in the quarter were from third-party vendors.

Judy DeBerry

Judy DeBerry of Hachette Book Group is the recipient of the 2018 Kristin Keith Sales Rep of the Year award, presented by the New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association. She will be honored October 7 at the NAIBA Awards Dinner in Baltimore, Md.

DeBerry launched her career in publishing 35 years ago as a telephone sales rep for Random House. She joined Hachette in 1991 as one of the original sales reps for what was then Warner Books, and is now a senior field sales rep, national account manager at the company.

"I remember Scarlett being our first really big book to sell, and sell we did," DeBerry said. "While the company name and publishers have evolved through the years, my territory has remained constant. This includes several Mid-Atlantic and Southern states. I work with many accounts in both the NAIBA and the SIBA regions."

In thanking NAIBA for the honor, she observed: "First just let me say I love my accounts! And I love my job. I am very, very appreciative of this award. It means so much to me.... My job is to bring my knowledge of books and authors to my buyers. To know their stores, what they will sell well, and what they don't. Books they need to have in the store, books that will be in demand, books that you help to make into bestsellers. Over the years I've met so many authors, and it's a great feeling to know I was able to get their books into the buyers hands and then into the stores where booksellers share with their customers."

Debbie Scheller of A Likely Story Bookstore, Sykesville, Md., praised DeBerry as "a treasure to all booksellers. She goes above and beyond for her stores, from getting them the books they need to making sure authors get into the stores. She comes to events on her own time and helps out wherever needed. Judy's knowledge and experience of over 25 years shows."

Lelia Nebeker of One More Page Books, Arlington, Va., added: "No one goes to the lengths that she does to ensure that booksellers have everything we need in order to do our jobs. She's always a delight to be around, even when she's just had knee surgery, been sick with the flu, or just sat in traffic for an hour. I always know that when I have an issue or a question, Judy will drop whatever she's doing to help me. I really appreciate how hard she works for us, and how friendly and dependent she is as a sales rep."

DeBerry said: "I still smile when I'm in a store and see, out of all the books there, one of mine in the hands of a customer walking to the register. That's my happy dance!"

Laurence Orbach

Quarto co-founder Laurence Orbach has stepped down from the publisher's board "in the latest twist to his involvement with the company," the Bookseller reported. In a brief statement, the Quarto Group Board thanked Orbach, who in May "made a shock return to the company's leadership after being first ousted as director in 2012, for 'his contribution during his time as a director.' " Quarto declined to comment further on Orbach's resignation.

Orbach had been re-appointed executive chairman of the board after a shareholder revolt May 17, but stepped back to become a non-executive director in a July reshuffle. He and fellow shareholder Chuk Kin Lau of the Lion Rock printing company together own 47% of the company (Orbach 20%, Lau 27%). Lau, "appointed to Quarto’s board following the shareholder revolt, stepped up as Quarto's interim chief executive officer in wake of Marcus Leaver's departure," the Bookseller noted.

Everything Under, the debut novel by Daisy Johnson, a former bookseller at Blackwell's Bookshop in Oxford, is among the 13 titles on this year's longlist for the Man Booker Prize. The Oxford Times reported that Johnson "worked in the shop in Broad Street until she landed a two-book publishing deal with Jonathan Cape."

Following the unveiling of the longlist earlier this week, Johnson tweeted: "SO: I have a small piece of news. Not even remotely THE MOST ENORMOUS THING THAT HAS EVER HAPPENED TO ME. HAAAAAAAAAAAAAA. (Also look at the rest of this list, so so good!)."

Blackwell's staff offered support, tweeting: "Huge congratulations to @djdaisyjohnson on being longlisted for the @ManBookerPrize. Everything Under is a favorite of ours. A truly magnificent novel that over 15 of our booksellers have read and adored."

Noting that the Man Booker longlist has a "great balance of known names and others to be discovered with some really commercial titles thrown in," Katharine Fry, trade buying manager for Blackwell's, told the Bookseller: "As a former Bookseller of Broad Street and following the pre-order campaign and launch we will definitely be backing Daisy Johnson and hoping she makes it all the way."

The Man Booker Prize shortlist will be announced September 20, with the winner named October 16.

Anne Olivier Bell, "who edited the diaries of Virginia Woolf into five landmark volumes and was a rare surviving link to the Bloomsbury Group," died July 18, the New York Times reported. She was 102. Bell "was also thought to be among the last members of the so-called Monuments Men, a unit that worked to protect and recover artworks during and after World War II." Their exploits were chronicled in the book The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History by Robert M. Edsel, with Bret Witter; as well as the 2014 film Monuments Men.

"I haven't any imagination," she told the Telegraph in 2014. "But I was lucky to spend my life among fascinating people."

Bell was a research assistant at the Ministry of Information during World War II, and in 1945 she was recruited to join the the Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives Section. "She was sent to the British zone of occupied Germany, where she coordinated the activities of officers in the field, who were trying to repair damaged churches and other things of architectural or artistic significance," the Times wrote.

After her return to England in 1947, she was working at the Arts Council of Britain, editing catalogues and helping to prepare exhibitions, when she met the artist Vanessa Bell, Virginia Woolf's sister. She married Quentin Bell, a son of Vanessa and Clive Bell, in 1952.

She assisted her husband in the writing of his 1972 book Virginia Woolf: A Biography, and in 1977, she published The Diary of Virginia Woolf, Vol. 1. She would edit four more volumes; the last was published in 1984. In the 1980s, she helped found the Charleston Trust, an organization dedicated to preserving a farmhouse associated with the Bloomsbury Group.

Country Bookshelf in Bozeman, Mont., hosted native son and former United States ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul (author of From Cold War to Hot Peace: An American Ambassador in Putin's Russia) for a standing-room-only reading and signing. McFaul spoke about the history of international relations between Russia and the U.S. since the Cold War, and his experiences as an adviser to President Barack Obama and as ambassador to Russia from 2012 to 2014. (Photo: Tim Crawford)

Bookshop Santa Cruz in Santa Cruz, Calif., has helped launch AWE: The Alliance of Women Entrepreneurs, a community organization that promotes and supports downtown businesses in Santa Cruz that are owned or managed by women.

AWE was created in partnership with the Santa Cruz Downtown Association and the city's Economic Development Office. The organization has already conducted interviews with and taken documentary photos of 30 women business leaders in Santa Cruz and used those interviews and photos to create posters for participating businesses to put in their front windows.

According to owner Casey Coonerty Protti, multiple stores have dedicated their front windows to displays of not only their own posters but also posters highlighting other women-led businesses. Earlier this month, Bookshop Santa Cruz also created an AWE passport challenge, in which customers who visited 10 or more of the 25 participating stores had the chance to win gift certificates to those businesses. And a sold-out AWE launch event drew more than 120 women leaders.

The launch of AWE coincides with Women's Voices, a year-long program created by Bookshop Santa Cruz to "elevate the voice of female-identifying authors." Each month, the store chooses a community read focused on a topic important to women; this month the topic was women and entrepreneurship, and the pick was the newly launched magazine Good Company: Where Creativity Meets Business.

Protti reported that the response to AWE from both participating businesses and the community at large has been "overwhelming."

R.O. Kwon, whose debut novel The Incendiaries will be released by Riverhead July 31, tweeted yesterday: "Several people have asked if it's possible to preorder a book through a website other than Amazon, and YES, it's very possible! If you go to http://indiebound.org, you can look up your closest indie bookstore, and, as far as I know, every bookstore takes preorders."

Posted on Facebook yesterday by Dudley's Bookshop Café, Bend, Ore.: "Major props to Jason Chinchen for the new beetle-kill/blue pine shelves at the top of our stairs. Nice work!"

At Random House Group:

Quinne Rogers is promoted to director of marketing, Ballantine Bantam Dell. She has been with the company for nine years.

Barbara Fillon has been named v-p, director of marketing, media coaching, Random House. She was formerly v-p, deputy director, publicity, media training.

Andrea Dewerd is promoted to associate director of marketing for the Random House, The Dial Press, Modern Library, One World, and Spiegel & Grau imprints.

Jess Bonet has been promoted to marketing manager, Random House.

Erika Seyfried will lead the newly formed Content Services team for the group as director, content services.

Danielle Siess is joining the Content Services team as manager, creative content, with a focus on video and visuals for social media and design.

Kesley Tiffey has been named senior manager, consumer insights, working with all departments in the division, focusing on translating trends and consumer insights to drive data-driven business strategies and programs.

Today:
Fresh Air repeat: Stephen King on the occasion of HULU's new series Castle Rock, based on his characters and themes.

Shirley Jackson's classic short story "The Lottery" will be adapted as a film by a producing team led by Kennedy/Marshall at Paramount Pictures, Deadline reported. Jake Wade Wall (The Hitcher) is writing the screenplay and Jackson's son Laurence Hyman (who runs the estate) is an executive producer on the project. Frank Marshall (Jurassic Park: Fallen Kingdom, Sully) will produce along with Zero Gravity's Christine Holder, Andrew Wilson and Mark Holder.

"I liked what Jake was doing in developing it and bringing up to the present day. It has a dystopian, Handmaid's Tale feel about it, which makes it very timely," Marshall said. "And, it has a great twist at the end."

Deadline noted that the story "has been adapted many times, first in 1951 for radio and subsequently for stage, and most recently, in 1996 in an NBC telefilm which starred Keri Russell."

Vermont College of Fine Arts has announced finalists for the $5,000 Vermont Book Award, which "honors work of outstanding literary merit by Vermont authors and celebrates the long tradition of literature in the state." Books are nominated via a committee of the Independent Booksellers of Vermont, publishers and, in a first for the award this year, the public (Vermont readers). The winner will be named September 22 at the Vermont Book Award Gala. This year's finalists are:

The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden (fiction)
Breaking Bread: A Baker's Journey Home in 75 Recipes by Martin Philip (creative nonfiction)
Fasting and Feasting: The Life of Visionary Food Writer Patience Gray by Adam Federman (creative nonfiction)
Grand Canyon by Jason Chin (children's literature, picture book)
Girl Rising: Changing the World One Girl at a Time by Tanya Lee Stone (children's literature, YA)
Event Boundaries by April Ossmann (poetry)
Selected Delanty by Greg Delanty (poetry)

The morning after BookExpo last month, I strolled the High Line to the Whitney Museum of American Art. My annual ritual is to add music, art and/or theater to my post-show schedule as a biblio-palate cleanser, and wandering through the museum worked its non-book magic for a while. Then I reached a survey of Zoe Leonard's career, specifically her installation How to Make Good Pictures, featuring more than 1,000 copies of a Kodak manual, stacked by edition year--between 1912 and 1995--and almost mirroring the New Jersey skyline across the Hudson River. I walked around the piece, taking pictures with my iPhone--a technique not mentioned in Kodak's manual. I tried to focus on the art, but started thinking about books again. Damn!

To be more specific, I pictured piles of overstocks, hurts and remainders. For a few years around the turn of the century, I was a bargain books buyer at an indie bookstore. I ordered from sales reps; I went to CIROBE; I bought large at BookExpo; I even did the occasional warehouse buy. Being reminded of those days by a Whitney exhibition was unexpected, though I adapted quickly, knowing the time would come to recall this moment when I did eventually write about bargain books.

Brad Jonas, Douglas Kopsco, Alyson Turner, Janet Turner, Paul Secor, Crystal Reyes

That time is now. During BookExpo, the Midtown Stage featured a session titled "Raise Your Profits with Remainders." Crystal Reyes of Texas Bookman served as moderator for panelists Brad Jonas of Powell's Books Wholesale in Chicago (and CIROBE's co-founder); Paul Secor, buyer at the Strand in New York City; Douglas Kopsco, buyer for the Metropolitan Museum of Art; and Alyson Turner & Janet Jones of Source Booksellers in Detroit, Mich.

"We all have very different retail environments that we work in," Reyes said in her introductory remarks. "I think we all have one thing in common, which is not only our love of books but particularly our love of remainder books."

"For me, I think the term is bargain books rather than remainder books," Jonas said, adding: "One of the things we were talking about beforehand is that the words don't sound very good. We need to come up with better terms. Because 'hurts' sounds bad, but there's nothing wrong with the book. Remainders sounds like it's a leftover, but there's nothing wrong with the book.... These are books that you can pick that are special for you but not all of your clients will see at the store next door."

Kopsco noted that most of what is ordered for the Met Store "as a remainder we've already had at full price, so we have an idea--this did well for us at full price, and now it's great to be able to bring it in for a whole new audience who couldn't afford the book at $50 but they can afford it at $24.98.... You can display it in a whole different way. Instead of ordering five copies at a time, you're ordering 30 copies at a time. You can make a stack and put a spotlight on it. Obviously, the margin is great. The high sales are great. But it's also nice that you're giving the customer a bargain. So that makes them happy."

For Source Booksellers, "remainders really allow us a broad base of books in the store," Janet Turner said. "We are a niche market bookstore because we sell primarily nonfiction books.... We have a nice mix and spread of books, but when we buy the remainders we can really go deeper into any of our categories.... We never know what people's interests are."

Jonas countered a recent theory that the bargain book supply chain may be drying up as publishers become more focused on tight print runs: "We've been afraid of this for years and years and years. It still seems there's a lot of books out there in a lot of different warehouses. So, it changes. And sometimes it's different sorts of things. One season it's all cookbooks and the next season it's all kids' books and the next season it's all art books. But I don't think anyone's so smart they've got the numbers dialed in."

At the end of the session, the panelists were asked for some words of wisdom:

Jonas: "Remainders give you great opportunity to experiment on books that you just personally love. Maybe they don't sell immediately, but you're not paying a lot for the investment and often the investment comes back and helps you out."

Kopsco: "If you're not already buying remainders, you should. Just don't buy the stock that I want."

Alyson Turner: "Bookstores need lots of books and customers need lots of price points."

Janet Turner: "I'd say don't be afraid. Jump on in. Try it out, and if it works well, good. If it doesn't, try again."

Secor: "Fred Bass would always say, 'Show me a buyer who doesn't make mistakes and I'll show you a bad buyer.' You have to take chances as a buyer. You have to go beyond what's just in front of you and what you know. You have to experiment. Remainders are a very good way to do that."

From any perspective, there's an art to acquiring bargain books. Don't bother to search for Kodak's How to Make Good Pictures, though. I suspect Zoe Leonard has nabbed them all by now.