Notes: S&S to Launch Video 'Channel'; Sarkozy, le Livre
Simon & Schuster is fast forwarding its author video program by
creating an Internet book channel called Bookvideos.tv that will be
hosted on YouTube.com and other video-sharing sites and will be
available for booksellers and others to use on their sites or to link
to, today's Wall Street Journal reported.
The videos will be about two minutes long and focus on new titles by
the authors; the first 40 feature Mary Higgins Clark, Zane and Sandra
Brown, among others.
S&S, which has made some author videos already, made the move to
help consumers find content they like. Sue Fleming, v-p, online and
consumer marketing, said, "The idea here is to create a bigger sliver
where they can find many authors in one place." S&S may eventually
add other publishers' videos to the stable.
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The New England Independent Booksellers Association will provide
grants of up to $2,500 to help member stores establish independent
business alliances. The first grants will be awarded before the end of
NEIBA's current fiscal year, June 30; the application deadline for the
first grants is May 31. Grants will be awarded twice a year and are
judged by the board of directors, which aims to be "as flexible as
possible."
The board will ask those receiving grants to report on how the grant
was used and results, with tips for other members seeking to form IBAs.
For more information, contact NEIBA executive director Steve Fischer at
steve@neba.org.
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Following the presidential elections in
France on Sunday, Pantheon Books plans an encore for the memoir of
winner Nicolas Sarkozy, Testimony: France in the Twenty-First Century
($24.95, 9780375425059), originally published here in March. Philip H.
Gordon, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institute, edited and
translated the book.
In Testimony, Pantheon says, Sarkozy "analyzes the difficulties
facing France--social tensions, inadequate education, high
unemployment. But far from drawing fatalistic conclusions, he
demonstrates that France does not suffer from an identity crisis but
from a crisis of political debate. He accuses French political figures,
sometimes harshly, of having deprived the public of their own say in
government, leading to pervasive suspicion of elites, the state, and
proper governance."
Plus ca change . . . ou non?
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Everything old is new again. Random House owner Bertelsmann is finding a profitable niche in former Soviet bloc countries with a new twist on a traditional bookselling model, the book club, "a category that's a slow- or no-growth proposition in the U.S. and Europe," Business Week reported.
Oleg Shpilman, CEO of the Ukrainian Family Leisure Book Club unit, said that a new distribution facility being built "will be able to ship 20 millions books a year."Already Family Leisure "moved 12 million books last year--everything from cookbooks to local potboilers to Stephen King thrillers--while sales grew 55%, to $50 million. Today, Bertelsmann is Ukraine's biggest bookseller, with 12% of the market. And the operation enjoys profit margins that are triple the 4% global average for similar Bertelsmann units, which include the Book-of-the-Month Club and Literary Guild in the U.S."
Former Soviet bloc countries like Russia, the Czech Republic and Poland have "well-educated populations hungry for a good read but relatively few bookstores where they can indulge their passion." Contrary to the prevailing opinion that book clubs appeal primarily to older customers, "nearly half the Family Leisure Club's 2 million members (in a nation of 47 million) are under 30. The secret: The Bertelsmann club recruits hot young Ukrainian authors and serves as their exclusive distributor, a smart strategy in a country with only about 300 bookstores."
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The Minnesota Women's Press profiled Carol Erdahl, co-owner with Michele Cromer-Poiré of the Red Balloon Bookshop in St. Paul since 1984. Erdahl said that, in the beginning, "It probably was better that we weren't friends. We were a 50-50 partnership instead. So many people say that you can't make a 50-50 partnership work. It always turns out to be 70-30 or 60-40. I think the people that say this are probably men. Women have a better way of relating to one another and doing business together. A business partnership is like a marriage. You're never going to agree on everything, but you compromise. You manage your commitment."
On surviving the challenges of running an independent bookstore, she said, "We manage. We're not losing money. We're probably not making as much as the big stores, but we do make a profit. But really, we do this because it feels like a mission--to get young children interested in reading."
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Billing the confrontation as a "battle for Banff's retail soul," the National Post reported that more than 400 people signed a letter on the front counter of the Banff Book and Art Den "imploring somebody to do something about 'box-style and national chain stores' in the community."
Plans to open IndigoSpirit, a scaled down--1,900 square feet--version of an Indigo Books & Music store, in Banff spurred Neil and Gabi Wedin, owners of Banff Book and Art Den, to ask the town council what they planned "to do to protect business owners from large, chain store competitors." Although Neil Wedin said he is concerned about the competition, he added that "at no point have we asked for (Indigo) to be banned or barred, or (their) licences refused. The whole issue has come up with this maybe being the example to start trying to find a balance."
The article implied that the battle for Banff 's retail soul might already have been compromised, if not lost: "Strolling the streets, among local fudge makers, souvenir stores and snowboard outfitters, you'll pass dozens of chain operations: The Gap, the Body Shop, McDonald's, Subway, lululemon, Roots, Starbucks and many more."
Brunch and Bullets, last Saturday's International Thriller Writers
fundraiser in Greenwich, Conn., drew, among others: (standing, from l.)
Peter Blauner; Larry Light; publisher and Silver Bullet Award winner
Tom Doherty; Silver Bullet Award recipient for the Greenwich Rotary
Club Jeff Webber; Silver Bullet Award recipient for Scholastic Books
Evan St. Lifer; Jim Fusilly; Steve Coonts; Doug Preston; Joe Finder; F.
Paul Wilson; Linc Child; Silver Bullet Award winner R.L. Stine; and
Michael Palmer (seated, from l.) Greenwich Title 1 program coordinator
Lorraine Gaito; Chris Grabenstein; Jon Land; Wendy Corsi Staub (with an
audience member and program participant); M.J. Rose; and Silver Bullet
Award winner Heather Graham.