Notes: Barnes & Noble Will Do If I Did It
After initially just saying no to stocking If I Did It by O.J. Simpson in its stores, Barnes & Noble has reversed course and will offer the books, according to the AP.
The company cited customer demand for the switch. From the beginning,
B&N said it would sell the book on B&N.com, where it has been
ordered in advance in large quantities.
"We've been monitoring the pre-orders and customer requests and have
concluded that enough customers have expressed interest in buying the
book to warrant stocking it in our stores," B&N spokesperson Mary
Ellen Keating told the AP. "We do not intend to promote the book but we
will stock it in our stores because our customers are asking for it."
Beaufort Books is publishing If I Did It on September 13. The rights are mainly controlled by the family of the late Ron Goldman.
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Lawrence,
Kan., has a new bookstore/art gallery. Stephen Wootton recently opened Studio
Books, which focuses on used books about film and the arts. According
to the Lawrence Journal-World,
"After spending almost 10 years working at a used bookstore in Iowa
City, Wootton began his own business centered on Internet book
dealing." Now he has combined the best of both worlds. "In some ways,
the Internet harms the open book shop," he said. "In other ways, it
makes it even easier to get your books sold because you’re expanding
worldwide.
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The Eugene, Ore., Register-Guard
reported on the closing of the Book Store, which "began 32 years ago
when the Wilson family decided to diversify its army surplus store."
Dona Wilson, who has worked in the family business since she was five,
said, "I'm really quite torn, I'm at a turning point in my life:
Finding a real job out there, or exploring the possibility of opening
my own store, if I can find a location that's affordable."
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The fashion and style section of Sunday's New York Times
explored the subject of blog book tours, posting, er, writing, "In an
age of budget-conscious publishers and readers who are as likely to
discover books from a Google search as from browsing at a bookstore,
the blog book tour makes sense. Although a few high-profile authors
have had their books sent to bloggers--James Patterson recently
promoted a young-adult book this way--most of the authors are
lesser-known and less likely to be reviewed in the mainstream press."
Felicia Sullivan, senior online marketing manager of Collins, told the
paper, "If I had to choose, I'd rather have an author promote
themselves online. You can reach at least a few hundred people on a
blog, and save time, money and the fear of being a loser when no one
shows up to your reading."
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Mitchell
Kaplan, owner of Books & Books, Coral Gables, Fla., and Will
Peters, manager and buyer at Annie Bloom's Books, Portland, Ore., have
joined the board of directors of the American Booksellers Foundation
for Free Expression. Both will serve three-year terms and replace
Zachary Marcus of Maverick Media Projects in Shushan, N.Y., and Amy
Thomas of Pandora's Books in Berkeley, Calif.
Kaplan is immediate past president of the American Booksellers
Association and has been honored by the Florida and Miami chapters of
Amnesty International and the American Civil Liberties Union for his
human rights work.
Peters is a former president of the Pacific Northwest Booksellers
Association and the former chair of PNBA's Free Speech Committee.
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