Private equity firm Pacific Equity Partners, which owns the bookselling group A&R
Whitcoulls, with stores in Australia and New Zealand, has made a final offer for Borders Group's
Australian and New Zealand operations for A$100 million (about US$92
million), Reuters reported. Dymocks, the Australian bookselling company, has apparently withdrawn from the bidding.
In the meantime, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is
expected to make a ruling on December 5 on a possible purchase by
Pacific Equity Partners or Dymocks.
---
Cool idea of the day. Concerning the Writers Guild of America
strike, which begins today and affects TV and movie production, SIBA's
Nicki Leone writes, "Hey wait. We
could maybe, you know, READ A BOOK INSTEAD!"
---
That'll teach him.
Well, maybe not.
Only 1,729 purchasers of A Million Little Pieces by James Frey have sought a refund under terms of a class-action lawsuit, according to the AP. A judge has approved a deal for reimbursing readers who bought the book before it was revealed that A Million Little Pieces, sold as a memoir, had stretched the truth.
Random House had set aside $2.35 million to settle the case. The purchasers of the book who have
made claims receive a total of $27,348. On the other hand, lawyers will
take $738,000 in fees. Random is paying $432,000 in advertising and
settlement costs, and $180,000 goes to the American Red Cross, the
Hazelden addiction treatment center and First Book.
A lawyer involved in the suit told the AP that such class-action suits
usually draw 20% of those eligible; in this case, the amount was 7.2%.
---
The New England Independent Booksellers Association has
made two more grants to help booksellers "shift consumer culture toward
supporting locally-owned businesses," and especially to help developing
or established local independent business alliances.
Bunch of Grapes Bookstore, Vineyard Haven, Mass., has been granted $750
to be applied to a Shop Local Martha's Vineyard marketing campaign that
involves the Tisbury Business Association (and Edgartown Books) and
will take place during the upcoming holiday season.
NEIBA has granted $2,500 to Books Etc, Portland, Me., and Rabelais,
Portland, Me., through the Portland Independent Business Community
Alliance to support the Portland Retail Diversity
Study. The study, modeled after three economic impact studies conducted by
Civic Economics in Chicago, San Francisco and Austin, Tex., will be
the first such study in New England and should be completed next
September.
Since June, NEIBA has awarded six grants totaling $11,250. The
association is accepting new grant applications. For more information,
go to newenglandbooks.org/neiba_grants.html.
---
Books-A-Million
has opened its new 15,500-sq.-ft. store in Fultondale, Ala., near
Birmingham. The store is in the Colonial Promenade Fultondale at 3429
Lowery Parkway, a new development (Shelf Awareness, March 26, 2007).
---
"I'd like to say thanks to everybody who used to shop at
the store, and so long, folks," Ted Tafejian, the 80-year-old owner of
Ted's Used Books & Collectibles, Santa Barbara, Calif., told the Santa Barbara Independent. He is closing the bookshop after more than three decades in business.
---
In
Prague, the Franz Kafka Society honored French poet Yves Bonnefoy with
the Franz Kafka Prize, given annually to "authors whose works of
exceptional artistic qualities are found to appeal to readers
regardless of their origin, nationality and culture."
The Guardian called Bonnefoy, 84, "one of the most influential French
poets of the second half of the 20th century. He is also a respected
essayist and the pre-eminent French translator of the work of William
Shakespeare."
---
Irish indie booksellers are optimistic
and convinced they are effectively countering the global trend toward
online and superstore book retailing, according to an article in the Independent,
which wrote, "Given the heavy clouds hanging over the industry,
it comes as a surprise when John Butler, chairman of Ireland's
booksellers group, says independent traders are 'happy with business
this year.'"
Butler contends that even in the face of increased
competition, savvy booksellers will prevail: "It's true that
independent book sellers have to improve their own game to survive, but
inefficient retailers won't survive very long in any game. If sellers
are willing to compete and be customer orientated then there will
always be a market in Ireland."
---
Who gets custody of Richard & Judy's books? The Telegraph
reported that British television's most famous bookselling couple will
terminate their on-screen partnership of two decades next year. Richard
Madeley and Judy Finnegan created their influential Book Club in 2004
as part of their popular daytime program. It is now "thought to be the
single most important sales window for U.K. authors, responsible for
selling more books than the country's literary prizes put together. . .
. In its first year alone, it was responsible for one in 50 of all book
sales, according to the Bookseller."
---
No working overtime for Harry. AFP reported that Greece's four main bookstores were forced to cancel plans for a midnight launch of the Greek-language edition of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows after
"the association of Greek private employees (OIYE) complained that 'the
right of staff to go home on time' was compromised by the nocturnal
Potter launch which it said was as an 'illegal and immoral act' on the
part of bookstores."
---
Lucretia Voight decided to open Brant Point Books, Nantucket, Mass., because she "had often heard
people ask about used book stores on the island when she worked at
Nantucket Bookworks for two years," according to the Inquirer & Mirror.
"I've
always wanted to have a bookstore," Voight said, "and I knew there were
already two good new book stores on the island so I figured this would
be my niche and I figured that's what the community needed."
---
The Ohio Book Store, Cincinnati, Ohio, "has it all," according to the Enquirer, which featured a profile of owner Jim Fallon and the bookshop that has been in business since 1940.
That Kirin Narayan had decided to write a memoir came as no surprise to her mother. As a 10-year-old, she had promised (or perhaps threatened) to write about her unusual family and a childhood that was, by any standard, unconventional. Fortunately for that family, Narayan has created a portrait of them that is realistic in its depiction of their flaws and foibles but generous and always loving.