Beat the Bookstore, the bookstore chain that buys and sells used textbooks and has approximately 25 stores near college campuses, is having problems close to home, according to the Daily Utah Chronicle, which is the student newspaper at the University of Utah.
Two Salt Lake City Beat the Bookstores, which has headquarters in West Valley City, Utah, closed suddenly in the past several months and left some students owed credits. The stores were near the University of Utah and Salt Lake Community College.
In addition, David Monk, co-founder and president of Beat the Bookstore, will resign in February, the paper said.
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M Coy Books, Seattle, Wash., will close at "the end of February," according to the Seattle Times.
In an open letter to friends and customers, owners Michael Brasky and
Michael Coy wrote, "The economic struggle of keeping a small
independent bookstore afloat in today's retail environment has become
virtually impossible. For the first sixteen years of our business, we
were blessed with an exceptional landlord, who made it possible for us
to weather some incredibly tough times. Times change and our new
landlord has different priorities."
According to Coy, "This is a
business of musical chairs--and they just keep pulling them away. There
are just fewer jobs [in the publishing industry] every time you turn
around."
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Bookbug children's bookstore, Kalamazoo, Mich., will open next month, but Family Talk Magazine got a head start by interviewing co-owners Nicole Butz and Joanna Parzakonis.
"There's
a certain segment of society, and this is supported by market research,
which is looking to get away from the mall and the big box experience,"
said Butz. "They want a place where you get to go and feel like you're
part of a community, where the people are going to know what your kid
has read, what they like to read and can make meaningful suggestions
about what they might enjoy next. I've never gotten that with a large
bookstore chain."
The store plans to downplay
commercially-licensed character books. "For my own children, I try to
limit their exposure to the commercialistic aspects of stories," Butz
noted. "Just as I choose good literature for myself, I try to choose
that for my kids. It's something I feel fairly strongly about, and I
think a business like this is an extension of yourself and should
reflect your values."
Bookbug is located at Oakwood Plaza, Oakland & Whites Road, Kalamazoo, Mich. 49008; bookbugkids.com.
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Nominees for the Romantic Times Career Achievement and Reviewers' Choice Awards have been selected and are available online. Winners will be announced in the June issue of the magazine, just before the 25th annual Booklovers Convention, to be held April 16-20 in Pittsburgh, Pa. Winners will be honored at a luncheon there on Friday, April 18.
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Michael Kesend, president of Michael Kesend Publishing for more than 20 years, died on December 18 of cancer.
Michael Kesend Publishing emphasized literary and general nonfiction, including such titles as Sleep Has His House by Anna Kavan, The Care of the Wild, Feathered and Furred by Mae Hickman and The Essential Guide to Hiking in the United States by Charles Cook.
Franklin Dennis, book publicist, remembered Kesend as "an ever-inquisitive and very cosmopolitan person and publisher. Before starting his publishing business, he lived in Greece, traveling widely in the Middle East. The range of books he published reflected his openness to and curiosity about the world at large. He published his passions."
Bruce Miller of Miller Trade Book Marketing wrote: "I remember having lunch with Michael at an Italian restaurant in Manhattan during which he described the unpleasantness and bare-knuckle tactics employed by ambitious people in the real estate business and what a pleasure it was to leave that realm with enough money to start publishing books. I gave him a rather long short story I had written because it was set in New York City and I valued his opinion. He actually read it and liked it. He was a warm person, but he was also someone who would tell you what he really thought."
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William Sheluck, Jr., a member of Barnes & Noble's board of directors since the company's IPO in 1993, died on December 29. B&N's lead independent director, he served on the audit committee and was co-chair of the corporate governance and nominating committee. He was a retired president and CEO of Nationar, a chartered private commercial bank. B&N said that it has made no decision yet about a replacement for Sheluck.
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Karen Adler has joined Independent Publishers Group as educational sales representative and manages IPG's sales into the educational market, including catalog companies, classroom sales organizations, school supply accounts and educational wholesalers. Earlier she was a buyer for Scholastic Book Fairs and Books Are Fun and was an elementary school teacher and assistant principal.