Shelf Awareness for Wednesday, February 6, 2008


William Morrow & Company: Horror Movie by Paul Tremblay

Del Rey Books: Lady Macbeth by Ava Reid

Peachtree Teen: Romantic YA Novels Coming Soon From Peachtree Teen!

Watkins Publishing: She Fights Back: Using Self-Defence Psychology to Reclaim Your Power by Joanna Ziobronowicz

Dial Press: Whoever You Are, Honey by Olivia Gatwood

Pantheon Books: The Volcano Daughters by Gina María Balibrera

Peachtree Publishers: Leo and the Pink Marker by Mariyka Foster

Wednesday Books: Castle of the Cursed by Romina Garber

News

Notes: B&N Slides on Downgrade; Book Burnings and Readings

On a day the Dow Jones Industrials fell 2.9%, Barnes & Noble shares closed at $29.49, down 10.7% on double the usual trading volume after J.P. Morgan downgraded the stock to "neutral" from "overweight." Analyst Charles Grom wrote that the bookseller's "disappointing holiday comparison was surprising and suggested to us that no retailer is 100% immune from today's recessionary backdrop . . . we think it's likely that Barnes & Noble could run negative same-store sales in 2008."

Grom suggested that sales will be hurt this year because during competitive national elections like the current one, consumers pay more attention to news and the debates and less time in bookstores. Also he said Borders has been discounting titles more, which may lead B&N to cut prices.

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One of our favorite bookseller-writers Karl Pohrt, owner of the Shaman Drum, Ann Arbor, Mich., had a strong reaction to a discussion about the future of the book--and the bookstore. Read it at myspace.com/shamandrum.

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What have you changed your mind about? The Kansas City Star "hung out" at Prospero's Books, Kansas City, Mo., and asked 10 people this provocative question. The article noted that "the bookstore's owners also changed their minds, at least temporarily, about book-burning. Last fall they used that extreme tactic to protest a decline in reading, arguing--as the old saying goes--that the only thing worse than burning a book is not reading one."

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Susan Reiheld, a longtime Random House rep in the Bay Area, died on January 28. Today would have been her 65th birthday.

As the San Francisco Chronicle noted, she "will be greatly missed by her family, as well as by the Bay Area bookselling community whom she worked with, laughed with and loved for 40 years. She was a fierce advocate for fledgling authors and independent booksellers. Susan will be remembered for her unwavering love for her family, her passion for books, her devotion to her friends, her courageous spirit, and her irreverent sense of humor."

In her honor, Random House will underwrite a Susan Reiheld Scholarship to the ABA's Winter Institute for a Northern California Independent Bookseller Association member.

Condolence messages may be sent to the Reiheld family, including her husband, Rich Reiheld; son, Zach; and stepdaughters, Sophie Abbott-Hall and Polly Reiheld, at 2615 Western Ave., Petaluma, Calif. 94952.

Contributions may be made in Reiheld's name to: Gilda's Club (Gilda Radner was a friend) or the Ceres Community Family Project, a food coop that provides organic nutrition to cancer patients and employs troubled teens.

A memorial service is being planned in March.

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Effective February 19, Cassie Dendurent Nelson joins Basic Books publicity as assistant director of publicity. She has worked for more than 10 years at John Wiley & Sons, Walker & Company and the Free Press. 

 

 


Now Streaming on Paramount+ with SHOWTIME: A Gentleman in Moscow


Winter Institute: Independent Retailing

Concerning the buy local movement, "the world in 2008 is a lot different from five to 10 years ago," ABA COO Oren Teicher said at the Independent Retailing session. "There is a growing recognition among American consumers that there is a difference in locally owned businesses and what they can mean. This movement is resonating and growing and becoming a real shaper of the way consumers are making decisions about where to buy."

Carla Jimenez of Inkwood Books, Tampa, Fla., outlined the history of the Tampa Independent Business Alliance, which showed, she said, that even with "a minimum organization and budget and a few people, you can still have an impact." The essential ingredient for success is passion, she added.

The Tampa buy local group started in 2001 and grew rapidly, its organizational structure going from "simple to fairly complicated to simple again." At one point, the group had a nine-member board with four committees. "There was a lot of excitement, but it was the same six or seven people who dedicated their time to this," Jimenez said. Now the group has a five-member board and 150 members. No one in the organization receives a salary except for a student intern. Jimenez has been president but is stepping down.

The Alliance has tried to keep its mission simple: "to raise the consciousness of about the contributions of locally owned businesses," as Jimenez put it. The group has found it "important that every member can articulate its mission in five sentences."

The group celebrates independents week, America Unchained day in November and has an indie fair at a member store. These events lead to live TV and radio and other press coverage. Jimenez added that it's "important to be linked on a national level"--in her case, with AMIBA (the American Independent Business Alliance) and the ABA.

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Clark Kepler, owner of Kepler's Books & Magazines, Menlo Park, Calif., started off by saying, "I'm here because I went out of business two years ago." (Kepler's closed for two months in 2005 but reopened after an outpouring of community support.) As a result of the store's "death and rebirth," Kepler saw an opportunity "to be more involved in our community." In the past year, he helped found Hometown Peninsula Independent Business Alliance, which has 60 members. The group has five active board members and is in "a fledgling startup phase," as Kepler put it, focusing on expanding and "educating the members."

At monthly general meetings, the group tries to have presenters with programs that are "interesting and fun and attract people." The alliance is also working on a brochure and created an insert for a local paper that provided information about Hometown Peninsula and the value of shopping locally. The group hopes to hire a part-time employee soon. Hometown Peninsula has talked with Menlo College about participating in its entrepreneurial curriculum as part of an independent business series and have some student interns work on the group's programs.

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Betsy Burton, owner of the King's English, Salt Lake City, Utah, discussed Buy Local First Utah. Because Salt Lake City is "weird, but not as weird as Austin," in a conservative state, the group wanted to have a state-wide focus so that it would not be seen as a "representative of a bastion of liberalism," she said. "We wanted to appeal to the whole state." The key to the alliance's effectiveness, she said: "We don't want to be seen as advocates but as educators about the importance of local businesses to the community."

The group has made it easy for businesses to join and requires that they be 51% locally owned and that 100% of business decisions be made locally. There are almost 1,500 members, and the group aims to have 2,000 by the end of the year.

Buy Local First Utah has two annual campaigns and "a raft of events." It features business profiles on its website and has published 30,000 copies of a state business directory.

The group works closely with the Utah and local governments. "We devise ways to make local governments think they can't live without us," Burton said. In many cases, the group is "a line item on county and city budgets."

The alliance receives corporate grants, government loans and grants for development and tourism as well as community investment program grants from banks, something the banks are required to do.

Burton recommended that local business groups have someone on the board who understands how governments work and how to "get money out of corporations." The executive director should excel at public relations and fundraising as well as have "an arsenal of innovative ideas."

She added, "Keep the message positive. Don't attack chains."

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Steve Bercu, owner of BookPeople, Austin, Tex., offered the perspective of the man who as president of the Austin Independent Business Alliance, better known for its wonderful slogan, Keep Austin Weird, more than anyone else is responsible for the popularity of buy local movements and local business alliances among booksellers.

Bercu counseled that buy local associations require a "fair time commitment to start with." In his case, as president of Keep Austin Weird, he worked on association matters about 10 hours a week for the first five or six years and is now putting in about five hours a week.

He said he is often asked by other retailers if a buy local campaign is "worth it." First off, "staying in business is worth it for me," he said. Also "it's the greatest p.r. media circus I've ever fallen into." The media usually approaches Bercu for comment on many issues. "Several times a week TV comes to BookPeople to film me pontificating," he said. "I always stand in front of the BookPeople sign and wear a BookPeople lanyard." He estimates that he has received $100,000 worth of free advertising in the last few years. In addition, the popular Keep Austin Weird bumper stickers mention BookPeople. "Is it worth it?" Bercu asked, then answered: "Hell yeah!"

Another benefit of such movements is that "businesses in the alliance tend to support each other," Bercu said. "It's not a requirement that members do so, but we certainly hope they would."

Keep Austin Weird now has 650 business members, which together have about 6,000 employees. "We say we are the fifth-largest employer in Austin," Bercu said.

The group has a monthly mixer/network and works with the city's small business development office on programming for quarterly luncheons.

Like Burton, Bercu recommended that local business groups focus on supporting locally owned businesses and not be aligned with political parties. Such an approach "renders us out of the firing line," he added.

"The ramifications of this movement are very big," he continued. "The movement is happening, whether we want it to or not. It's important to be at the center of it."--John Mutter

 


GLOW: Greystone Books: brother. do. you. love. me. by Manni Coe, illustrated by Reuben Coe


Media and Movies

Movies: Jumper to Pounce on Valentine's Day

Jumper, based on the novel by Steven Gould, opens on Thursday, February 14. Hayden Christensen stars as a boy with the ability to teleport. Doug Liman (The Bourne Identity) directs. The movie tie-in edition Jumper: Griffin's Story (Tor, $7.99, 9780765357854/0765357852) is available now along with the original novel, Jumper (Tor, $7.99, 9780765357694/0765357690).

 


BINC: Apply Now to The Susan Kamil Scholarship for Emerging Writers!


Media Heat: Does This Clutter Make My Butt Look Fat?

Tonight on Charlie Rose: Alice Waters whose most recent book is The Art of Simple Food: Notes, Lessons, and Recipes from a Delicious Revolution (Clarkson Potter, $35, 9780307336798/0307336794).

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Tomorrow on NPR's Talk of the Nation: Larry Smith, author of Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure (Harper Perennial, $12, 9780061374050/0061374059).

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Tomorrow on the Diane Rehm Show: Pope Brock, author of Charlatan: America's Most Dangerous Huckster, the Man Who Pursued Him, and the Age of Flimflam (Crown, $24.95, 9780307339881/0307339882).

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Tomorrow on KCRW's Bookworm: Oliver Sacks, author of Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain (Knopf, $26, 9781400040810/1400040817). As the show put it: "Oliver Sacks explores the brain's affinity for music by examining the extraordinary ways our brains adapt in response to musical aberrations. Sack's wisdom and deep love of music are palpable in this vibrant conversation."

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Tomorrow on Oprah: Bob Greene, author of The Best Life Diet (S&S, $15, 9781416540694/1416540695). He appears tomorrow on the Rachael Ray Show, too.

Also on Oprah: clutter expert Peter Walsh, author of Does This Clutter Make My Butt Look Fat?: An Easy Plan for Losing Weight and Living More (Free Press, $25, 9781416560166/1416560165).

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A new TV series based on Lipstick Jungle by Candace Bushnell (Hyperion, $7.99, 9780786893966/0786893966) premieres tomorrow night on NBC.

 


The Bestsellers

AbeBooks.com's Top 10 in January

The top 10 bestselling books on AbeBooks.com during January were:
 
1. The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren
2. The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
3. Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom
4. Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
5. The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey
6. The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century by Thomas Friedman
7. Worlds Together, Worlds Apart by Robert Tignor
8. Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson
9. Freak the Mighty by Rodman Philbrick
10. We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families by Philip Gourevitch

[Many thanks to AbeBooks.com!]

 



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