Within an hour or two (knock on wood), you will receive another issue of Shelf Awareness--a special issue that focuses on a new publisher whose goal is to publish, market and sell books in new ways. We also check out its initial, intriguing list.
Warren Cassell, owner for many years of Just Books, Greenwich, Conn., and now happily retired in Portland, Ore., and working on his autobiography, writes about Friday's letter about wasteful publisher shipments:
Long ago, I often asked to get off Random House's poster distribution list. I never used posters, and some pretty expensive promotional material went directly into the dumpster upon receipt at the store. That request eventually was met. In addition, I once (or more?) sent a letter asking if it were possible to use Random House's digital power to create a database matching stores with their marketing/promotional needs so that Random--and perhaps others eventually--could send their targeted materials only to stores wanting them. If a store's preferences were for shelf talkers, bookmarks and brochures, please don't send it anything else. Such a system might not empty the landfills of the country, but it would at least slow down this time-honored traditional waste on the part of publishers. Perhaps the publishing community today might take note of this idea. This kind of waste should no longer be a part of the economic picture.
In a "Best of the New" feature, the Boston Globe Sunday Magazine praised Harvard Book Store's new owners Jeff Mayersohn and Linda Seamonson, saying that "Mayersohn, an Internet pioneer, Harvard grad, and insatiable book collector, is using his tech background to revamp the store's website and introduce other digital touches (he sent copies of authors' talks to special club subscribers on USB drives) while preserving the shop's indie spirit."
---
Cool Idea of the Day: Cheryl Owens, owner of Books Gallery, Sutherlin, Ore., created a business model that "has evolved with Owens' personal interests and customer recommendations into a one-stop emporium for cerebral, bodily and epicurean interests," according to the News-Review, which reported, "Among the 40,000 books stacked on shelves, with the farmers market a dozen steps away and the organic coffee and tea counter on the other side of the partition, Cheryl Owens therapeutically massages clients."
Of her bookselling life, Owens said, "I feel like I'm doing what I was supposed to be doing for so many years." The addition of a massage therapy license added to her customer base: "I didn't have to go out and drum up business," she said. The News-Review observed that "the bookstore and word-of-mouth marketing has helped grow that second part of the enterprise."
---
Book World, West Caldwell, N.J., will close at the end of the month. The Progress reported that Seth Austin, who has owned the 44-year-old book, card, and gift shop since 2005, could not keep pace with increased expenses, especially his rent.
"Volume of business has declined, especially in the last year," said Austin. "It's very unfortunate and we feel badly about it. But we cannot do it any longer. We just can't pay our bills.”
---
This morning at 7:45 a.m. Mountain Time (9:45 a.m. EST) online visitors will be able to view a free, live webcast of the Newbery, Caldecott and other awards for the top books and media for children and young adults, during the ALA Midwinter Meeting, currently being held in Denver. The webcast is hosted by Unikron, a streaming content provider, and can be found at unikron.com/clients/ala-webcast-2009. The number of available connections for the webcast will be limited and available on a first-come, first-served basis.
ALA also will instantly announce the winners via Twitter at http://twitter.com/ALAyma--either through ALA's Twitter page, RSS, SMS text messaging (if enabled) or social networking sites such as Facebook, with the Twitter add-on, as well as on Facebook, at facebook.com/pages/ALA-Youth-Media-Awards/43002248757#. Featuring the RSS feed from the Youth Media Awards Twitter site, the page also has videos, photos and information about the awards.
---
This coming Sunday, February 1, Laurie R. King is launching Fifteen Weeks of Bees to commemorate the 15th anniversary of The Beekeeper's Apprentice, her first Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes novel (named one of the Independent Mystery Booksellers' Association's 100 Favorite Mysteries of the 20th Century).
Two events adding to the buzz are taking place in the coming months: the publication of the ninth book in the series, The Language of Bees, on April 28, and the 150th birthday of Sherlock Holmes creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle on May 22.
Plans include free downloads of The Beekeeper's Apprentice, donations to Heifer International's beehive project, which benefits poor communities around the world, weekly posts from "Mary Russell" on her MySpace page, contests and more. Visit LaurieRKing.com for a complete list of events.
---
The Independent Booksellers of New York City has posted its first monthly list of 25 events happening at (or in partnership with) an independent bookstore in New York City between January 25 and February 25. The events include music, theater, literature and more; check them out here.
---
'Roid Rage may be waning for book publishers. The New York Times reported that a 58-page proposal for The McGwire Family Secret: The Truth About Steroids, a Slugger and Ultimate Redemption, a "tell-all book" by the brother of former baseball slugger Mark McGwire, is not attracting much interest from New York publishers. The Times observed that there "is evidence that a broader sense of steroid weariness is setting in among book-buyers, after some early successes."
"The whole steroid thing has been done," said Frank Sanchez, head buyer at Kepler's Books and Magazines, Menlo Park, Calif. "There have been so many articles in local papers and magazines, so people feel like they've already read about that and they just don't care anymore."
This morning on the Today Show: Jimmy Carter, author of We Can Have Peace in the Holy Land: A Plan That Will Work (Simon & Schuster, $27, 9781439140635/1439140634). The former president will also appear today on Charlie Rose, the Daily Show with Jon Stewart and Larry King Live and tomorrow on Morning Edition and Fresh Air.
---
Today on the Diane Rehm Show: Bryan Burroughs, author of The Big Rich: The Rise and Fall of the Greatest Texas Oil Fortunes (Penguin Press, $29.95, 9781594201998/1594201994).
---
Tonight on the Colbert Report: Chris Mooney, author of The Republican War on Science (Basic Books, $14.95, 9780465046768/0465046762).
---
Tomorrow morning on Good Morning America: Tony Dungy, author of Uncommon: Finding Your Path to Significance (Tyndale House, $24.99, 9781414326818/1414326815).
---
Tomorrow on the Diane Rehm Show: David Denby, author of Snark (Simon & Schuster, $15.95, 9781416599456/1416599452).
---
Tomorrow on WNYC's Leonard Lopate Show: Nobel-winner Muhammad Yunus, author of Creating a World Without Poverty: Social Business and the Future of Capitalism (PublicAffairs, $14.95, 9781586486679/1586486675).
---
Tomorrow on Fox News O'Reilly Factor: Andrea Peyser, author of Celebutards (Citadel/Kensington, $22.95, 9780806531090/0806531096).
---
Tomorrow night on the Colbert Report: Steven Johnson, author of The Invention of Air (Riverhead, $25.95, 9781594488528/1594488525).
---
Tomorrow night on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart: Gwen Ifill, author of The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama (Doubleday, $24.95, 9780385525015/038552501X).
Slumdog Millionaire, adapted from Vikas Swarup's novel Q&A, won the Screen Actors Guild's top prize for ensemble cast. Variety reported that "the awards season's feel-good favorite picked up serious momentum" with this latest honor.
Other book adaptations coming up SAG winners were The Reader, based upon Bernhard Schlink's novel, which won the award for best supporting actress (Kate Winslet); and HBO's John Adams, based on the book by David McCullough, which earned prizes for best actor (Paul Giamatti) and actress (Laura Linney) in a television movie or miniseries.
---
The Sundance Film Festival honored Push: Based on the Novel by Sapphire with three major awards--the Grand Jury Prize: U.S. Dramatic, the Audience Award: U.S. Dramatic and a Special Jury Prize for Acting (Mo'Nique).
Variety noted that "director Lee Daniels' unflinching look at the parental abuse and self-redemption of a teenage girl in 1980s Harlem was the big winner" at the annual festival. U.S. dramatic competition jurors were Virginia Madsen, Scott McGehee, Maud Nadler, Mike White and Boaz Yakin.
Finalists for the National Book Critics Circle Awards were unveiled at Housing Works Bookstore Café, New York, N.Y., on Saturday. Book winners will be announced in New York on Thursday, March 12, at a ceremony held at the New School. For more information, see NBCC's Critical Mass blog.
The PEN American Center was named this year's winner of the Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award, while Ron Charles received the Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing.
NBCC Award finalists:
Fiction
Criticism
From last week's Indie bestseller lists, available at IndieBound.org, here are the recommended titles, which are also Indie Next picks:
Hardcover
Daemon by Daniel Suarez (Dutton, $26.95, 9780525951117/0525951113). "Daemon is a terrifying thriller about rogue technology by an author who really knows his tech. You'll never watch someone playing an Internet game again without wondering what real-world consequences their online actions might be having."--Caleb Wilson, Pages for All Ages Bookstore, Savoy, Ill.
Home Outside: Creating the Landscape You Love by Julie Moir Messervy (Taunton, $30, 9781600850080/1600850081). "Since I can't get landscape and garden designer Julie Moir Messervy to come overhaul my house, this great guide is the next best thing."--Diana Portwood, Bob's Beach Books, Lincoln City, Ore.
Paperback
Tinkers by Paul Harding (Bellevue Literary Press, $14.95, 9781934137123/193413712X). "This debut novel is a slim treasure that, through the lives of a New England father and his son, quietly takes on nothing less than the measure of a life and the sublime and fearful notes that make it up. Harding lifts the face off small moments in quiet lives with a language both heartbreaking and exhilarating."--Ty Wilson, Copperfield's Books, Sebastopol, Caif.
For Ages 9 to 12
The Adventurous Deeds of Deadwood Jones by Helen Hemphill (Front Street, $16.95, 9781590786376/1590786378). "A rip-roaring good time that is as fresh as it is nostalgic. This story of a young man searching for his father, a slave who was sold away from his family, opens a window into America's past that most folks haven't yet peered into!"--Simone Bratcher, Bookin' It, Little Falls, Minn.
[Many thanks to IndieBound and the ABA!]
Waiting for the Apocalypse: A Memoir of Faith and Family by Veronica Chater (W. W. Norton & Company, $23.95 Hardcover, 9780393066036, February 2009)
In 1972, when Chater was 10 years old, her father's resentment of Vatican II reforms reached a boiling point when he was unable to find a church anywhere in the vicinity of their Northern California home that still offered a Latin mass along with other traditional rituals he considered vital to the integrity of the faith. Chief among his concerns was that the modernization of the Church was leading to the Holy Chastisement, the apocalypse prophesied by the vision of Our Lady of Fatima. Chater (the second of 11 children) was so versed in this notion that on one particularly windy afternoon, she was convinced the day of reckoning had arrived. A CHP officer who was adored by his wife and children, Chater's father abruptly quit his job and moved the entire family to Portugal, where he was sure the true faith was still practiced. Predictably the move turned out to be a disaster. Not only were the Portuguese churches even more liberal than those at home, but the family was pushed into poverty. Chater's father moved them back to California, but became increasingly fanatic, forming a group dedicated to the "Catholic counter-revolution," meeting for traditional mass in warehouses, garages and basements and sending two of Chater's brothers to a cultish Brazilian "seminary." All the while, Chater's practical but dutiful mother soldiered on, never gainsaying her husband. By the time Chater was 16, her home life had become untenable. The nadir was reached when, upon discovering that Chater and her older sister were sexually active, their father kicked them out of the house, forcing Chater to spend three nights sleeping in a park.
