Industry News

Cornerstone Books, a 3,000-square-foot bookstore/cafe in historic Salem, Massachusetts, celebrated its grand opening Wednesday with a visit from the town's mayor to cut the ribbon, an evening of live entertainment from the Squatcho Bondo Band of Gloucester, and food and drink for all.

The store, owned by Gilbert Pili, managed by his brother Erik, with old friend Dan Johnson doing the buying, has long been a gleam in Pili's eye. But for many months, Cornerstone's opening was bedeviled by impediments of all sorts.

Volvo did not violate Robinson-Patman Act, court declares

From Tuesday, February 28, through Thursday, March 2, booksellers and publishers will meet in New York City for the first in a planned series of focus groups organized by the American Booksellers Association on behalf of the participating publishers. The sessions have been developed as a means for publishers to meet with a cross section of ABA member booksellers to test new ideas and to garner bookseller feedback about existing programs.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Paperback Coming in July

On January 18, Scholastic announced that it will release the paperback edition of J.K. Rowling's sixth Harry Potter novel, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, on July 25, 2006. With a first printing of two million copies, the paperback version brings the total number of all six Harry Potter books in print in the U.S. to over 120 million. The paperback edition will be 672 page and will have a suggested retail price of $9.99.

Oprah Chooses New Book Club Selection

This past December provided two independent booksellers with a holiday bonus: Internet Retailer named Portland, Oregon's Powell's Books among the 50 best retailers online, and Forbes.com named Harvard Book Store in Cambridge, Massachusetts, as the Top Bookshop in its list of the "World's Top Shops 2005."

Harvard Book Store in Cambridge, Massachusetts

When it comes to advocating change in local politics, it's good to have persistence and patience. Fortunately for the residents of Nantucket, Massachusetts, who want the town to retain its historic charm, bookseller Wendy Hudson possesses both.

While overall holiday sales ranged from slightly down to solid gains at bookstores across the country, sales of Book Sense gift cards showed strong overall increases. According to gift card sales figures recently compiled by the American Booksellers Association, sales of Book Sense gift cards in November and December 2005 increased more than 38 percent over the same period last year. Total gift card sales for the final two months of the year totaled over $3 million. Sales (both activations and increments) since the program's inception in October 2003 have reached almost $11 million.

The owners and staff of all ABA member bookstores can now vote for the 2006 Book Sense Book of the Year Awards. Presented to the authors of independent booksellers' handselling favorites in the categories of Adult Fiction, Adult Nonfiction, Children's Literature, and Children's Illustrated, the awards are a highlight of BookExpo America.

The ballot for the 2006 awards includes titles appearing on the 2005 Book Sense Picks lists. In addition, there is space for write-ins in each category. Only books published in 2005 are eligible.

November 2005 retail sales at bookstores rebounded after a weak performance in October, according to recent estimates from the Bureau of the Census. Figures released this week put November 2005 bookstore sales at $1,065 million, 2.0 percent above November 2004. Year-to-date sales at bookstores are down 2.1 percent compared to the same period last year.

Overall retail sales in November 2005 were $353 billion, up 7.0 percent compared to the previous November.

Beginning with today's issue, Bookselling This Week will be delivered through Constant Contact software. Subscribers of the HTML version of BTW should not notice any major difference in the presentation of the newsletter.

Voting for the 2006 Book Sense Book of the Year Awards is now open to the owners and staff of all ABA member bookstores.

In mid-December, the Northern California Independent Booksellers Association (NCIBA), the Bay Area Rapid Transit System (BART), and Book Sense teamed up for a promotion that encouraged BART riders to visit their local independent bookstores. On Tuesday, December 13, fifty thousand fliers featuring an area-specific Book Sense Picks list, as well as a coupon worth $10 off the purchase of any one of the titles at participating stores, were distributed at six BART stations.

Through a new partnership between the American Booksellers Association and Above the Treeline (ATL), ABA member booksellers can now subscribe to ATL's online software product -- designed to help bookstores improve finances by optimizing inventory selection -- at a discounted rate and without the initial set-up fee.

When the American Booksellers Association's Booksellers Advisory Council (BAC) convenes prior to the Winter Institute, in Long Beach at the end of this month, the 25-member council will welcome nine new volunteers to its ranks. Appointed for two-year terms by ABA's president, currently Mitchell Kaplan of Books & Books in Miami, with input from ABA staff and the regional booksellers associations, BAC members provide ABA's Board of Directors with input reflecting a broad cross-section of views on issues of concern to independent booksellers.

Two new sessions were recently added to the schedule of educational programming at the American Booksellers Association's inaugural Winter Institute to be held in Long Beach, California, on Thursday, January 26, and on Friday, January 27.