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Printer-friendly versionPowell’s Wins Hunger Games Content
Powell’s Books in Portland, Oregon, has been named the winner of a store visit by Suzanne Collins, author of The Hunger Games trilogy. The visit was the prize in an in-store display contest, created by Scholastic, in conjunction with the publication of Mockingjay, the final book in the trilogy.
Participating bookstores were asked to create a display that reflected the look and spirit of Mockingjay. Scholastic chose Powell’s Books the winner “based on the overall creativity and style of their submission.” Rachel Coun, executive director of hardcover marketing for Scholastic Trade, noted that the publisher had receive a variety of visually stunning entries, “but Powell’s entry, which included the centerpiece of a 17-foot cornucopia, really stood out!”
Octavia Books Sponsors New Radio Program
Octavia Books, which celebrated its 10th anniversary on October 16, is sponsoring a new radio program on New Orleans public radio station WWNO. “The Reading Life” is a half-hour program that will air Tuesday evenings from 6:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. beginning November 23, with a repeat broadcast on weekends.
“We are delighted that in our 10th year Octavia Books can help support a new literary radio program for New Orleans,” said co-owner Tom Lowenburg.
“The Reading Life” will cover the local literary scene with stories and interviews about new books, area writers (and readers), and the region’s literary events and festivals. Featured titles will include fiction and nonfiction, children’s literature, and poetry. The show hosted by New Orleans books journalist Susan Larson will feature WWNO’s veteran interviewer Fred Kasten.
Square Books Launches Broadside Series
Square Books in Oxford, Mississippi, has started offering subscribers of its Signed First Editions Club the opportunity to purchase broadsides based upon books selected for the club. The broadsides, which are being printed letterpress in 150 copy editions, will be signed and numbered by the author.
The first broadside in the Square Books Broadsides Series is from Citrus County by John Brandon (McSweeney’s). The store’s website features a brief video of the broadside’s printing in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The broadsides are $20 each, and Square Books is offering discounts based on customers’ levels of Signed First Editions club participation.
PSU Bookstore Offers Odin Ink POD Program
Portland State University (PSU) recently teamed with Hewlett-Packard and the online self-publishing service Lulu to set up a print-on-demand machine called Odin Ink. OregonLive.com noted that the “sophisticated small roll press,” behind a counter on the upper floor of the university’s bookstore, will “give professors an affordable way to produce on-demand textbooks and frustrated authors a quick way to turn their novels into print.” Kenneth Brown, president and CEO of the bookstore, told OregonLive that production of textbooks on the machine would lower their costs since the bookstore will not have to pay shipping costs.
The publishing machine is being piloted at PSU at no cost to the bookstore, said Brown, who noted that the machine is also being tested at Arizona State University and the University of Kansas.
Brown noted that an English professor could use the machine to produce copies of Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility, which is available in the public domain, for less than it would cost to ship the book from a publisher. In addition, the professor could tailor the book to his class by adding questions, critical essays and study guides.
Roebling Point Bookstore Opens
Roebling Point Bookstore — part of Keen Communications, the Kentucky-based publisher of imprints Menasha Ridge Press, Wilderness Press, and Clerisy Press — opened its doors Wednesday, October 20.
The store, which is located at Keen Communications’ headquarters in Covington, will focus on regional interest titles and outdoor activities. Keen Communications’ president, Richard Hunt, plans to use customer feedback to develop the right inventory mix. “We’ll evolve our title and product mix to fit what they want,” Hunt said in a release.
In September, Hunt told BTW that bookselling and publishing are “more alike than different,” and by opening a bricks-and-mortar store, he hopes to become a part of the independent community. Roebling Point Bookstore will offer events for local authors, as well as hiking and writing groups.
“We can support the other local independent businesses by offering an additional draw to the area,” said Hunt.
Wednesday’s opening featured a discussion with Enquirer reporter John Erardi and his co-author Joel Luckhaupt about their book, The Wire-to-Wire Reds: Sweet Lou, Nasty Boys, and the Wild Run to a World Championship (Clerisy).
Year-Old Green Light Bookstore Receives Kudos From Village Voice
Brooklyn’s Greenlight Bookstore, which is celebrating its first anniversary this month, has been named Best New Bookstore by the Village Voice.
In its “Best of NYC 2010,” the Voice noted that store owners Jessica Stockton Bagnulo and Rebecca Fitting “don’t even try to compete with Amazon, instead supplying a selection of tasteful, literary reads that appeal to the relatively young and bookish neighborhood.” And, it noted, Greenlight’s “Brooklyn section offers a great selection from the borough’s flourishing literary scene, with many of the authors they highlight (Jonathan Lethem, Jonathan Safran Foer, Jhumpa Lahiri, Dave Isay) regularly reading in-store.”