News If They Sold If I Did ItDistasteful is perhaps not strong enough a word to describe how some
booksellers feel about selling a book by O.J. Simpson, particularly one
called If I Did It. The ReganBooks title is scheduled to be
published November 30 and will be promoted on Fox TV in two segments
featuring Simpson interviewed by Judith Regan.
As Nancy Olson, owner of Quail Ridge Books & Music in Raleigh,
N.C., put it: "Do we take a 'stand' on such a book, thereby sending our
customers who want to buy it to our competitors? Is this a form of
censorship? Or do we make it available without displaying it other than
having it on the shelf?" She added, "I'm disturbed to be put in such a
position. Freedom of the press notwithstanding, the way they're marketing
the book raises huge ethical questions. We all know the publishers are
desperate to make money on commercial books, but this takes the cake."
Late yesterday, Olson said, the store decided to sell the book but donate proceeds "to
Interact, a nonprofit here that shelters battered women and children."
Several California booksellers have also decided to sell the book but donate
the money earned from it to appropriate charities. Vroman's Bookstore, Pasadena,
Calif., will give proceeds from If I Did It to the Nicole Brown
Foundation. "Although in the spirit of freedom of speech, we will be
carrying the book, we choose not to profit from it," general manager
Allison Hill wrote. "We'll have bookmarks in the book to let customers
know."
Green Apple Books, San Francisco, is donating proceeds to Casa de las
Madres, a local shelter for battered women and will use shelf talkers
to let customers know of the policy. Kevin Ryan called it "a good
solution because we still have the book but are making a statement at
the same time." He added the store had done this with several books,
beginning with former President Nixon's memoirs in 1978.
Kelly Justice, manager of Fountain Bookstore, Richmond, Va., told Shelf Awareness that the store has cancelled its order for If I Did It, which like other bookstores, it had to buy blind. Fountain will fulfill special orders for the book and quietly
donate proceeds to charity. She added that as of yesterday the store
had decided on a new policy: it will no longer purchase a title for
which the publisher gives no information. "It's been going on for
years, and I can't do my job like that," she said. "It's not
acceptable." ---
In today's New York Times, Judith Regan offers some tortured explanations for publishing If I Did It,
which she called "his confession. I would have had no interest in
publishing anything but that." She stated that she had been the victim
of domestic abuse and wanted to expose abusers like Simpson. Moreover,
"We are all in the publishing business, and our business is to tell
stories about what is going on. This is a news event."
She was also remarkably vague about where the advance and royalty money
are going, saying that she had dealt with "a manager who represents a
third party" that owns rights to the story. "I was told that the money
would go to his children," she told the Times. "They said the
money was not going to Simpson," who owes more than $33.5 million in
uncollected civil court judgments to the families of his ex-wife,
Nicole Brown Simpson, and Ronald Goldman, whom he may or may not have
murdered.
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* * * Notes: Stores Openings; Sherry Emory DiesIn happier news, today another Liberty Books & Music will open, in Rocky
River, Ohio, in suburban Cleveland. Owned by John Gaylord, the store
will have 10,000 square feet of space and 75,000 book and magazine
titles. In the last several years, Gaylord, who used to be a Little
Professor franchisee and co-owner of the Gaylord Companies, has opened
Empire Books & News in Huntington, W.Va., and another Liberty Books
& News in Columbus, Ohio. --- Naftali Rottenstreich and Susan Fox have opened Red Fox Books in Glen Falls, N.Y., just south of Adirondack Park, Bookselling This Week
reported. The husband-and-wife booksellers renovated a 1,600-sq.-ft.
space and are stocking some 10,000 titles. Red Fox's grand
opening celebration December 7 will feature a reading by Russell
Banks.
Red Fox Books is located at 28 Ridge St., Glens Falls, N.Y. 12801; 518-793-5352; fax: 518-793-9132. --- Sad
news: Sherry Emory, co-owner of Charis Books & More, the feminist
bookstore in Atlanta, Ga., died of breast cancer last Sunday. She was
57. Emory had moved to Florida a year and a half ago and died at the
home of her sister.
--- Barnes
& Noble will open a store in Maumee, Ohio, near Toledo, in October
2007. The store will be in the Shops at Fallen Timbers shopping center
at Fallen Timbers Drive and Russell Road. The store will stock, it
says, close to 200,000 book, music, DVD and magazine titles. --- In
the middle of December, Borders will open a two-level, 27,000-sq.-ft.
store in Houston, Tex., in the Galleria Mall, located at 5061
Westheimer Road. This will be the eighth Borders in the Houston area.
The store will carry "up to 200,000 book, music and movie titles." --- The American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression has added three new board members:
- Gayle Shanks of Changing Hands Bookstore, Tempe, Ariz.
- Jack Buckley of Ninth Street Book Shop, Wilmington, Del.
- Cecile Fehsenfeld of Schuler Books & Music, Grand Rapids, Mich.
Because the vice president of the American Booksellers Association
is always on the board, Shanks, who was elected v-p this year, replaces
Russ Lawrence of Chapter One Books, Hamilton, Mont., who was ABA v-p
and is now ABA president.
Buckley and Fehsenfeld will serve three-year terms and replace Cammie
Mannino of Halfway Down the Stairs, Rochester, Mich., and Michael
Powell of Powell's Books in Portland, Ore.
---
The Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association has moved. Its new address is:
214 East 12th Ave.
Eugene, Ore. 97401-3245
The association's e-mail address and telephone and fax numbers remain unchanged.
[Thanks to Bookselling This Week] --- Katelin Trowbridge has joined Baker
& Taylor as field territory manager for independent booksellers in
New York City, surrounding counties, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland. She
formerly handled sales, marketing and product management at Public
Square Books, which specializes in publishing and distributing graphic
novels and manga in Spanish. Before that she taught English literature
at New York University. She may be reached at katelin.trowbridge@btol.com or 800-775-7930, ext. 1151.
Joni Dudlext has joined B&T as an inside sales rep, helping Carin
Siegfried serve booksellers in New England and upstate New York. She
formerly worked in customer service at Random House. She may be reached
at Joni.Dudlext@btol.com or 800-775-7930, ext. 3355.
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* * * B&N's Third Quarter: Sales Up 2%; Earnings DelayedAt Barnes & Noble, sales in the third quarter ended October 28
rose
3% to $1.1 billion. Preliminary net losses were $2.8 million compared
to a net gain of $327,000 in the same period a year ago. Financial
statements for the quarter have not been finalized because the company
is awaiting the results of a board investigation into its practices
involving the awards of stock options to senior executives. B&N is
one of more than 100 companies whose stock options practices are being
looked into by the Securities and Exchange Commission, which wants to
determine whether the options were backdated or otherwise manipulated
to benefit executives.
Sales at B&N superstores rose 4% to $972.1 million, while sales at
stores open at least a year rose 2%. At Dalton, sales fell 28% to $20.5
million, because of store closings and a 5% drop in comp-store sales.
Sales at Barnes&Noble.com dropped 0.5% to $95.8 million.
The company said bestselling titles were Dianne Setterfield's The Thirteenth Tale, Mitch Album's For One More Day, Senator Barack Obama's The Audacity of Hope, Lemony Snicket's The End and John Grisham's The Innocent Man.
B&N will pay a dividend of 15 cents a share to stockholders of record on December 8.
In the fourth quarter, B&N predicts comp-store sales at superstores
to range from "flat to an increase in the low single-digits." For the
full year, comp-store sales range from "flat to a slight increase over
last year." In
a conference call, CEO Stephen Riggio said early results from B&N's
decision last month to increase discounts on hardcovers and bestsellers
for members of its loyalty program were encouraging and could lead to
"steep" discounts for all customers, Reuters reported.
Some analysts expressed concern that increased discounts would hurt
earnings. "We remain concerned about the impact that an intensifying
promotional environment could have on the fourth quarter," Merrill
Lynch analyst Danielle Fox wrote, as quoted by Reuters.
On an up date on Wall Street, B&N shares fell 5.2% and closed at $40.40. At the end of the quarter, B&N had 692 B&N superstores and 109
Dalton stores. During the quarter, the company opened 11 B&N stores
and closed six while closing three Dalton stores were closed.
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* * * Wholesalers' Holiday HoursThe following are the major wholesalers' holiday special hours and
other offers. The wholesalers emphasize that their Web sites are open
24 hours a day for a range of services, including ordering:
Baker & Taylor
Beginning Saturday, November 25, through Sunday, December 17, the
company will have extended ordering hours, Mon.-Fri., 8 a.m.-7 p.m. and
Sat. and Sun., 12 Noon-6 p.m. 800-775-1100; fax 800-775-7480;
electronic 800-774-0419; e-mail orders@btol.com. Beginning November 25
through December 17, the customer service department will be open 8
a.m.-7 p.m. Mon.-Fri.
Bookazine
From Monday, November 20, through Saturday, December 23, Bookazine will
have the following ordering hours: Mon.-Fri., 8:30 a.m.-7:30 p.m.,
Sat., 9 a.m.-4 p.m., and Sun., 10 a.m.-3 p.m.
Orders received by normal cutoff time Mon.-Fri. ship same day; orders
received between 12:01 a.m. Sat. and 6 p.m. Sunday receive priority
shipping Monday morning and earn an additional 1% discount. Local
customers' orders received by 11 a.m. can have same-day delivery
service through December 23.
800-221-8112; 201-339-7777; fax: 201-339-7778
BookStream
BookStream's special holiday ordering hours are:
Saturday, November 25, through Thursday, December 21: Mon.-Fri., 8 a.m.-6 p.m., Sat., 10 a.m.-4 p.m.; Sundays closed.
866-416-1112; local: 845-452-4042; fax: 845-452-7968
Ingram Book Co.
Ingram Book Co. noted that it can't have special holiday hours because
it's already open 24 hours a day, with human beings always answering
the phone.
Koen-Levy Book Wholesalers
Starting on Monday, November 20, Koen-Levy will be open 8:30 a.m.-6
p.m. on weekdays, and 12-4 p.m. on weekends. The company will also be
open on Black Friday from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. 800-257-8481
Partners/East Book Distributing
Hours from Monday, November 27, through Thursday, December 21: Mon.-Fri., 8 a.m.-6 p.m. EST.
And from Saturday, December 2, through Saturday, December 16: Sat., 10 a.m.-3 p.m.
Special offers are available for GLBA and MBA Holiday Catalogs.
800-336-3137 or e-mail partnersbk@aol.com
Partners/West Book Distributing
Hours from Monday, November 27, through Thursday, December 21: Mon.-Fri., 7:30 a.m.-6 p.m. PST.
And from Saturday, December 2, through Sunday, December 17: Sat., 9 a.m.-2 p.m.; Sun. 10 a.m.-2 p.m.
Special offers available for PNBA, MPIBA, NCIBA and SCBA Holiday Catalogs.
Customer service: 800-563-2385 or e-mail: orders@partners-west.com
Share This Media and Movies Media Heat: Politics, Power, and What Paul MeantTonight on the Late Show with David Letterman: former Senator John Edwards, editor of Home: The Blueprints of Our Lives (Collins, $29.95, 0060884541).
---
Tonight on the Charlie Rose Show: Garry Wills, author of What Paul Meant (Viking, $24.95, 0670037931).
---
Saturday on Fox & Friends: Kurt Campbell and Michael O'Hanlon, authors of Hard Power: The New Politics of National Security (Basic Books, $26, 0465051669).
---
On CBS Sunday Morning: Mireille Guiliano shares tips and advice from French Women for All Seasons: A Year of Secrets, Recipes, and Pleasures (Knopf, $24.95, 0307265234). Also on CBS Sunday Morning: Rebecca Katz, author of One Bite at a Time: Nourishing Recipes for People With Cancer, Survivors, and Their Caregivers (Celestial Arts, $21.95, 1587612194). Share This Books & Authors Mandahla: Four Delectable Cookbooks ReviewedArabesque: A Taste of Morocco, Turkey, & Lebanon by Claudia Roden (Knopf, $35, 030726498X, October 31, 2006)
This is one gorgeous cookbook, from the deep aqua and gold cover to the
tinted pages to the decorative art. And the photographs! My husband
opened the book to a full-page picture of Eggplant and Tomato Salad
(Batinjan Raheb), which absolutely glows with pomegranate seeds and
mint, said, "We have to make that!" and was off to the store in a
trice. We made it that night, and it was not only lovely but utterly
delicious. Spinach and Beans with Caramelized Onions (Sabanekh Bi
Loubia) will make you try spinach again: a simple dish that combines
the leafy green with haricot beans, chickpeas or black-eyed peas (the
best choice, in my biased opinion), the recipe again lives up to the
photo. I'm not a zucchini fan, but the depiction of Zucchini Fritters
(Kabak Mücveri), made with the addition of onion, mint, dill and feta,
has me seriously reconsidering my aversion. Arabesque makes good on the
promises of its illustrations, and is both a culinary and visual
pleasure.
The Essential Christmas Cookbook by Lovoni Walker (Lone Pine, $16.95 paperback, 1551055163, September 2004)
This backlist title is new to me, but in a month will become part of my
essential cookbook library. The holidays are stressful, so why add to
the agita by attempting to make complicated recipes designed to
impress? The best holiday food, to my mind, is easy, comforting and
familiar. A few tweaks here and there are O.K., but don't go messing
with the dressing. A Roasted Pepper Tart appetizer with sour cream and
Parmesan cheese or Spicy Nut Nibble Mix with cumin, cayenne and
cinnamon sound yummily acceptable. The photograph of Roasted
Caramelized Onions is almost scented, it looks so good. Creamy Roasted
Yam Soup has whipping cream in it, a vital seasonal ingredient. The
Butter Tarts, with their filling of brown sugar and raisins, remind me
of the sugar pies my grandmother and mother made with brown sugar and
butter and leftover pie crust. The recipes in Walker's cookbook bring
to mind the kind of winter meals we either had or dreamed of having, no
matter what the holiday.
The Kitchen Diaries: A Year in the Kitchen with Nigel Slater by Nigel Slater (Gotham Books, $40, 1592402348, October 2006)
Nigel Slater's Toast is one of the best books about food and memory
that I have read. His new cookbook has the same evocative style and
content, and is sure to enchant both readers who cook and readers who
just eat. Sometimes his diary may create envy--few of us can say, "The
last fat, yellow leaves fell off the fig tree this morning, leaving
next year's buds at the tip of each gray branch, [while] the figs we
eat today are those sent by a kind reader, and we gorge on their
melting flesh like lushes."--or frustration that we can't get that
fabulous chorizo from the Brindisa shop in Exmouth Market. These
moments are offset by the wealth of marvelous recipes and easy,
graceful style: "Few sights lift the spirits like a crate of lemons
with their glossy leaves intact" leads into a recipe for Lemon and
Basil Linguine, where the sauce is "all about the sharpness of the
lemon tempered by the Parmesan [and] the fragrance of the basil . . .
it is sumptuous and incredibly simple." In December, "The smell of
white rice cooking, clean, nutty and warm, casts a serene peace over
the house. As if snow has fallen. Seasonings change with the day, but
tonight it is green cardamom, black cumin seed, cinnamon . . .
fleeting, intriguing, gentle." The Kitchen Diaries is reassuring,
familiar and cozy, and a delight to read.
Vij's: Elegant and Inspired Indian Cuisine by Vikram Vij and Meeru
Dhalwala (Douglas & McIntyre, $29.95 paperback, 1553651847, October
2006)
Vij's is another lushly beautiful cookbook, awash in reds and oranges
and yellows. The food photographs could be a bit more plentiful for a
cook new to Indian cookery, but the instructions are clear, with
practical recommendations: Beef Tenderloin with Black Cumin Curry is
marinated in demerara sugar and tamarind; the cook is advised not to
use tenderloin if it's to be cooked well-done (it will be chewy), and
to roast more cumin seeds than the recipe calls for because it's
difficult to roast just one tablespoon at a time. With Curried Brussels
Sprouts with Paneer (a mild cheese) and Bacon, the authors explain why
thin bacon won't work after it's mixed with the curry, and recommend a
wine match, saying to start the wine while the Brussels sprouts are
cooking--excellent advice. Written by the husband and wife owners of
Vij's Restaurant in Vancouver, B.C., the book includes information
about Indian cuisine, stories about their lives, and innovative recipes
that will tempt you whether you are familiar with Indian cooking or a
novice.--Marilyn Dahl
Share This Deeper Understanding Robert Gray: A Conversation with Len Vlahos, Part 3Our discussion concludes (or pauses) with an overview of
Booksense.com's search engine and
a quick peek at some Web sites that Len Vlahos, director of BookSense.com, considers interesting variations
on the theme.
---
Robert Gray: How would you rate the search engine for BookSense,com?
What does it do well? What could it do better? I don't know whether you
want to compare or contrast it directly with Amazon's, but I do know a lot of frontline booksellers still covertly use Amazon
to answer customer questions on the sales floor quickly.
Len Vlahos: O.K., I'm probably a bit biased, but our search engine is
really, really, really, really good. This past January we did a major
overhaul and upgrade to the search engine, which, we believe, put our
members on more equal footing with their competitors. And at the very
least, our search engine is clearly, we believe, the best available to
independent booksellers.
We made four crucial changes to our search engine:
a. The search results are now ordered by a combination of matching the
search term to items in the database, Book Sense Bestseller sales and
on-order quantities from Ingram. It used to be that you'd type "John
Adams" into the keyword search and get nothing but books by authors
named John Adams. Now the McCullough paperback comes out on top.
Likewise a search on the keyword "kite" now displays the trade paper of
Kite Runner first, and the rest of the books in the list ( Curious
George Flies a Kite, etc.) are all relevant results. This system allows
us to anticipate what the customer might be looking for with a much
greater degree of accuracy. I encourage you to visit independent
bookseller Web sites NOT powered by BookSense.com and try these two
searches, or any other search term you can dream up. We're confident
that our results are far and away the best. (We even score pretty well
against the corporate search engines.)
b. We license our book data from Ingram. Specifically, we use iPage (both iPage Active and
iPage Extended). This database is truly remarkable for the breadth,
depth and quality of the data. The problem is sometimes there's too
much data. So with the new search engine, we've given stores the
ability optionally to exclude books by inventory status. For example, a
bookseller can exclude from search results all Out of Print and/or
Special Order books. This allows each store to tailor the selection
displayed in the search results to that store's liking. Some stores are
excluding some categories; others are including all. The important
thing for BookSense.com, with the search or anything else, is that the
product be more flexible to meet the varying needs of our very
independent members.
c. We've added "stemming." This means that different versions of the
same root word will find the right result. Search for "Easter Rise" and
you'll get "Easter Rising" even though it's not really a match.
d. The search is faster and more stable than it's ever been before.
To your specific point about frontline booksellers covertly using
Amazon.com to answer customer questions, that has definitely been true
in the past, but we are anecdotally hearing it's changing for stores
with BookSense.com Web sites, largely because our search is so much
better than it used to be.
RG: You showcase four Booksense Web sites (Tattered Cover, etc.) on your site as examples
of what can be done with the template. Are there other pages you'd
highlight as exemplary? Anything wild? Innovative?
LV: Village Books' staff
picks page is one of the prettiest uses of the template I've seen. St.
Helen's Bookshop is
the exclusive home of signed Chuck Palahniuk books, which has been a
huge financial boon to the store. (Through the sale of signed-Chuck
books alone, they pay for their Web site). Alabama Booksmith has a very interesting signed first
editions program. Vroman's Bookstore has created both a MySpace page and a Blog (and link to both from their
home page).
---
Like most conversations, this one is incomplete (perhaps a better word
is unfinished), but I hope it gives you a general sense of what the
Booksense.com approach and philosophy currently entail. You can visit
Booksense.com's site for more
information. And we'll keep talking. You can send questions and
comments to fresheyesnow@yahoo.com. I will share them with readers in
upcoming columns.
As has been shown here during the past five months, many bookstores use
Booksense.com's service. Many do not. I've highlighted alternatives in
the past, and will continue to do so. If you've seen one you love,
please let me know.
Ultimately all of this leads to the Big Question, posed some time ago by Pink Floyd:
Is there anybody out there?
Oh, yes.
The follow-up, and more important, question is: How do we let them know
that there is somebody (aka bookstores) "in here."--Robert Gray (column
archives available at Fresh Eyes Now)
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