The current issue of Costco's in-house magazine The Costco Connection features a look at their highly successful book department.The Costco book buyers call it "The Table" - the two rows of real estate within Costco where the 200 or so hand-picked titles reside. And it is from the success of "The Table" that Costco has become one of the top five booksellers in the country.Jeff Rogart, HarperCollins vice-president of sales, says of the Costco book team:“This team knows what they are doing...Despite the limited selection of books [compared to industrial-size bookstores], Costco is consistently one of our top retailers for...
On the State of the Independent Bookseller
The folks at Marquand Books, one of the country's leading book design firms, recently interviewed me for their blog. They were interested in my thoughts on "how to thrive as an independent bookseller in a shrinking economy moving heavily towards on-line sales."The interview appears here.
Megalisters Hit the Mainstream
Mick Sussman's essay "Attack of the Megalisters" appears in the Book Review section of Sunday's New York Times and brings to light the work of this new breed of online bookseller.Before I talk about the piece I want to give a tip of the hat to the book coverage at the New York Times. While the book sections of most newspapers are disappearing or crumbling the NYT has expanded their coverage of the book world. Yes, it is still mostly populated by reviews and the the inherent politics that surround them but they have opened the doors to coverage of...
Live, from the Santa Monica Book Fair!
I leave tomorrow for the Santa Monica Book Fair where I'll be exhibiting (Booth 712a) and thought I would try something a little different.Through the wonders of modern technology (read: my iPhone), I'll be posting nearly-live updates from the fair - from set-up to break-down and everything in between, maybe even a few from the road - via both Flickr and Twitter. If you'd like to follow along, here are the links:The Santa Monica Book Fair - A Flickr Set (also available in RSS flavor)Me on Twitter (or RSS)Booth shots, interesting books, behind-the-scenes info...The next best thing to being there....
FlatSigned follow-up : ‘The Cartel’ Responds
One of Tim Miller's claims in his now infamous shady marketing masterpiece, FlatSigned.com Celebrates Ten Year Anniversary, was that he "even went so far as to attend" the ABAA's California Antiquarian Book Fair, or "Convention" as he calls it, in San Francisco to try to resolve his differences with certain members of the organization with "but was escorted out of the convention by those known in inner-circles as 'The Cartel.'"Well, here's how ABAA member Peter Stern saw it:The cartel? That was mostly me. I had done very little business with Mr. Miller. As a matter of fact, I believe we...