The book as gift mantra is loud and clear this holiday season.BooksAreGreatGifts.com is a new website put together by the American Association of Publishers to encourage books as the ultimate holiday gift. The site features video spots by tons of best-selling and award-winning authors and celebrities from all the leading publishers.The campaign is "An industry-wide effort... established in response to the economic downturn and changing climate in retail-driven markets as a way of stimulating traffic to retail and online booksellers."Here are some of the reasons to give books as gifts that the site offers:"They have shelf life longer than a...
Knock, Knock : The Subscription Book Business
click to enlargeIn nineteenth century America door-to-door bookselling was a big thing. As the country grew westward and new technologies provided cheaper production and transportation opportunities subscription bookselling became a major component of the publishing world. The book became a commodity. By some estimates by the end of the nineteenth century 70% of all books sold were sold by subscription.Agents Wanted : Subscription Publishing in America, an online exhibit at University of Pennsylvania, provides a great introduction to this part of publishing history. It features items from the seminal collection of canvassing books by Michael Zinman.From Lynne Farrington's introduction:Subscription publishers...
Courting the Antiquarians
In spite of all the doom and gloom surrounding the life and future of the book the book business still rakes in around $90 billion a year worldwide.Two of the healthiest and fastest growing areas of the trade are online bookselling in general and the selling of used, out-of-print and antiquarian books in particular.In a recent blog post from the Frankfurt Book Fair Edward Nawotka, book columnist for Bloomberg News and Southern Correspondent for Publishers Weekly, had this to say about the future of books:"One immediate consequence of Obama's victory was the boost in sales for newspapers. So now we...
The Chains are Breaking : A Look at Bookselling in a Post-Chain World
The numbers are brutal. Hardly anyone bought anything in the month of October. According to the ICSC-Goldman Sachs index, retailers had their weakest October performance since the index's inception in 1969! If this trend keeps up through the holiday season it is safe to say that January will become National Bankruptcy Month.How the economic meltdown will ultimately play out in the book world remains to be seen, but early indicators are pointing to a significant shakeout.In a memo to his employees last week Barnes and Noble Chairman Leonard Riggio said "Never in all of the years I've been in business...
Alibris Announces "Alibris Inventory Demand"
Americana Exchange Monthly reported recently on a new program Alibris will be offering most of its sellers, "Alibris Inventory Demand." The service: offers three types of data. Foremost is their historical sales data, which provides actual sales prices transacted on the Alibris and Alibris partner sites (such as Borders Marketplace). Next, it provides current pricing data, such as highest, lowest and average prices currently listed, along with the number of copies for sale. Finally, they provide what they call the "Alibris Sales Index," which rates the likelihood of an item being sold. As Alibris explained in their press release:Utilizing such...