Bookselling

The Washington Post's business development unit just unveiled a new experiment--allowing readers to purchase books mentioned in the paper's book coverage via Amazon.com's (AMZN) Amazon Associates program. Book links on the site will go to a new Post store, where the paper will receive a percentage of any sales from Amazon.

GalleyCat asked Washington Post Book World's deputy editor Ron Charles for more information, but he stressed in an email that "I really don't know anything about this program except what I read this morning in the press release. Advertising and editorial are kept entirely separate."

We contacted the communications department with our questions, and they passed along a release with quotes from Goli Sheikholeslami, the Post's digital general manager and product development vice-president. The complete release follows after the jump...

Here's more from the Post's release: "The Post's news and editorial departments are not involved in placing the links. Post store links are automatically embedded by a non-editorial team after a review is posted and regardless of the nature of the book review. Links to the store are clearly labeled as commerce links. 'If this test is successful, we will consider expanding the range of product offerings and participating online retailers,' said Sheikholeslami."

continued...

Three UK book distributors have temporarily stopped supplying Borders UK amidst worries about the company's future. An anonymous sales director explained to The Bookseller: "We really hope they can get through this, everyone will try to help them. But if we don't think we are going to be paid, we are going to have to stop supplying them."

In addition, here are a few publishing headlines for your evening enjoyment...

Publishers Weekly reports that Random House will put out a paperback of National Book Award-winning "Let the Great World Spin" by Colum McCann months ahead of time, printing 100,000 copies for a Dec. 4th release date.

A Georgia woman won $100,000 in damages from a libel lawsuit, as a jury agreed that a fictional character in Haywood Smith's novel "The Red Hat Club" closely resembled the novelist's old friend--portraying her as "a sexually promiscuous alcoholic." (Via Sarah Weinman)

Next, the folks at Mediaite have launched a book club.

As Oprah Winfrey steps down from her show, many wonder who will replace her as publishing taste-maker. Mediaite senior editor Glynnis MacNicol thinks it will be conservative icon Glenn Beck (pictured). Listen to more Beck-ian book speculation on the Morning Media Menu.

In a Bloomberg News interview, Walmart.com CEO Raul Vazquez denied recent claims by critics that Walmart's online book discounting could be seen as "predatory pricing."

He explained in the article: "Generally the issue is whether or not you are intending to use pricing to drive someone out of business ... That's not our intent. We've been the price leader in books for months before that program was announced."

Walmart (WMT) recently slashed book prices online, dropping the cover price of the top 10 pre-selling titles to $10 apiece. This move touched off a book discounting war in between Amazon.com (AMZN), Walmart, and finally, Target (TGT). Financial reporter James Surowiecki called these predatory pricing claims "dubious" in a New Yorker blog post.

The Motley Fool took a hard look at Borders this week, writing: "Circuit City, once a well-known retail fixture, is no more. If it can't survive this holiday season's impending price war, bookseller Borders (NYSE: BGP) could be next."

GalleyCat has been tracking the stock performance of the major companies that influence the bookselling business. We created this chart with eight publicly-traded publishing stocks hand-picked by our readers--including company name, symbol, current stock price, and price increase or decrease at week's close.

-Name- -Symbol- -Last price- -Change-
The McGraw-Hill Co. MHP 31.06 0.34
Books-A-Million, Inc. BAMM 8.03 0.26
Borders Group, Inc. BGP 1.75 -0.19
Amazon.com, Inc. AMZN 132.97 2.44
Barnes & Noble, Inc. BKS 20.05 -0.04
Wiley John & Sons Inc. JW.A 37.04 0.56
Scholastic Corporation SCHL 25.73 0.13
News Corporation NWS 14.81 0.33
Google Inc. GOOG 572.05 4.2
Apple Inc. AAPL 204.45 2.46
Sony Corporation SNE 28.35 0.11

In February, Amazon.com (AMZN) will publish three books previously published by the Amazon-owned self-publishing company, BookSurge. The books will continue the bookseller's experimental AmazonEncore program--taking books from Amazon's print-on-demand outfit and producing them in Amazon's publishing unit.

When contacted by GalleyCat, an Amazon spokesperson declined to comment on print runs or sales for the first Encore book, released in August. They affirmed that the program would publish more books, but declined to share specific goals. The three novels are: "Perfect on Paper: The (Mis)Adventures of Waverly Bryson" by debut novelist Maria Murnane; "A Wish After Midnight” by Zetta Elliott; and "They Never Die Quietly" by Daniel Annechino. As part of the program, the books will be sold in print and Kindle editions.

Here's more about one book, from the release: "Annechino's 'They Never Die Quietly' was originally published by the author using BookSurge services in February 2009. It was an immediate hit with Amazon reviewers and customers, who called the story of a terrifying serial killer and the detective who becomes his prey 'a wild ride,' 'an extreme page turner' and 'one of the best thrillers I've read.' ... [it] tells the story of homicide Detective Sami Rizzo, who is assigned to head a task force investigating serial killings in San Diego."

After a nine month tour of 90 cities in 40 different states, the Bible Across America project has produced two handwritten copies of the Bible--individual verses copied by more than 30,000 people.

One handwritten copy of book-2,200 11 x 17 pages--is being auctioned on eBay to benefit Biblica. As of this writing, the current bid was $305, still a bargain for this massive document.

GalleyCat caught up with Tara Powers from Lambert, Edwards & Associates, who helped coordinate the event for Zondervan. We set up at certain spots around the country," she explained. "Christian stores, Christian colleges, and Christian events. We'd set up 4 tables at every event. It was a very long process--taking about six to ten hours at each stop. The biggest stop we had was 800 people in one day--that was at Liberty University in Virginia."

Powers recalled how one man flew from Baltimore to help his son sign the Bible in California. The time commitment varied: "Some people had the verse, "Jesus wept," but other people had longer verses. It didn't take anybody longer than five minutes," Powers concluded. There have been discussions about a Bible Around the World project, but no plans have been made yet. (Via Edward Champion)

In a rapid-fire survey of 100 Manhattanites, New York magazine discovered some encouraging statistics about the future of reading--at least in New York City.

According to the survey, a whopping 67 percent of the interviewees spent $50 or more on books over the last year. Nineteen percent actually spent more than $250 a year. Ten percent admitted that they haven't bought books in the last year.

Here's more from the survey: "Do you have an e-reader like the Kindle or the Nook? Yes: 10 No: 90. Would you download pirated copies of books if they were available? Yes: 27 No: 68." (Via TeleRead)

In a print-on-demand experiment, Atlantic blog readers have pledged to buy more than 1,100 copies of a new book--potentially reducing individual book price by ten dollars.

When blogger Andrew Sullivan built a book of reader-submitted window pictures called "The View From Your Window," he decided to see how many readers would pledge to buy the book--offsetting an over-estimated print run with a lower priced book. If you are interested, the experiment is still open.

The book is currently available for $29.95, but readers can choose to participate in a POD experiment lower the book's price: "If you want to add muscle to our offset print run, email us in the next two days at windowbook@theatlantic.com. Write nothing in the text of the email--but in the subject-line simply write the number of books you want to buy: 1, 2, 3 etc. We'll keep this address open until Wednesday lunchtime, after which we'll be able to tell you what price we've been able to secure for the book. Then you can order at the new, hopefully lower, price."

Over the last year, author and conservative commentator Glenn Beck has interviewed 40 thriller writers, from David Baldacci to James Patterson, becoming a coveted new stop on the book tour trail for publishers.

In a NY Times article about this phenomenon, thriller author Brad Thor quipped: "He's our Oprah ... God love him, we're very fortunate." According to the article, Beck reaches 9 million radio listeners every week and 2.7 million television viewers every day. On the Morning Media Menu today, we pondered why the thriller appeals so strongly to Beck's audience.

Former GalleyCat reporter Sarah Weinman wrote about the gender politics underlying these figures: "Beck definitely has a line into what his viewers--especially the 800,000-odd people in the coveted 25-54 demographic--might be interested in reading. Chances are they are not avid book buyers, lucky to put a couple of hundred bucks' total into publishers' coffers. Beck's viewership also skews predominately towards white males, and at the risk of gross overgeneralization, fall into the stereotypical category of those who shy away from reading books outside their own gender (or ethnic and cultural worldview.)"

In bookselling news, eWeek analyzed five ways Barnes & Noble (BKS) could beat Amazon.com (AMZN) at the e-reader business. Here's a sample: "the right leveraging of its retail space could give Barnes & Noble a broad venue through which to push its product--particularly if they allow features such as in-store Wi-Fi browsing of text. Unless Amazon.com signs a deal with a big-box store such as Best Buy, it's restricted to online."

GalleyCat has been tracking the stock performance of the major companies that influence the bookselling business. We created this chart with eight publicly-traded publishing stocks hand-picked by our readers--including company name, symbol, current stock price, and price increase or decrease at week's close.

-Name- -Symbol- -Last price- -Change-
The McGraw-Hill Co. MHP 28.78 -1.31
Books-A-Million, Inc. BAMM 8.66 -1.18
Borders Group, Inc. BGP 1.94 -0.25
Amazon.com, Inc. AMZN 118.81 -3.77
Barnes & Noble, Inc. BKS 16.61 -0.18
Wiley John & Sons Inc. JW.A 35.22 -0.41
Scholastic Corporation SCHL 24.88 -1.13
News Corporation NWS 13.6 -0.44
Google Inc. GOOG 536.12 -14.93
Apple Inc. AAPL 188.5 -7.85
Sony Corporation SNE 29.39 -1.15