Bookselling

Mary Alice Gorman and Richard Gorman, the current owners of the Mystery Lovers Bookshop, hope to sell the Oakmont, Pennsylvania store after 21 years.

Interested parties should visit this webpage about the store and the potential sale. According to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, the shop has hosted events headlined by bestselling mystery authors including Jo Nesbo, Michael Connelly and Dennis Lehane.

Here’s more from the Gormans’ email announcement: “There are wonderful opportunities for our store that include eBooks, revitalizing the cafe business, expansion of genres, consideration of new sidelines and dozens of others. However, taking advantage of these opportunities requires a new set of younger eyes, hands and backs.”

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GalleyCat contributor Jeff Rivera interviewed erotica author Zane for mediabistro.com’s So What Do You Do? feature today.

In the interview, Zane (pictured, via) tackled a tough question: “What are your thoughts on bookstores shelving books in the African-American section instead of alongside other fiction works?”

Zane replied: “They sell better. That’s been documented. There’s no question about that. When someone goes into a bookstore and they’re looking for African-American books, they’re going to look for the African-American section. If they dig mystery books, they’re going to look at the mystery section. I’ve done my research and seen the figures; I’ve met with the owners and heads of bookstore chains. I used to sit in a Borders bookstore, bring my manuscript submissions with me to read, and for hours on the weekends I’d watch how people selected books, what caught their attention, what made some people look at books more, and what they actually took to the register.”

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Lagardere Publishing, the corporate parent of Hachette, reported that eBooks composed 20 percent of US adult sales in the final quarter of 2011.

Worldwide, sales were down 5.9 percent for the publishing arm of the media conglomerate, publisher of Stephanie Meyer and Nicolas Sparks.

Here’s more from the release: “United States activity grew strongly (+12.8%) on the back of new bestsellers (The Best of Me by Nicolas Sparks, Seriously… I’m Kidding by Ellen DeGeneres), despite problems with distribution networks (bankruptcy of Borders) that lingered on into the fourth quarter. The e-books growth continued in the fourth quarter, mainly in English-speaking countries: in the United States and United Kingdom e-books accounted for 20% and 10%, respectively, of Adult Trade at the end of December 2011.” (Via Jose Afonso Furtado)

According to the latest Association of American Publishers (AAP) net sales revenue report, adult hardcover sales plunged 20.9 percent in November 2011, dipping from $219.9 million to $174 million compared to the same period the year before. At the same time, total trade book sales dipped 3.5 percent.

Above, we have embedded a year-to-date chart above for 2011, but we still need to wait for the December numbers to get a complete picture of book sales in 2011.

Here’s more from the release, drawn from publishers’ insights: “While the November over November e-books number [65.9 percent increase] is still high, it dropped below the triple-digit percentages we’ve seen in the past year.  The year-to-date percentage growth remains pretty consistent with what we’ve been seeing all year.”

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How can indie bookstores can survive Amazon’s dominance? In an article by poet and publisher of Black Ocean Janaka Stucky published at Poetry Foundation, the publisher suggested they think about poetry readers: “People who read poetry are the unsung customer base for independent bookstores.”

Instead of competing, Stucky recommends that indie book stores take advantage of their status as local businesses within their communities: “the service a bookstore provides isn’t just book-selling; it’s being the cultural center that book lovers need in their communities. Unless bookstores can not only acknowledge their role as beacons of culture, but really embrace that role and market themselves as such—as long as they try in vain to compete with one of the world’s largest retailers at its own game—they will slowly lose ground as they steadily morph into increasingly bizarre hybrids of book-music stores, bookstore-cafes, and bookstore–tapas restaurants.”

Stucky’s piece is a response to an op-ed in The New York Times that condemns Amazon for paying customers $5 not to shop in stores and a piece in Slate that justified the practice.

Celebrate “The Joy of Books” with the stop motion video embedded above–watch books frolicking inside a closed bookshop.

If the video inspires you to support your local bookstore, here are some links: Best Indie Bookstores on Twitter and How to Buy eBooks from an Indie Bookstore.

Here’s more about the video: “After organizing our bookshelf almost a year ago, my wife and I decided to take it to the next level. We spent many sleepless nights moving, stacking, and animating books at Type bookstore in Toronto. Everything you see here can be purchased at Type Books. Grayson Matthews generously composed the beautiful, custom music. But none of it could have been done without all the volunteer hands who shelved and reshelved books all night, every night.” (Via Goodreads)

Are you worried that digital books will ruin your favorite independent bookstore? This GalleyCat editor will join the #FollowReader Twitter chat at 4 pm today to discuss how you can support your local bookstore this year.

You can fill up your new tablet or mobile device with eBooks from indie bookshops with a few simple tools. Below, we’ve collected steps on how to buy eBooks from an indie bookstore.

1. Check the massive list of Independent Bookstores Selling Google eBooks. Find the store you want to support. Follow the store link to shop for eBooks.

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eBook sales may be cutting in on paperback sales, but digital hasn’t given way for print’s demise. In fact, rare books had a great year.

Book dealer AbeBooks brought in $220,330 from the sales of 10 books alone. The bookseller sold Karl Marx’s Das Kapital in November  for $51,739. A signed first edition of Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird fetched $25,000.

The retailer explained more on its blog: “Our third largest sale was a complete set of all 10 issues of Aspen Magazine, a multimedia publication that ran from 1965 to 1971.  Many leading figures in contemporary art, both British and North American, were contributors to Aspen including Andy Warhol, John Lennon, Timothy Leary and Susan Sontag.”

Over at Reddit, a reading club leader in Brooklyn received some unexpected help from Poppies Bookstore in California.

An employee at Poppies Books sent a Brooklyn book club a massive shipment of kid’s books recently, a heartwarming story about why independent bookstores are so important. Check out our massive list of indie bookstores on Twitter for more.

Check it out: “I posted [on Reddit] looking for some short story suggestions for the struggling readers in our reading club … I got a message from a woman from Poppies Bookstore in Torrance, CA offering me some books (and she got the shipping!), and I was thrilled. I expected a small box of books. Instead it was a huge box of books! And they were great selections and titles–books the kids love! Seriously awesome … there are far too few good bookstores in the world, and we need them. I only wish we lived closer because it looks like a great bookstore and I know the owner is gold!”

Indie bookstore fans around the world have joined Colleen Lindsay’s bkstoreluv hashtag today, sharing support for their local bookstore.

To celebrate, we’ve built a Best Indie Bookstores on Twitter directory below, collecting Twitter handles from bookstores around the world.  This list is not comprehensive, yet. Add your favorite bookstore in the comments section and we will update the directory–help somebody else find the indie bookstore in their neighborhood.

If you are looking for more people to follow, check out our Best Literary Agents on Twitter directory, our Best Book Editors on Twitter list, our Best Book Publicity and Marketing Twitter Feeds directory, our Best eBook News on Twitter list, our Best Library People on Twitter directory, and our Women in Publishing Twitter List.

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