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Book News
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Barnes and Noble bookstore chain put up for sale Sad tale for US giant, which owns 720 high-street shops in all 50 American states but saw profits slump America's largest chain of high-street bookshops, Barnes & Noble, last night put itself up for sale in the latest sign of distress in the literary retailing world which has already seen the demise of the Borders book chain in Britain. B&N, which owns 720 high-street shops in all 50 American states, announced it was calling in the investment bank Lazard to advise on strategic alternatives including "a possible sale of the company" after a 45% slump in share price in the last year. View Guardian article
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sulcus
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and people still deny reading is in decline?
"A,B&E", "Not In My Name" and "52FF" (flash fiction anthology) all available on Amazon Kindle"How a psychopath makes sweet love. I can get you ringside. Royal box even."
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MLT
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One does not necessarily follow from the other.
What this does suggest is that the buying of books from high street shops is in decliine.
To prove that reading is in decline you need to show that book sales from all sources are in decline combined with a decline in loans from public libraries.
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Turnip
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Hmm. 4.8% decline in like-for-like sales (presumably value not volume of sales through comparable activities i.e. bricks and mortar book stores) could be partially accounted for by recession, discounting and loss of market share to competition from other stores, online, ebooks. The 45% slump in share price is huge compared to that 4.8%, suggesting that the market feels low confidence in B&N's business model for the future. So let's pool our resources and take it on. I've got...wait a minute...€1.65 in cash in my pocket, a ticket for TNA wrestling and my old wedding ring in an empty pot of snails liver paté (strange but true).
Back to my roots.
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gabriella
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Quote: Book News, Saturday, 7 Aug 2010 10:57Barnes and Noble bookstore chain put up for sale Sad tale for US giant, which owns 720 high-street shops in all 50 American states but saw profits slump View Guardian article This is a shame. I love B & N. I spend lots of time there. I also spend time in Borders and local, independent book stores as well. I think a lot of this has to do with the recession and the fact that many are buying their books online and electronically. Sad. I don't know about you, but I can't read page after page after page online or one of those reading devises. I love the feel of an actual book in my hand. I love turning pages. I love the way an old book smells. I love the way B & N smells! All that yummy coffee! The two just go hand in hand. I really hope they find a way out of this mess.
Jen "Those who control their passions do so because their passions are weak enough to be controlled." William Blake my blog
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Chuck Buckner
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pam123writing
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Quote: gabriella, Saturday, 7 Aug 2010 15:23Quote: Book News, Saturday, 7 Aug 2010 10:57Barnes and Noble bookstore chain put up for sale Sad tale for US giant, which owns 720 high-street shops in all 50 American states but saw profits slump View Guardian article This is a shame. I love B & N. I spend lots of time there. I also spend time in Borders and local, independent book stores as well. I think a lot of this has to do with the recession and the fact that many are buying their books online and electronically. Sad. I don't know about you, but I can't read page after page after page online or one of those reading devises. I love the feel of an actual book in my hand. I love turning pages. I love the way an old book smells. I love the way B & N smells! All that yummy coffee! The two just go hand in hand. I really hope they find a way out of this mess. I really miss our lovely Borders store in Stockport. It was a great meeting place for writer friends and the in-store Starbucks caramel latte (skinny of course) and peach and raspberry muffins were to die for. The staff were very nice people, helpful and friendly. I hope they all found jobs they enjoy doing. The local Waterstones, by comparison, is not half so nice (the store, not the staff) and the parking is lousy. Wish they'd move into the empty Borders store.
"And, in the end, the love you take / Is equal to the love you make." Lennon and McCartney 1969
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MLT
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If this is the start of a trend, the outlook for children's books is bleak. Few printers could remain financially viable if all the publishers could send them were children's books. But the thought of trying to read a picture book to a three year old on an ebook reader horrifies me. Another cause for concern is that bullies already target vulnerable children for their mobile phones. How much more vulnerable will they be if they have ebook readers as well, which they will have if school books are also only published as ebooks?
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Cinnamon
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Quote: MLT, Saturday, 7 Aug 2010 16:34If this is the start of a trend, the outlook for children's books is bleak. Few printers could remain financially viable if all the publishers could send them were children's books. But the thought of trying to read a picture book to a three year old on an ebook reader horrifies me. Another cause for concern is that bullies already target vulnerable children for their mobile phones. How much more vulnerable will they be if they have ebook readers as well, which they will have if school books are also only published as ebooks? They're not totally dropping print books - they're switching to e-publishing and print on demand. Pretty grim for anyone who's just signed with them. http://www.smartbitchestrashybooks.com/index.php/weblog/comments/dorchester-does-digital-authors-do-what/
This post was last edited by Cinnamon, 07 Aug 2010, 17:02
E-asy Peasy?
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sulcus
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Quote: Turnip, Saturday, 7 Aug 2010 14:31Hmm. 4.8% decline in like-for-like sales (presumably value not volume of sales through comparable activities i.e. bricks and mortar book stores) could be partially accounted for by recession, discounting and loss of market share to competition from other stores, online, ebooks. The 45% slump in share price is huge compared to that 4.8%, suggesting that the market feels low confidence in B&N's business model for the future. So let's pool our resources and take it on. I've got...wait a minute...€1.65 in cash in my pocket, a ticket for TNA wrestling and my old wedding ring in an empty pot of snails liver paté (strange but true). a ticket to TNA, sad but true...
"A,B&E", "Not In My Name" and "52FF" (flash fiction anthology) all available on Amazon Kindle"How a psychopath makes sweet love. I can get you ringside. Royal box even."
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