Cory Doctorow: Amazon has revolutionized my life

Canadian science fiction author, blogger and copyright activist Cory Doctorow’s latest nonfiction column has been published over at Publishers Weekly. Titled “Doctorow’s First Law,” here's one of the more interesting passages:

“Amazon is a retailer that has literally revolutionized my life, my go-to supplier for everything from toilet brushes to used DVDs for my toddler. And in addition to selling my own works, I also sell upwards of 25,000 books a year through Amazon affiliate links in my online book reviews. This makes me a one-man, good-sized independent bookstore, with Amazon doing my fulfillment, payment processing, stocking, etc.”

It’s nice to see a prominent SF writer praise Amazon instead of denigrate it.

Who Moved My Buy Button? is Authors Guild’s latest attempt to separate authors from works

Freakonomics, the well-known blog maintained by The New York Times, has an interesting post about the Authors Guild’s new anti-Amazon Who Moved My Buy Button? project, noting that the Guild “plainly views Amazon as something less than a trusted partner.” Hilarious, considering that the Guild, which represents a mere 8,000 authors, conspired with its publishing allies to sell the copyrighted works of tens of thousands of non-Guild authors to Google for $125 million. At first glance, Who Moved My Buy Button? seems like a benevolent attempt by the Guild to monitor the activities of Amazon. But a closer look reveals that the project is nothing more than the latest attempt by the Guild to separate non-member authors from their written works by assuming an ill-defined custodial role over ISBNs.

Authors Guild launches anti-Amazon "Who Moved My Buy Button?" website

In the wake of the U.S. Dept. of Justice's rejection of the revised Google Books Search settlement (GBS 2.0), the Authors Guild is "pleased to announce" the launch of the website WhoMovedMyBuyButton.com, which allows authors to keep track of whether Amazon has removed the "buy buttons" from any of their books! Memo to Guild executive director Paul Aiken: Isn't it time for the Guild to increase financial assistance to indigent authors?

Struggling to remain relevant, Authors Guild leaps into Amazon-Macmillan fray

Fearing that its naked attempt to rewrite copyright law through the proposed Google Books Search settlement 2.0 will be rejected by both the Dept. of Justice and a federal judge later this month, scrambling to demonstrate that its high-brow New York literary club represents more than just a law firm for multi-millionaire authors, and struggling to remain relevant in the flat world of 21st-century publishing, the antiquated Authors Guild has leaped into the Amazon-Macmillan e-book pricing fray by posting this statement on its website: “The Right Battle at the Right Time.”

Book, newspaper and magazine stock watch

Here’s an update to the list of book, magazine, newspaper and publishing stocks I’m watching, ranked by performance since January 1, 2009:

1. Books-A-Million (+ 149%)

Book, newspaper and magazine stock watch

Here’s an update to the list of book, magazine, newspaper and publishing stocks I’m watching, ranked by performance since January 1, 2009:

1. Borders Group (+ 195%)

Book, newspaper and magazine stock watch

Here’s an update to the list of 14 book, newspaper, magazine and publishing stocks I’m watching, ranked by year-to-date performance:

1. Borders Group (+ 250%)

Gutenberg geeks print copy of Percival Lowell’s 1906 scientific study Mars and Its Canals

There’s a riveting seven-minute video over on YouTube that shows some of the geeks at the Harvard Book Store in Cambridge, Massachusetts, printing a copy of Percival Lowell’s infamous scientific study, Mars and Its Canals (1906), compliments of the bookstore’s new print-on-demand Espresso Book Machine.

Speaking of geeks at the Harvard Book Store, blogger, copyright activist and science fiction author Cory Doctorow will be signing copies of his new novel, Makers (Tor 2009), on Monday evening, November 16th. I took a quick look at the downloadable freebie. He should have titled it Battery Ventures.

Book, newspaper and magazine stock watch

As someone who is interested in the history and future of books, newspapers, magazines and publishing, I have been watching the year-to-date share price performance of a selected group of publicly-held companies whose business activities include the publication, sale, and/or distribution of books, newspapers, and/or magazines (and/or their electronic equivalents). Here’s the list of 14 stocks I am watching, ranked by YTD performance:

Indie booksellers ask Justice Dept. to investigate predatory pricing

The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times report that yesterday the American Booksellers Association, a 109-year-old organization which represents independently owned bookstores, sent a letter to the U.S. Dept. of Justice asking it to investigate what it describes as “predatory pricing” by Amazon, Wal-Mart and Target in their fierce battle to slash prices on selected, best-selling books. Apparently, the tactics of the corporate behemoths are "damaging to the book industry and harmful to consumers.”

Meanwhile, Bloomberg reports that shares of Amazon climbed as much as 23% to $114.75, after the world’s largest online retailer reported a 69% jump in profit and a 28% gain in revenue. Shares of Amazon are up more than 80% year-to-date. Yahoo!

Why Jeff Mayersohn and his wife bought a bookstore in the age of e-books

The Huffington Post has a neat piece written by Jeff Mayersohn explaining why he and his wife acquired the Harvard Book Store, a privately-owned, independent bookstore located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in October 2008. Speaking of the bookstore, check out its print-on-demand database, a growing catalog of more than 3.5 million books. If you see something you like, Paige M. Gutenborg, the store’s new book-making robot, will print it up in less than five minutes and ship it to any point on the globe!

Closing the books on the local bookshop

Stacks of bookstores and bookshops selling new, used, and rare books are closing their financial books these days for various reasons. Here's a round-up of some recent and future closings:

United States

• French-language bookstore Librairie de France was scheduled to close at the end of September after 74 years in business at New York City's Rockefeller Center. The owner, whose father founded the store in 1928, said that the rent had become too expensive.

• Books & More in Plymouth, Massachusetts, closed on September 15th. It had a short life.

• Guided by Grace, an ecumenical book and gift store in Adrian, Michigan, was scheduled to close at the end of September after six years of business.

• Addam’s Bookstore, a local university bookstore located in Raleigh, North Carolina, was scheduled to close at the end of September due to the slow economy.

• Bookstop, a longtime bookstore in Houston, closed its doors in mid-September after 25 years of business.

• Hastings Books, Music & Video in Ames, Iowa, was scheduled to close its doors on October 1st after its parent company said it wasn’t making enough money.

• Cheshire Books in Yakima, Washington, closed after 26 years in business. "Both used and new bookstores are closing right now, and chains even like Borders are in trouble," the owner said.

• The Virginia Dept. of Corrections shut down its 20-year-old Books Behind Bars program after contraband was found in a few books. D'oh!

Book, newspaper and magazine stock watch

As someone who is interested in the history and future of books, newspapers, magazines and publishing, I have been watching the year-to-date share price performance of a selected group of publicly-held companies whose business activities include the publication, sale, and/or distribution of books, newspapers, and/or magazines (and/or their electronic equivalents). Here’s the list of 14 stocks I am watching, ranked by YTD performance:

Harvard Book Store names POD book machine: Paige M. Gutenborg

Earlier this afternoon, Harvard Book Store, an independent bookstore located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, unveiled its print-on-demand Espresso Book Machine, which it aptly named Paige M. Gutenborg. A 21st-century printing press, the Espresso Book Machine can print, bind, and trim a full-color-cover, black-and-white-interior, 300-page book in roughly four minutes. Drawing on a library of several million digitized books maintained by Google, the machine provides Harvard Book Store with the capability to print books locally and ship them globally.

Pictured: Paige M. Gutenborg, which costs about $100,000.

Google, Harvard Book Store plug into print-on-demand Espresso Book Machine

In the wake of last week’s announcement by science fiction and fantasy website Tor.com that it has entered the print-on-demand (POD) publishing field, both information juggernaut Google and bricks-and-mortar Harvard Book Store have made similar moves.

Google announced that it signed an agreement with On Demand Books LLC, the maker of the Espresso Book Machine, to provide print-on-demand paperback copies more than two million public-domain titles in the Google Book Search digital database. A 21st-century printing press, the Espresso Book Machine can print, bind, and trim a full-color-cover, black-and-white-interior, 300-page book in roughly four minutes.

Harvard Book Store, an independent bookstore in Cambridge that dates to 1932, plans to plug into the Espresso Book Machine on September 29th, enabling it to print-on-demand several million books and ship them globally. In order to introduce the book machine to its patrons, the store will launch a Name Our Book Machine Contest, “challenging creative minds to develop a fitting and informal name for this new, robotic member of the Harvard Book Store family.”

Pictured: The Espresso Book Machine, which costs about $100,000.

Book, newspaper and magazine stock watch

As someone who is interested in the history and future of books, newspapers, magazines, publishing and technology, I have been watching the year-to-date share price performance of a selected group of publicly-held companies whose business activities include the publication, sale, and/or distribution of books, newspapers, and/or magazines (and/or their electronic equivalents). Here’s the list of 14 stocks I am watching, ranked by YTD performance:

1. Borders Group + 718%

2. Books-A-Million + 389%

3. Apple Inc. + 105%

4. Amazon.com + 63%

5. Google Inc. + 55%

6. News Corp. + 47%

7. Barnes & Noble + 46%

8. Pearson PLC (ADR) + 30%

9. McGraw-Hill Companies + 17%

10. The New York Times Co. + 8%

11. Thomson Reuters + 6%

12. John Wiley & Sons – 2%

13. Courier Corp. – 15%

14. Bertelsmann AG – 22%

The data, derived from Google Finance, is as of the close of business on September 15, 2009. Note that I’ve rounded up or down to the nearest whole percentage. I’ll be updating the list at the end of every month. And, yes, I'm well aware that I'm comparing apples to oranges to bananas.

A glimpse of Blue Mars, the new free MMO virtual world game

If you’re a gamer, check out this three-minute YouTube glimpse of Blue Mars, the new free massively multiplayer online game created by Avatar Reality, Inc. Set on a terraformed Mars in the year 2177 AD, Blue Mars is a virtual world with stunning graphics and realistic characters, allowing players to live out their fantasies through personalized avatars. I registered to play the game about a week ago because I'm interested in establishing a bricks-and-mortar bookstore on Blue Mars. Unfortunately, I'm still waiting for the adminitrators to send me the secret password.

Closing the books on the local bookshop

Stacks of bookstores and bookshops selling new, used, and rare books are closing their financial books these days for various reasons. Here's a round-up of some recent and future closings:

United States

• Wahrenbrock's Book House, the oldest and largest bookstore in San Diego, closed in early August after 74 years of business. Clients included Richard Nixon, Michael Jackson, and Lisa Marie Presley.

• Powell’s, a mainstay of the Chicago bookselling scene since 1970, is closing its South Loop location in September. The once-seedy neighborhood has become gentrified in recent years, driving up rents.

• Walden Books at the Fort Steubenville Mall in Ohio was scheduled to close in late August as the company liquidates stores nationwide.

• Conkey’s Book Store in Appleton, Wisconsin, the state’s oldest independent bookstore, was scheduled to close at the end of August after 113 years of business. The owner said the bookstore has a potential buyer.

• Storylines Bookstore & Café in Watkins Glen, New York will close on September 12th as the owners seek a buyer for the business.

• Lazy Days book shop in Long Beach, New York was scheduled to close at the end of August. It opened in 2002.

• Sarasota News & Books on the Gulf coast of Florida was scheduled to close at the end of August. The store descended from Charlie's News Stand and traced its roots to the late 1950s.

• Libros Revolucion Books, a Los Angeles bookstore that promotes the literature of the Revolutionary Communist Party, was scheduled to be evicted by its landlord in mid-August because of failure to pay rent.

• Bookbeat in Fairfax, California announced last week that it is closing in September after 10 years of business, leaving the town with no bookstore.

• Aspen Book Store, a tiny bookstore at the Little Nell Hotel in Aspen, Colorado is closing September 8th. The general-interest bookstore has been a fixture in the luxury hotel since it opened in December 1989.

• Oakley’s Books & Gifts in Lexington, North Carolina is closing in October after 35 years of business. The store sells all types of Christian items from Bibles to choir robes, figurines and flags.

• The Maple Street Children’s Book Shop in New Orleans closed in early August after 34 years of business. The owner made the decision after “running out of cash and credit.”

Canada

• Frog Hollow Books in Halifax was scheduled to close at the end of August after 25 years of business. The owner cited a slumping economy and increased competition.

• The Dusty Cover, a non-profit used bookstore in Winnipeg run by a Christian mission, closed after only 18 months due to the difficulty of finding regular volunteers to keep it open.

United Kingdom

• Four Provinces bookshop in Holborn, a London area shop for rare and specialist Irish publications, announced in early August that it intended to close due to an increase in the cost of its annual lease. Owned by an Irish organization and staffed entirely by volunteers, the bookshop dates to 1966.

• What the Dickens Bookshop in Melksham, Wiltshire was scheduled to close at the end of August after 20 years of business. “I have decided to call it a day as bookselling in this country is changing and booksellers are having a hard time,” the owner said.

Russia

• The remaining four outlets of the Bookberry chain of bookstores in Russia are closing because of financial problems with creditors.

In related news, accounting giant Grant Thornton released a report that estimates 10,000 retail stores could close by the end of 2009 because of plummeting sales and changes in consumer buying habits. According to The Milwaukee Business Journal, which is familiar with the report, "Bookstore closings, while only a small percentage of the overall total, are projected to jump 500 percent this year. Those figures include the Milwaukee-based Harry W. Schwartz Bookshops chain, which closed its last four stores earlier this year."

Closing the books on the local bookshop

Stacks of bookstores and bookshops selling new, used, and rare books are closing their financial books these days. Here's a round-up of some recent and future closings:

United States

• Harvard University Press’ Display Room closed its doors after more than sixty years of selling books in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The lack of book sales and financial losses in Harvard's endowment portfolio were to blame. D'oh!

• Kate’s Mystery Books in Cambridge, Massachusetts, closed on August 1st after 25 years in business. The owner said she thinks the book business looks bleak.

• Epilogue Books, a new and used bookstore in Seattle, is closing for good in mid-August because of unfavorable economic conditions.

• Creatures ‘n Crooks Bookshoppe in Richmond, Virginia, which specializes in mystery, science fiction, fantasy and horror book titles, will close at the end of September because of the current economy. It originally opened in 2000 and moved to its current location in 2004.

• Trover Shop, a bookstore on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., is, "given the current economic climate and the changes in our industry," closing after 51 years in business. Hillary Clinton, Colin Powell, Barbara Walters, and Larry King are just a few of the many prominent “authors” who held book signings at the store.

• The X-Mart adult bookstore in Augusta, Georgia, which claims it was closed illegally by the city, plans to reopen and sue the city for lost revenue.

• The owner of Twenty-Third Avenue Books in Portland, Oregon, which collapsed financially in January 2009, ended up homeless.

• Lakewood Ranch Booksellers in Lakewood, Florida, closed after being open for less than a year.

• Dicho's bookstore chain in Dallas closed its Bishop Arts District location after a landlord-tennant dispute.

• Prairie Avenue Books in Chicago, a posh architectural bookshop, will close its doors in September unless the owners can find a buyer. Apparently, they hope to find "a book-loving, tech-savvy 35-year-old with the inclination to expand the bookstore's online presence.”

Canada

• Pages Books in Toronto, founded in 1971, is closing its doors for the last time on August 31st because of escalating rents and the inability to find attractive, affordable space.

United Kingdom

• Nearly 200 people attended a rally in Swindon, Wiltshire, to voice their concern about the scheduled closure of a Borders bookstore. The rally was held on the steps of the local library. The bookstore is expected to shut its doors on August 9th.

• The owner of Ellwood Books in Salisbury says “unfair competition” from an Oxfam charity shop forced him to close his store.

• Crockatt and Powell, an independent bookseller in London, closed a shop on July 30th after almost four years of trading. A co-owner blamed the closure on the decision to open a second shop in Chelsea last year.

• Waterfield’s, which has been selling secondhand books in Oxford since 1973, is scheduled to close at the end of the summer. “People might think the shop is closing due to the recession but that’s not the case -- I have been a bookseller for 32 years and I need a complete change.”

• Borders UK, the bookshop chain, is closing down five of its biggest stores including the Oxford Street, London branch, because of tough trading. The shops will close in August.

France

• Brentano's, an American book shop established in Paris in 1895, closed at the end of June because it could no longer pay the rent. Located on Avenue de l'Opéra, the shop had a storied history. Customers included Mark Twain, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Ernest Hemingway. During World War II, it was closed by the Nazis and turned it into a film and camera supply centre for the Wehrmacht.

Russia

• The global economic recession has hit bookstores in Russia. Top Kniga, a Russian chain of about 600 stores and a major online bookseller, is the latest seller to face financial difficulty.

Pictured: Brentano's in Paris

A look inside renovated Nantucket bookstore controlled by wife of Google CEO

Plum TV has two neat July 2009 video clips about Mitchell’s Book Corner on Nantucket. Established in 1968 and one of the island’s literary landmarks, the bookstore just reopened after an eight-month green renovation. The project, which included a new second floor (that’s where the SF books are!) and an elevator for handicap access, reused original building material and ensured that all new materials were environmentally friendly. The bookstore is controlled by Wendy Schmidt, president of the Schmidt Family Foundation and wife of Google CEO Eric Schmidt, whose philanthropic vehicle ReMain Nantucket purchased the store and its historic building in early 2008.