Just as Engadget was hitting publish on its first posts, I was putting a freshly minted English degree to use working at an indie bookshop in Los Angeles. In seemingly unrelated news, Amazon had just reported its first profitable year after switching from selling books to selling “everything” four years before. (It still sold a lot of books.) Our bookstore did a good job keeping shelves stocked with a balance of the more worthy popular hits and smaller, better fare. But we couldn’t have every book a customer might want, so we offered to order any in-print title. If a distributor had it, it’d take about a week to get in, longer if we had to go through the publisher. That seemed fine for most customers. But sometimes “about a week” was too long. A few people came right out and said, “Nah, I’ll order it on Amazon.” In 2005, Amazon launched Prime, the membership program that, for $79 a year, gave customers unlimited two-day shipping on most orders. At launch, CEO Jeff Bezos called it “‘all-you-can-eat’ express shipping.” No one knew at the time how hungry the world was for Amazon’s brand of convenience. And now, nearly two decades later, we’ve seen the shifts that accommodate that buffet — in labor, retail and the entire customer experience. Prime wasn’t an overnight success. It’s estimated that six years after launch, just four million households paid for the service. But 10 years later, in 2021, Bezos claimed it had accrued 200 million members worldwide. Outside of that... Continue reading at 'Engadget'
[ Engadget | 2024-03-08 14:15:57 UTC ]
An emergency fund has been opened to get quick aid to West London's Saqi Books, a publisher and bookstore reporting severe flood damage. The post Saqi Books in London Hit by Monday’s Flash Flooding appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2021-07-13 19:52:32 UTC ]
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Líra Könyv made to pay £600 for failing to clearly indicate the story featured ‘a family that is different than a normal family’A bookshop chain in Hungary has been fined for selling a children’s story depicting a day in the life of a child with same-sex parents, with officials condemning the... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2021-07-08 12:09:32 UTC ]
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The Homer Bookstore is the oldest continually operating bookstore in Alaska, and one of the few places to buy new books within several hundred miles. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2021-06-25 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Former Review Bookshop manager Katia Wengraf has raised more than £10,000 online to help fund her new independent store, Mount Florida Books, in a former tattoo parlour in Glasgow. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-06-20 21:34:09 UTC ]
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As you may recall, right around St. Patrick’s Day in 2020, pretty much every bookstore on earth suspended all in-person author events indefinitely. Since then, book people like us have been cut off from meeting our favorite authors and have had to settle for watching glitchy versions of them on... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2021-06-17 08:49:48 UTC ]
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Fiction Photo by Peter Boccia / Unsplash After renting a room in an Indian family’s house in England, the Croatian tenant becomes privy to one member’s dreams of return. “This is it!” Parvati, a young Indian woman, shows me a tiny room with... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2021-06-07 20:25:08 UTC ]
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The century-old Drama Book Shop in Manhattan struggled for years. Then “Hamilton” happened. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2021-06-07 15:11:17 UTC ]
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Experience a day in the life of an indie bookseller, working at Bosch&deJong boekverkopers, a small bookstore in Rotterdam, Netherlands. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2021-06-01 10:35:00 UTC ]
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Samir Mansour's bookstore was a cultural magnet for residents of the Gaza Strip until an Israeli airstrike leveled it. Now he has to start over. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2021-06-01 08:00:49 UTC ]
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Publishers Weekly has named the L.A.-based indie bookstore Eso Won Books its Bookstore of the Year, and Simon & Schuster sales rep Toi Crockett has been named PW Sales Rep of the Year. The announcement was made at the inaugural U.S. Book Show. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2021-05-25 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Source of Knowledge has been a Newark mainstay for decades. It survived the past year thanks to the generosity of its customers and an owner who provides more than just books. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2021-05-22 09:00:26 UTC ]
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At the literary haven Powell’s in Portland, I limited myself to 16 books, including a little something for my grandson. Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2021-05-19 16:44:24 UTC ]
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When it comes to serious decisions in business or in life, this mental quirk can set us up for catastrophic failure unless we actively work to keep it in check. Imagine this: You’re heading for the cashier at your local bookstore when you pass a display selling coffee mugs for $5. There’s only... Continue reading at Fast Company
[ Fast Company | 2021-05-07 05:00:19 UTC ]
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More than 30 people raised $8.35 million to buy the building that houses Warwick's bookstore in La Jolla, Calif., saving it from having to move from where it has operated since 1952. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2021-05-03 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Northshire Bookstore in Manchester Center, Vt., and its sister store in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., have been sold to new owners, as has the Norwich Bookstore in Norwich, Vt. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2021-04-30 04:00:00 UTC ]
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New figures from the Publishers Association show fiction and audiobooks did particularly well, with value of consumer sales up 7% on 2019 despite bookshop closuresFiction sales in 2020 soared by more than £100m for UK publishers, as readers locked down at home made their escape into books, with... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2021-04-26 23:01:49 UTC ]
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Culture Street mural for Grenfell Tower, with poem by Ben Okri, North Kensington, London, image courtesy of IranWire and #PaintTheChange. London-based writer Malu Halasa canvasses the Middle Eastern and North African culture scene in London,... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2021-04-19 19:22:28 UTC ]
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I’m peeking out to post this week and rejoice that the warmth of spring and the end of a long Covid winter lets us all spend some time together. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2021-04-19 13:00:00 UTC ]
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An indie bookshop in Brigg, north Lincolnshire, was forced to close on Tuesday (13th April) after only a day's post-lockdown trading, following a break-in that left the shop unsafe for customers. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-04-13 17:09:48 UTC ]
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Even in boomtimes it is hard to keep a bookstore afloat: the margins are razor thin and you’re in constant competition for bookbuyers with the largest monopoly in the universe (Am*zon). This is why a lot stores—particularly newer ones—build higher-margin sidelines into their business models…... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2021-04-12 14:51:07 UTC ]
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