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 ]
The Booker Prize has reassured readers the £50,000 literary award has “not yet been decided” – after a bookshop mistakenly branded copies of Margaret Atwood’s The Testaments with a “winner” sticker. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-09-17 10:52:14 UTC ]
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Quercus held a sales conference with a difference yesterday by sending out its teams to booksellers around the UK, Ireland, France and Belgium. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-09-12 08:22:12 UTC ]
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Travel book specialists Stanfords has opened a specialist food bookshop in a joint venture with street food pioneers KERB "to showcase London’s food and cultural history through literature". Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-09-11 04:36:19 UTC ]
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Well, today is the day you’ve all been waiting for: Margaret Atwood’s hotly hyped, closely guarded, imperfectly embargoed, Booker-shortlisted The Testaments is on the bookstore shelves. For the superfans among you, we’ve collected a selection of photographs of Atwood below, from childhood to the... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2019-09-10 08:49:55 UTC ]
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Citing 37 percent of revenue from frontlist titles, 63 bookstore companies with 80 locations respond to BookNet Canada’s new report. By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson Non-Book Merchandise: 16 Percent of Revenue or partisans of print and brick-and-mortar bookstores, the... Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2019-09-09 20:54:40 UTC ]
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Citing 37 percent of revenue from frontlist titles, 63 bookstore companies with 80 locations respond to BookNet Canada's new report. The post BookNet Canada’s First ‘State of Independent Bookselling’ Report: Print Revenue up appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2019-09-09 20:54:40 UTC ]
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Hachette UK and the Booksellers Association have launched a new £5,000 Sceptre Bookshop Award for stores that make an outstanding contribution to their community. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-09-09 10:33:41 UTC ]
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Back in May, I signed an embargo agreement on behalf of my bookstore stating that I would “ensure that [The Testaments by Margaret Atwood] is stored in a monitored and locked, secured area and not placed on the selling floor prior to the on-sale date.” The idea behind such agreements is that... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2019-09-06 11:00:49 UTC ]
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An awesome daily roundup of the most interesting bookish links from around the web. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2019-09-05 10:30:57 UTC ]
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Notting Hill indie Lutyens & Rubinstein Bookshop will celebrate its 10th anniversary this autumn. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-08-29 17:39:42 UTC ]
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Christian Product Expo, presented by the Munce Marketing Group and the Christian Retailer Association (CRA), brought nearly 800 bookstore owners and publishing representatives together in Murfreesboro, Tenn., from Aug. 25-27. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2019-08-28 04:00:00 UTC ]
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A new independent bookshop will open its doors to customers in Bourne, Lincolnshire this weekend. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-08-28 01:26:30 UTC ]
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Police are investigating after burglars broke into London's Housmans Bookshop and stole the store's cash drawer and charity box last week. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-08-27 10:02:54 UTC ]
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A Big Green Bookshop crowdfunder to get copy of climate activist Greta Thunberg's book into schools across the UK has raised more than £11,000 in a month, with Penguin Random House matching copies raised and creating an accompanying classroom pack. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-08-27 01:46:04 UTC ]
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At China's Asian Bookstore Forum in Xi'an, researchers cited a sharp shift, book sales moving quickly away from physical stores and over to online retail. The post Asian Bookstore Forum 2019: The Retail Context in China Today appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2019-08-23 05:30:19 UTC ]
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Octopus imprint Hamlyn has bagged a book of anecdotes, laugh-out-loud moments and uplifting life lessons from ITV panel show “Loose Women”, marking its 20th anniversary. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-08-20 04:41:45 UTC ]
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A little additional advice to self-published authors on maintaining successful relationships with indie booksellers. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2019-08-19 12:00:51 UTC ]
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I own a 19-year-old copy of Vladimir Nabokov’s Invitation to a Beheading. I place its age from the barcode on its back, which states the name of the bookstore where I bought it: Borders.The one that used to sit on the ground floor of the World Trade Center, the one I’d been to multiple times […] Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2019-08-19 08:50:43 UTC ]
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Wood Green's co-operative bookshop, The All Good Bookshop, has secured temporary premises and plans to open this week. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-08-18 22:20:02 UTC ]
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At a shop that at times functioned as a sanctuary after the Tree of Life shooting, the owner sees his job as “a moral obligation.” Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2019-08-18 09:00:09 UTC ]
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