Barnes and Noble Exiting Bookstore Business?

Why Is Barnes and Noble Getting Out of the Bookstore Business? - The Daily Beast: " . . . closing bookstores is a good way to save money. It pains me to say this. Some of the happiest hours of my childhood were spent curled up behind the shelves of two bookstores--Shakespeare and Company and Murder Ink--on New York's Upper West Side. But the sad fact is that Amazon is crushing the margins of physical retailers, including bookstores, in two ways. Fewer customers are coming to the stores, as people let their fingers do the walking instead. And Amazon's low prices have forced retailers to cut their prices to stay competitive. As a result, many stores are unprofitable, borderline profitable, or experiencing declining revenue. It's true that having a physical bookstore around probably means that more books get sold. But it doesn't seem to be true that those extra book sales produce enough revenue to cover the cost of all that lovingly organized and curated real estate. . . . Don't count Barnes and Noble out entirely.  Their college bookstore business still seems to be strong, and they may be able to reimagine their way to a higher-value, more premium experience.  But doing so will almost certainly mean shrinking, down to a manageable number of premium outlets with a specialist staff.  Which means, alas, closing bookstores and getting rid of those expensive leases before they drag the company under."

New documents spark questions over ''In Cold Blood'' book
Reuters
In the book, Capote wrote that as soon as KBI officials received a tip about the location of two men who were later convicted of killing the Clutters, the agency immediately dispatched an agent to a Kansas farmhouse where one of the suspects had been ...

Book gives advice for women with low libido
News & Observer
See page DX for a list of the romance books in the drawing. Valentine's Day survival guide. Here are some tips from Laurie Watson to help keep romance – not stress – in the spotlight for ... And that's what prompted her to write “Wanting Sex Again: How ...

News & Observer

Did Mike Piazza use steroids? 'I didn't,' he says in book
Los Angeles Times
The Hall of Fame election came and went without the release of Mike Piazza's long-awaited book. Piazza might ... Now that the Piazza book is about to go on sale, with the book tour about to start in New York, Piazza gave an interview to the New York Times.

The mystery of Arthur Kingsley Porter
Boston Globe
Boston author Randy Susan Meyers will be all over town this week celebrating the release of her second novel, “The Comfort of Lies” (Atria). An affair leads to a pregnancy; the woman gives the baby up for adoption. The story, set in and around Boston ...

Lance Armstrong Sued for Lying | Lawyers.com - JDSupra: " . . . Consumer lawsuits over falsified memoirs are rare, without a strong track record of victories in the courtroom. “In my opinion, the best legal argument for the plaintiffs is consumer fraud,” says Eric D. Morton, a business and intellectual property attorney with the Law Offices of Eric D. Morton. “The theory being that Lance Armstrong produced a book that was purportedly true (non-fiction) when, in fact, large portions of it were lies (essentially fiction).” There are a few recent precedents for litigation over fabricated memoirs. James Frey, author of “A Million Little Pieces,” settled a consumer fraud class action by offering a refund to customers who bought his ostensibly-true book only to learn that it was mostly made up. Then last year a judge dismissed a suit against Greg Mortenson over his books about school building in Pakistan and Afganistan, “Three Cups of Tea” and ”Stones Into Schools.” Mortenson had been outed as a liar by author John Krakauer, but a judge called the lawsuit alleging fraud and racketeering to boost book sales “flimsy and speculative.” The Armstrong lawsuit will test the law on fraud and memoirs anew, with a new set of facts. “Consumers were induced to buy a work on the premise that was false,” Morton says. “Those facts could also support causes of action for unfair business practices and false advertising. I’ll be interested to see how the case plays out.”

With This Start-Up, Your Favorite Novel Never Has to End - NYTimes.com: "adventure drove him to create Small Demons, a literary search engine that appeared online two years ago. Small Demons catalogs and cross-indexes the people, places and things that appear in books, encouraging readers to explore a world Mr. Vakili calls “the storyverse.” Browsing Small Demons, he explained, is like “getting sucked down the literary rabbit hole and finding all these weird connections.” But is that a business? . . . "

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