Booksellers’ picks of the year: crime and mystery

The third instalment of Alan Bradley’s Flavia de Luce series, A Red Herring Without Mustard (Doubleday Canada), is one of the most popular crime and mystery titles of 2011, according to booksellers contacted by Q&Q.

Two other new books from established authors, Louise Penny’s A Trick of the Light (St. Martin’s Press/Raincoast) and Peter Robinson’s Before the Poison (McClelland & Stewart), are also among booksellers’ top 2011 crime and mystery titles.

A lesser-known Ontario author, retired aeronautical professional Liam Dwyer, has been one of the year’s top-selling authors at The Sleuth of Baker Street in Toronto. Co-owner Marian Misters says Murdoch in Muskoka (Muskoka Dockside Reader), a new omnibus containing the first three titles in Dwyer’s murder-mystery series, has been especially popular.

At Whodunit? Mystery Bookstore in Winnipeg, co-owner Jack Bumsted points to local author C.C. Benison’s Christmas mystery, Twelve Drummers Drumming (Doubleday Canada), as his store’s best-selling book of the year. Other top 2011 titles at Whodunit? include Q&Q book of the year The Water Rat of Wanchai and The Disciple of Las Vegas, both from Ian Hamilton’s Ava Lee series published by Spiderline, the new crime fiction imprint from House of Anansi Press.

Walter Sinclair, co-owner of Dead Write Books in Vancouver, says the best-selling 2011 books in his store have common features. “All are well-established authors, all with mysteries featuring series characters,” he says. Dead Write’s top titles this year include William Deverell’s latest Arthur Beauchamp mystery, I’ll See You in My Dreams (M&S), and the U.K. edition of Louise Penny’s Bury Your Dead (Headline/Hachette).

Borders on the brink, but Kobo continues to grow

A year ago, in the week following Christmas, Canadian publishers and distributors were greeted with the dismaying news that one of the country’s leading bookstore chains, McNally Robinson Booksellers, was significantly scaling back its operations, closing down locations in Toronto and Saskatoon Winnipeg. This year, a retail shakeup on an even bigger scale is taking place in the U.S., where the future of the bookselling chain Borders, which operates 676 bookstores across the U.S., is in question.

Late last week, the Ann Arbor, Michigan–based chain announced it is delaying payments to some of its vendors in an attempt to restructure its debt. The news set off investor panic, resulting in the company’s share price falling by 22 per cent on Friday.

Now, The Wall Street Journal is reporting that at least one major vendor, Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group (which owns the distributor National Book Network) has temporarily suspended shipments to the retail chain. Other publishing companies, including Hachette Book Group and Sourcebooks, are also reported to be considering similar options. From the WSJ:

“When a customer of that size calls you up and says you aren’t getting a check, that’s a piece of information you have to act on,” said Jed Lyons, CEO of Rowman & Littlefield.

Mr. Lyons said he wanted more information from Borders and expected to learn more from the bookseller this week. “Up until now they’d been paying us like clockwork,” he said.

[...]

Mr. Lyons said that about a year ago, National Book Network approached its clients and said that if they wanted their books distributed to Borders, they would have to assume the risk associated with that business. Most clients, he added, responded by saying they wanted to continue shipping to Borders.

Borders is the U.S. retail partner for Kobo, the Indigo-owned e-book company, which nevertheless put a rosy spin on its holiday numbers. In a press release, Kobo reported that it had its best weekend ever on Christmas and Boxing Day, and that the number of registered Kobo users had nearly doubled since mid-November.

“Earlier this month we predicted that Christmas would be a record breaker for Kobo, and we have exceeded our expectations driving several ebook downloads per second since Christmas Eve, or an equivalent number hardcover books stacked as high as 50 Empire State Buildings [sic],”  Kobo CEO Michael Serbinis said in the release. Kobo also noted that it had experienced some of its biggest gains outside North America, in countries such as Germany, the Netherlands, and Singapore.

Event photos: Louise Penny and Stanley’s furry onstage adventures

On May 1, Louise Penny was presented with the Agatha Award for Best Novel for The Brutal Telling (Hodder Headline/Hachette) at the Malice Domestic convention, held in Bethesda, Maryland. (Photo by Robin Templeton/ Courtesy of Hachette)

Stanley’s Party, an adaptation of Linda Bailey and Bill Slavin’s Stanley’s Party and Stanley’s Wild Ride (both published by Kids Can Press), is running to the end of May at the Manhattan Children’s Theater in New York City. In the play, Stanley is the loutish husband to Stella, sister of Blanche… oh wait. Above: Stanley helps one of his furry friends through the fence. Ruh roh! (Photo courtesy of Kids Can)

Daily book biz round-up, March 19

One last news round-up before the weekend:

• Amazon plays hardball with Simon & Schuster, Penguin, HarperCollins, and Hachette
• Amazon unveils Kindle for Mac. (Meanwhile, cats and dogs form truce, start working together to overthrow humans.)
• Is new Kindle app a victory for Amazon or Apple?
• Apple might not have much content ready for iPad launch
• Ian Rankin finds literary circuit to be full of “bitching and backbiting“
• Shane Koyczan reflects on his Olympics experience
• If you’re going to write about Parisian fabrics, get a lawyer first
• Joe Sacco becomes first graphic novelist to win Ridenhour Prize for “truth-telling”
• Bloomsbury group archive sheds new light on Virginia Woolf’s death
• Wanna see the future of book scanning? Check this out

Daily book biz round-up, March 12

Come ‘n get yer scoops:

• Hilary Mantel wins National Book Critics Circle Award
• Margaret Atwood to sing her little heart out in Score: A Hockey Musical. And if you don’t believe that, here’s some pics.
• Crummey and Mitchell win Commonwealth book prizes
• You can’t have an iPad yet, but you can pay for one right now!
• More breathless iPad revelations: book selections to be categorized … and sub-categorized!
• Hachette Livre takes off glove, slaps Paris Book Fair in face
• “Unknown mid-list author from Canada” begs for dough on Dragon’s Den
• Macmillan CEO (and heartthrob) John Sargent ponders the “thorny” problem of e-books and libraries
• John Sargent again, this time taking questions from his adoring fans

Daily book biz round-up, March 11

News, news, and more news:

• Graphic novel glitch just keeps getting worse as Amazon removes Diamond’s buy buttons
• Stephenie Meyer floats Hachette’s boat
• Italy falls in Google’s big game of Axis & Allies
• How many ISBN codes does one e-book need? Discuss.
• Simon Winchester gets in time machine, sets dial to “good ol’ days”
• First Nelson Mandela, then the Dalai Lama, now… John Ralston Saul
• Can e-books save long form journalism?

The book industry: this week in quotes

“I suddenly understood what fiction was for…I had to read books that I wouldn’t have necessarily read. I had to read them well and I had to read them in a short space of time. Back to back. Annie Proulx and ­Margaret ­Atwood and Beryl Bainbridge and Anne Michaels – boom, boom, boom. And I started to realise what fiction could be. And I thought, wow! You can be ambitious, you can take on the world – you really can.” – Andrea Levy, on judging the 1997 Orange Prize

“It’s important to note that we are not looking to the agency model as a way to make more money on e-books. In fact, we make less on each e-book sale under the new model; the author will continue to be fairly compensated and our e-book agents will make money on every digital sale. We’re willing to accept lower return for e-book sales as we control the value of our product–books, and content in general. We’re taking the long view on e-book pricing, and this new model helps protect the long term viability of the book marketplace.” – David Young, CEO of Hachette Book Group, in a letter to agents supporting Macmillan and the agency pricing model for e-books

“We are removing Amazon.com links from our website. Our authors depend on people buying their books and since a significant percentage of them publish through Macmillan or its subsidiaries, we would prefer to send traffic to stores where the books can actually be purchased.” – The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America

“Forlorn as this hope may be, I can only fantasize that at least you might read my letter through and consider the pleasures and prestige of being an author at Faber, the last great family-owned independent publishing house in the western hemisphere.” – Faber editorial director Lee Brackstone in an open letter to Morrissey requesting he publish a memoir with Faber

Publishers take stand against e-books

Simon & Schuster is taking action against the cut-rate $9.99 pricing of digital bestsellers by delaying the e-book editions of approximately 35 titles coming out in 2010. Hachette Book Group plans to follow suit.

According to a report by the Wall Street Journal, these efforts acknowledge that book pricing has become the most pressing issue on the publishing landscape.

From the article:

“The right place for the e-book is after the hardcover but before the paperback,” said Carolyn Reidy, CEO of Simon & Schuster, which is owned by CBS Corp. “We believe some people will be disappointed. But with new [electronic] readers coming and sales booming, we need to do this now, before the installed e-book reading devices gets to a size where doing it would be impossible.”

Simon & Schuster will publish e-books four months after the hardcover publication date. Titles affected by this action include Don DeLillo’s Point Omega (due in February), Karl Rove’s memoir Courage and Consequence (March), and Jodi Picoult’s House Rules (March).

McArthur to lose Hachette U.K. lines

Earlier today, the international publishing giant Hachette Book Group announced that it will be moving Canadian sales and distribution of its U.K. lines to its U.S. offices. The decision will have major ramifications for several players in the Canadian publishing scene, including HarperCollins Canada, Penguin Canada, and H.B. Fenn and Company.  No one, however, will be more affected than McArthur & Company, which currently represents the bulk of Hachette’s U.K. lines in Canada, including Orion, Hodder & Stoughton, Hodder Headline, John Murray, and Hachette Children’s Books. According to a press release sent out by Hachette, McArthur will continue representing those lines until Dec. 31, 2009, after which point Hachette will take over permanently. This will be a major blow to McArthur, as the lines make up approximately two thirds of its business.

Look for a more detailed report later today on Q&Q Omni.

The perils of comics publishing

Two articles in Publishers Weekly highlight the challenges faced by today’s comic book publishers when seeking an audience.

First, distribution giant Diamond’s new minimum wholesale order ($2,500, up from $1,500) is creating hardship for smaller independent houses. Last month, Hollywood-based Asylum Press received 1200 orders for Fearless Dawn (which PW describes as a “tongue-in-cheek adventure comic”) – a significant number for an independent comic, but one that failed to meet Diamond’s minimum, says PW.

So… the press is offering the issue ($2.95 cover price) directly to retailers at a 60% discount ($1.18). Asylum pays for shipping and offers a 30 day payment schedule and no minimum order.

Second, in a reversal of the recent (and increasingly commonplace) practice of acquiring webcomics and turning them into print books, Hachette’s graphic novel imprint, Yen Press, plans on serializing its upcoming translation of French cartoonist David Ratte’s Toxic Planet online.

Hassler said the book was created in a comic strip style – short full-color 4-panel comics strips that lampoon a future-society so awash in pollution that people take wearing a gas mask for granted – and will work well as an online serial. And Hassler said that the book is perfect for the web – a funny and unusual comics [sic] strip by an author that is being published in English for the first time.