Book biz round-up: Malcolm X’s estate fight, and more

• Portland’s Powell’s Books lays off 31 workers, with second “bumping” phase to come
• Malcolm X’s family feuds over his estate, including a trove of unpublished works and journals
• Springfield Reads: Lisa Simpson gets her own book club
• Watch out Snooki, here comes Bristol Palin’s memoir
• Former milk delivery driver and best-selling British kids’ book author Brian Jacques dies

Publishing: not always a downer

There’s some funny book stuff floating around the internets today. Lest the trolls be confused or angered by humour, this is indeed an attempt to offer some Friday afternoon levity:

Eye Weekly columnist Sarah Nicole Prickett defends Chapters as her favourite bland non-space to rest without people judging her:

They don’t complain about how many magazines I’ve read for free and possibly ripped things from. They don’t look askance at my taste. Their eyebrows don’t say, “Oh, you’re just getting into Murakami now?” They make no suggestions, having nothing to prove; they work at Chapters. “Are you sure you want The Paris Review?” says absolutely nobody to me. “What about The Believer?” I never feel like I have to buy anything, the way I do everywhere else books are sold, as though upon walking in I’ve been handed a bucket, and now I must scoop out my share of the water to prevent us all from drowning. Not here. This ship will float on.

Those crazy kids at CBC Radio’s Day Six provide us with an audio track of Giller winners reading from Snooki’s debut novel, A Shore Thing:

Linden “Giller Gorilla” MacIntyre is a journalist with CBC’s The Fifth Estate, the winner of eight Gemini Awards, an International Emmy, and the 2009 Giller Prize for his novel, The Bishop’s Man.

Johanna “Skib-WOWW” Skibsrud is the 2010 Giller winner for The Sentimentalists, and the author of several collections of poetry.

The New York Times points to a project by a group of history teachers with an inventive and bizarre way to engage students. They produce music videos for altered versions of their favourite songs that replace the original lyrics with lyrics based on classic books and historical figures. Witness – for serious -  “Jenny From the Block” as Mary, Queen of Scots.

Daily book biz round-up: Starbucks books; Ian Tyson cashes in; and more

Today’s book news:

• Starbucks teams with iBookstore for new Wi-Fi digital network
• Ian Tyson says he wrote new memoir solely “for the money”
• College students still love expensive, back-breaking textbooks, says NY Times
• Is there a new Nook coming? And does anyone care?
• Harvard Bookstore launches bicycle delivery program

Price drop rumored for Kobo eReader

When it launched in May, one of the Kobo eReader’s big selling points was that it was one of the cheapest e-reading devices on the market at $149. But now, with Barnes & Noble selling the new wi-fi Nook for $149, and Amazon selling the new wi-fi Kindle for $139, the Kobo eReader – which requires a Bluetooth connection – suddenly has a lot less to recommend it. No surprise, then, that a Kobo price drop appears to be in the works. Though nothing has been announced officially as of yet, a current online-only piece in The New Yorker suggests that Kobo will be lowering prices very soon.

Reporting on a swanky rooftop party Kobo recently hosted in Toronto, The New Yorker had this to say:

Kobo is perhaps the scrappiest and most focussed player in the e-book war. Its online store has a vast and rapidly expanding catalogue of e-books that can be read on almost any mobile device (notable exception: the Kindle). And its own e-reader’s simplicity and affordability (it will reportedly be down to $99 in time for Christmas) has spawned a cult following. In Amazon’s rear-view mirror, Kobo is quickly gaining ground.

When asked by Q&Q to confirm the $99 rumor, Kobo vice-president of content, sales, and merchandising Michael Tamblyn said he wasn’t currently at liberty to comment on future pricing.

Daily book biz round-up: Reisman not selling Indigo; Peanuts worth more than peanuts; and more

Let your fingers do the reading:

• Heather Reisman says she’s not looking to sell Indigo
• Random House tries to downplay loss of Styron e-rights
• You’re a rich man, Charlie Brown
• Have Nook sales surpassed Kindle sales? (Note: beware fuzzy math)
• Does Twitter sell books? (Note: probably not)
• Harlan Coben goes all YA on you

The problem with the e-reader explosion

The glut of e-readers heading to market is liable to result in significant casualties – on the part of both buyers and manufacturers – when all is said and done, according to an article in the Silicone Alley Insider (reprinted from Gizmodo). Reporting on the number of Kindle and Nook knock-offs that cropped up at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show, which wrapped up yesterday in Las Vegas, Wilson Rothman writes that the people who end up satisfied with their e-readers will be those who purchase a unit sold through a store they already buy books from (Amazon, Barnes & Noble) or those who buy a cheap, disposable reader with a wide range of file compatibilities, then end up pirating the books they want to read from torrent sites. Other purchasers will find to their chagrin that their new readers are incompatible with various digital rights management platforms that publishers insist on, or that they can’t import files from a Kindle or a Nook.

The innovation that made the flood of e-readers possible – the introduction of e-ink – is itself responsible for the current situation, writes Rothman:

But the introduction of e-ink-based readers by many big tech companies and a handful of feisty little ones threatens to sow confusion in the market place, encourage piracy, and screw over any company who gets in and then can’t really hack it against Kindle and Nook. And all of it will be a pointless exercise when long-lasting slates are a reality.

E-ink is an interim technology, a stopgap measure to keep our attention till we have full-color video tablets (slates?) whose batteries last for “days.” A flood in the market might ensure that everyone buys one by this coming Christmas, but it’ll become increasingly hard to distinguish the good from the bad, will emphasize cheap devices over quality of interface and service, and will render most people completely confused and off-put.

Whereas the Kindle vs. Nook showdown was once positioned as the VHS vs. Betamax of the e-reader technology, it now appears that a different comparison is more appropriate. Rothman points out that the number of imitation e-readers currently appearing in the marketplace more closely resemble the dozens of MP3 players that cropped up to compete with the iPod. And what happened to all of those, again?

Bookmarks: E-books, Nooks, and poetry (or, one of these things is not like the others)

Sundry links from across the Web:

• Amazon: 1, Print publishers: 0. Stephen R. Covey, author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, has given Amazon exclusive e-book rights to two of his best-selling books 
• The clandestine guy in the striped shirt gets appy: Where’s Waldo? is now on the iPhone 
• The Wall Street Journal reviews the Barnes & Noble Nook and finds it doesn’t compare with the Kindle 
• The Guardian asks the pessimistic question: “Will e-books spell the end of great writing?” 
• This week in poetry: HTMLGIANT picks the 25 most important books of poetry of the 2000s; The Guardian considers the role of poetry in advertising; and Times Higher Education wonders if poetry is lost in a consumerist world 

Barnes & Noble e-books are coming to town

B&N announced yesterday that beginning around Dec. 1, Canadian customers will have access to the U.S. retailer’s e-book store and will be able to download titles to their iPhones, BlackBerrys, etc. However, B&N’s own e-reader, the Nook, will remain unavailable in Canada.

From B&N’s website:

We are not selling Nook in Canada (or anywhere outside of the United States) at this time. If you’re using a Nook in Canada, you will be able to sync your B&N eBooks library and access our eBook store via Wi-Fi.

We know there’s an incredible interest from readers who want to buy them from our eBook store outside the United States, and we are looking at our options for international sales. 

Bookmarks: Suing the Nook, profitable poetry, and more

Bookish links from around the Web:

• According to Amazon, Colum McCann’s Let the Great World Spin is the best book of 2009. Also on its list of the top 10 books of 2009: Strength in What Remains by Tracy Kidder; Hilary Mantel’s Booker Prize-winning Wolf Hall; Brooklyn by Colm Tóibín; Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl; Crazy for the Storm by Norman Ollstead; The Girl Who Played with Fire by Steig Larsson; The City & The City by China Miéville; Stitches by David Small; and The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by William Kamkwamba
• More trouble for Nook, Barnes & Noble’s new digital reader: GalleyCat reports that Spring Design is suing B&N over the Nook’s design, stating that the bookseller broke non-disclosure agreements and “misappropriated trade secrets” about Spring Design’s own Google-Android based e-book reader, Alex Reader
• British author/actor/comedian/Oscar Wilde fan/blogger/Tweeter Stephen Fry has something to say about the benefits of social media in this two-part online interview
• If you think the mania for classic literature and zombie mash-ups is going to die anytime soon, think again. The LA Times Jacket Copy reports that Quirk Books, the publishing company responsible for Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters has announced their latest project, titled Dawn of the Dreadfuls
• Can poetry be profitable? Publisher Dominique Raccah thinks so. The Wall Street Journal‘s Speakeasy announces Raccah’s trial website, an online poetry community that allows Web browsers to upload, hear, and buy poetry
• The ever-controversial Globe and Mail columnist and author Margaret Wente responds to her many haters. Turns out she likes to make Canadians angry, especially Newfoundlanders

James Frey updates at the top and bottom of every hour on In Other Media

The controversy continues over allegations that James Frey invented/embellished chunks of his Oprah-sanctioned bestselling memoir, A Million Little Pieces. The latest bit of news is that the next printing of Frey’s book will include a note from the author that will address this. As Hillel Italie of The Associated Press reports, however, it is unclear what Frey will write in his author’s note: “Doubleday spokeswoman Alison Rich declined to offer details about the note or to comment on why it was being added. She would not say if the note was an acknowledgment often found in memoirs but not in A Million Little Pieces that names and events had been altered.” In Other Media is sincerely hoping that the author’s note addresses beard-trimming techniques. (Was it just me or did his beard look a little mangy on Larry King Live?)

The story broke last Sunday on The Smoking Gun, so, just in time for the weekend newspapers, readers should be girding themselves for think pieces and other related fare, like this list on the CBC Arts website of the top 10 literary hoaxes, which includes everything from Ern Malley (the inspiration for Peter Carey’s My Life as a Fake) to David Solway’s creation, Andreas Karavis.

One of the best articles on the controversy so far is on Slate, where journalist Seth Mnookin, who has dealt with his own addiction problems, says that Frey’s fabrications are typical of the insecurity that he often encountered in rehab: “Based on all the evidence, it seems Frey’s weird, macho fear of seeing himself as a ‘victim’ led him to fabricate a life that was painful and extreme enough so as to explain the sadness and despair he felt.” Mnookin goes on to point out, however, that Frey’s fabrications are significant because of the simplistic message about addiction that the book reinforces.

Related links:
Click here for the AP story
Click here for the CBC Arts
Click here for the Slate article