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Barnes and Noble for Sale?

Image via CrunchBase

When hardcover sales began to dwindle a few years ago, there was talk that Barnes and Noble would either sell or swallow up a major competitor.

The possibility of the sale of B&N comes as a surprise since they recently ramped up their digital book sales by opening an ebook store with more than a million titles and launching the ebook reader, The Nook, the most formidable competitor to the Kindle.

Have any idea who would buy B&N? I would not be surprised if it were Amazon. What do you think?

From Book Business magazine – Aug. 4, 2010

A “for sale” sign may soon be hanging in the window of bookstore giant Barnes & Noble Inc., the company announced today.

According to a press release issued this morning, Barnes & Noble’s Board of Directors “intends to evaluate strategic alternatives, including a possible sale of the company, in order to increase stockholder value. The Board came to this decision based on the price of Barnes & Noble shares in the marketplace, which the Board believes are now significantly undervalued.” >more

Related articles

• Barnes & Noble up for sale; winner takes nook (slashgear.com)
• Barnes & Noble may consider sale of company (marketwatch.com)
• Barnes & Noble may put itself up for sale (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Barnes & Noble up for sale (financialpost.com)
• Barnes & Noble puts itself up for sale (money.cnn.com)

Borders launches e-bookstore

Now that Borders has entered the ebook revolution, we will also see lower ebook prices and market pressure to lower the cost of ebook readers.

From The Wall Street Journal – July 8, 2010
By JEFFREY A. TRACHTENBERG

Intent on catching up in the fast-evolving e-book arena, retailer Borders Group Inc. is launching an e-bookstore with titles provided by Kobo Inc., the Canadian e-book retailer in which it has an investment stake.

The nation’s second-largest bookstore chain in sales, Borders, based in Ann Arbor, Mich., acquired the stake in December and said Kobo would provide e-books for sale on Borders.com.

For consumers, the entrance of Borders into the e-book marketplace may mean lower prices on some titles. More>

Bookstores are no longer a guarantee of an author’s success

Some interesting questions from a potential author -

Author: Do I have a better chance going the traditional route (agency, etc), than with Outer Banks Publishing, in order to get the book to the big screen?

Outer Banks: No. The content is what will get you there whether you self-publish, publish with a small publisher or large one. However, there are agents out there who specialize in film placement and they have connections in Hollywood and in the film industry if you can get one to represent you.

Author: Would my book make its way into the main stream bookstores if I went with Outer Banks?

Outer Banks: It would depend on sales and demand. Keep in mind a book is a product like any other product and if people love it, they will demand it and it will sell. People will ask for it in bookstores and the bookstores will have to keep it on their shelves.

Let’s say you landed a major publisher, one of the big 6 in New York. They would place two copies in all the major book stores given the state of book sales today. Two things could happen: it sells and the bookstore orders more copies or it sits there until the 90-day consignment period is over and the bookstore either discounts it or sends it back to the publisher.

With roughly 100,000 books in a given big box bookstore (Borders, Barnes and Noble, Books-a-Million) how is your book going to stand out? Having your book in a bookstore does not guarantee sales or exposure anymore. Before the Internet and Amazon, bookstores were the only place to get books. Now most books in print as well as  ebooks are sold online.

The current book selling trend is this: ebooks are outselling printed books. Dan Brown‘s The Lost Symbol, presold more copies as an ebook than print titles.  Bookstores are ultimately forced to stock less.

But don’t fear, bookstores will always be around just like the printed book, but they may be a lot smaller. If they want to stay large, they will have to reinvent themselves, perhaps into a literary center where authors, writers, and readers can meet and have open discussions, debates or writing sessions.

Related articles

• “If You Write It, They’ll Buy It.” Just Ain’t So! (dancurtis.ca)
• A Tiny Increase in Independent Bookstores (slog.thestranger.com)
• Books-A-Million Buys Stake In Frozen Yogurt Company (huffingtonpost.com)
• Politics And Prose Bookstore For Sale; Hoardes Of Agents, Authors, Investors Vie For Chance To Take Over (huffingtonpost.com)

New Author Workshops for the Week of March 22

Publish and Sell Enterprises is now adding more FREE and paid online courses for authors on self-publishing, book marketing and other topics relevant to writers and authors everywhere.

Here are some of the workshop offerings this week:

Wednesday, March 24, 2010, 1-3 pm EDT: Ebook Formatting and Publishing (PS 204)
Workshop Description
Register now

Thursday, March 25, 2010, 7-9 pm EDT: Using Createspace To Publish Your Book (PS206)
Workshop Description
Register Now

Other offerings include:

1. Creating A Successful Publishing and Marketing Plan (PS201)
2. Understanding Lulu & Createspace (PS202)
3. Ebook Formatting and Publishing (PS 204)
4. Using Lulu To Publish Your Book (PS205)
5. Using Createspace To Publish Your Book (PS206)
6. Optimizing Your Facebook Presence (PS207)

Check out the workshops page at http://www.publishandsell.com/author-workshops/ for more information.

Welcome to Outer Banks Publishing Group – Authors Wanted

Outer Banks Publishing Group is one of the first publishing houses to use the latest digital printing technologies, social networking, virtual marketing, and the Internet to publish, promote, and sell books in electronic formats as well as in print.

If you are serious about becoming a published author we invite you to submit a query for your book on the Author’s Query Page.

We are accepting most genres in nonfiction and fiction.

Outer Banks Publishing Group
183 Duck Road
Southern Shores, NC 27949
919 961-0198

Copyright 2009 Outer Banks Publishing Group