Olsson's Faces Bankruptcy
Creditors including Random House, Penguin and Hachette Book Group
petitioned a bankruptcy court last week to liquidate Washington, DC
independent store group Olsson's, seeking payments of nearly $400,000.
The Washington Post reports that Ingram and Sony also hold claims to
Olsson's inventories. An attorney for the stores says that they intend
to convert the Chapter 7 filing to Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in
the hopes of reorganizing.
The Washington Post reports: "Pressed by creditors who have filed
claims against the company's inventories and by rising overhead costs,
Olsson's is closing at least one store (in Penn Quarter) and will
evaluate its ability to operate its remaining five properties, an
attorney for the company said." That closing will leave the company
with five stores, down from a total of nine stores in 2002.
Like Borders and other big chains, the decline in music sales has
played a role. John Olsson, who founded the stores over 50 years ago,
tells the Post, "Our music sales went from 50 percent of our business
to maybe 15. We lost a lot of revenue, and at the same time rents went
up and real estate taxes went up. I don't know what we would have done
differently. It's a killer."
Post
New Stores for NOLA and Lexington
On the flip side, the Afro-American Book Stop in New Orleans will
reopen this week in a new 1,500-square-foot space. The previous store
was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
Local
story
In Lexington, KY, Wyn Morris and Hap Houlihan have opened the Morris
Book Shop. Stocking about 20,000 titles, Morris says "I'm going to keep
it as regional as I can." Both men have worked for University Press of
Kentucky and Joseph-Beth Booksellers.
Kentucky
site
Karp On Publishing
Twelve publisher Jonathan Karp has an essay in the Sunday Washington
Post on the state of publishing. He remarks on "the relentless,
indiscriminate proliferation" of commercial "ephemera" on the
bookshelves" and freely admits "I too have sinned. In weaker moments,
I've been seduced by tales of celebrity, money, gossip and scandal." He
notes: "Most authors want their work to be accessible to a typical
educated reader, so the question really isn't whether the work is
highbrow or lowbrow or appeals to the masses or the elites; the
question is whether the book is expedient or built to last. Are we
going for the quick score or enduring value? Too often, we (publishers
and authors) are driven by the same concerns as any commercial
enterprise: We are manufacturing products for the moment."
Karp also observes: "I can't prove it empirically, but when I talk to
literary agents and fellow publishers, they acknowledge an
unarticulated truth about our business: Fewer authors are devoting more
than two years to their projects. The system demands more, faster.
Conventional wisdom holds that popular novelists should deliver one or
two books per year. Nonfiction authors often aren't paid enough to work
full-time on a book for more than a year or two." One result:
"Journalism has long been regarded as the first rough draft of history;
lately, however, books have too easily been thought of as the second
rough draft, rather than the final word."
His prediction/hope: "Publishers will be forced to invest in works of
quality to maintain their niche. These books will be the one product
that only they can deliver better than anyone else.... For publishers,
R&D means giving authors the resources to write the best books -- works that will last, because the lasting books will, ultimately, be
where the money is."
Post
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