Post #57 – Women’s Memoirs, Book Business – Kendra Bonnett and Matilda Butler
A short post today, but I wanted to share the contents of an email I received on Friday. And it’s a shot of good news for book lovers. Whenever I think of book lovers, I think first of my mother, who was an avid reader. She got her first library card at the age of five and visited her little town library every day. The library was her sanctuary when she wasn’t holed up in her room drawing or painting.
She made certain that she passed her love of books along to my sister, brother and me. I love reading, I enjoy browsing bookstores and I own a lot of books, but I’m more in love with the content than the physical book. My sister is just the opposite. She snorts whenever I suggest that conventional books might disappear or become ridiculously expensive in the future. She vows never to use an e-reader and punctuates her commitment with almost daily trips to the bookstore or the library.
So this Friday’s email will be welcome news to my sister and probably to many of you. I subscribe to several email services that keep me up to date on trends, and apparently, according to TrendCentral, there is a surge in new, independent bookstores. Here’s a link to the TrendCentral article, “Every Trick in the Book.” The shops range from cozy, old-world style to high tech/high style and often include more than books to Mario Batali’s book/cookbook boutique inside his New York restaurant Eataly.
The book column in New York magazine confirms that the city’s big box bookstores are getting fresh competition from several neighborhood indie bookstores. You can read Joe Keohane’s article “Indie Bookstores Rising” here.
I know that iPads, Kindles, Nooks and more are making inroads on our reading habits and coming on faster than even many experts predicted. Not only did Apple sell 3.27 million iPads in the third quarter but a Marketing and Research Resources Inc. survey finds that e-readers are driving greater book sales. But whether you’re a devotee of the ink on pulp or digital flickers on a screen, books and reading are enjoying renewed strength. We don’t yet know the statistics for the year, but any upticks are good news for us as readers and writers.
New Releases in Biographies and Memoirs
One more thing before I wrap this up. I mentioned the emails about trends that I receive weekly. I also get regular updates from Amazon. One of them is the list of new biographies and memoirs. This is handy service. If you’re not getting these, I recommend them. You can sign up for alerts from within your Amazon account.
memoir
book sales
reading and writing
