Great Opportunity: Ann Arbor Indie Bookstore
Nicola Rooney, owner of Nicola’s Books, Ann Arbor’s largest independent bookstore, wants to sell the store she has owned since 1995. There is very inexpensive part time help available to start immediately.
New B&N CEO Has Finance Background
Michael Huseby has been named CEO of B&N after his latest stint running the moribund Nook division. Although his background is in finance, he says he “has a lot of passion for this business”.
All You Can Read Subscriptions
Avid ebook users can get all that they can handle from a few competing services. Amazon’s Prime membership offers 350,000 titles ($79/year, includes other non-book features), newcomer Oyster already claims 100,000 titles ($9.95/month), and Scribd boasts of 40 million books and documents on hand ($8.99/month).
That Which We Call a Rose by Any Other Name…
Now that all of the important issues in Washington have been resolved, there’s a move afoot to rename the Government Printing Office to the Government Publishing Office. I suppose they’ll need to find a printer to redo the stationery.
Save Indies, Ban Free Delivery
Concern over the continuing decline in the number of small, independent bookstores, the French Senate has voted to level the playing field by banning free shipping of book purchases. Perhaps well intentioned, but I can’t wait to see the unintended consequences.
Photoshop Does 3D
Adobe hopes to attract more clients to its Creative Cloud subscription service by enabling CC Photoshop to work with 3D printers.
Can a Building Without Books be a Library?
Since the word library comes from the Latin word libraria (bookstore), San Antonio coined a more accurate descriptor for its new public collection of digital only information, BiblioTech, a neat play on words. The BiblioTech serves a barely literate clientele. 
PBS – The Next Oprah?
Twenty four hours after PBS aired the documentary about Catcher in the Rye author J.D. Salinger, Amazon sales exploded, making it their #1 title.
Of Ebooks and Apps
Did you want to publish an ebook or an app (along with your printed book of course)? What’s the difference? It may define where your book will be sold and who may or may not find it online.
No New Public Domain Works in 2013 (or 2014)
Thanks to the efforts of Rep. Sonny Bono (deceased) working at the behest of the Disney Corporation (trying to protect its one trick mouse) no books, drama, music, or art entered the public domain in the U.S. again in 2013. Mickey remains in protective custody.
A Free Virtual Getty Experience
Having posted 4,600 hi-res images of some of its art last summer, the Getty has more than doubled that number plus posted all of its books published since 1966 online with no user fees or subscriptions.
Ebook Apostle
After reporting that printed books remain popular with 18 – 29 year olds Michael Morris (Pew Research) goes on to speculate that some people, “are going to stick to print for incredibly boring reasons” even though the research he cited did not study why some people still purchase books for reasons that are boring or otherwise. Michael apparently discounted this article on his iPad.
A Wine Named Paper Trail
Every three years Clampitt Paper sponsors a contest for graphic artists to name a wine and design a label for its bottle. The deign and execution of wine labels is an art form in itself, involving paper selection, artwork and design, foil stamping, die cutting and even numbering.This years winner was for a wine called Paper Trail.
Counterfeit Super Bowl Tickets 
I’m impressed. Two men were arrested at a Bronx White Castle for selling counterfeit NFL Superbowl tickets that were good enough to be scanned at the gate for admission. The high quality printer that produced the imposters? Kinkos! (The ticket on the far right is real.)
Final Thought
If all printers were determined not to print anything till they were sure it would offend nobody, there would be very little printed. Benjamin Franklin
