Bookstore chain Barnes & Noble has cut back orders of new Simon & Schuster titles — to “almost nothing” for some books — during an ongoing dispute over financial terms. Refusing to sell books is a new negotiating tactic for B&N, though not unheard of in the industry; Amazon.com famously removed “buy now” buttons from Macmillan titles during [...]

Tom Doherty Associates, publisher of Tor and Forge Books, has announced that it will launch an online store to sell DRM-free e-books directly to readers. Opening summer 2012, the Tor/Forge DRM-Free E-book Store will be hosted at www.tor.com. It will sell all Tor, Forge, Starscape, Tor Teen, and Orb e-book titles, and plans to eventually [...]

The Science Fiction Writers of America plans to remove many of its links to Amazon.com, following Amazon’s decision to remove 4,000 books distributed by IPG in the aftermath of a pricing dispute between the two companies. When possible, SFWA volunteers will redirect links to indiebound.org, Powell’s, and Barnes and Noble. From the SFWA website: “While [...]

Esteemed Minneapolis, MN bookstore DreamHaven announced that they are closing their retail location at the end  of January 2012.  In a note sent to the DreamHaven Catalog email list, owner Greg Ketter described the situation: “It’s been a tough decision but in-store business has all but disappeared. Mail order shouldn’t change too much because of [...]

Following in the footsteps of Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million announced they will no longer sell print versions of the 100 graphic novel titles that DC plans to release exclusively in digital form on the new Amazon Kindle Fire next month. Books-A-Million president Terry Finley said, “We will not promote titles in our stores… if publishers [...]

Barnes & Noble yanked physical copies of 100 DC Comics titles from shelves after the publisher cut its first digital rights deal exclusively with Amazon for those books. The titles are scheduled to be released in conjunction with the launch of Amazon’s Kindle Fire, their first color e-reader. B&N said it is following company policy [...]

Borders will not emerge from bankruptcy successfully, but will instead be liquidated. With no bidders interested in keeping the bookstore chain as a going concern, Borders chose to cancel the planned July 19 auction, and instead announced plans to submit a liquidation plan from Hilco and Gordon Brothers to the bankruptcy court for approval. Assuming approval [...]

Australia’s dominant bookselling organization REDgroup Retail has been placed into voluntary administration by its owner, private equity group PEP, just a day after Borders Group filed for bankruptcy. The group includes Angus & Robertson, Borders in Australia, and New Zealand’s Whitcoulls, with a combined staff of about 2,500. Angus & Robertson’s history in Australia dates [...]

Borders has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, listing a debt of $1.29 billion and assets of $1.275 billion, in U.S. Bankruptcy Court. They expect to “finalize and implement a store closure, store liquidation and lease modification plan” as approved by their board, closing about 30 percent of their 642 stores, or approximately 200 locations, over [...]

Borders Bookstore announced on Sunday, January 30 that it would delay January payments to some landlords and vendors (including major publishers) for the second month in a row, causing speculation that the company may have to file for bankruptcy. According to a company statement, the payment delay “is intended to help the company maintain liquidity [...]