Barnes & Noble Inc.

Barnes & Noble has put up an excellent fight over the past few years against the rising tide of digital competitors like iPad, Kindle Fire, etc.

But it would seem that the bookseller has still come up a bit short, as the Wall Street Journal reports that the company has plans to shut down nearly 20 stores per year over the course of the next decade.

In the days when books were only available in wearable and tearable bound editions, it made sense for buyers to pay money upfront. But with the advent of e-books, that model may no longer be desirable or even necessary, contends Israel-based entrepreneur Yoav Lorch. Lorch, who is also a published author, is the founder and CEO of Total Boox, a web and app-based system in early beta that lets you "read first, pay later."

Barnes & Noble had a rough holiday season: Same-store sales fell compared to a year ago and revenue from sales of the Nook tablet stalled. Despite a heavy investment in the Nook business, Barnes & Noble is expected to have a three-year cumulative loss of more than $700 million, according to Barclays Capital -- an indication that the bookstore's multi-front war with online retailer Amazon.com doesn't seem to be working.

The holiday season was not a happy one for Barnes & Noble, judging by latest sales figures released by the company.
Sales of their Nook products, which Barnes & Noble has been pushing over the past several months, dropped 12.6 percent to $311 million over the shopping season and total sales of retail operations also experienced a steep decline, dropping 10.9 percent to $1.2 billion. The company did not release sales figures detailing the number of Nook e-readers sold.

For Barnes & Noble, the digital future is not what it used to be.

After a year spent signaling its commitment to build its business through its Nook division, Barnes & Noble on Thursday announced disappointing holiday sales figures, with steep declines that underscored the challenge it faces in transforming from its traditional retail format.

Amazon may have been touting its record holiday sales season, but Barnes & Noble is now reporting the opposite: according to a report released today, the company’s retail businesses, which include the Barnes & Noble bookstores and BN.com, saw a 10.9 percent decrease in sales over the nine-week holiday period ending December 29, 2012. Nook sales and BN.com were also down.

We’ve reached an interesting point in the ebook pricind saga: All three publishers that settled with the Department of Justice to resolve an ebook price-fixing lawsuit have now fulfilled the first and most important part of their agreements — sign new ebook deals with their retail partners.

Simon & Schuster was the last to sign a new deal with Amazon and others — putting its new agreement into place this weekend. Hachette had its new deal up and running earlier this past week. And HarperCollins was very early out the gate…

Hachette has entered into new ebook contracts with retailers following the ebook pricing settlement with the Department of Justice. Amazon and Barnes & Noble are now discounting the publisher’s ebooks, and other retailers should follow soon.

Experts in book app development and marketing gathered today at the Media App Summit in New York to talk tools for discoverability and profitability. Panelists stressed that discoverability begins with a quality product and understanding your target market.

"I know first-hand how painful discovery can be in the app marketplace," Matt Cavnar, VP of business development at Vook, told the audience. Publishers, he pointed out, often still have trouble getting traction for a good product in an environment where app creation has gotten easier and cheaper.

Self-help guru Tim Ferriss may have had a troubled start with his latest book, The 4-Hour Chef, but now it’s flying off the shelves. The book in question has gone from being boycotted by Barnes and Noble to becoming the first BitTorrent bestseller.

Here’s the story. The book is published by Amazon Publishing, which signed the back in August 2011. As a result, Barnes and Noble, as well as a few other brick and mortar booksellers, declared that they will not carry the book, as part of their battle with Amazon…