UK based James Daunt is CEO of Barnes & Noble, America’s largest bookstore chain. The company plans to add 60 new retail stores in 2025. (PC courtesy Barnes & Noble website)
Only ten years ago, Barnes and Noble, the last big American bookstore chain, was thought to be on its last legs, with widespread speculation about its projected demise.
In 2015 Barnes & Noble spun off its college bookstore operations into a separate public company called Barnes & Noble Education.Then, in Sept. 2019 Elliott Advisors (UK) Limited bought all of Barnes & Noble's stock and took the company private. It named James Daunt, the executive credited with reviving Waterstones, as the new B&N CEO.
Since then the company’s fortunes have brightened considerably.
According to a January 2025 article inPublishers’ Weekly "The end of 2024 marked the completion of the fifth full year that Barnes & Noble has been led by James Daunt.
“Initially his ambitious plans to revive the ailing retailer were derailed by the onset of the pandemic, which forced B&N and other retailers to close their bricks and mortar outlets.”
Post-pandemic things have been looking up for the retailer with an estimated 650 retail shops. In 2024 it opened 57 new stores including four locations formerly owned by Tattered Cover in Denver. B&N finished 2024 by selling its Union Square and Co. publishing division to Hachette Book Group.
The company anticipates it will continue its growth trend with another 60 new retail bookstore openings projected for 2025.
Daunt said he divided his time at B&N into three parts: “Landing, which was a bit ‘discombobulating’; the pandemic, during which ‘we focused on surviving and finding our feet’; and now, “changing. We’re confident now and marching at a quicker pace. We have a lot more to do and have a pretty clear idea about how to do it.”
Among Daunt’s key points were “having good teams inside nice looking stores” and promoting workers to management from within. He said fiction continues to be a big sales driver helped by publicity from BookTok influencers.
Daunt, book trade and internet commentators attribute at least some of B&N’s new vitality and growth to the impact of BookTok, a subcategory of the popular TikTok social media platform. BookTok has helped B&N grow its audience and increased the visibility and clout of the reviewers and bookish influencers who tend to be younger women.
The Wiki for BookTok notes “many Barnes and Noble stores have BookTok displays, featuring popular books on the app, and the company also has a section of their site dedicated to these books.”
B&N has also partnered with BookTok to promote books, host events, and create a dedicated shopping space for BookTok titles. These include in-store displays for popular BookTok titles; a dedicated BookTok page on the company’s website, as well as #BookTok Challenge, a summer reading campaign that is a joint effort between B&N and the social media platform
Other sources credit BookTok with helping the chain to attract new customers especially teens and with expanding interest in genres like “romantasy” and “dark romance.”
A recent USA Todayarticle speculates on what will become of BookTok and its influencers if TikTok is sold.
Said one BookToker: “I try to cater it to the different platform I'm on, but there’s absolutely no question that TikTok’s algorithm puts you in front of more people. And it’s a better algorithm, so the people you’re being put in front of are much more engaged in the content.”
She’ll continue no matter what happens with TikTok, but she worries about other small businesses, who she says need support to feel like they can keep going.”
USA Today wrote, “Industry experts are looking to readers for the next steps, confident they'll find them wherever they land if TikTok goes away.
“There’s always going to be an iteration of this. It’s about community,” says Pamela Jaffee, senior director of publicity and brand marketing at Bloom Books and Casablanca. “Twelve years ago, it was the in-person book club that made ‘50 Shades of Grey.’” The book community got online with Facebook, then blogging, then Instagram, with a dozen apps in between.”
Or as Daunt told PW, “It's not like BookTok invented great books, though it does provide a great platform to find them.”
Sotheby’s: The Shem Tov Bible, 1312 | A Masterpiece from the Golden Age of Spain. Sold: 6,960,000 USD
Sotheby’s: Ten Commandments Tablet, 300-800 CE | One of humanity's earliest and most enduring moral codes. Sold: 5,040,000 USD
Sotheby’s: William Blake | Songs of Innocence and of Experience. Sold: 4,320,000 USD
Sotheby’s: The Declaration of Independence | The Holt printing, the only copy in private hands. Sold: 3,360,000 USD
Sotheby's Sell Your Fine Books & Manuscripts
Sotheby’s: Thomas Taylor | The original cover art for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Sold: 1,920,000 USD
Sotheby’s: Machiavelli | Il Principe, a previously unrecorded copy of the book where modern political thought began. Sold: 576,000 GBP
Sotheby’s: Leonardo da Vinci | Trattato della pittura, ca. 1639, a very fine pre-publication manuscript. Sold: 381,000 GBP
Sotheby’s: Henri Matisse | Jazz, Paris 1947, the complete portfolio. Sold: 312,000 EUR
Bonhams, Apr. 8: First report outside of the colonies of the American Revolution, from American accounts. Printed broadsheet, The London Evening-Post, May 30, 1775. $20,000 - $30,000
Bonhams, Apr. 8: Joyce, James. The earliest typescript pages from Finnegans Wake ever to appear at auction, annotated by Joyce, 1923. $30,000 - $50,000
Bonhams, Apr. 8: Joyce's Ulysses, 1923, one of only seven copies known, printed to replace copies destroyed in customs. $10,000 - $15,000
Bonhams, Apr. 8: ATHANASIUS KIRCHER'S COPY, INSCRIBED. Saggi di naturali esperienze fatte nell' Accademia del Cimento, 1667. $2,000 - $3,000
Bonhams, Apr. 8: Bernoulli's Ars conjectandi, 1713. "... first significant book on probability theory." $15,000 - $25,000
Bonhams, Apr. 8: Aristotle's Politica. Oeconomica. 1469. The first printed work on political economy. $80,000 - $120,000
Bonhams, Apr. 8: John Graunt's Natural and political observations...., 1662. The first printed work of epidemiology and demographics. $20,000 - $30,000
Bonhams, Apr. 8: William Playfair's Commercial and Political Atlas, 1786. The first work to pictorially represent information in graphics. $15,000 - $25,000
Bonhams, Apr. 8: Anson's A Voyage Round the World, 1748. THE J.R. ABBEY-LORD WARDINGTON COPY, BOUND BY JOHN BRINDLEY. $8,000 - $12,000
Bonhams, Apr. 8: La Perouse's Voyage de La Perouse autour du monde..., 1797. LARGE FINE COPY IN ORIGINAL BOARDS. $8,000 - $12,000
Bonhams, Apr. 8: Charles Schulz original 8-panel Peanuts Sunday comic strip, 1992, pen and ink over pencil, featuring Charlie Brown, Snoopy and Lucy as a psychiatrist. $20,000 - $30,000
Dominic Winter Auctioneers
April 9 Printed Books, English Bibles, Maps & Decorative Prints
Dominic Winter Auctioneers
April 9 Printed Books, English Bibles, Maps & Decorative Prints
Dominic Winter, Apr. 9: Johnson (C.). A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the most Notorious Pyrates, 1724. £3,000-4,000
Dominic Winter, Apr. 9: Ordonez de Cevallos (Pedro). Viage del Mundo, 1st edition, Madrid: Luis Sanchez, 1614. £1,000-1,500
Dominic Winter, Apr. 9: North America. Merian (Matthaus), Virginia..., 1627 or later. £1,500-2,500
Dominic Winter Auctioneers
April 9 Printed Books, English Bibles, Maps & Decorative Prints
Dominic Winter, Apr. 9: World. Waldseemuller (Martin), Tabula Nova Totius Orbis, Vienne: 1541. £2,000-3,000
Dominic Winter, Apr. 9: Erasmus (Desiderius). The ... paraphrase of Erasmus... 2 volumes, 1st edition, 1549. £3,000-5,000
Dominic Winter, Apr. 9: Bible [English]. [The Bible and Holy Scriptures conteyned in the Olde and Newe Testament, 1562]. £3,000-5,000
Dominic Winter Auctioneers
April 9 Printed Books, English Bibles, Maps & Decorative Prints
Dominic Winter, Apr. 9: Smith (Lucy). Biographical Sketches of Joseph Smith the Prophet, 1st edition, 1853. £1,000-1,500
Dominic Winter, Apr. 9: Derain (Andre). Pantagruel, signed limited edition, Albert Skira, 1943. £2,000-3,000
Dominic Winter, Apr. 9: Austen (Jane). Pride and Prejudice, illustrated by Hugh Thomson, Large Paper edition, 1894. £1,500-2,000
Dominic Winter Auctioneers
April 9 Printed Books, English Bibles, Maps & Decorative Prints
Dominic Winter, Apr. 9: Ellison (Ralph). Invisible Man, 1st edition, New York: Random House, 1952. £200-300
Swann, Apr. 10: Lot 1: Bob Dylan, his high school classmate's yearbook with his senior portrait, signed and inscribed to her, 1959. $10,000 to $20,000.
Swann, Apr. 10: Lot 1: Bob Dylan, his high school classmate's yearbook with his senior portrait, signed and inscribed to her, 1959. $10,000 to $20,000.
Swann, Apr. 10: Lot 4: Various entertainers, Group of 30 items, signed or inscribed, various dates. $1,500 to $2,500.
Swann, Apr. 10: Lot 27: John Adams, Autograph Letter Signed to Benjamin Rush introducing Archibald Redford, Paris, 1783. $35,000 to $50,000.
Swann, Apr. 10: Lot 36: Robert Gould Shaw, Autograph Letter Signed to his father from Camp Andrew, Boston, 1861. $10,000 to $15,000.
Swann, Apr. 10: Lot 53: Martin Luther King Jr., Time magazine cover, signed and inscribed "Best Wishes," 1957. $5,000 to $7,500.
Swann, Apr. 10: Lot 127: Paul Gauguin, Autograph Letter regarding payment for paintings, with woodcut letterhead, 1900. $6,000 to $9,000.
Swann, Apr. 10: Lot 169: Suck: First European Sex Paper, complete group of eight issues, 1969-1974. $800 to $1,200.
Swann, Apr. 10: Lot 173: Black Panthers, The Racist Dog Policemen Must Withdraw Immediately From Our Communities, poster, 1969. $2,000 to $3,000.
Swann, Apr. 10: Lot 187: Marc Attali & Jacques Delfau, Les Erotiques du Regard, first edition, Paris, 1968. $300 to $500.
Swann, Apr. 10: Lot 213: Andy Warhol, Warhol's Index Book, first printing, New York, 1967. $800 to $1,200.
Swann, Apr. 10: Lot 215: Cookie Mueller, Archive of 17 items, including 4 items inscribed and signed. $3,000 to $4,000.
Swann, Apr. 10: Lot 249: Jamie Reid, The Ten Lessons / The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle; Sex Pistols, chromogenic print with collage, signed, circa 1980. $20,000 to $30,000.
![Dominic Winter, Apr. 9: Bible [English]. [The Bible and Holy Scriptures conteyned in the Olde and Newe Testament, 1562]. £3,000-5,000](https://ae-files.s3.amazonaws.com/AdvertisementPhotos/e47bb03e-3f3d-4f68-9e79-b0b2739ca87c.jpg "<b>Dominic Winter, Apr. 9:</b> Bible [English]. [<i>The Bible and Holy Scriptures conteyned in the Olde and Newe Testament,</i> 1562]. £3,000-5,000")
