Starbucks serves another sweet: Mitch Albom's new book

Having already dabbled in music and film sales, coffee retail giant Starbucks will now be offering books, starting with Mitch Albom's latest novel, One More Day.

"This is the next step of our entertainment strategy," Starbucks Entertainment president Ken Lombard said Monday. "Our plan has been to start with music, take the next step into film, and add books as the third leg of the stool."

Although One More Day, about a son reunited with his late mother,is the coffee chain's official start in bookselling,it had already been quietlycarrying The Little Engine That Could in stores.

Starbucks angered music retailers with its previous forays into the world of music sales. In 2004, it had a breakaway success with Genius Loves Company, the Grammy-winning album featuring duets with the late Ray Charles. Starbucks accounted for approximately a quarter of the album's four million copies sold.

Last year, music retailers in Canada pulled albums by Alanis Morissette and Bob Dylan off their shelves in protest after both artists signed exclusive deals with Starbucks to sell their albums.

Starbucks plans to contribute $1 US from each book sale and a minimum $50,000 overall to Jumpstart, an educational organization thatworks with preschoolers.

Helping literacy cause

The charitable donation was an added sweetener for Albom, whose sentimental books include Tuesdays With Morrie and The Five People You Meet in Heaven, both of which have sold overeight million copies.

"I am honoured that Starbucks has chosen my book, and I am proud to support any effort that helps bring people together to read," Albom said in a statement released by Starbucks.

"Over the years, I've spent many hours myself reading in Starbucks. It's a fine environment to absorb and discuss a good book. And funding literacy efforts for our country's youngest readers a key part of this for me helps ensure a future where books and writers remain integral to our culture."

Unlike the exclusive deals Starbucks has signed with musicians, One More Day will not arrive at the coffee shop first.

Albom's publisher, Hyperion Books, will release the novel in late September, while Starbucks will not begin selling it until early October.

Lombard says Starbucks has no plans to introduce a major expansion into publishing.

"We don't want customers to walk into their favourite Starbucks store and think it's become a music store or a DVD store," he says. "We're going to stay true to the core of who we are. We're a coffee company."