Columbia, SC-based Happy Bookseller, “the city’s most well-known independent bookstore,” will close in October. The paper reports that owners Andy and Carrie Graves mailed customers with the news last week. “We’re very sad this is all going to end. The reality is we don’t have a choice.” They add: “Sales peaked in 1993, Andy Graves said. They have been steadily declining but the last four to five years have been particularly hard, he said.” Rhett Jackson started the store in 1974 and solve it to Andy Graves, an employee, in 1996. Jackson says, “I babied that and loved it and […]
Archives for September 2008
October Indie Next List
The Given Day: A Novel by Dennis LehaneDewey: The Small Town Library Cat Who Touched the World by Vicki Myron, with Bret Witter The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson Serena: A Novel by Ron Rash American Lightning: Terror, Mystery, the Birth of Hollywood, and the Crime of the Century by Howard Blum The Other Queen: A Novel by Philippa Gregory Goldengrove: A Novel by Francine Prose Downtown Owl: A Novel by Chuck Klosterman The Forever War by Dexter Filkins A Most Wanted Man by John le CarreThe Archangel Project by C.S. Graham Sarah’s Key by Tatiana de […]
One-Stop eServices for Perseus Clients
Perseus has officially announced their program to help physical distribution clients and their own publishing units streamline participation in a variety of digital and ebook sales and promotion/visibility programs. In development for months and dubbed Constellation, Perseus calls it a “‘one-stop shop’ digital offering” to help “independent publishers exploit the sales and marketing opportunities created by the rapid developments of digital technology.” Participating publishers supply a single print-ready PDF file and then “will have complete control over what books they make available for what services.” Current choices from what will be an expanding menu of options include ebook sales through […]
USAT: Ten Top Fall Titles
USA Today writes: “Oprah Winfrey and book clubs across America get it: Certain books are ‘talkers.’ They make you think, react and want to chat up your friends about what you’ve just read. Here are 10 titles worth talking about this fall:” 1. The Hour I First Believed by Wally Lamb (Harper, $29.95)2. The War Within: A Secret White House History 2006-2008 by Bob Woodward (Simon and Schuster, $32)3. A Mercy by Toni Morrison (Knopf, $23.95)4. One Fifth Avenue by Candace Bushnell (Voice, $25.95)5. A Promise to Ourselves: A Journey through Fatherhood and Divorce by Alec Baldwin with Mark Tabb […]
Personnel, Bookstores, and Distribution
Mary Cummings, former administrator of the McKnight Award in Children’s Literature and organizer of the Festival of Children’s Literature at the Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis, will be representing children’s books in association with Betsy Amster Literary Enterprises. Hollan Publishing’s principals Holly Schmidt and Allan Penn have joined with literary agent Lori Perkins to form Literary Partners Group, which is launching an online publishing company called Ravenous Romance. They will publish daily novel-length erotic romances, as well as lunchtime short stories, in e-book and downloadable MP3 format, starting December 1. Schmidt says in an announcement “we will succeed by producing […]
Volini Out at Random House
The first big personnel change following Markus Dohle’s appointment as ceo of Random House is not a new hire (though bookish folks still express a desire/expectation for a publishing veteran directly under Dohle) but a departure. Deputy chairman and chief operating officer Ed Volini is leaving the company at the end of September. His positions will be eliminated and his reports will report directly to Dohle as of October 1. Volini has had a senior management role at the company since 2001. Dohle praises him as “a valued decisionmaker, strategist, analyst, mentor and leader for our financial, sales, human resources, […]