Hudson Street Press editor-in-chief Luke Dempsey will become editorial director, nonfiction for Ballantine Books on March 3. Former editorial director at Chronicle Books Jay Schaefer will be acquiring projects for Workman and Algonquin Books as an editor-at-large, still based in San Francisco. Unbridled Books is now using McArthur & Company for sales and distribution of its titles in Canada.
Archives for February 2009
Oscar Wilde Next Store to Close
Greenwich Village’s Oscar Wilde Bookshop, “believed to be the oldest gay and lesbian bookstore in the country,” will close March 29. The store has struggled for a long time and “nearly closed six years ago, only to be sold and given a last-minute reprieve.” Owner Kim Brinster notes, “Even if we were rent-free, it wouldn’t be enough for us to cover the bills we have. This is one instance in New York where it’s not a case of the landlord gouging the tenant. Our landlord has always been remarkable with us.”NYT
Borders Eliminates 16 Executive Jobs
New ceo Ron Marshall declares “as we address the immediate priority of getting our company’s financial house in order, one of our goals is to more aggressively reduce annual expenses” and to that end the company announced the elimination of six vice-president and 10 director-level jobs, mostly at their Ann Arbor headquarters. Among those whose positions are being cut are evp of US store Ken Armstrong, and svp and CIO Susan Harwood (who was a high-profile hire in 2007), and svp of e-business Kevin Ertell who led the development of Borders.com. VPs of real estae, human resources serivces and creative […]
Filing Supports Higher Price Estimate for AbeBooks Acquisition
When Amazon announced its deal to acquire AbeBooks in August, observers were all over the map in estimating the undisclosed sale price. TechVibes–where former Abe executive (and still director) Boris Wertz is a director and investor–estimated a sale price of $90 million to $120 million, but other posters there argued for estimates ranging from $40 million to $75 million. TechFlash notes that Amazon’s recently filed 10K report declares they spent $432 million on acquisitions in the past year. With Audible valued at approximately $300 million and the other purchases comprising much smaller units–the balance of Shelfari.com, Fabric.com, and IMDB’s acquisition […]
People
At the Andrea Brown Literary Agency, Jennifer Rofe has been promoted to agent and Jennifer Mattson has joined the group as an associate agent. he was formerly a book review editor at Booklist and an editor at Dutton children’s books. Ginny Weissman is no longer with Martin Literary Management. In the UK, at Portobello Books, Laura Barber has been promoted to editorial director with immediate effect. She continues to report to Philip Gwyn Jones, publisher of Granta Books and Portobello Books. At Da Capo Press, Katie McHugh has been promoted to executive editor.
BN Discover Finalists
Barnes & Noble announced the nominees for its annual Discover Great New Writers Awards: Fiction Zachary Lazar, Sway (Little, Brown) Gin Phillips, The Well and the Mine (Hawthorne Books) Benjamin Taylor, The Book of Getting Even (Steerforth Press) Nonfiction David Sheff, Beautiful Boy: A Father’s Journey through His Son’s Addiction (Houghton Mifflin) Eric Weiner, The Geography of Bliss: One Grump’s Search for the Happiest Places in the World (Twelve) Nia Wyn, Blue Sky July: A Mother’s Story of Hope and Healing (Dutton) The winners will be announced on March 4, at a private awards ceremony.