More adjustments to Borders’ deck, as the company has hired yet another complete outsider for a top position. This time it’s mattress executive Bill Dandy who joins the bookseller as svp, marketing, reporting to cmo Mike Edwards, after a three-year stint as evp of marketing at Mattress Firm. Art Keeney–who has been svp, marketing–will move over to svp, store operations. And Larry Norton, who joined Borders recently as svp, merchandising and distribution, changes his position to svp, merchandising for adult trade and children’s books, leading the book buying teams. Elsewhere, at Harlequin’s parent company Torstar, interim head since May David […]
Archives for November 2009
National Book Awards: McCann, Stiles, Hoose and Waldrop
The marketplace made the right predictions on the two highest-profile National Book Awards, as the fiction prize went to the book that has sold the best, both overall and (overwhelmingly) in the four weeks since the nominations were announced: Colum McCann’s LET THE GREAT WORLD SPIN (Random House). Nonfiction also saw the book that has by far sold the best win, with the award going to T. J. Stiles’ THE FIRST TYCOON: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt (Alfred A. Knopf). Conflict issues raised online by Janice Harayda and echoed by the NYT over nominee David Small’s relationship having illustrated […]
People
Danielle Perez is joining New American Library as executive editor, where she will acquire commercial fiction and nonfiction, starting January 4. Perez has been at Bantam for 11 years. Michelle Brower is joining Folio Literary Management as an agent, after five years with Wendy Sherman Associates. Kristin Lang has joined Audible as director of editorial business development. managing the growing fiction publishing program and developing and acquiring new and innovative audio projects. She was editorial director at Macmillan Audio, overseeing the selection and acquisition of over 100 titles annually. Tangentially, Moby Lives speculates on a number of potential candidates for […]
Bookselling: Shirky's Advice to Indie, and More
Clay Shirky wrote interestingly, if at excessive length about local bookstores and what they might need to do in order to survive and prosper. You can skip a big chunk of the first part of the essay… The crux is “the local bookstore creates all kinds of value for its community, whether its providing community bulletin boards, putting rocking chairs in the kids section, hosting book readings, or putting benches out in front of the store. Local writers, harried parents, couples on dates, all get value from a store’s existence as a inviting physical location, value separate from its existence […]
eReaders: Demanding Supply Issues
As previously reported, early demand for Barnes & Noble’s has soaked up most of the projected available supply prior to Christmas. Now Sony is looking to pick up some of that same glow, saying people who asked “to be notified” when the wireless Daily Edition became available “exceeded our expectations over the last few months and we expect high demand now that it’s available.” But that just papers over the fact that Sony has mostly blown the holiday season by not having any units ready to ship until December 18.Reuters For more e-reading material, Mike Shatzkin considers some “changes in […]
Harlequin Will and Won't Brand their Self-Published Books
There have been a lot of interesting comments and discussion online about Harlequin’s just-announced self-publishing line Harlequin Horizons. The company’s Malle Valik replies on the Smart Bitches site: “Harlequin put its name on the Harlequin Horizons site to clearly indicate this is a romance self-publishing site. The books published through Harlequin Horizons will not carry traditional Harlequin branding. The self-published author will be the brand and the Horizon double H logo will appear on the spine of the book. Harlequin is the gold standard in romance and that will not be compromised. Readers will not confuse Horizons books with traditional […]