The Community Bookstore in Cobble Hill (not to be confused with Community Bookstore in Park Slope) is set to close in 2016 after owner John Scioli agreed to sell the three-story building that houses the bookstore on the ground floor for $5.5 million to a real estate group that owns several buildings in midtown. Scioli has 10 months to clear out the bookstore, where between 60,000 and 100,000 titles are stocked from floor to ceiling, and two years to move out of his apartment upstairs. “I’ll be the first to admit I’m a bit of a hoarder,” Scioli, who has operated the bookstore […]
Archives for July 2015
People: Angel Returns to Faber UK; Argir Appointed BN Chief Digital Officer
Mitzi Angel will leave Farrar, Straus and return to the UK to become publisher for adult publishing at Faber and Faber, reporting to Stephen Page. She will join the Faber board as well, starting her job in the fall. Angel came to FSG seven years ago, initially to run what was the Faber imprint at FSG. That partnership was ended earlier this year, and Faber is launching an independent US line in 2016, distributed by PGW. Page says in the announcement: “Her editorial and publishing flair and literary intelligence across fiction, non-fiction and poetry have made her a star of her […]
Google Play Growth Continues; Layoffs at Pearson US
Google reported stronger than expected second quarter results after the close of the market on Thursday and shares have spiked as result. The market is focused on improved YouTube ad sales and mobile search business, but we keep a narrower focus on the Google Play store — which is reported in their smallest revenue line, the humble “other revenues.” That segment had sales of $1.704 billion for the quarter, up 17 percent (or almost $250 million) compared to a year ago. The company said the numbers were “driven by substantial growth in Play offset by decline in the hardware sales.” (Chromebooks […]
Trade Sales Rebound In March, Still Driven By Adult Trade Paperbacks
The AAP released delayed statistics for March sales, with trade sales rebounding from a weak February to rise $14.5 million (up 3 percent), at $456.5 million. As has been the case across the first quarter, adult trade paperbacks led the gains, up 9.3 percent, at $104 million, and adult hardcovers remained soft, at $96.5 million down 6.3 percent. Children’s sales remained down in all major categories without new breakout hits this year, down 11 percent overall at $101 million. eBook sales were down for the straight month, though this time down only slightly, by $1.1 million. Adult ebook sales rose $4.7 million to $97.8 […]
People, Etc.
Wendy McCurdy will return to Kensington, as editorial director, starting August 3. She was previously an executive editor at Berkley and prior to that a senior editor at Bantam Dell after starting her career at Kensington’s Zebra Books. Philip Turner has returned to his roots as a bookseller, working at the new Rizzoli Bookstore in New York, which opens on July 27. He continues to operate his editorial service and publishing consultancy Philip Turner Book Productions as well. Mark Thomas has joined Houghton Mifflin Harcourt as senior vice president of engineering, based in New York, leading global software development and driving the effective delivery of HMH’s digital products. He reports to […]
Watchman Stats and Stories
We’ll try to keep this as brief as possible. Barnes & Noble announced Wednesday that sales of Harper Lee’s Go Set a Watchman “at its bookstores nationwide have surpassed first day sales of all other adult trade fiction books in its company history, including Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol, the previous bestselling book, which was published in 2009.” Mostly that release shows that BN still has a little PR savvy left in them, since the declaration is not all that different from Amazon’s earlier note that Watchman was their “most pre-ordered print title since the 2007 release” of Harry Potter […]