At Sourcebooks, Christy Droege has been appointed manager, data and analysis, where she will lead the company’s newly created data and analysis department. The department will streamline data functions, offer a higher level of analytical support to departments, partners, and customers and also will include Stephanie Lewis as business data specialist, Jennifer Sterkowitz as product data associate, and Molly Wojda as order data associate. In announcements, bargain book wholesaler Book Depot says it is spending $3 million to install robotic technology to sort through over 100,000 books a day — helping to grow their business in processing returns and purchasing […]
Archives for April 2016
Nguyen, Stiles, Finnegan Among Pulitzer Winners
The Pulitzer Prizes offered a mix of surprises and expected results in their book category winners. Viet Thanh Nguyen’s much-heralded debut novel The Sympathizer won for fiction, and in a note on his website the author said: “Of course it’s wonderful for me to get this prize. But within minutes of getting it, I knew that I owed tremendous thanks to everyone who has gone before me in the great, ongoing struggle for social justice, for peace, for genuine equality, for representation for all at every level of every society.” TJ Stiles won in history for the second time (after winning […]
Baker & Taylor and Bookmasters Are Sold to Follett
Leading library wholesaler Baker & Taylor has been sold to Follett Corporation, announced in a press release on Monday, “creating the world’s preeminent single source of curated content and multimedia for librarians and educators.” B&T’s private equity owners Castle Harlan have sold their related company Bookmasters to Follett as well, according to posted FAQs from the distributor and printer. They bought Bookmasters in 2013 and had been running it as a separate company in “strategic partnership” with B&T. For their part, Bookmasters says that following the sale they “are positioned to be an even stronger provider of premier integrated book publishing services.” Follett says that together […]
Supreme Court Will Not Hear Authors Guild’s Appeal of Google Books Case
After at least three strikes (or more, depending upon how you count), the Authors Guild’s decade-long case accusing Google of copyright infringement in their library book-scanning program has come to an end. In their conference last Friday, the Supreme Court denied the Guild’s petition for a writ of certiorari. That leaves standing District Court Judge Denny Chin’s original and unequivocal 2013 ruling that Google’s scanning qualified as “fair use.” Judge Chin’s finding was unanimously upheld by a three-judge Second Circuit Court of Appeals panel in 2015. The Authors Guild first brought their suit in September 2005. The AAP followed with their own […]
Passings: Dantry, Janson-Smith and Ferrone
Owner of former Pittsburgh bookstore Jay’s Book Stall (opened in 1959, closed in 2008) Jay Dantry, 87, died on Sunday after a long illness. The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review writes, “Under his guidance, Jay’s Book Stall became one of the premier bookstores in the country, a mandatory stop in Pittsburgh for touring writers.” Michael Chabon adds, “I’ll always be grateful to him for the year I spent working at the Book Stall…. The staff wasn’t like a family, it was a family.” Former literary agent Peter Janson-Smith, 93, has died. He worked for A D Peters and Curtis Brown UK before setting up […]
People, Etc.
At Counterpoint/Soft Skull, Megan Fishmann has been promoted to director of publicity and marketing. Etinosa Agbonlahor has been promoted to assistant editor at Touchstone. At Knopf, Katie Schoder has been promoted to publicist. At Howard Books, Brandi Lewis has been promoted to senior marketing manager. In the UK, Alex Bowler is leaving Jonathan Cape to join Granta Books as publishing director in July.