At Putnam, Ashley Hewlett is promoted to senior publicity manager and Elena Hershey to publicity manager. Hannah Finne has been promoted to the newly created position of data manager at Holiday House, overseeing data, metadata, and digital assets.
Archives for September 2018
Barnes & Noble Opens New Store In Maryland
After a long gap, Barnes & Noble opens another concept store — their sixth — in the mall in Columbia, MD today. The 17,000-square-foot store features a new design for their cafe, now at the front of the store without any walls or barriers, and the cookbook section is right next to it. As the local Patch report notes, “There are three community tables throughout the bookstore, a concept which is part of the new prototype.” (From the pictures, two of those are in that large open cafe.) Sales staff will have tablets to help customers find merchandise, and there are […]
Revised Count Has Woodward’s FEAR Selling 900,000 Units on First Day
Simon & Schuster announced Tuesday that Bob Woodward’s FEAR: Trump in the White House sold a total of more than 1,100,000 units in all formats its first week on sale, inclusive of consumer orders “that are as yet unfulfilled due to extraordinary demand.” The company revised its count of opening day sales as well, now saying they sold 900,000 units (rather than the 750,000 units first announced), “attributable to delayed reporting of the ebook and digital audio editions.” Bookscan registers approximately 343,000 hardcovers sold in the same period through the outlets that they track. The first week sale ranks as “the largest […]
Apple Relaunches Their Book Store and App
For readers who like mainstream ebooks more than discounted House Brand titles, the number two ebookseller has relaunched their store and reading app. “Apple Books” represents a major redesign, launched yesterday in 51 countries as part of Apple’s new iOS12 release. The company now incorporates audiobooks within the books app (and Book Store), though they continue to source all of their audiobooks from competitor Amazon’s Audible. The new app defaults to a Reading Now section that takes you back to the books or audiobooks you are reading, and includes a section of personalized recommendations. The completely redesigned app is filled […]
Kaplan to Swallow Barron’s Test Books
Kaplan Test Prep has acquired key assets of longtime rival Barron’s Educational Series, including the test prep, study aid, and foreign language assets, as well as the Barron’s brand name. The acquisition comprises about 650 of Barron’s more than 2,000 titles, also including their reference, business, and law titles. As Newsday notes, “The purchase combines two of the oldest and best-known brands in educational services and test-prep books in a market that is becoming increasingly competitive.” Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Following the merger, Kaplan’s new assets will still carry the Barron name, operating as a distinct brand. […]
People, Etc.
Longtime New York Magazine contributing editor Boris Kachka has been named books editor as parent company New York Media aims to triple book coverage across the magazine and their various blogs. Kachka says, “We haven’t really had someone overseeing books and it fell between the cracks too often. Books aren’t like a lot of other media; there’s the opportunity to seed them through lots of different sections.” NY Magazine editor-in-chief Adam Moss adds: “Books have for years been pretty big areas of interest in our universe and on the site, according to all the metrics we have. We thought this was […]