From a short-term, publisher perspective, Barnes & Noble’s fiscal third quarter report was in line with their holiday sales update, showing sales just $400,000 below flat at $1.231 billion. Actual book sales did fall a bit, by $7.6 million or 1.2 percent, as non-book sales rose $19.1 million, or 4.9 percent, particularly as the company picked up the slack in the toy market. From a more existential, investor perspective, though, it was another poor quarter with little prospect of improvement on the horizon. Adjusted EBITDA of $133 million was down $6.5 million, due to the increased marketing and promotional spend […]
Archives for March 2019
Picks: Book Expo Buzz Panels, April Indie Next List
Book Expo has named the books to be featured during the three annual Editors’ Buzz panels at this year’s show. The adult panel includes two memoirs (Jones and Wiener) and three debut novels (Russell, Prescott and Reid). Adult How We Fight for Our Lives, by Saeed Jones (Simon & Schuster) Uncanny Valley, by Anna Wiener (MCD/FSG) My Dark Vanessa, by Kate Elizabeth Russell (William Morrow) The Secrets We Kept, by Lara Prescott (Knopf) Such a Fun Age, by Kiley Reid (Putnam) The Warehouse, by Rob Hart (Crown) Young Adult Frankly in Love, by David Yoon, (Penguin Children’s) The Grace Year, […]
Amazon to Close All 87 US Pop-Up Stores
Amazon remains in experimental mode with their physical retail footprint, as the WSJ reported the company will close all 87 of their US pop-up stores, likely by the end of April. A spokesperson confirmed, “After much review, we came to the decision to discontinue our pop-up kiosk program and are instead expanding Amazon Books and Amazon 4-Star, where we provide a more comprehensive customer experience and broader selection.” The extent of that expansion of dedicated Amazon stores remains unclear, however. Though they opened their 19th Amazon Books store in Denver on Tuesday, as we reported in December their have signs […]
People, Etc.
Sasha Quinton joins Barnes & Noble as vp, general merchandise manager, bookstore, reporting to chief merchandising officer Tim Mantel. She has been at Readerlink (and Levy) since 2010, most recently as svp, marketing and procurement. At B&N she will lead publisher relations, adult trade books and newsstand retailing, as well as business partnership objectives and strategies. Sam Bennett joined the company last month as vp, marketing. She was director of brand marketing at Best Buy. Sonali Fry will join the Random House Children’s, as vp, publishing director for classic brands and preschool on March 29. She was most recently most […]
Looking for Buzz
Please note that our seasonal email invitations have gone out to nominate titles for inclusion in the forthcoming Buzz Books 2019: Fall/Winter and Buzz Books 2019: Young Adult Fall/Winter samplers (published right before Book Expo). If you have not received an invitation for any reason, or would like more information about how to participate, please contact Robin Dellabough, robin@publishersmarketplace.com. The deadline for nominations is March 12. Meanwhile, you can continue to enjoy the packed Spring/Summer 2019 editions. (We’ll have a separate call/reminder to flagging your notable titles for our big seasonal previews coming soon, but it’s never too early to get started.)
Roger Stone Isn’t Jailed Yet, But Judge Wants to Know A Lot More About His Book Release
Judge Amy Berman Jackson saw right through the arguments from Roger Stone’s attorneys that his inflammatory new introduction to The Myth of Russian Collusion: The Inside Story of How Donald Trump REALLY Won from Skyhorse — published February 19 — should be proclaimed as not in violation of her broad gag order on the defendant. While his attorneys had said in a recent filing it “did not occur to counsel” that their February 8 filing or February 21 pleading should have mentioned the essay — which by their own affidavit he delivered way back on January 14. Rather, as Judge […]