Following a significant protest from its membership over their handling of a complaint about a member’s behavior at an industry event, 8 of 11 members of the board of International Thriller Writers (ITW) resigned. Before doing so, “to ensure continuity of operations until a new Board is selected by the membership,” the board accepted the resignation of executive director Elizabeth Berry effective July 10, and appointed Kimberley Howe to serve as interim executive director. The ITW did not indicate who remained on the board, but the AP reported that co-presidents Heather Graham and John Lescroart are the ones still serving. […]
Archives for June 2020
International Thriller Writers Board Petitioned to Resign Over Handling of Sexual Assault Complaint
More than 100 members of International Thriller Writers are calling for the resignation of the organization’s board in a new petition, “per the ITW bylaws,” following charges that the board failed to take members’ sexual assault complaints seriously. The petition says that, ” If needed, we will submit a quorum of 10 percent of ITW member signatures” to call for election of a new board among active members. ITW debut author chair Laurie Chandlar had resigned her post in protest last week, after she and author Penni Jones “brought serious concerns to the ITW board regarding a male author’s behavior […]
Bookselling: Indigo’s Reisman Warns More Government Support Is Needed, As Indie Booksellers Explain Out-of-Stock to New Supporters
Canada’s dominant bookselling chain Indigo has closed 20 of their smaller-format Coles stores “which were either not profitable or very, very marginal,” ceo Heather Reisman told BNN Bloomberg. “That was a tough decision because in those communities, we were the only bookstore, and I suspect the only store willing to operate at a loss to serve the community,” she said. Indigo is due to report fourth quarter results later this week, but as of the third quarter, they had 111 small format stores under the Coles, Indigospirit and The Book Company brands. Indigo has reopened 60 to 70 percent of […]
New Books Publishing June 23
The Bolton book has claimed the headlines leading up to release today, but as usual a number of notable titles come to market this week — including the rescheduled release of Ottessa Moshfegh’s novel DEATH IN HER HANDS. As in previous weeks, our sample Bookshop and Aerbook store carousels provide easy displays of books publishing today in need of attention and support, featuring: 9 new works of fiction https://bookshop.org/lists/new-fiction-publishing-june-23 https://aerbook.com/store/publishers_lunch/New_Fiction_Publishing_June_23/217221 10 new nonfiction titles https://bookshop.org/lists/new-nonfiction-publishing-june-23 https://aerbook.com/store/publishers_lunch/New_Nonfiction_Publishing_June_23/217222 More new children’s/YA books https://bookshop.org/lists/new-children-s-titles-publishing-in-june https://aerbook.com/store/publishers_lunch/New_Childrens_Titles_Publishing_in_June/216958 We consult a number of sources in compiling our weekly lists and PM members can see our lists for the coming three […]
Zondervan Moves Trade Lines to Nashville, Under New Leadership
Harper Christian announced that it will relocate the Zondervan Books and Zondervan Thrive imprints to Nashville, TN, to “allow for sharing of best practices across the company’s trade book publishing program” for both Thomas Nelson and Zondervan. Webster Younce will become vp and publisher for the two Zondervan trade lines. He has been associate publisher and executive editor at Nelson Books. Senior director of marketing for the Thomas Nelson and Zondervan fiction programs Paul Fisher becomes vp of marketing for the two Zondervan imprints. Zondervan will retain an office Grand Rapids, MI for its other lines, including Zondervan Academic, Zondervan Reflective, […]
Macmillan Creates “A Different and More Inclusive Management Team”
On Monday, Macmillan ceo John Sargent told staff in a letter that the company would make a broad change in its leadership: “It is clear that we have to change who occupies the seats at the table when the important decisions are being made. It can no longer be Don [Weisberg], Andrew [Weber] and me.” They are creating a new management committee comprising 13 people “who will meet regularly to decide on the key issues for Macmillan” and “will focus on running the overall company.” Sargent will not sit on the new committee and “will step back from day to […]