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People, Etc.

June 29, 2020
By Erin Somers

Sandy Lu has founded Book Wyrm Literary Agency, focusing on commercial fiction and nonfiction, bringing over her clients from the L. Perkins Agency, where she has been for almost 12 years.

Chelene Knight has joined Transatlantic Agency as associate agent. She was previously managing editor at Room magazine and festival director for the Growing Room Literary Festival in Vancouver.

Tara Gavin has joined Alcove Press and Crooked Lane Books as a senior acquisitions editor, working on book club and women’s fiction as well as select mysteries. Previously she was an executive editor at Kensington.

President of Oxford University Press USA Niko Pfund took over the presidency of the Association of University Presses and director of the University of Georgia Press Lisa Bayer was named president-elect.

Forthcoming
A lengthy NYT piece on Barack Obama touched on the progress of his book, which Penguin Random House previously hoped to publish in 2019. The Times reports that he “did not finish and circulate a draft of between 600 and 800 pages until around New Year’s, too late to publish before the election, ” and is considering “splitting the project into two volumes, in the hope of getting some of it into print quickly after the election, perhaps in time for the Christmas season.”

Events
The BISG has changed its annual meeting, set for September 11, 2020, to a series of free virtual conversations to be held between July 28 and September 11. BISG executive director Brian O’Leary said, “We’re committed to leading and sustaining a dialogue about building a smarter supply chain, but we don’t feel we can host an in-person meeting in 2020 in a manner that protects the safety of those attending. The repositioned meeting provides a broad audience with access and insight at a time when conversations about workflow, metadata, and the supply chain have grown in importance.”

Bookselling
Barnes & Noble has permanently closed their location in Plano, TX at the Legacy West shopping center — one of the concept stores the chain had opened in late 2017. The location included one of the few, experimental Barnes & Noble Kitchen outlets. The company said, “We can confirm that we are closing our bookstore at Legacy West. The store and restaurant were well-received by customers and we have appreciated their support. However, we have made the difficult decision to close the store to focus energy and resources on improving our other bookstores in Texas and around the country, as well as opening new stores.” They noted, “We have worked with booksellers who wanted to transfer to one of our other Texas stores.”

New Orleans bookstore Tubby & Coo’s is moving to a new location at 432 N. Anthony Street, Suite 305C. The new space will have a parking lot and updated decor. Local delivery is suspended while they complete the move.

Indigo Books said on Instagram it “stands firmly and positively with the Transgender community” and specifically noted, “it is disappointing that J.K. Rowling…would make statements so inconsistent with our values.”

Distribution
Ingram Publisher Services will sell and distribute books from Liberty Fund in the US and Canada.

Legal
The independent college bookstores suing education publishers and booksellers for anti-trust violations related to digital courseware have answered the defendant’s motion to dismiss, restating their claim that McGraw-Hill, Cengage, and Pearson, along with Barnes & Noble Education and Follet, engaged in a conspiracy “to line Defendants’ pockets at the expense of financially-vulnerable college students and the retailers (including Plaintiffs) who sell and rent course materials to students at independent collegiate retail and online stores nationwide.” In the June 26 filing, the plaintiffs reject the publishers’ claims that digital inclusive access programs, even as described in the original complaint, are “both procompetitive and proconsumer.” In fact, say the plaintiffs, “The Complaint describes how, for Inclusive Access, ‘there is no choice of format or delivery method’ and ‘students are automatically enrolled in time-limited access (usually one semester) to the Publishers’ online resources which can be ‘turned on’ . . . only directly by the Defendant Retailers.’ It similarly describes how students are forced to purchase Inclusive Access because Defendants have ‘artificially restricted’ the delivery method and format with the result of ‘costs increased, quality decreased, and choices eliminated.'”

Filed Under: Bookstores, Distribution, Free, Legal, Personnel

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