Longtime president of Thames & Hudson for over 30 years before his retirement in 2010 — and author of books including Lifestyle and The Mole — Peter Warner, 79, died on September 9 from complications due to MDS (myelodysplastic syndrome). The family asks that in lieu of flowers or gifts, please honor him with donations to the foundation: www.mds-foundation.org/donate. A memorial service will be held at a later date, to be announced.
Archives for September 2021
Winter Institute Will Require Vaccination, Limit Visitors
The American Booksellers Association is planning on convening a live Winter Institute 17 (aka Wi2022) in Cincinnati, from February 13 to February 16, and will open to registration on September 20. Vaccination will be required for attendance, though the organization is still determining “an appropriate screening method.” Along with that policy, “Due to COVID-related issues such as government mandates and social distancing, ABA has made the difficult decision to limit our attendance to North American attendees.” Attendees will need to pay careful attention to hotel and travel cancellation policies; as for the ABA’s attendance fees, refunds “will only be offered […]
Publishers and Amazon Once Again Move to Dismiss Bookseller Suit
The first version of a tortured lawsuit against the five largest trade publishers and Amazon, alleging that the publishers conspired to have Amazon extract tough terms from them, failed quickly and was withdrawn and “amended.” It rested primarily on allegations of abusive most favored nations clauses. So Amazon produced redacted contracts to demonstrate that the “MFN conspiracy theory was utterly baseless. Separate and apart from its mischaracterization of the purpose and effect of MFN provisions, the simple fact is that none of Amazon’s and the Publisher Defendants’ wholesale purchase agreements for print books contains any of the price or non-price […]
Women’s Prize for Fiction
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke won the Women's Prize for Fiction.
People 9/9
Kate Garrick has joined Salky Literary Management as agent, moving her list with her from The Karpfinger Agency. Rachel Altemose has been promoted to junior agent.
Distribution: Do Books
At the end of the year, Chronicle Books will no longer distribute Do Books titles in the US and Canada. Do will fulfill web orders directly and is not moving to another US distributor. Chronicle will accept Do returns through June 30, 2022.