The announcement of a $10,000 fellowship awarded to Oregon poet Carl Adamshick has surfaced a controversy over allegations of inappropriate use of funds at now-shuttered small press Tavern Books. Adamshick was the cofounder and director of the Portland-based nonprofit press until his resignation in 2019. The press shut down in 2020. After Adamshick won one of two Oregon Literary Career Fellowships, announced this week as part of Literary Arts’ Oregon Book Awards, local authors and former colleagues at the press spoke to The Oregonian/OregonLive about accusations against him of inappropriate spending. Adamshick’s withdrawals of cash from the nonprofit and “questionable […]
Archives for April 2022
Lau Builds Ever-Bigger Quarto Stake
As we have reported regularly, Quarto Group’s controlling owner CK Lau continues to steadily buy up more shares in the publishing company, with a steady stream of purchases throughout April. With the latest filing, Lau’s company 1010 Printing Limited now owns over 50 percent of publisher’s stock, with nearly 20.5 million shares. (Lau owns a small block of stock in his own name as well.) Lau started adding to his stake in earnest last August, after sales rebounded and the company reported a modest profit. As of his mid-August investment, 1010 Printing owned 37 percent of the publisher’s stock and […]
ABC News Launches “The Book Case” Podcast
ABC Audio announced the launch of a new weekly podcast, The Book Case, hosted by ABC News journalist Charlie Gibson and his daughter Kate Gibson. Each episode will include book recommendations from the hosts, “a short audio postcard” from an independent bookstore owner about their popular titles, and a conversation with authors and industry figures including John Irving, Azar Nafisi and Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden. The first episode, out May 2, features Oprah Winfrey, “who discusses the impact of her book club on American readership, her own reading habits and how she makes her picks.”
Bookselling: Another Longtime Barnes & Noble Store to Close, In New Jersey
This time it’s their store in Clark, NJ, a location that has been in business for 24 years. Like the big Boston store at the Prudential Center, this store will close on June 19, after the “landlord has opted not to renew our lease.” Another New Jersey BN store, in Springfield, is reportedly at the end of its lease after 30 years in that location is likely to be demolished later this year to make way for a newly-built Chick-fil-A.
Early 2022 Sales Led by BookTok Fiction and Southern Migration
This time of year, if you focus too much on weekly market sales reports without looking at the broader context – particularly the timing of Easter – you can get confused pretty easily. For the first quarter of 2022 (the 13 weeks ending April 2), print book sales as measured by NPD Bookscan registered 184 million units – 18 million units, or 9 percent, lower than the big first quarter in 2021. But three weeks later, following a good sales week leading in to Easter and natural falloff the following week, the true comparison was clearer – and better: Year-to-date […]
You Don’t Want to Miss Our Next Discuss Guest: Michael Cader, Publishers Marketplace Founder
Michael Cader, the creator of Publishers Lunch and PublishersMarketplace.com, will answer questions on any and all aspects of publishing at this online Publishers Marketplace link Wednesday, May 4th at noon Eastern. Think of this special Discuss as a top-level, exclusive seminar for everyone from executives to editors, authors to agents, book sellers to sales reps. Take advantage of Michael’s vast knowledge and years of experience to gain invaluable insight into the industry we share. Don’t be shy! Just sign in and use the “reply” button to type your questions or comments, and Michael will post back on this non-video, non-audio, […]