Nina Scales will join DK as director, international publishing & licensing.
Acquisitions: Hachette UK Buys Arcadia
Hachette UK has acquired independent publisher Arcadia Books, which will operate within the MacLehose Press imprint at Quercus. Associate publisher Katharina Bielenberg will take over as publisher at Arcadia. Since the death of founder Gary Pulsifer in 2016, the company has been run by Piers Russell-Cobb at MediaFund. Quercus noted in the announcement: “Arcadia has since its inception been passionately committed to publishing a wide and diverse range of voices, with an especially strong list of international literature in translation.”
The Office: Hachette UK and Bloomsbury Extend Reopening
Hachette UK, which had hoped to fully implement its hybrid work policy by September 1, is extending that completion date to October 4. While they are “encouraging staff to move to the 3:2 hybrid working model now if they are ready,” they have added “an optional extension to the transition period,” working one day a week in the office during September. Bloomsbury UK was looking to have employees back in the office two days a week starting September 7, but has delayed that plan to October 18.
People 9/3
Amy King has joined Hyperion Avenue as art director.
Bookselling: MIT Press Bookstore to Reopen In New Space
Closed since spring 2020, the MIT Press Bookstore will reopen on Tuesday, September 7, at a new location at 314 Main Street in Cambridge, MA. It shares a building with the MIT Museum, a cafe, and various other tenants, as part of the “reimagined MIT Kendall Gateway.” The store sells “an extensive section of academic and general interest titles by other publishers in related fields” alongside materials from the press. Manager of the MIT Press Bookstore Clarissa Murphy says in the announcement, “This move has been many years in planning, and we are thrilled to finally be opening our doors […]
The Swag Beat: A Sally Rooney Umbrella Would Have Been A Hit This Week
Ahead of Tuesday’s release of Sally Rooney’s Beautiful World, Where Are You? the NYT catches up on the buzz around the pre-publication promotional swag. “For some publishing professionals, FSG’s mailings have been humbling.” Some people got the tote bag, but not the yellow bucket hat. Others got both. Some received only the galley. And then there were the pencils and notecards. The paper is late to the tote bag story — GQ already proclaimed the item a “mind-bending newcomer” in the promotional swag category. But it was just a week ago that the NYT misinterpreted some data to proclaim cotton […]