Workers at the Barnes & Noble College store at Rutgers University in New Jersey voted unanimously to join the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU). The union represents approximately 70 booksellers, baristas, cashiers, and non-supervisory employees. The union now moves to negotiate a contract with management, planning to address, “continued safety issues amid the rebound of the pandemic including workplace harassment, substandard pay for the industry below that of independent booksellers, unstable scheduling practices, a lack of structure when it comes to job duties and tasks at work, and favoritism by management.”
Flatiron’s Big Summer Book is BTS Oral History
Flatiron Books confirmed to various media outlets that their major nonfiction book publishing on July 9 is BEYOND THE STORY: 10-Year Record of BTS, an oral history of the blockbuster Korean band written with journalist Myeongseok Kang. Big Hit Music will publish in South Korea. It was translated into English by Anton Hur, Clare Richards, and Slin Jung. The announcement follows a week of speculation about the book, which was launched to booksellers with a plan to reveal the author and title on June 13. Initial guesses that it could have been a Taylor Swift memoir drove initial press and […]
Harper Sales Remain Flat as Amazon Orders Pick Up
News Corp reported results for the third quarter ended March 31, with sales at Harper Collins flat at $515 million. Higher sales in the Christian division made up for a 2 percent negative FX impact. The company’s top titles in the quarter were The Courage to Be Free by Ron DeSantis, Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver and Never, Never by Colleen Hoover and Tarryn Fisher. EBITDA was down 9 percent to $61 million, “driven by ongoing supply chain, inventory and inflationary pressures on manufacturing, freight and distribution costs,” which contributed to a cost increase of 1 percent. The company’s press […]
People 5/11
Lauren Ortiz has been promoted to publicity manager at Little, Brown.
Feb AAP Stats Show Major Gains in Audio
The AAP released February StatShot data for participating publishers, reporting trade sales of $630.8 million, down 1.5 percent from last year, or $10 million lower. Sales for adult books were $428 million, down 2.1 percent from February 2022. Adult hardcovers fell 13.1 percent to $113 million, paperbacks were down 3.2 percent to $147 million, and ebooks were down 7.6 percent to $71.6 million. Some of those losses were made up for by a 33.5 percent increase in digital audio sales, which amounted to $73.3 million—surpassing ebook sales for the month. Though they aren’t the biggest driver of kids sales, digital […]
People 5/10
Alison Dolan and Alex Hardiman will join Pearson as independent Non-Executive Directors on June 1.