Employees at the Barnes & Noble on West 82nd Street in Manhattan intend to form a union with the RWDSU. The union will represent approximately 50 employees including booksellers, baristas, cashiers, maintenance, and all “non-supervisory employees.” They have asked the company to voluntarily recognize the union and have also filed an election petition with the NLRB. According to a release, workers “have concerns over job security, a lack of structure when it comes to job duties and tasks at work, and favoritism by management.” “I care a lot about my coworkers,” bookseller Eve Greenlow said. “I want the best for them, […]
Ask An Expert: Lucinda Halpern
Lucinda Halpern is a literary agent and the founder of Lucinda Literary, based in New York. She currently represents New York Times and internationally best-selling authors in the categories of personal growth, popular science, narrative nonfiction, memoir, and upmarket fiction. Her classes and coaching programs have been taught to hundreds of writers worldwide, and became the inspiration for her new book Get Signed: Find an Agent, Land a Book Deal, and Become a Published Author (Hay House; February 6, 2024). In GET SIGNED, you discuss why it’s important to commit to a genre and find comp titles. Can you talk […]
Freelance Publicists Keep the Stress of In-House Publicity But Earn Higher Paychecks
It’s a common fantasy. On a stressful day in the office, inbox overflowing, being pulled from meeting to meeting, while the work never seems to end: What if I worked for myself? In reality, is the flexibility of freelance work worth the financial worries, the hustle for the next contract, and being constantly available to clients? For many freelance book publicists, the answer is a resounding yes. As part of our continued series on compensation, we spoke with independent publicists—those working solo or at small firms—about their rates, their take-home pay, and how the stress doesn’t go down when you’re […]
New Books Publishing February 20
Cory Doctorow and A.J. Finn publish novels this week, while new nonfiction includes works by Leslie Jamison and Marie Arana. Also out this week is Madeleine Gray’s GREEN DOT, which is excerpted in our Buzz Books 2023: Fall/Winter anthology. 13 works of fiction https://bookshop.org/lists/new-fiction-publishing-february-20 11 works of nonfiction https://bookshop.org/lists/new-nonfiction-publishing-february-20 From Buzz Books https://buzz.publishersmarketplace.com/ We consult a number of sources in compiling our weekly lists and PM members can see our lists for the coming months on Bookshop. Check out February‘s 68 fiction releases, 42 works of nonfiction; and 26 children’s titles; plus March‘s 92 fiction releases, 48 […]
Storytel Gains in 2023, But Still Looks to Efficiency
Swedish audiobook company Storytel reported fourth quarter and full year 2023 results on Thursday. Full year sales were SEK3.49 million, up 9 percent. EBITDA was SEK150 million up from SEK(-68) million last year. Operating profit for the year was SEK(-742.3), compared to SEK(-400.5) million the year before. Streaming sales grew 12 percent to SEK3.24 million, or a 9 percent increase at constant currency. Fourth quarter and full-year profit was impacted by significant year-end writedowns of SEK672 million. The biggest, SEK465 million (or roughly $45 million at current exchange) was impairment charges on goodwill attributed to Audiobooks.com, acquired for $135 million. […]
Hugo Awards Were Influenced By Political Concerns, Report Finds
The 2023 Hugo Awards were influenced by Chinese “political concerns,” as decided by Western awards administrators, according to a report published on Genre Grapevine and File 770. In January, nominating statistics were released, noting that some works and authors were inexplicably “not eligible” for awards. The news spurred a firestorm of criticism, including from R.F. Kuang and Neil Gaiman, both of whom were marked as ineligible for their respective awards. The top Hugos administrator Dave McCarty, who took responsibility for the eligibility decisions but did not explain them, was subsequently censured by the awards governing body, and resigned. The Hugo […]