Barnes & Noble announced that retailer Argos, academic bookseller Blackwell’s and independent bookstore Foyles will also sell the Nook in the UK as of October, after announcing its deal with John Lewis earlier in the week. The Argos deal is particularly significant as it means the Simple Touch and GlowLight devices will be sold in a chain of 700 stores, while Blackwell’s and Foyles enables BN to have some bookstore presence to compete with WHSmith (which stocks Kobo) and Waterstones (which sells Kindle.) In a statement BN director of digital products Jamie Iannone touted that “Argos built its brand on […]
Kobo Will Take Over From Google as ABA’s eBook Retailer
Kobo will reestablish a presence in US retail booksellers that they have lacked since Borders liquidated under an agreement with the American Booksellers Association that takes over from the soon-to-be-cancelled Google eBooks relationship. The WSJ says the new agreement will be effective in October (ahead of Google’s scheduled termination of their affiliates in January 2013); the ABA simply says it will launch “this fall,” with approximately 400 stores expected to participate. The ABA held conversations with a variety of potential new partners, said to include such providers as Copia and the soon-to-launch Zola Books (which is enrolling its own independent […]
People, Etc.
Annie Stone has joined Harlequin Teen as associate editor. Previously she was an assistant editor at Harper. Kristina Aven has joined Little, Brown Children’s as a publicist. She was at Penguin Children’s. Ann Dye will join Little, the unit as associate director, brand marketing for James Patterson. She was most recently a marketing manager at Disney Publishing Worldwide. At Canada’s Kids Can Press, managing editor Semareh Al-Hillal has been promoted to the new position of associate publisher, responsible for the day-to-day operations of the editorial, editorial services and design departments, reporting to acting publisher Lisa Lyons. Jennifer Grimbleby has been promoted to production editor; DoEun Kwon is now production editor; Adrienne […]
People, Etc.
Jennifer Schuster has joined NAL as senior editor. She was previously an editor at It Books. At Ecco, Libby Edelson has been promoted to editor. At Penguin Books, Tara Singh has been promoted to associate editor. The Writer, which was due to go on hiatus with the October 2012 issue after more than 125 years of continuous publication, has been acquired by Madavor Media, a privately held niche and enthusiast media company, from Kalmbach Publishing (which also sold off Birdwatching Magazine in the same deal.) Various government agencies, including the Pentagon and the CIA, are now reviewing manuscript copies of […]
People, Etc.
Babette Ross has joined Hachette Book Group as associate director in the client services department. Previously she was director of marketing at Kaplan and a freelance consultant on the shaping and implementing of digital marketing strategies using analytics and social media. Kathryn Gordon has joined the William Morrow marketing department in the new position of director of brand develpment, reporting to Jennifer Hart. She is charged with “driving awareness for key William Morrow authors and helping to oversee and execute year-long marketing strategies, with special focus on brand messaging, fan and reader engagement, and social media strategies beyond the traditional […]
Bookselling: Indies Coming to Astoria, Queens; Titles, Inc. Owner Florence Shay, 90, Dies; And More
The Queens neighborhood of Astoria had been without a bookstore since December, when Seaburn Bookshop closed. But the impending arrival of Astoria Bookshop, owned by Lexi Beach, and the possible expansion of children’s bookstore The Story Nook, owned by Faye Skandalakis, from a section of a kids’ boutique to a freestanding store suggests the neighborhood, and the borough, will see more book shopping traffic, according to the NY Daily News. Beach, a 31-year-old account manager for eMusic.com (who formerly worked at Simon & Schuster), is still raising funds for the Astoria Bookshop, which she hopes to open next year, but […]