Lance Fitzgerald will join Simon & Schuster as VP, director of foreign rights for the S&S and Touchstone imprints on November 28, so as to allow for a month of overlap with Marcella Berger, who is retiring at the end of the year. He is currently director of subsidiary rights at Penguin. In addition, Marie Florio has been promoted to deputy director of subsidiary rights for the Touchstone, Threshold, Howard, and Simon & Schuster imprints, effective immediately. At Ten Speed Press, Kristin Casemore has been promoted to publicity director, cookbooks, and Katy Brown has been promoted to senior designer. In […]
People, Etc.
At Orion, Kate Mills has been promoted to publishing director, fiction, and Genevieve Pegg moves up to editorial director, fiction. Mills replaces Jon Wood, who is relinquished his responsibilities to focus on his other role as deputy group publisher. In addition, Amanda Harris has been promoted to publishing director, non-fiction. Also in the UK, at Macmillan Children’s Books, Ruth Alltimes takes over immediately as publishing director, fiction. She will report to incoming publisher Belinda Rasmussen, who joins the comapny this fall. Editorial director Rebecca McNally is leaving the company at the end of October. Polly Nolan will join the unit […]
Former Employee Sues Borders Over Layoff Procedure, and More Bookstore News
On the heels of Borders suing marketing firm Next Jump over trademark infringement now Borders is a defendant in a new complaint related to the company’s layoff procedures post-litigation. Former employee Jared Pinsker, who worked in Borders’ Ann Arbor headquarters, said in a suit filed last Friday in federal bankruptcy court that Borders did not adequately give employees notice when they were let go between July 23 and August 23. Not doing so, per the complaint, violates the WARN Act, which requires employers to give 60 days notice before conducting layoffs of at least 33 percent of a company’s work […]
Awards: Booker Shortlist, Giller Longlist
The Booker Prize shortlist was announced today, and the best-known author among the candidates is Julian Barnes and his book THE SENSE OF AN ENDING. Barnes has made the shortlist three times before without winning, and is joined by only one other prior nominee, Carol Birch for JAMRACH’S MENAGERIE. Two debut novelists are included, Stephen Kelman and A.D. Miller, and Random House UK is the only of the country’s publishing giants represented. US rights to all but one title are already spoken for, and four of the five are already on the market in the US. Canadian Esi Edugyan’s HALF […]
Bookselling: Atlantic Books To Close Seven More Stores; New Stores In LA and Danville; and More
Conshocken, PA- based Atlantic Books will close seven stores in shore towns in New Jersey and Delaware. Co-owner Mark Simon tells the Press of Atlantic City, “They’re no longer profitable, and have not been for the last year or so,” adding that “it becomes more and more difficult to afford the rent.” In New Jersey they are closing shops in Beach Haven, Cape May, Stone Harbor, and two in Ocean City (plus their Somers Point store closed earlier this summer), and in Delaware stores in Bethany Beach and Fenwick Island will close permanently this fall. That will leave the chain with only […]
Borders Sues Vendor For Allegedly Steering Borders Rewards Customers To Separate Website
As Borders prepares to auction off what it hopes will prove to be valuable intellectual property, including its Borders Rewards customer data, the company has gone to court to protect those assets from infringement by a former Borders vendor. The complaint filed in New York bankruptcy court charges that Next Jump, the company hired in 2007 to operate Bordersrewardperks.com–a website to provide rewards from third-party vendors to Borders customers–has used its access to the book chain’s customer list to steer half a million people or more to a separate website, OO.com, owned by Next Jump. Significantly given the upcoming auction, Borders says […]