At Books-A-Million, Doug Markham has been promoted to the newly created position of executive v-p/chief administrative officer in charge of the company’s warehouse operations, information technology and human resources, as well as the oversight of BAM’s finance function. He had been the company’s CFO since 2006 and secretary since March 2008, Replacing Markham as CFO will be Brian W. White, who served as interim CEO between January-July 2008 when Markham was on deployment to active military service. Terry Finley has been promoted to executive v-p/chief merchandising officer in addition to his current responsibilities as president, Books-A-Million, Inc. merchandising group, and […]
B&N Sales and Outlook Fall in Second Quarter, But Beat Expectations
For the second quarter ending August 1, total sales for Barnes & Noble declined 5% to $1.2 billion. Store sales were off 5%, to $1 billion, while sales through Barnes & Noble.com increased 2% to $102 million. Comparable store sales fell 6.9% for the quarter, within the Company’s guidance for a decrease of 5% to 7%. Net profit fell to $12.3 million, or 21 cents per share, from $16.8 million, or 27 cents per share last year. Excluding a benefit from an insurance settlement, net income was 14 cents per share. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters, on average, had expected […]
Some Small Nuggets of News Contained Within THE LOST SYMBOL Hype
With little more than speculation to go on about the contents and the reception to Dan Brown’s THE LOST SYMBOL, USA Today’s writearound about “pent-up demand” teases out one amusing tidbit from Sessalee Hensley, the fiction buyer for B&N. She said 50 stores asked for advance copies: “I had to explain there aren’t any.”USAT But don’t look for an e-book edition in Germany, as Lübbe has no plans to release one of the German translation.Buchreport.de (via Publishing Perspectives)
Elizabeth Gilbert Follows up Eat, Pray Love with Book on Marriage
A year after scrapping a 500-page followup, Elizabeth Gilbert went back to the drawing board and in January Viking will publish Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace With Marriage, a memoir of the “tumultuous year” that came after the mega-success of Eat, Pray, Love (with 4 million copies sold as per Bookscan’s report) and “meditation on wedlock” to her Brazilian-Australian husband. Viking has announced a first printing of 1 million copies, but the NYT helpfully points out that while “such numbers are known to be widely exaggerated, they indicate the publisher’s ambitions.”NYT
Former Viking Editor Ray Roberts, 71, Dies
Ray Roberts died after a short illness on Wednesday, August 12, in New York. He was 71. Roberts began his long career in publishing at the University of Chicago Press, and was an editor at Macmillan, Doubleday, Little Brown, Henry Holt and most recently at Viking, from which he retired in 2005. His many distinguished authors include Ansel Adams, David Attenborough, John Fowles, Martha Grimes, Greg Mortenson, Frances Partridge, and Thomas Pynchon.
Amazon Guarantees Release Day Delivery of THE LOST SYMBOL for hardcover, Kindle
Clearing up what few questions remained about how Amazon would approach the September 15 release day of Dan Brown’s THE LOST SYMBOL, the retailer announced this morning that the book would be available for “guaranteed delivery” via UPS (for the hardcover edition) and via wireless (for the Kindle edition.) The hardcover will be priced at $16.17, while the Kindle edition will bear the $9.99 pricetag.Release