Amazon‘s “spotlight pick” for June is Jami Attenberg’s Saint Mazie and their “featured debut” is Erika Swyler’s The Book of Speculation. Their other best books of June top picks are: Aziz Ansari & Eric Klinenberg, Modern Romance Mia Alvar, In The Country Sarah Hepola, Blackout Judy Blume, In the Unlikely Event Kent Haruf, Our Souls at Night Stephen King, Finders Keepers Robert Kurson, Pirate Hunters *Paolo Baciagalupi, The Water Knife Etgar Keret, The Seven Good Years Meanwhile King’s Finders Keepers leads off iBooks‘ June fiction picks, while Kurson’s Pirate Hunters tops the nonfiction monthly selections. The full lists include: Fiction The […]
Books-A-Million Starts the Fiscal Year on a Downward Note; HMH Completes Scholastic Edtech Acquisition
Sales dropped $2 million (or 1.9 percent) at Books-A-Million in their fiscal first quarter, ending May 2, reaching $101.8 million for the period. Same-store sales also declined 0.9 percent down 2.5 percent, and the net loss of $5.3 million was marginally improved over the $5.6 million net loss for the same time period last year. Even ceo Terrance Finley couldn’t quite issue an upbeat statement, commenting: “Our comparable store sales decline versus last year was largely due to a strong prior year title lineup in our teen category. This decline was moderated by improvements in our fiction and kids categories […]
People, Etc.
At HarperCollins Christian Books, Stephanie Newton has been promoted to marketing director, backlist, as part of an expanded focus on backlist titles at the company. Claire Ivett has been promoted to associate editor at Da Capo Lifelong Books. In Canada, Steve Osgoode has joined Joe Books as president. Previously he was director, digital products at HarperCollins Canada. Awards At an awards ceremony for the Audie Awards Thursday night, Mandela: An Audio History by Radio Diaries; narrated by Desmond Tutu, Nelson Mandela, and Joe Richman (Highbridge) won the audiobook of the year award. The complete list of winners is here. Distribution […]
James Patterson Launches New Children’s Imprint
James Patterson will launch a new dedicated children’s imprint, jimmy patterson, at longtime publisher Little, Brown, that will release eight to 12 middle-grade and young adult titles annually (4-6 of those titles will be Patterson’s, with the other acquisitions to be overseen by him.) “We’re not going to buy a lot of books, but if we buy them, we’re going to publish them with gusto,” Patterson told the NYT in advance of the official announcement at BEA Friday morning. Proceeds from the imprint’s titles will go to scholarships for teachers; helping bookstores; supporting school libraries; increasing the reach of Patterson’s […]
At ABA Annual Keynote, Teicher Points to “Impressive Resurgence” of Indie Bookselling
At the ABA’s annual general meeting, ceo Oren Teicher called attention to independent bookstores’ “impressive resurgence” and the association’s expanding initiatives over the past twelve months. Teicher called attention to “significant investment in technology, especially for IndieCommerce”; an expansion of Winter Institute as well as the Children’s Institute; the “successful debut” of Independent Bookstore Day; and the Indies First and Indies Introduce program. “Though we are not there yet, we are making progress on decoupling ‘endangered’ from indie bookstore!” As reported earlier in the week, ABA members now operate more than 2200 bookstores, with increased sales for 47 of 52 […]
BEA, Day One: View From The Floor, Rooftop, Stage
There’s a danger in ascribing a general mood to a trade show after a single day (never mind that publications do it all the time, and will do so in the future) but the words that come to my mind are “pleasantly discombobulating.” The wifi was free and worked, for the most part (we’ll see about that today.) The show floor, an hour or so after opening at the later-than-usual 1 PM time, was full of people but nowhere near capacity. Members of the delegation from China seemed as content to mingle as they did to take pictures of the […]