Following the early release of the American Booksellers Association’s annual membership numbers which showed their seventh annual increase — along with an indication of increased print unit sales at member stores that report to Nielsen Bookscan, the organization’s ceo Oren Teicher addressed the group’s annual meeting. He noted that “almost two third of the ABA members” in attendance at BEA this year are members “who have not been to this show in recent years,” due to the one-year relocation to Chicago. (BEA returns to Javits Center in New York in 2017.) Teicher celebrated “independent booksellers’ commitment to innovation and hard […]
Bookstores
HarperCollins Creates Program to Support New Bookstores
HarperCollins announced a New Store Development Program to support independent booksellers opening new stores (or additional locations) in the US. Qualifying stores can get extra discount, “in the form of market development and fixture funds, on orders placed priorto opening and for the first three months of operation.” Harper will also give grants towards ABA membership dues and three months of Above the Treeline fees. Harper’s president of sales Josh Marwell says in the announcement, “We want to do everything we reasonably can to encourage” the growth in indie stores, “especially in the critical early days of a new store’s life.” American Booksellers Association ceo Oren Teicher adds, “While our market […]
People, Etc.
Brenda Chin will join Entangled as editorial director of the Brazen and Scorched imprints. Previously she was editorial director at Harlequin Blaze. Amazon global v-p and general manager of Kindle China Zhang Wenyi has been appointed president of Amazon China, while continuing to lead the country’s Kindle business. Milkweed Editions will open a new bookstore, Milkweed Books, in downtown Minneapolis in late June or early July. According to MPR, Milkweed publisher and ceo Daniel Slager estimates “about a quarter of the store’s stock will be Milkweed books, and the rest will come from a variety of publishers across the country, […]
People, Etc.
At Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Helen Atsma has been promoted to editorial director, fiction, while Naomi Gibbs moves up to editor. Rebecca Lang has joined St. Martin’s as publicity manager. She was previously a publicist at Viking Penguin. In addition, Courtney Reed has been promoted to marketing manager. Tara Carberry has joined hoopla digital in the newly created position of content strategist. Most recently she was an associate literary agent at Trident Media Group. Rebecca Liao and Cristóbal Pera have joined Words Without Borders’ board of directors. Distribution IPG has launched a new distribution program, Amphora, focused on servicing large content holders. […]
Another Concept Bookstore Opens — Backed By Penguin Random House
Amazon isn’t the only company of scale experimenting with a sleek new concept bookstore. Last Friday, a 1,000-square-foot concept store opened in under-served Puerto Rico with backing from Penguin Random House, in partnership with the island’s Bookmark (which opened their first store in 2013). At the new Bookmark Boutique, “During its first three months of operation, Penguin Random House will provide support with public relations, an aggressive author event calendar and innovative technology designed to help readers discover new books and authors,” according to a local paper. Similar to the modestly-sized Amazon Books experiment in Seattle, Bookmark Boutique aims to use technology […]
Bloomberg’s Influence: Amazon Expands Same-Day Service to Chicago’s South Side and the Bronx
Bloomberg’s expose on how the rollout of Amazon’s same-day delivery service was carefully avoiding predominantly black neighborhoods in many major metropolitan areas continues to wield influence. The etailer promised local politicians it will correct those gaps in Chicago and New York’s The Bronx “in coming weeks,” following a pledge to do the same in Roxbury, MA. Those promises come after Illinois Congressman Bobby Rush asked for an FTC investigation, and Bronx Borough president Ruben Diaz Jr. and NYS council Jeffrey Dinowitz complained as well. An Amazon spokesperson tells USA Today by email they are working on extending the service to other […]