Amazon responded to criticism in the wake of Bloomberg’s extensive investigation showing that the rollout of their Prime Same-Day Delivery service has focused on areas where residents are primarily white, and overlooked neighborhoods. The company is correcting what Bloomberg had called “the most striking gap in Amazon’s same-day service,” which was “in Boston, where three ZIP codes encompassing the primarily black neighborhood of Roxbury are excluded from same-day service, while the neighborhoods that surround it on all sides are eligible.” Amazon told Bloomberg by email, “We are actively working with our local carrier to enable service to the Roxbury neighborhood in the coming weeks.” […]
Bookstores
Cline’s Debut The Girls is June No. 1 Indie Next Pick
Emma Cline’s debut novel The Girls tops the ABA’s June Indie Next List. Also included are 5 of our spring Buzz Books titles — Noah Hawley’s Before the Fall, Joe Hill’s The Fireman, My Best Friend’s Exorcism by Grady Hendrix, The Curious Charms of Doctor Pepper by Phaedra Patrick, and Emma Straub’s Modern Lovers, excerpts of which you can start reading right now in Buzz Books 2016: Spring/Summer. Grab it now, since we’ll be unveiling the fall/winter Buzz Books in time for BEA next week. The full June Indie Next list features: Homegoing, by Yaa Gyasi Smoke, by Dan Vyleta Lily […]
Riggio To Retire As B&N Chairman in September
Barnes & Noble, Inc. founder Leonard Riggio, 75, announced he will retire in September from his position as executive chairman — after the annual shareholder meeting — though he intends to remain on the company’s board of directors. Riggio still controls 17.5 percent of Barnes & Noble’s shares (with Abrams Capital Management as the company’s second-largest holder, now with almost 14 percent of the stock). Paul Guenther, a board member since 2015 and former president of Paine Webber, will serve as BN’s nonexecutive chairman after Riggio’s retirement. “I’m no longer going to be in charge. I’m done with that. I’m done with being top […]
Bookselling: Chester County Book Company Closes for Good; Support for Murder by the Book Post-Flooding; and More
Chester County Book Company in West Chester, PA will close for good on July 31, three years after re-opening in a smaller location. Store owner Kathy Simoneaux Fortney said in an email to publishers and customers, “After crunching the numbers, the best option is for me to retire & close the store.” She called it “a difficult decision” and wrote, “We had a good 34-year run!” Murder By the Book, which suffered damage to its carpeting and other parts of the store after significant flooding in Houston, is asking for support through the sale of gift cards, books, and other […]
Amazon Wins NYC Education Contract, Bloomberg Says Prime Same-Day Delivery Excludes Black Neighborhoods
Amazon has won a contract with New York’s Department of Education to supply ebooks to students through a special marketplace site. The deal is worth approximately $30 million over the first three years, and the city has an option to extend the contract for another two years, worth an additional $34.5 million or so. The WSJ says Amazon is expected to make a commission of between 10 percent and 15 percent on the sales. Separately, Bloomberg has an extensive analysis of zip codes served by Amazon’s expanding Prime Same-Day Delivery service — suggesting that the rollout is favoring areas where […]
People, Etc.
Heather Jackson is leaving Harmony to become a literary agent, joining the David Black Agency on May 2. She will focus on commercial nonfiction and fiction, popular culture, and fresh narrative voices that inform, entertain, and shift the cultural conversation. At Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Stephanie Fletcher has been promoted to editor, culinary/lifestyle. In addition, Tim Mudie moves up to associate editor, and Pilar Garcia-Brown has been promoted to editorial associate. Beth Collins was promoted production manager at Beacon Press, and Daniel Barks was promoted to reprint and digital production manager. Founder of Clarion Books and author of nonfiction for young readers Jim Giblin died […]