Canongate will publish British classical pianist James Rhodes‘ memoir Instrumental on May 28 as an ebook and the following week in hardcover after the UK Supreme Court overturned an injunction that banned publication. The injunction resulted from a lawsuit by Rhodes’ former wife, who claimed publication of the memoir, which details Rhodes’ childhood sexual abuse by his teacher, “were so disturbing that their son [who suffers from Asperger’s Syndrome] would suffer catastrophic psychological distress if he were to read it.” In delivering the judgment Lord Toulson wrote: “There is every justification for the publication. A person who has suffered in […]
Bookstores
Bookselling: BN to Close Forest Hills Store; Outgoing ABA President Bercu On “Continuing Resurgence”
Barnes & Noble will close its Forest Hills, Queens store in January, according to the NY Daily News, which reported comments from the 22,000-square foot store’s landlord, Muss Development. BN has occupied the space since 1995; should the store close it would leave its outpost in Bayside as the retailer’s only store in Queens. Outgoing ABA president Steve Bercu wrote a final letter to bookseller members hailing the “continued resurgence” of independent bookstores as a retail channel: “We have been able to see the results of rapid replenishment as it spreads to more and more of our publishing partners. We […]
BN Files to Allow Microsoft and Pearson to Sell Their Shares; BAMM Trades Above Buyout Offer
Barnes & Noble filed paperwork with the SEC to prepare the way for Microsoft and Pearson to be able to sell the roughly 3.340 million shares of the bookseller’s stock they were given as part of the deals to buy out their stakes in Nook Media LLC. Those shares comprise a little more than 5.2 percent of Barnes & Noble’s total available shares. A sale of these shares was expected when BN made the deals to end their Nook Media partnership, though neither Microsoft nor Pearson has announced plans for a secondary offering of their shares yet. In other bookseller […]
People, Etc.
At Simon & Schuster Children’s, Christian Trimmer has been promoted to executive editor; Kristin Ostby moves up to senior editor; and Catherine Laudone has been promoted to assistant editor. In addition, Christine Dong has been promoted to senior demand planner. At Macmillan Audio, Robert Allen has been promoted to associate publisher, while Samantha Edelson moves up to marketing director. At Candlewick, Zoe Luderitz has been promoted to senior marketing manager. In addition, Andie Krawczyk has been promoted to manager of library marketing and outreach. At Chronicle Books, Ariel Richardson has been promoted to associate editor, children’s. Announcements Barnes & Noble […]
Haruf’s Final Novel Leads June Indie Next List; May Picks from iBooks, Amazon and Costco
Kent Haruf‘s final, posthumous novel OUR SOULS AT NIGHT is the ABA’s No. 1 Indie Next pick for June (and makes the iBooks Store’s top picks for May as well). The rest of the list features the following (including 5 books, asterisked, you can start reading right now in our free spring/summer Buzz Books ebook; download it now while you still can, since our big fall/winter Buzz Books collections will be landing soon in advance of BEA): Uprooted, by Naomi Novik The Sunlit Night, by Rebecca Dinerstein The Invasion of the Tearling, by Erika Johansen *The Water Knife, by Paolo […]
Bookselling: Sales Fall Another 4 Percent at WHSmith; Looking Glass Books For Sale; and More
WHSmith reported interim half-year results (ending February 28) with sales at their High Street stores were down 5 percent, with same store sales also down 4 percent. Profits for that segment increased 2 percent (or £1m) to £50m, as “strong gross margin performance and costs were tightly controlled” saving costs of £6m over the six-month period with another £5m set to be cut in the second half. The numbers remain consistent with their fiscal 2014 results, in which High Street store sales fell 6 percent and same-store sales fell 5 percent, with book sales declining 8 percent. Release Looking Glass […]