The No. 1 Indie Next Pick for March is SHOTGUN LOVESONGS by Nickolas Butler, and Isla Morley’s novel is the first of our 2014 Spring/Summer Buzz Books to make the ABA lists (most of our featured titles don’t land until April or beyond). The full list includes: The Enchanted, by Rene Denfeld Gemin, by Carol Cassella After I’m Gone, by Laura Lippman The Weight of Blood, by Laura McHugh The Museum of Extraordinary Things, by Alice Hoffman The Accident, by Chris Pavone A Circle of Wives, by Alice LaPlante The Spinning Heart, by Donal Ryan Above, by Isla Morley Bark: […]
Bookstores
Bookselling: Chains Challenged In Netherlands and Poland, and More
Less than a year after Dutch investment group Procures bought bankrupt bookstore chain Selexyz for €3.5m and combined operations with the secondhand and discount De Slegte chain under the banner Polare, the entire company is facing new financial woes. The 20 Polare stores “temporarily” closed Tuesday and their online store has suspended operations as well as part of a “strategic organization,”according to NLTimes.nl, but ceo Jan van de Wouw told RTL Nieuws that Polare is negotiating with “two interested parties” to reopen the stores. Tuesday’s shutdown came just two months after Polare laid off 54 of 336 full-time workers, with book […]
People, Etc.
Andrea Barzvi recently left ICM Partners after 13 years to start her own agency, Empire literary, where she will continue to represent commercial non-fiction as well as women’s fiction. At Sourcebooks, Nicole Villeneuve has been promoted to assistant publicity manager. Poet Billy Collins, 72, has sold his papers to the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin, The finalists have been named for the Costa Short Story Award. In bookstore news, Main Street Books in St. Charles, MO — which was set to close on January 31 as the owners retire — is negotiating with a potential buyer. (A separate […]
Bookstore News: A Closing In Toronto, An Opening In Vallejo, and Rizzoli’s Pledge
Toronto’s Book City store group announced that they will close their flagship location (in the Annex) when the lease expires this spring, after 38 years in business. General manager and son of the group’s founder Ian Donker tells Quill & Quire, “we agonized over the decision, but sadly it didn’t make much economic sense to continue.” Their three other locations “have been strong and maintained their sales” and will remain open. Vallejo, CA has a new downtown bookstore, Koham Press, opened Wednesday by Rar Farmer (with a grand opening on January 25). A former manager of Half Price Books in Berkeley, […]
Stock Expert Cramer Says Amazon Shares Are “Modern Art”
Later in the morning television host and author of the just-released Get Rich Carefully Jim Cramer provided an investment view of publishing and the larger media landscape. Extending the morning’s discussion, he said, “I simply don’t know how to stop Amazon. It’s not constrained by the need to make money. It’s modern art. It’s Jackson Pollock. It can’t be explained. It’s a Rothko, and everyone else is Rembrandt — and everyone else is worth a lot less.” At the same time, Cramer noted, “it is the best multi-year growth story out there.” Ironically, because the share price is fueled by […]
The “Bezosologists” At DBW
Bloomberg BusinessWeek reporter and author of The Everything Store Brad Stone opened Wednesday morning’s Digital Book World sessions focused on Amazon. “In a way, this is a room full of Bezosologists; we all have to be.” Stone spoke in particular to the company’s vast ambition and persistence: “The one constant is Amazon’s 20-year history is that it does not give up…and can be fairly ruthless and self-absorbed in how it constantly tries to disrupt the existing order.” He referred to “the notorious one-star review of my book that was heard round the world,” in which “MacKenzie Bezos took issue with […]