Dawn Davis will join the Atria Publishing Group on April 1 as vp, publisher of a new yet-to-be-named imprint, reporting to Judith Curr. Davis was most recently publisher at Amistad. “Dawn Davis has impeccable credentials, great taste, and a discerning eye that enables her to discover unexpected books and unknown authors that go on to receive the highest praise and find wide audiences” Curr said in the announcement. “That she will now be bringing her ample talents to Atria and Simon & Schuster is a boon for us and readers everywhere.” Hannah Rahill will join Ten Speed Press as vp, […]
Bookstores
Barnes & Noble Warns of Bigger Nook Loss, and Lower Sales than Projected
Barnes & Noble continues to suffer–but the pain is coming from their shiny new growth business that isn’t really growing that much. The company said after the close of the market on Wednesday that “based on current forecasts” it “now expects its fiscal year 2013 Nook segment EBITDA loss to be greater than it was in fiscal 2012 and expects fiscal year 2013 Nook Media revenues to be less than $3 billion.” Just over a month ago, when reporting lower than expected Nook sales, BN had reduced sales expectations for Nook Media (which combines Nook and BN College) to “approximately […]
People, Etc.
Poets & Writers has named Steve Berry, Rigoberto González, and Judith Kelman as the recipients of their annual Writers for Writers Awards. Berry is honored for his dedication to historic preservation of sites of literary importance; Kelman for founding Visible Ink, a writing program at Memorial Sloan Kettering; and González for championing Latina/o writers. Chuck Adams at Algonquin Books will receive their editor’s award and Leonard Riggio will be honored with the organization’s first leadership award “for his transformational impact on the field.” The awards will presented at their annual gala on March 18. Neil Gaiman will give a keynote speech at the London Book Fair’s Digital Minds Conference. Margaret Atwood, Jonathan […]
Hedge Fund Dimensional Added to Barnes & Noble Stake; Still Holds BAMM
In another of the annual filings for those owning more than 5 percent of public companies, Texas-based hedge fund Dimensional Fund Advisors (a huge quant fund that has over $260 billion in investments) disclosed that they increased their stake in Barnes & Noble during 2012. A year ago they reported having taken a 5.45 percent position of about 3.2 million shares by the end of 2011. The new filing indicates that their stake had grown to 7.28 percent of BN stock by the end of 2012, or roughly 4.3 million shares. Barnes & Noble’s stock has risen following the disclosure […]
Bookselling: Longfellow Books Suffers Serious Water Damage; Books-A-Million to Close More Stores; and More
Longfellow Books in Portland, ME suffered extensive damage in the wake of the blizzard that hit much of the Northeastern US. “Apparently the wind blew in a window on the second floor, which caused pipes to freeze,” the store wrote on its Facebook page. The sprinkler system also turned on and “drenched the store’s books”, causing damage to nearly half of the store’s 30,000 titles. Co-owner Chris Bowe told the Portland Press-Herald he hopes Longfellow can re-open by Thursday night, in time for a Valentine’s Day benefit reading. In store closure news, Books-A-Million will close its Charlotte, NC location by […]
Indigo Sales Decline On Fewer eReaders and Lack of Hits
Canada’s dominant bookseller Indigo reported a 4.9 percent decrease in sales of $335.6 million for the fiscal third quarter ending December 29. With echoes of Barnes & Noble’s holiday report, “the decrease was primarily driven by lower ereader revenues compared to last year,” along with a “lack of hit book titles in the quarter” and a reduction of their smaller-format stores by 8 locations. Superstore sales comps were down 5 percent, and small-format store comps fell 5.2 percent, though online sales increased 3.6 percent. EBITDA declined over 15 percent for the period, to $36 million. Their nonbook merchandise continues to expand: […]