At Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Children’s, Jenny Groves and Jenn Taber have been promoted to publicity manager, and Jean Thrift has been promoted to marketing associate. Cambridge University Press has hired Peter Phillips as chief operating officer, joining the publisher in early October, the Bookseller reports. He will join the board of the press as well. He was at the UK’s Office of Communications (an independent regulator and competition authority in the communications industries.) A group of people with connections to trade publishing, including agent Rafe Sagalyn, author and editor of the New Republic Franklin Foer and others have held informal […]
Bookstores
More Announcements: Hearst Renews, Indigo's Teen Awards
Hearst Magazines has renewed its long-term trademark licensing agreement with Sterling that grants them the rights to create and publish books under the Hearst Books imprint. Sterling has worked with Hearst for nine years. Indigo is running a new Teen Read Awards program in which teen readers can vote for favorite books, authors and characters in ten nominated categories. As the chain underscores in their announcement, “the teen books category has grown by 150% and has become the second largest at Indigo and Chapters, after adult fiction.”Release
Amazon Cuts Kindle Price, New iOS Releases, and More
Hours after Barnes & Noble’s price cut on Nook and announcement of a new lower-priced wi-fi model, Amazon announced a price reduction of its own. They lowered the price on the regular model of Kindle from $269 to $189, effective immediately. The press loves “price wars” and of course everyone is an expert on what this means, and what it portends. Barnes & Noble is particularly vocal in media accounts. CEO William Lynch tells the NYT, “I don’t see more than two, or maybe three dedicated reading companies in the market for selling e-books. I think you are starting to […]
Borders Said to Lay Off Store-Based Paperchase Employees
According to a message board populated by anonymous Borders employees, all store-based Paperchase merchandisers/managers in the over 337 in-store shops within Borders stores have been let go. Some posts on that same board suggest that regional managers are being given notice as well. One employee writes, “As I understood it, the entire Paperchase field team has been eliminated.” Borders spokesperson Mary Davis says that regional managers are not affected and will continue in their current roles. On the broader reductions, the company says: “Borders is always looking for opportunities to improve performance and profitability. The changes we have made in […]
DC's Politics and Prose Seeks New Owner
The news is now public that Washington, DC’s iconic Politics and Prose bookstore is up for sale. (At least one trade-related group has been in informal discussions with owners Carla Cohen and Barbara Meade recently.) Meade tells the Washington Post, “It’s time for us to stop and let somebody else take over for the future” as Cohen adds, “I just don’t have the energy like I used to.” Sadly, as the story quietly underscores, “Cohen is also seriously ill.” The store’s financials are said to be solid, though for some odd reason the newspaper chooses to cite recent sales number […]
Reflecting Weak Market, WH Smith Confirms Sales Decline
WH Smith issued a brief trading update for the 14 weeks ending June 5. With the UK book market in general decline, their High Street stores declined 4 percent on a like-for-like basis compared to a year ago. Their travel stores were also down 4 percent overall, which they somehow parsed into 2 percent regular decline and 2 percent volcanic ash decline.