The ABA announced the nominees for their annual book awards. Member booksellers can vote during most of the month of March, with the winners to be named in April. Adult FictionBorder Songs, by Jim Lynch (Knopf)Brooklyn, by Colm Toibin (Scribner)The Children’s Book, by A.S. Byatt (Knopf)Cutting for Stone, by Abraham Verghese (Knopf)Generosity: An Enhancement, by Richard Powers (FSG)Wolf Hall, by Hilary Mantel (Holt) Adult NonfictionAnimals Make Us Human, by Temple Grandin (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)Lit: A Memoir, by Mary Karr (HarperCollins)The Lost City of Z, by David Grann (Doubleday)Stitches: A Memoir, by David Small (W.W. Norton)Strength in What Remains, by Tracy […]
Bookstores
Announcements
David Patterson has left Holt, where he was an editor, and starts today at Foundry Literary + Media as an agent. Irish bookselling chain Hughes & Hughes declared bankruptcy. Ulster Bank appointed David Carson of Deloitte as receiver. The company blamed a variety of factors, from reduced air traffic which suppressed business at its successful airport bookstores to higher rents and the internet.Irish Times Gordon Wood won the American History Book Prize for Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789-1815, which includes the title of American Historian Laureate. Mexican author and guerrilla movement scholar Carlos Montemayor, 62, […]
Burkle Continues Agitating Against Barnes & Noble Board
It was fairly obvious that the Barnes & Noble board of directors would decline investor Ron Burkle’s request that they grant him an exception from the poison pill provision that they adopted specifically to block Burkle and his friends from threatening the Riggios’ de facto control over the company. But in a new letter to the board, Burkle expresses surprise that the company’s independent directors did not contact him before dismissing his concerns, and he asks for a meeting: “I would have hoped that the non-management members of the Board would have contacted me before unilaterally rejecting my request that […]
Alibris Buys Monsoon
Online used-book marketplace Alibris’s parent company is acquiring Oregon-based marketplace selling solutions company Monsoon for a combination of cash and stock. (Monsoon helps sellers list their good across multiple marketplaces.) Alibris owner Oak Hill Capital provided funding along with additional bank financing. The two companies will continue to operate separately. Monsoon ceo Kanth Gopalpur will continue to run the company. He says in the announcement, “This transaction will provide the combined Monsoon-Alibris customer base with even more opportunities to expand their businesses and increase sales. We will be able to take advantage of additional resources, technology, and capital in order […]
Barnes & Noble Reports Decent Earnings On Declining Sales
Barnes & Noble reported third quarter sales of $2.175 billion for the period ending January 10. Same-store sales at regular BN outlets were down 5.5 percent compared to a year, and fell 4.7 percent overall, at $1.4 billion. College bookstore sales of $566 million were down 1.3 percent. BN.com sales grew 32 percent to $210 million–and were up 67 percent in the month of January, driven by nook sales. (BN’s quarters no longer align following the integration of the College division, but last year in March store comps were down 7.3 percent–so they are underperforming an already-lowered bar.) During the […]
People and Companies
Agent Mary Ann Naples, co-owner of The Creative Culture, has joined startup OpenSky (www.theopenskyproject.com) as vp of development, representing the voices of authors and brands at the company. Former Scholastic UK managing director (and then briefly chief executive of the Headline publishing group) Kate Wilson is starting a children’s book publisher, Nosy Crow, launching in January 2011. The company is focusing on both traditional printed books as well as books as electronic apps. Ralph Munsen joins Hachette Book Group today as svp, chief information officer. He was most recently vp, technology at Clear Channel..He will lead HBG’s technology group, and […]