The American Booksellers Association held their annual meeting and town hall virtually on Thursday. Incoming president Bradley Graham at Politics & Prose presented membership data that revealed the significant toll the pandemic (and potentially other factors) has had on the sector. “At the latest count, the ABA has 1,700 member companies and 2,100 locations,” Graham reported. A year ago the organization did not report membership data because of the pandemic, so the most recent comparison is from two years ago, when the numbers peaked at 1,887 members, operating 2,524 locations. Graham said the ABA “lost 80 members unfortunately due to […]
Bookstores
Independent Booksellers On Selling Pence and More
A Book Show panel with four independent booksellers on Monday addressed a variety of current issues, from the transition back to regular in-store commerce to the challenges raised by authors such as Mike Pence and Blake Bailey. Asked by moderator Ed Nawotka at PW about dealing with controversial books and authors, the booksellers illuminated multiple perspectives. Co-owner of Tattered Cover Kwame Spearman said, “A former vice president writes an autobiography — you probably have to run that and yet the autobiography is going to be about four years at a time that was just incredibly divisive. It’s going to be […]
People, Etc.
Andrea Hall has joined Beaming Books as senior acquisitions editor. She was formerly editor at Albert Whitman & Company. Bookselling Betsy Burton and some of her partners are selling their majority interests in the King’s English Bookshop in Salt Lake City, UT, to Calvin Crosby, currently executive director of the California Independent Booksellers Alliance. Effective July 1, Crosby will join part-owner Anne Holman. Distribution Oxford University Press will move their US warehouse and fulfillment operations to Ingram Distribution Solutions this fall. OUP has serviced fulfillment through their own 190,000-square-foot warehouse in Cary, NC, which will close. OUP USA president Niko […]
People, Etc.
Claire Eddy and Will Hinton have been promoted to editorial directors of Tor, Nightfire, Tor Teen, and Starscape. Also, Molly McGhee is promoted to assistant editor, effective immediately, reporting to Devi Pillai and Miriam Weinberg. Stacey Barney will join Nancy Paulsen Books as associate publisher, starting June 1. She was most recently executive editor at Putnam Children’s. Caitlin Tutterow will also join the Nancy Paulsen imprint; she was previously assistant editor at Putnam Children’s. Michelle Triant has joined Chronicle Prism as senior publicist. She was previously at Fortier Public Relations and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Brianne Johnson has joined HG Literary, bringing her list […]
People, Etc.
At Azantian Literary Agency, T.S. Ferguson has joined as literary agent and will be open to queries beginning June 1. He was most recently an editor at Jimmy Patterson Books. Renae Moore has joined as associate agent, representing adult and YA speculative fiction and graphic novels. She was previously assistant agent at Tobias Literary Agency. At Arcadia, Lynda Zuber has joined the sales team in the newly created position of national sales manager, special markets. She most recently provided business development strategies to Minted, Tra Publishing, Vooks and Lunii. Chuck Deane has joined the sales team as business development manager, based […]
People, Etc.
At Harper Children’s, Luana Horry and Clarissa Wong have each been promoted to senior editor and Sara Schonfeld is associate editor. Vaishali Nayak is now senior manager, marketing; Katie Dutton moves up to senior marketing associate, school & library marketing; and Shaelyn McDaniel becomes assistant manager, digital marketing. Lena Reilly is promoted to associate publicist; Caitlin Lonning to senior production editor; and Kat Keating to senior digital production editor. In new hires, Erin Hamling has joined as senior production editor (she was previously a development editor at Oxford University Press). At Penguin Random House Audio, Ellen Folan has joined as director […]