Poets & Writers managing director Melissa Ford Gradel will take over as the organization’s executive director in January, when Elliot Figman steps down, after leading the nonprofit since 1981. Figman said: “It’s been my honor to work together with such talented and passionate colleagues. While parting is, indeed, sweet sorrow, I’m delighted to pass the baton to Melissa, who has a deep understanding of our mission, vision, and values and is uniquely qualified to take the helm. As I reflect on my time at Poets & Writers, I’m so proud that we’ve built this organization to be a widely respected […]
Bookstores
NYT On the Struggles of Indie Booksellers
The NYT explains to general readers the challenging situation for many independent booksellers as they balance hopes for the critical holiday season against the challenges of shopping in a pandemic — exacerbated by limits on printing and reprints, and slower and more expensive shipping, and higher expenses regardless. The ABA surveyed members in July and among the approximately 400 respondents, a third said their sales were down 40 percent or more for the year. That 40 percent is in line with what Vroman’s in Los Angeles told customers when appealing for help to survive. Twenty-six percent indicated sales were flat, […]
Barnes & Noble Admits “Cybersecurity Attack”
By Wednesday evening Barnes & Noble admitted to customers that the “serious network issue” we reported on Tuesday was indeed “a cybersecurity attack, which resulted in unauthorized and unlawful access to certain Barnes & Noble corporate systems.” Previously, the company had only said they were “investigating the cause.” As we had suggested, the company also now confirms the bookseller was “made aware” of the attack back on Saturday, October 10, and systems have been impaired since then. On Thursday morning BN executive Jackie DeLeo sent an email to publishers as well. The effects were so sweeping, as we previously described, […]
Barnes & Noble Says Most “Systems Are Back Online” After Major, Multi-Day Problem, But Nook Is Still Being Restored
Barnes & Noble suffered a serious, widespread, unspecified IT systems problem that appears to have begun on Saturday and was mostly remediated by Tuesday afternoon. The most obvious signs of the problem to the outside world were significant issues accessing Nook titles and other data (libraries, wishlists, etc.) and problems logging into BN.com accounts and reported delays in shipping those orders, while in-store customers appear to have faced at least some checkout issues and difficulty with special orders, stock-finding and other functions that required computer assistance. A BN spokesperson told PL Tuesday afternoon, “We have a serious network issue and […]
People, Etc.
Lane Zachary will join Massie & McQuilkin Literary Agents, continuing to represent many of her current clients as well as new writers of literary fiction, memoir, and creative nonfiction. At Simon & Schuster, Sienna Farris will take the new position of vp, director of multicultural marketing, serving as “a company-wide, senior marketing expert and champion for our multicultural publishing,” reporting to Liz Perl. At Random House Children’s, Alison Stoltzfus has been promoted to senior director, publishing, for Princeton Review and Sylvan Learning. Suzanne Lee has joined the art department as designer, moving over from Princeton Review and Sylvan Learning. Larsson […]
Indigo Store Employees Vote In Favor of Unionizing
Employees of Indigo’s Square One store, one of 39 locations of the chain in Mississauga, Ontario, voted to join the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) union yesterday, with 23 votes in favor and 13 opposing. UFCW representative Kevin Shimmin told PL in an email, “We are so happy to welcome the Indigo workers at Square One in Mississauga to our union. This victory demonstrates the necessity and viability of organizing unions, especially right now during the pandemic. Health and safety in retail work is the spark that started this campaign. Workers, and their community supporters, understand unionization is the […]