James Patterson is making a personal donation of $500,000 to help save independent bookstores across the country, as part of a new fund to be administered by BINC (Book Industry Charitable Foundation) that is raising money to support stores rather than individual booksellers in need. Patterson is joining with Reese Witherspoon, as well as the ABA, in a new awareness and fundraising campaign, #SaveIndieBookstores, running through April 30. BINC will distribute the pool of funds raised to eligible independent bookstores “by May 15.” Apparently those grants will be available to ABA member stores only. The site indicates, “Funds received are […]
Bookstores
Indigo Books Lays Off 5,200 Employees
Now that Indigo Books physical stores are closed until further notice, the company temporarily laid off 5,200 retail employees as of last Friday. (According to their website, they employed a total of about 7,000 people.) All employees had been paid during the initial hiatus, from March 17 until March 28. Spokesperson Kate Gregory said the company had “made the difficult decision” to layoff employees temporarily. The company expects “to re-embrace as many as possible when this period of store closure is over.” Longer closures will put stress on bookstores large and small. Slate talks to some independent booksellers, for whom […]
People, Etc.
Laura Mazer has joined Wendy Sherman Associates as a literary agent representing adult nonfiction. Previously, she was executive editor at Seal Press. Bookselling Powell’s Books announced that they have rehired some of the employees they fired earlier in the month due to strong online orders. It was widely misreported that the store has rehired over 100 people — whereas what ceo and owner Emily Powell wrote on Facebook was that “over 100” people are working at the store again. The union representing many Powell’s workers clarified to the Oregonian “that the bookstore has only recalled 49 union workers, and said […]
Over Half of Barnes & Noble Stores Now Temporarily Closed
After resisting closing stores as much as possible, in recent days Barnes & Noble has been forced to temporarily shutter a number of their stores nationwide by order of local governments. As of late Wednesday morning, BN confirmed to Publishers Lunch that they now “have over 370 temporary store closures.” With a base of 620 stores across the country under normal operations, that means BN has closed about 60 percent of their stores so far. That leaves them with something under 250 stores still currently open. (At least a few more BN locations announced on social media during the day […]
Bookstore Needs and Relief, and Publisher Layoffs
Ceo of Canada’s Indigo Books Heather Reisman deserves extra attention for her current stance as their stores are closed chainwide, telling the Toronto Star “she is continuing to pay her employees during the shutdown.” Indigo continues to ship online orders, and “when we close 200 stores it has a very significant impact on the company.” She expects stores will have to stay closed longer than initially planned, and is also expecting a need for substantial government assistance: “If it did go on for a couple of months the only response is a massive injection of cash into the system by […]
WH Smith Changes Position and Will Close Many of Their Stores
Following Monday’s closure of Waterstones stores across the UK, competitor WH Smith will close approximately 60 percent of their high street bookstores as well. Initially the company resisted closing any locations, with employees complaining about the risks to the media (“It’s putting the general public and ourselves at risk. We don’t want to be there, but we feel like we have to”). But after a televised address by Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Monday night, the chain announced it would close many stores, while keeping open locations that provide Post Office services and other key support functions: “At this critical […]