Zareen Jaffery will join Kokila as executive editor on January 13. She was previously executive editor at Simon & Schuster Children’s. Rachel Beck has joined Liza Dawson Associates as agent. She was previously an agent with Holloway Literary. Emily Duval has been promoted to manager, library marketing at Random House Children’s. Natalie Capogrossi has joined Random House Children’s as assistant manager, school marketing. She was previously a teacher and intern at Writer’s House. At, Princeton Architectural Press, Jessica Tackett has been promoted to marketing manager; Parker Menzimer has been promoted to production editor; Stephanie Holstein has been promoted to associate […]
Bookstores
Book Culture’s UWS Store Seized by City Marshal
The complicated status of Book Culture‘s store on Columbus Avenue, co-owned by Book Culture owner Chris Doeblin and 40-percent partner John “Rick” MacArthur, has come to an unfortunate point: The City Marshal seized the store, which is now closed, as the landlord moves to recover the premises and evict the store for unpaid back rent. Doeblin posted on Facebook, “Our beloved store on Columbus was seized today unexpectedly, by our landlord. I mistakenly believed that action was retracted after paying our rent the last 5 months and cutting our arrears by $35k in December.” He said in an email to […]
People, Etc.
Elizabeth DeMeo has been promoted to associate editor at Tin House Books, reporting to Masie Cochran. In addition to overseeing the poetry and paperback programs, she will acquire both fiction and nonfiction. Emily Canders has been promoted to senior publicity manager at Dutton. Hannah Wood joined Apple recently, working as content development editor on the Apple Books team. Rachel Beck is no longer with Holloway Literary. At Curtis Brown UK, Becky Brown has been promoted to agent in the division that represents literary estates, and Lucy Morris has been promoted to agent in the books department. Author Robert Caro‘s extensive […]
In Retrospect, Waterstones Says Flat Holiday Sales Were Better Than Expected
Now that the holiday is over James Daunt says that for Waterstones’ sales during the period, “I would have said it would have been down on last year” — an easy way of lowering the bar after the fact. When we spoke to him about the closing prospects for Barnes & Noble he thought the midweek Christmas would help give sales a solid finish, but for the UK he now says, “Christmas came later this year and every time it falls on a Wednesday you have to whack everything into the last four days. It was fine in the end, […]
Briefs: Bookselling News, and More on the RWA Controversy
Bookselling The Barnes & Noble in Coral Springs, FL that was negotiating with the landlord for a smaller space will close temporarily at the end of February. The store is expected to reopen within six months, occupying about half of the current 27,000 square feet. The words! bookstore in Asbury Park, NJ is transitioning to a community-owned cooperative (sort of; participants get a vote, but no profit share), called the Asbury Book Cooperative. They are selling memberships for $25 to $200 annually and looking for larger donors, hoping to raise $100,000 in all. In Pennsylvania, Cupboard Maker Books‘ temporary holiday […]
People, Etc.
Millicent Bennett has joined Houghton Mifflin Harcourt as editorial director, reporting to Bruce Nichols. She was previously executive editor at Grand Central, and has worked at Simon & Schuster, Random House, Ecco, and Knopf. Sarah Pelz has joined HMH as executive editor, reporting to Deb Brody, with a focus on acquiring lifestyle nonfiction. She was previously executive editor at Atria. Noa Wheeler has joined Bloomsbury Children’s as executive editor, responsible for the Sarah J. Maas publishing program. She will continue her freelance editorial work for authors and publishers in addition to her role at Bloomsbury. Alexa Higbee will join as […]