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 […]
Bookstores
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 […]
People, Etc.
Sharon Shell has joined Independent Publishers Group as director of library & education sales. She was previously director of implementation, sales operations at Scholastic. Daniel O’Connor has been promoted to senior sales manager at Bloomsbury. Jacqui Lipton has founded Raven Quill Literary Agency, representing authors of books for children and young adults. Lipton is an attorney and a law professor, and author of Law & Authors: A Legal Handbook for Writers. For people who want to stop by and pay their respects, there will be a viewing of Sonny Mehta on Friday, January 3, from 11:30 AM to 1:00 PM […]
People, Etc.
Jessica Breen will join Basic Books as marketing director on January 6. She is currently digital marketing strategist at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Cassandra Pelham Fulton has been promoted to editorial director, Graphix. Due to an editing error, we left out Sasha Quinton’s first name from yesterday’s announcement on her move to Scholastic. Bookselling New bookstore Still North Books and Bar opened in Hanover, NH on Thursday. The Barnes & Noble in Greenfield, WI near Southridge Mall will close in summer 2020 when its lease expires. A hospital and primary care clinic will move into the space. Legal The European Court of […]
Many Less Happy Returns, and A Light Forecast for Spring, As Barnes & Noble Prepares Inventory Shift
This time a year ago publishers were worried about printing and restocking the books customers wanted before the holidays, but now the concern that a number of publishers and agents have been expressing in recent weeks is somewhat of the inverse. They’re focused on leftover stock at Barnes & Noble that will be sold under shared markdowns or returned after a post-holiday sale, along with signals that initial orders from the chain for spring are running lighter. Those issues are all seen through the lens of a particularly tense holiday sales period: The late Thanksgiving left only three-and-a-half weeks to […]
UK’s Book People Is Insolvent, Hopes for Quick Sale
Book People, an online and pop-up bookseller in the UK, has gone into administration (the UK equivalent of bankruptcy protection) with administrator PricewaterhouseCoopers searching for a buyer. Sky News said the firm “had been overseeing an auction of The Book People in recent weeks” — clearly not successful yet, though private equity owners Endless say that a number of “credible” parties expressed interest. None of the company’s 400 employees (the oversized holiday staffing level) are expected to be laid off immediately, but “the longer-term prospects for the business, staff, customers and suppliers will clearly be dependent upon whether a sale can […]