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 […]
Bookstores
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 […]
People, Etc.
Michael Signorelli has joined Aevitas Creative Management as agent. Previously he was managing director at Gotham Ghostwriters and an editor at Holt and HarpeCollins. Awards PEN America announced their 2020 literary award longlists. Best of The WSJ picked their top 10 books of the year, as did People magazine. USA Today has moved on to 20 “must read” forthcoming winter picks. Bookselling Employees of McNally Jackson voted yesterday to join the NYC Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, which will represent approximately 90 employees who handle sales, events, stocking and information services. In the union’s announcement, Kathryn Harper, who works at the […]
People, Etc.
Daniel Loedel will join Bloomsbury as senior editor, starting on January 6. He was at Scribner. Catherine Tung is now an associate editor at Beacon Press. She was an assistant editor at Vintage. Mary Gaule has been promoted to associate editor for Harper and Harper Perennial. Megha Majumdar was promoted to editor at Catapult. Associate publisher, sales & marketing at Catapult/Counterpoint/Soft Skull Jenn Abel Kovitz announced on Twitter that she is leaving the company in mid-January. The Gernert Company has opened a West Coast office in Culver City. Seth Fishman is managing the new office after three years in Los […]