At McClelland & Stewart, Joe Lee has been promoted to assistant editor. Haley Cullingham, currently senior editor at Strange Light and Hazlitt, expands her role to acquire for M&S as editor-at-large. Jordan Ginsberg, currently editorial director at Strange Light and editor-in-chief of Hazlitt, also expands his role to acquire for M&S as editor-at-large. Nine months after the departure of former c.e.o. Daniel Houghton, Lonely Planet has a new leader in Luis Cabrera, president and c.e.o., who announced plans to reinvigorate the brand’s digital properties and “deliver our promise in many places beyond our travel guides,” such as festivals, tours and events. Previously […]
Bookstores
People, Etc.
Anna Belle Hindenlang has joined Celadon Books as publicist. She was previously publicity assistant at Random House. At Random House Children’s, Monique Razzouk has been promoted to junior designer and Katrina Damkoehler to assistant art director. Kerstin Wolf has joined D4EO Literary Agency as literary agent. She was an agent in training at the Booker Albert Literary Agency. Founder of UK car manual publisher Haynes Publishing Group, John Haynes, 80, died on February 8 following a short illness. Bookselling Further to an early January report that McNally Jackson would remain in their Soho space after all, owner Sarah McNally confirms signing a lease renewal for […]
People, Etc.
Carly Watters has been promoted to senior vice president and senior literary agent at P.S. Literary Agency. Fiammetta Giorgi has been appointed as head of rights for Mondadori in Italy. Claudia Scheu, who previously held the position, will act as a consultant for the publisher. Alexander Roesler has been promoted to editorial director at S. Fischer Verlag in Germany, starting on March 1. Christopher Paul Carey has joined Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. as director of publishing. He was senior editor at Paizo, a publisher of roleplaying games. Cat Zappa has joined Dreamscape Media as executive director of content and strategy. She was […]
Indie Booksellers Need to Keep Innovating, and Scrambling
Yale undergrad Max Graham — son of Politics & Prose owners Bradley Graham and Lissa Muscatine — files a thoughtful, well-researched and clear-eyed piece about the continuing challenges for independent bookstores in Yale’s The Politic. The article builds on some of what was reported out of Winter Institute, as booksellers face the pressures of rising rents and wages (and we all deal with the profound realization that many of these treasured workers are making minimum wage), and turn more to non-book product. (This is when we remind you that ABA membership numbers, which include chains like Hudson Booksellers and Half-Price Books and […]
By the Actual Numbers, Sales and Profits Fell Slightly at Waterstones
As we’ve observed before, the UK press and the UK trade love the survival/revival story of bookselling chain Waterstones, regardless of what the numbers say. In the British tradition, the chain recently filed annual results for the fiscal year ending April 28, 2018 — prior to the sale of a controlling stake to Elliott Advisors — and the data shows another year of a small slide in both sales and earnings. Sales for the main group were £385.7 million, down £2.3 million, and all profits measures fell slightly as well. Operating profit was £24 million (down £.44 million), and after-tax […]
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Liz Kelsch has been promoted to director of marketing for nonfiction and mystery at Sourcebooks. Picks Reese Witherspoon‘s book club pick for February is Jasmine Guillory’s The Proposal. Distribution Rizzoli New York will distribute Pavilion Books, Pavilion Children’s, Portico, Pitkin, and the National Trust via Penguin Random House Publisher Services, starting July 2019. Previously these lists were distributed by IPG. Bookselling A new bookstore, Still North Books, will open in Hanover, NH in the space that belonged to Dartmouth Bookstore, which closed last year after 146 years of operation. The new owner Allie Levy, who previously worked in the marketing department at HMH, says […]