Heather Connor has joined Harlequin in the newly created role of vp, publicity, overseeing Park Row Books, Hanover Square Press, Graydon House, MIRA, HQN, and Inkyard Press. She was previously director of publicity at Berkley. Amanda Lang has been promoted to to senior publicity manager at Simon & Schuster. Co-founder of New World Library and author of Creative Visualization Shakti Gawain, 70, died November 11 from complications related to hip surgery. (She suffered from both Parkinson’s and Lewy body disease.) New World Library publisher and co-founder (the company was first called Whatever Publishing) Marc Allen says, “She was such an extraordinary […]
Bookstores
Bookselling: A New Barnes & Noble In New Jersey, And A Plan in Virginia
Barnes & Noble opens another concept store in Hackensack, NJ today. The 19,111 square foot store replaces a larger Barnes & Noble in the The Shops at Riverside. Vice president of stores Carl Hauch cited the original store’s success as well as the mall’s multi-year renovation as reasons for the renewal. He said, “This is a proven market for us. There’s a great community of book lovers, and it’s a community we wanted to stay in. As the mall was looking to redevelop, we wanted to continue to be in the community for years and years to come.” Separately, American City […]
People, Etc.
Sam Raim has been promoted to editor at Penguin Books. In the ever-changing landscape of German trade publishing, deputy publisher Kerstin Gleba is being promoted to publisher and ceo of Kiepenheuer & Witsch as of January 1. She will also join the board of Holtzbrinck Publishing. Current head Helge Malchow will serve as editor-at-large and “continue to work with selected authors.” Quarto appointed Jane Moriarty as a non-executive, independent board director today. The former KPMG partner headed that firm’s London Region restructuring business for 12 years. Andy Cumming, chairman of Quarto, said in the company release that she “brings substantial professional and […]
Bookselling: Riggio Interviewed; Transgender Powell’s Employee Files Complaints; ABA Warns on Tight Holiday Inventory
CNBC takes a look at “what happened” to weaken Barnes & Noble and put the company in play, which includes an interview with executive chairman Len Riggio. He remains hopeful that recent adjustments will help: “We’ve done a lot of things this year to try to put ourselves on the right track and to get our comp-store sales number to head in the positive direction … and we are hoping that that comes — we are planning for it to come — during this holiday season.” Riggio concedes that, “We did come up empty with the last couple of ceos, […]
To Everyone’s Surprise, AbeBooks Apologizes and Will Retain Booksellers In Four Countries
Following a well-publicized “Banned Bookseller Week” protest from some bookseller customers over AbeBooks’ plan to abruptly remove booksellers in South Korea, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Russia from their platform at the end of November, the company reversed itself — to everyone’s surprise. “The matter was apparently resolved when Sally Burdon, an Australian bookseller who is president of the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers, spoke with Arkady Vitrouk, chief executive of AbeBooks. In a Wednesday email to her members after their talk, Ms. Burdon said Mr. Vitrouk apologized for the platform’s behavior ‘a number of times. and said booksellers in […]
Corporate News: Barnes TV, Barnes & Smith, and An Interactive Peter Rabbit
Barnes & Noble is previewing their new “Nobody Knows Books Like We Do” holiday video ads, to be featured on cable TV and movie screens. The general ads are available on their YouTube channel, but they have yet to post what sound like the most interesting spots: A collection of 15-second videos “that celebrate the company’s remarkable 23,000 booksellers who make shopping at Barnes & Noble a one-of-a-kind experience.” CMO Tim Mantel says in the announce, “Our bookstores are cherished community centers where people go to aspire to learn more about the world around them and discover something new. This […]