Glasgow publisher Freight Books is up for sale, with the owners saying potential buyers have come forward and a listing running inviting others to bid. Co-founder Adrian Searle left the company suddenly in April, citing “differences over strategic direction” and calling the publisher’s future into question. Interim managing editor Robbie Guillory informed authors of plans to explore other opportunities by posting a notice on the Publishing Scotland website, but said that in the meantime “we continue as normal, and I’ll certainly not be stepping back from my efforts at marketing, selling and producing.” Bookselling Miami’s Bookstore in the Grove will close June […]
Bookstores
ABA Celebrates Positive Trends, Improving Backlist Terms
ABA ceo Oren Teicher addressed the organization’s members at their annual meeting on Thursday afternoon, held as part of Book Expo, as usual framed optimistically but with some cautionary notes in the midst of “a retail landscape that is, to say the least, turbulent.” In addition to the membership numbers reported earlier this week, which ended seven years of growth in ABA members but saw more total member locations, Teicher noted that 87 new ABA member bookstores in 2016, and 15 member stores were purchased by new owners. “For many years,” he noted, “this sort of successful succession of the business was not […]
ABA Growth Streak Ends
Ahead of their annual meeting at Book Expo, as usual the American Booksellers Association has provided the AP with their updated membership count. After seven years of growth — starting from a low point of 1,410 members in 2008 — total ABA core membership declined by 18 in the year through May 2017, to 1,757 members. With continuing members opening additional stores, ABA member locations rose by 10, to 2,321. The organization added that “provisional members” — those intending to open a store — rose to 141, from 103 a year ago. ABA ceo Oren Teicher tells the AP, “We’re pleased that […]
People, Etc.
Divya Sawhney has been promoted to vice president for strategy and corporate development at Penguin Random House. Picks The Costco Pennie’s Pick for June is Before The Fall by Noah Hawley. Obituaries Sportswriter Frank Deford, 78, died on Sunday.The author of 20 books, he was a longtime contributor to NPR. Brian Doyle, 60, died on Saturday. He was the author of Mink River and Martin Marten, among others, and editor of Portland Magazine. Bookselling Politics and Prose in Washington DC will open a new location in the Union Market district. Additionally, it will be “phasing out its involvement” with two store locations within Busboys and […]
Bookselling: Amazon NYC, BN’s New CEO Speaks, and More
Every time Amazon opens a new bookstore they invite the local press to a preview and receive glowing write-ups that all read pretty much the same as the stories that ran in the previous cities. But the opening of their first New York City store on Thursday at Columbus Circle, a modest 4,000-square-foot space with 3,000 titles, means that those preview pieces are from national news organizations. (Reportedly, 20 percent of that space is devoted to Amazon’s devices.) So once again we hear how the company says they are using data to drive obvious decisions that regular booksellers have already […]
Picks: Library Reads, and More
Anthony Horowitz’s Magpie Murders tops the June Library Reads list. The novel is also excerpted in our Buzz Books 2017: Spring/Summer sampler, available for download now. The rest of the list features: Silver Silence, by Nalini Singh The Waking Land, by Callie Bates Down Among The Sticks And Bones, by Seanan McGuire Do Not Become Alarmed, by Maile Meloy The Alice Network, by Kate Quinn The Child, by Fiona Barton The Little French Bistro, by Nina George The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, by Taylor Jenkins Reid Midnight At The Bright Ideas Bookstore, by Matthew Sullivan Target announced its book club selections […]