Berkeley’s Black Oak Books, which closed in June 2008, will reopen in a new location, offering “30 percent more space and ample street parking.” “De-facto owner”/investor Gary Cornell, who had tried to save the store once, hopes to have secured its future by buying the West Berkeley building that will serve as the store’s new home. The mortgage payment will be about 25 percent of what they had been paying in monthly rent.SF Chronicle About 20 Waldenbooks outlets slated for closure next month have been spared.Daily Finance
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People: Gray to Leave Ingram
Ingram Content Group’s chief strategy officer James Gray will leave the company at the end of the year. He has been at Ingram since 2006, when they purchsed his company Coutts Information Services and MyiLibrary (which provide print and ebook distribution services to academic libraries the world over). Gray had been ceo of Ingram Digital up until that unit was integrated as a component of the merged Ingram Content Group in June. His position expires with his departure and will not be filled. Spokesman Keel Hunt notes it was “a position that was established for James.”
People: Kroupa Joins Marshall Cavendish
Melanie Kroupa will serve as editor at large at Marshall Cavendish, reporting to publisher Margery Cuyler, starting January 1. Kroupa ran an eponymous imprint for Farrar, Straus Children’s until it was closed about a year ago. She will acquire and edit approximately six books a year, while also continuing to edit a “select number of titles” for others out of her office in Dedham, MA. Authors Kroupa has worked with include this year’s National Book Award winner for Claudette Colvin, Phillip Hoose.
People
Devon Mazzone will become director of subsidiary rights for the joint department that sells for both Farrar, Straus and Hold, starting January 25. Mazzone has been a scout for the past 11 years with Del Commune Enterprises. At Hachette’s Twelve imprint, Cary Goldstein has been promoted to associate publisher. He has been with the line since it started in 2006. Elsewhere in the company, John Schoenfelder will join Little, Brown on January 11 as editor of their forthcoming and yet-to-be-named suspense fiction imprint. Most recently he was an assistant editor at Thomas Dunne Books, after working at Tor-Forge Books, and […]
Bookselling News
At least one chain mall store in Texas slated for closure has been spared as Lufkin‘s Waldenbooks will remain open rather than close in January as originally planned. Meanwhile, Laredo is launching a campaign to lure a new store to this city of 230,000 after B. Dalton’s closes next month. Laredo Mayor Raul Salinas says, “I can assure you, it’s going to be welcome with a red carpet.” The city council “was expected to adopt a resolution Monday night proclaiming the importance of bringing another bookstore to the city.” Barnes & Noble says “it has identified a possible location for […]
A Storied Year
Here’s one theme we haven’t seen yet in any of the “year in books” pieces. Though short-story collections rarely sell in big quantities, in 2009 a variety of collections enjoyed wide critical acclaim. For starters, this week’s Entertainment Weekly picks Daniyal Mueenuddin’s In Other Rooms, Other Wonders as their top work of fiction for the year. (Their No. 1 nonfiction pick is Dave Eggers’ Zeitoun; the rest of the list is in print only.) And New York Magazine’s just-published top 10 list (see below) puts Lydia Davis’s collection on top. On our own compilation list, pulling together over of 20 […]