The Bunch of Grapes bookstore will reopen on Saturday in Vineyard Haven (on Martha’s Vineyard), a joyous return after a fire last July 4th significantly damaged the store and its contents. New owner Dawn Braasch, who bought the business from Jon Nelson last October (and has a long-term lease from his mother and founder of the store Ann Nelson, who is also helping Braasch as a consultant), tells the local paper “not only are we serving the community, but the community has really served us. Over the years, people have been such good patrons, and without them, we wouldn’t be […]
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Publisher of Sweden’s Nicotext Fredrik Colting has now admitted that he wrote 60 Years Later: Coming Through the Rye and invented the pseudonym JD California. (A photo that ran in the Telegraph depicted a friend of Colting’s who is an actor.) Colting claims not to have understood he was echoing Salinger’s name with his pseudonym: “Somehow, John David California sounded like JD. I didn’t think about that actually. I just thought it sounded cool. Of course afterwards, I see the resemblance.” He has also backed off of his fiery language about the suit and now claims, “I’ve never said this […]
Arcade Files for Chapter 11 Protection
Jeannette Seaver filed for bankruptcy protection for Arcade Publishing last week, with assets of $4.5 million and liabilities of $6.3 million. The company owes Little, Brown almost $500,000 for a loan and distribution services. The filing, as quoted by Crain’s, says that “the challenges of a small, independent publisher were made especially difficult by the current economic climate. For the past several months since the death of the Debtor’s president, Richard Seaver [who died in January] the Debtor has struggled in an effort to reorganize and seek investors. The loss of Mr. Seaver coupled with the ongoing financial issues in […]
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The Bookseller reports that Marcella Edwards has left PFD after less than two years at the agency. Edwards joined the company to manage their estates business and had headed up their initiative to reissue clients’ work in print-on-demand versions. Author Wendy Leigh told the NYDN that the announcement she would serve as co-author with “octomom” Nadya Suleman was “premature.” Leigh says “I was approached,” and adds, “but the talks were.” Justice Clarence Thomas disclosed another $300,000 in proceeds from his autobiography last year, bringing his total book earnings to $1.5 million. Justice Antonin Scalia received almost $100,000 for co-authoring MAKING […]
One Bookseller's Best BEA Ever
Bookseller Jessica Stockton Bagnulo–who blogs as The Written Nerd and is co-owner of the new bookstore-to-be, Greenlight Bookstore in Brooklyn, had a great BEA and isn’t afraid to detail why. (Side note: it makes you think there should be something special at the show to make it easier for new booksellers to be identified and findable by publishers….)Written Nerd
Borders SEC Filing Discloses Suit by California Employees
In February 2009, three former general managers of Borders stores filed suit in California and are seeking class action status, alleging that the bookseller improperly classified them as exempt employees and violated California Labor Code in a number of ways. Borders adds, “discovery has not commenced and we cannot reasonably estimate the amount or range of possible loss, if any, at this time. We intend to vigorously defend this action.” The company also notes that as of May 2, they had $112 million in funding available under their revolving credit agreement, though “this amount is not necessarily indicative of our […]