At Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s Trade & Reference group, Paul Shannon has been promoted to svp finance. Current svp digital strategy and planning Cheryl Toto expands her role to svp business planning and strategy, adding business operations and business applications to her responsibilities. With DEAD RECKONING, the twelfth Sookie Stackhouse book, set for publication in May, author Charlaine Harris says she is almost finished with the series. “Truthfully, the next two books will probably be the last two books in the series. I still love Sookie, but I’m beginning to want to write something else, and Sookie;s kind of taken over […]
International News
Lagardere Improves In Fourth Quarter, Down 4 Percent (Against Big Meyer Comp)
The slide in Lagardere Publishing’s results compared to last year’s record Stephenie Meyer-driven performance eased in their fourth quarter, with sales of 556 million euros down 4.1 percent from 580 million euros a year ago. The company says “new best-sellers helped to improve the trend line in the United States and the United Kingdom compared with the first nine months,” even though HBG USA declined 14 percent in the fourth quarter due to more modest Meyer sales. (They say books from Jon Stewart, Keith Richards and Chelsea Handler helped to balance out that decline.) Hachette UK was down 7 percent in […]
Briefs: National Festival Expands, Bristol Palin Writes, Kindle Gets Page Numbers, and More
The National Book Festival, held annually on Washington, DC’s National Mall, will expand to a two-day event this year, convening September 24 and 25. The Library of Congress says “the added day will let us plan for at least 90 authors over the entire weekend.” The media found a preliminary metadata posting on Amazon for a memoir by Bristol Palin, set for publication by William Morrow on June 21. It was listed as a $25 hardcover. Amazon removed the listing, but the cached version is still viewable (for now). In separate Amazon-related news, the famously customer-centric is finally giving in […]
People
John Evans of DIESEL Bookstores in California and Matt Norcross of McLean & Eakin Booksellers in Petosky, Michigan have been nominated to join the ABA board for three-year terms, and Ken White of San Francisco State University Bookstore has been put up for a second term. Becky Anderson of Anderson’s Bookshops will take over from Michael Tucker as ABA president and Steve Bercu of BookPeople will serve as vice president/secretary. Gonzalo Ferreyra will join Weldon Owen in San Francisco as director of marketing, print and digital on February 14. Previously, he was vp of sales at VIZ Media and director […]
Waterstone’s Tells Publisher They Are Cutting Orders As of March
As part of Waterstone’s perpetual turnaround efforts in the UK, the chain informed multiple major publishers by e-mail earlier this week that for new titles coming in March they are cutting their initial orders by approximately 20 percent. Publishers were asked to cancel existing pre-orders so that the chain can place new orders at the lower inventory levels. They told publishers that “initial over-ordering of new titles” is continuing to create “substantial unnecessary costs across the supply chain, most notably in returns.” One UK executive noted that “they’re managing their working capital very carefully for obvious reasons” but the good […]
Positioning Aside, Sales Fall at WH Smith High Street Stores By A Good Amount
The UK’s WH Smith presented weak sales data that people are working hard to put a positive gloss on. Same-store sales at their High Street stores were down 7 percent for the eight weeks ending January 22 (so holiday sales, sort of) and down 6 percent for the most recent 21 weeks. The company says that “excluding entertainment” product, same-store sales were down 3 three percent. They say they are “rebalancing” their store mix to focus books, stationery and candy. The Bookseller says retail analysts were told once you isolate book sales, they fell 2 percent on a same-store basis […]