The “cover story” in the current issue of Costco’s member magazine dubs the warehouse clubs “the big little bookstore” and looks at how Pennie Clark Ianniciello and her three assistant buyers have built “one of the top five booksellers” in the country. Carrying only about 200 titles at any given time, they say “it’s not uncommon for Costco to purchase 20 to 25 percent of a new book’s first printing.” Harper vp of sales Jeff Rogart concurs that “Costco is consistently one of our top retailers for total sales and frequently ranks number one or two on individual titles.” But […]
Personnel
Robert Giroux Memorial
Farrar, Straus and Giroux is organizing a memorial service for Robert Giroux. Speakers and readers will include Jonathan Galassi, Paul Elie, Pat Strachan, Alice Quinn, and Father Patrick Samway. It is scheduled for Wednesday, December 10 at 3 o’clock in St. Paul’s Chapel at Columbia University. The publishers asks that those planning to attend please rsvp to Madeleine.asher@fsgbooks.com, or call 212-206-5359.
Cutbacks at Doubleday
The Doubleday Publishing Group has eliminated a total of 16 positions spread across all of the group’s lines, including Doubleday, Broadway, Nan A. Talese, Speigel and Grau, and Waterbrook Multnomah. Spokesman David Drake confirms that the “jobs were cut in our editorial, marketing, publicity, art and ad promo departments.” Drake says, “These job cuts followed a close review of all aspects of our publishing operations by the management of our publishing group, and, as painful as it is for everyone here to lose a number of well-respected colleagues, we believe the decision was necessary and in the interest of our […]
People and Distribution News
Marie Coolman will join Hyperion as executive director of publicity, taking over the position recently vacated by Beth Gebhard. She has been director of publicity and marketing for Hudson Street Press, and was west coast director of publicity at Random House after eight years with the company before going to the Penguin Group. Coolman says in the announcement: “Publishing needs a new approach, and that’s why I’m so excited to be joining the Hyperion team. As content providers, we need to meet readers where they go for recommendations – whether that is a friend, a media outlet, a bookseller, a […]
On Tony Hillerman, 83
Novelist Tony Hillerman died of pulmonary failure on Sunday. “Hillerman’s evocative novels, which describe people struggling to maintain ancient traditions in the modern world, touched millions of readers, who made them best sellers. But although the themes of his books were not overtly political, he wrote with a purpose, he often said, and that purpose was to instill in his readers a respect for Indian culture. The plots of his stories, while steeped in contemporary crime and its consequences, were invariably instructive about ancient tribal beliefs and customs, from purification rituals for a soldier returned from a foreign war to […]
People
John Fagan–who already serves as director of marketing, Penguin Books; executive director, academic marketing & sales; and marketing director, eBooks–is taking on the additional role of marketing director for Plume and Hudson Street Press. Liz Keenan is moving up to publicity director for both imprints. Ginee Seo has resigned as editorial director of her eponymous children’s book imprint at Atheneum, PW writes. Longtime publishing executive Dan Harvey, 62, died yesterday after a long struggle with melanoma. He was most recently svp, director of marketing for Trident Media Group. For 17 years, he held senior management positions at the Putnam Publishing […]