Hastings reported third quarter sales of $114 million, down six percent from a year ago. Leaving aside rental revenues, sales of merchandise were down 5.1 percent on a same-store sales basis. But books outperformed many of their other media categories, as “books comps increased 1 percent for the quarter, due to strong sales of new trade paperback as well as used trade paperback and used hardbacks, partially offset by lower sales of periodicals.” The company swung from a slim profit this time last year to a net loss of $3.7 million for the quarter. (That loss includes a special $400,000 […]
Obama Boosts Goodwin Book
Barack Obama mentioned his respect for Doris Kearns Goodwin’s book TEAM OF RIVALS: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln many times as a candidate, and now it looks as if the President-elect has promoted his first bestseller (by another author). With the title theme dominating media discussion of Obama’s potential Cabinet selections, Goodwin’s book has now cracked the top 20 at both Amazon (currently at No. 12, even though the paperback is out of stock there until November 23) and BN.com (now at No. 11). Our tracking shows the paperback broke through the top 100 on both sites right after […]
People: Shrinagesh Moves to RH India
Gaurav Shrinagesh will take over as managing director of Random House India, “responsible for the strategic development of the business and all publishing, operational, sales and marketing functions.” Shrinagesh has held a number of senior positions across Bertelsmann since joining the company in 1999. (Most recently he was the Hong Kong-based managing director for DSHK, part of the Direct Group.) Replacing Michael Moynahan, who is running HarperCollins ANZ, Shrinagesh will report to Brian Davies, md for overseas companies at Random UK.
People: Agency Moves
Jenny Rappaport has parted ways “amicably” with Lori Perkins after two-and-a-half years and has started her own literary agency, The Rappaport Agency. She will specialize in science fiction and fantasy, as well as YA, and romance. At the L. Perkins Agency, which will continue to focus on erotica and chick lit, horror and pop culture, Marsha Philitas has been promoted to senior literary agent. Separately, at LJK Literary Management, Meg Thompson has been promoted to literary agent. She joined the company in 2006 to do editorial work after working as a research assistant for President Clinton on his autobiography, and […]
Sharing the Stories of Struggling Bookstores
Owners of Washington, DC-area Vertigo Books are struggling to stay in business and last month they told customers the store was “at risk.” Co-owner Bridget Warren says, “It was a combination of the economy and Internet sales.” Husband Todd Stewart adds, “It’s been a bad year all year, but come September….” The Washington Post looks at their efforts against the backdrop of the many Washington, DC indies that have gone out of business in recent years. It’s also framed against a recent screening at Vertigo of producer-director Alex Beckstead’s movie Paperback Dreams, which follows the fate of Kepler’s and Cody’s […]
What a Black President Will Mean for Fiction
“Thanks to the election of Barack Obama, a black president in Washington fiction will be no more exceptional than one in real life,” Hillel Italie of the AP writes. Washington thriller write David Baldacci notes, “Before Obama, you wouldn’t have gotten away with simply having a black president and having that on the periphery.” But Richard North Patterson adds: “He’s charismatic, with a young family, and he’s multiracial, and I think for all of those reasons it would be very hard to accept the sort of traditional, white Donald Rumsfeldian authority figure you see in a lot of presidential fiction.” […]