Two longtime employees of Cody’s Books have filed a complaint with California’s Labor Commission “alleging that the bookstore violated its contract with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) by not paying its workers paid time off when the store closed down in June,” the Berkeley Daily Planet reports. Cody’s liquidated its assets in August to pay off their bank lien, though they never filed for bankruptcy. The union rep for Cody’s employees Sharon Sherburn-Zimmer says, “If they went bankrupt they would have to pay off secured creditors first. But since they didn’t go bankrupt they have a contractual obligation with […]
Pakman to Leave eMusic
CEO of eMusic.com David Pakman will leave the company at the end of 2008 to become a partner at an unnamed venture capital firm. He’ll remain on the board of the company, which says it now has about $70 million in annual sales. A search is underway to recruit a new ceo. In the UK, former Picador deputy publisher Ursula Doyle will return to a staff job, taking on the new position of editorial director at Virago in November, reporting to Lennie Goodings. Falls Media, which specializes in funny, interactive, irreverent books and entertainment properties, has hired Peter Fornatale as […]
Scotland Yard Stops Attack on UK MEDINA Publisher
A group of three “Islamic extremists” put a firebomb in the North London home of Gibson Square publisher Martin Rynja late Saturday night, and were promptly arrested by Scotland Yard in “a preplanned intelligence-led operation,” according to a police spokesperson. (The company’s offices are in the same building.) The Sunday Times says “the suspected terror gang was being followed by undercover police and the fire was quickly put out after the fire brigade smashed down the front door.” The police believe Rynja was under attack for his company’s decision to publish Sherry Jones’s THE JEWEL OF MEDINA. Rynja is now […]
National Book Festival
A wet weekend did not deter attendance at Washington, DC’s National Book Festival on Saturday. The AP says the event has grown from about 30,000 people in 2001 to approximately 120,000 attendees this year. Created by First Lady Laura Bush, the Librarian of Congress’s James Billington is “hopeful it will continue under a new administration. The library, Billington said last week, ‘will be looking to all possible ways’ to perpetuate this ‘unique and popular’ event.” This Washington Post piece focuses on presentations from authors, including Neil Gaiman, Geraldine Brooks, Dionne Warwick, James McBride, and others.Post
Keep Knitting
Putnam has announced that Kate Jacobs’ The Friday Night Knitting Club has over 1 million copies in print after 38 straight weeks on the NYT trade paperback fiction list, with a sequel volume KNIT TWO now setfor publication on November 25. It was just about a year ago that Jacobs’ former agent Barbara Zitwer announced that she would take over the series and write two sequels for Grand Central. At the time, Zitwer told us, “I wanted to create a series and to write the sequels and keep the series growing and Kate very much wanted to write something new […]
On Pikarski, and Other Announcements
Israeli literary agent Ilana Pikarski, 62, passed away suddenly on Friday in Tel Aviv. She led the Pikarski Literary Agency from 1982 and built it into Israel’s largest literary agency. Ziv Lewis writes: “A familiar face at international book fairs, Ilana will be remembered for her strong leadership and character, her passion for literature and for helping to shape the modern Israeli publishing industry to be the vibrant, competitive and high quality market it is today.” At Random UK, the CHA group–comprising Hutchinson, Heinemann, Century, Random House, Arrow and Windmill–will now be called Cornerstone Publishing. According to the announcement, the […]