Part of our BEA coverage every year is to look back at the “Buzz Books” selection from the prior year to see how they fared in the marketplace. That’s more complicated now that frontlist titles, particularly fiction, are selling so strongly in ebook editions. But the print sales numbers from Nielsen BookScan still tell a pretty clear story on their own. Last year’s general Buzz panel featured at least two books that were recognized major works of the year–Emma Donoghue’s multiple-award-winning novel (which ranked No. 2 on our own Best of the Best of 2010 Fiction list), and Siddhartha Mukherjee’s […]
BEA
BEA Offers Some Free Attendance to ABA Members; ABA Drops Off-Site Meetings
As we previewed in our BEA piece last month, the convention has been working with the American Booksellers Association (ABA) to help “ease the economic challenges facing booksellers who wish to attend the 2009 trade show” and get more bookseller engagement at the main convention facility. (As we’ve noted in a variety of annual commentaries, the ABA has been pulling away from the center of the action.) Today they announced that BEA will “offer limited free convention attendance to ABA bookstore members.” The ABA’s coo Oren Teicher explains that “member stores will be receiving free passes to the show based […]
Company News: Lulu Layoffs; Harper Studio UK; and More
Lulu.com is laying off 24 employees, almost a quarter of their workforce of 100. The reductions include recently-hired president Bryce Boothby Jr. and European vp Cristel Lee Leed. The company plans to relocate its headquarters from Morrisville, NC to Raleigh within the next few months. CEO Bob Young tells NewMediaAge “with the credit and capital markets frozen solid Lulu couldn’t continue burning through money at its previous pace. We’re very disappointed…. we were forced into a position of having to cut costs.” Bob Miller’s Harper Studio has made an agreement with Harper UK to provide for direct publication in the […]