At $12.99, Rowling’s The Tales of Beedle the Bard was one of the season’s least expensive hardcover stocking stuffers. Its popularity, which was above what many booksellers and distributors anticipated, speaks to just how sensitive many shoppers were to price. “Beedle the Bard sold slightly better than I had originally expected, mainly due to the poor economy,” said Bookazine children’s buyer Heather Doss. “It made a great gift book and was less of a sticker shock than the collector’s edition from Amazon for $100. The average price of a book on my top 100 was under $10 this year, meaning customers were looking for more paperbacks and less hardcovers.”   

Killick has been at the Disney Book Group since 2001, most recently as director of school and library marketing, and before that as director of global marketing. Previously he has held marketing positions at Penguin Putnam, DK and Cassell in New York and London.

Terri Reden has been named v-p, marketing, effective January 6, while current director of marketing Lois Wallentine will take on the title of director of product development and marketing research. Sales director David Wexler, a 12-year Lerner employee, has been promoted to executive v-p, sales; Margaret Wunderlich has been promoted to executive v-p, CFO, and Joni Sussman, director of Kar-Ben, Lerner’s imprint specializing in Jewish-interest books for the past four years, has been named that imprint’s publisher.

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The project represents a type of enthusiastic collaboration between the audiobook and music worlds that listeners may hear more of in the future. Appropriately enough, the recording’s flight to the top began in Welty’s home state of Mississippi. That’s where Mississippi Boychoir director Margaret Thomas hatched the idea to commission the work, back in 1999.